Why not use an Apple Dongle?

Please name me an IEM at any price that is better than Etymotic ER2SE. I have been looking at getting something more expensive, but haven't found anything as good.

foam tips

Find me a headphone under ten-thousand dollars that measures better than Etymotic ER2SE in BOTH Frequency Response (stock) and Distortion. What do I mean by better? I want ruler flat bass to 20 Hz, ear canal gain around 2.7 kHz, THD < 0.1% full spectrum at 104 dB, ZERO peaks in the treble, and...

nope. planars that ring have rough frequency responses (almost all of them).

I use the foam tips for 6+ hours a day with zero discomfort

Surgical Scalpel + 16-inch MacBook Pro

Getting the best performing gear makes your music sound the best it possibly can

? the headphone audibly distorts and I hate it

1. Etymotic ER2SE (Scientific Perfection): * Does not require incredibly deep insertion for linear treble extension * Can be enjoyed with foam tips * <0.5% THD full spectrum @94 dB * Zero peaks in the frequency response when using a manual sine generator (bypasses ear resonances) 2. Etymotic...

https://www.stereophile.com/images/ifmeasure/GradoPS1000.pdf This is what happens when a company makes a headphone "by ear" and with a glue gun

If the headphone can't keep up with the music it's distorting...

As I said, I heard the distortion before, but I thought it was the "resolving" capabilities of these headphones that many gush over. These headphones are anything but resolving.

This graph is BS btw. Tyll selected the channel with bad matching in his 32 ohm sample for this. The correct channel looks the same as the 600 ohm.

I love the Apple House Sound tbh

you guys should blind test together

CSD is useless. Perfectly smooth FR = smooth CSD. Transient response is also useless because headphones are minimum phase devices. Also, you can see STAX "speed" in FR. It's called perfect bass extension. The DT880 600 Ohm does not audibly change from 100 ohm output impedance

Do you need esoteric knowledge to determine that an OLED display has a higher contrast ratio than a single layer LCD? Do you need esoteric knowledge to determine which car has a faster 0-60 time? As you can see, your argument is heavily flawed. I have access to the measurements that count.

Besides comfort and efficiency, nope

Listen to that distortion

Hey, I've been looking for a desktop DAC for a while that sounds like an Apple Dongle or a MacBook but haven't had any luck. My budget is $1,000, any advice?

You are confusing dBA and peak SPL. You can listen at 90 dBA and get dynamic peaks at 104 dB or higher on high dynamic range songs. The beginning of this song gets the drivers to crackle easily: This song just sounds awfully distorted: You can keep imagining pairing matters if you want, but...

This IEM is very close to perfect Etymotic aside from the tremendous bass boost. Are there any plans to beat ER4SR accuracy to the target with ultra low distortion in a shallow insertion design? That would be an immediate buy for me.

KPH30I since you can get Etymotic ER2SE for 20 dollars more

I know this thread is old, but it's the first one to show up on google if you search for "DT880 600 Ohm distortion." It has nothing to do with driving them properly. The headphones simply have a ton of bass distortion.