Sorry, just saw your post. Honestly, at $100 I dont have a recommendation - Shure SE215s, maybe, although it has been a while since i owned them. But if you can get the Massdrop Noble Xs, they will fit your bill. I am tempted to sell my U3s because the Noble Xs give me a very similar sound...

Try to see if you can land a Sony Walkman DAP. Solid, clean sound and a sensible, bug-free interface, without any of the annoying foibles of some of the DAPs that are so popular here. As for why people pair with a DAC/amp - with a phone and some players, it can come in handy, as it provides...

Consider the Sony ZX100. Excellent sound, sensible interface and solid engineering.

Same here. Convert from the 90s - once i hear music from a single ended triode amp, i sold my 5-figure Stereophile-approved yadda-yadda solid stage rig and have never looked back. But a few things to keep in mind - there is no such thing as a "tube" sound. It depends on the architecture...

I am a big classical buff (more orchestral rather than baroque/chamber stuff, though), and i find the sound signatures of the Shures does a very good job with recreating the timbre and acoustics of music as heard in a concert hall.

Honestly, i wouldnt say any IEM sounds "large indistinguishable" from cans. But if you mean comparable sonic quality and musicality*, then I'd say $500 is probably the spot which gets you a comparable sound signature: Shure SE545s, 64Audio U3s and Westone W40s. IMO, that's the point at...

The day you can figure how to identify a perfect headphone by its response curve is the day you start making a lot of money in this industry.

I have never heard the 530s to be honest. But from what I gather, it has the Shure house sound but with some variations (similar to the W60/Django difference I mentioned above). I do think the 535s are very good IEMs indeed, and find them to still be very relevant. Headfi has a tendency to...

I had posted a question earlier asking about warm, musical headphones for people who care about timbral accuracy, and didnt get too many suggestions. So in the event there are others looking for something similar, here is my comparision of a few of IEMs. Some background about my...

Update - so i tried out the following: - Westone W40s and W60s - Unique Melody Martians - 64Audio U6, U4 and U3 - Noble Sage, Dulce Bass & Djangos - Fidue A91 - Fender 7s Short version: - Found the Martians too bright - The Sage, Dulce Bass and W40s all had their unique sound but none of them...

Honestly, after 2 decades of listening to good audio on 2 channel audio, I find imaging and soundstaging in headphones to not be anything worth obsessing over as it matches nothing in reality. My comment was geared towards all headphones (Sennheiser HD800s are the only pair I have that don't...

I have SE846s and love them. The ATH W1000Xs dont sound anything like them. Oppo PM-1s do, kinda. The LCD2s have similar characteristics. I'd say try the Audeze EL-8s? I havent heard them, though, but if they have the Audeze sound, they might be worth trying out. Otherwise, Senn...

Honestly, i disagree with the idea of sound being flat - atleast for what i consider reference: the sound of unamplified instruments as heard live. In a concert hall, treble falls off more, bass resonates in the hall (ie, there is no such thing as "tight" bass), etc. etc. Where/how...

Thanks - i have Campfire on my list to try out as well, because i did want to try out other sound signatures as well. I will add this to my list as well - who knows, for more casual listening, i might find them better. And surprisingly, i do enjoy listening to music on my HD800s, so i dont...

Thanks for that, @PaganDL. Will be checking them out on the 4th before buying. I no longer buy based on online reviews anyway (i was reading a well-known headphone site that described a headphone as having stronger-than-usual bass, forward mids and extended highs!!! Basically, it seems as...