The lack of bass and harsh highs are remedied with an amp. Once you give them juice they become warm and euphonic with a good but small soundstage.
Comply tips are a good idea for these.

Hi takato14, thanks for your response.

I already mentioned in the review that I've been using these with a Yamaha HT amp (which has a ruler flat frequency response curve). Amplification is not the issue. An amp inevitably sounds better than a low powered personal player it doesn't make that big a difference in the case of these IEMs either to the tonal qualities or the soundstage. The word "Euphonic" looks good on the page though....so much more interesting than plain old "nice"

I have some Comply TX-400 tips, bought for use with Sennheiser CX 95 IEMs. I agree they can be an improvement over the Monoprice tips as they offer better isolation. This improves the bass a little and maybe attenuates the treble spikes a little but the overall sound is still unsatisfying. The Complys here in UK cost almost three times as much as the Monoprice IEMs and don't last all that long so over the course of a year this gets hideously expensive. I think the same, or better, will be achievable with large triple flange silicones that cost less than the price of the IEMs and last almost indefinitely so will be trying that soon. A good Equaliser is still the better option in my opinion.

One of the worst earphones I've ever bought. The ergnomics are ridiculously poor. I believe the people praising it's sound quality are likely comparing them to the buds you get when you travel by plane.

Which is why I never buy into marketing bs and hype train or FOTM here on head-fi. These are no better than your cheap Meelectonics buds (which sound better).

Somebody didn't get a decent seal.
Somebody.
I won't say who.
But I think you may know him very well.

I got a good seal. With these Monoprices I've used the supplied tips and also Sennheiser tips and Comply TX-400. When Comply foam tips have expanded to fill the ear canal this constitutes a good seal. I also modified some Senn tips with foam from expanding foam earplugs and these also made a very good seal. The issue is not the seal.

I've bought and used long term Shure E2C, SE215, Sennheiser CX300, Sennheiser CX 95, various Sony, Panasonic and Razer Protone models. Additionally I used to retail various things including cheap generic mp3 players and IEMs. I know the difference in sound between professional quality IEMs, consumer IEMs of reasonable quality and no-name cheap generics and OEM junk.

Sit down and prepare for a big surprise: the Monoprices sound exactly like the super cheap junk that they actually are.

I don't know why you felt the need to post using such ridiculously coy and patronising "somebody this somebody that I won't say who" style but please save it for someone else.

I welcome any comment that is constructive, whether negative or positive, but I would prefer people who didn't bother to read and understand the review or who have nothing useful to add to actually add nothing, thank you.

I got the Monoprice 8320 and my to go IEM is the Westone UM3x that is a top tier very expensive. Plus I own The Vsonic gr07 mkii that is another well regarded top tier.
Back to the 8320, you need a good seal, and the right tip too!
Stock tips are really bad... I tried Vsonic tips and the sound was too unbalanced on the treble side. So Westone star tips, the green one is fantastic on the 8320!
I got a very good seal with this one (even with open mouth) and this really brings the bass out.
This IEM has really a balanced sound for me, and without the right tip can sound harsh and heavy on the treble side.
 
Sound quality is fantastic to me I really can listen to those and leaving the UM3x and the Sennheiser Amperior on the desk.
 
Even lJokerl ranked the 8320 very close to the se 215 in sound quality, and he has more credibility than both me and you.
 
Cheers

I'm not sure why it's so hard for people reading my review to note that I had no problem getting a good seal with a variety of tips. That includes Comply tips, Sennheiser tips, triple flange silicones, and now additionally Earphones Plus foam tips (actually bought to use with SuperFi 5 but fit the Monoprices equally well).

Here it is one more time for any inattentive speed readers:

THE PROBLEM IS NOT WITH THE TIPS OR THE SEAL OR THE FIT!

These Monoprice IEMs have a big spike in the treble. A foam tip helps a bit and is certainly better than the silicone tips supplied but it really can't disguise the deficiencies. It sounds kind of vaguely OK with electronic or amplified sounds if you're not too discriminating but is obviously bad with natural sounds such as well recorded voices, brass, acoustic strings etc... anyone remember that stuff...real human voices and actual instruments made of wood, metal, gut, glue and wire?

And maybe one of the fanbois can explain how a different tip is supposed to correct very imbalanced drivers?

I'm not the only person who found obviously imbalanced drivers. The innerfidelity data shows the same (and the hideous spike). Another forum whose name may not be mentioned here at head-fi also found their tested pair unbalanced and with a huge treble spike. This is not opinion or conjecture, it is all measurable and verified. A pair of IEMs with a huge treble spike, lousy square wave measurements and several dB level difference between each channel is not fantastic or high quality or good value even if cheap. If you like it then good for you, there's no accounting for taste and preference and each to his own.

To compare these with the SE215 is laughable. They aren't even remotely similar sounding: the SE215 has very emphasised bass, well maintained mids and a mildly rolled off treble. The drivers are perfectly balanced. The Monoprice has flat bass and the mids and treble are all over the place with really horrible harshness at 4-5KHz and the each driver is different!

My advice to anyone who only has $7 to spend on earphones would be to deliver some newspapers, wash some cars, run some errands - somehow get a little more money and buy something else. The Monoprices are badly made and don't even offer much in the way of isolation so spend the whole $15 and get Koss KSC75 instead. They actually sound good, measure well and have a lifetime warranty.

These are a poor quality and bad sounding product that has been heavily hyped by a couple of people who routinely astroturf completely forgettable crap like it's the second coming.

I just had a look to the innerfidelity frequency responce graph. Based on the measurement of the unit there is a peak in the upper midrange-lower treble. Peaks and valleys are common in headphone measurements and even the most expensive can have. Look at the frequency responce of the Westone Um3x, very big valley there!
 
You didn't like the 8320, that's fine I can't argue with that.
 
You can't argue with my ears, and my ears says I really like those IEM, and they stack up with more expensive one.
 
Again, Why Joker rank the 8320 so good in sound quality? He reviewed more than 300 IEM ! ! !

"You can't argue with my ears"....but apparently you can argue with mine

"You can't argue with my ears" ranks with "talk to the hand..." and "lalalalalala I can't hear you lalalalala".

I don't know why lJokerl likes the 8320. It's his opinion so ask him, not me.

The Monoprices have really big problems which are easily audible. Their frequency response curves don't even slightly resemble the Westones and the comparison is bogus.

There is more to a headphone than a frequency response curve!

The square wave tests are an excellent indication of how and why these IEMs sound bad. I'd love to see someone try to use the square wave results to compare these with a pair of Shures or Westones.

Even if someone actually likes the unique and distinctive tonal qualities *cough* of the Monoprices it's amazing that such a severe fault as imbalanced drivers still goes unacknowledged. >5dB difference between drivers is so bad it's almost comical.

These are badly designed, made of poor quality components, supplied with inadequate accessories, measure badly and sound like crap. That they get an astroturfing campaign resulting in fotm status on head-fi doesn't make them any better. If I had the $7 again I would spend it on something reliable like beer or peanuts.

Try them with the Vmoda Bliss Fittings 3.0 tips. Using other tips I found the 8320's to be bass light and a prominent in the highs (ie those spikes), and overall too bright. But with the vmoda tips, they are transformed into amazing sounding iems to me. Nice bass, non-recessed mids, detailed highs, immersive/expansive soundstage - as takato said, very euphonic

You failed to notice I already addressed this several times. From earlier posts:

"Here it is one more time for any inattentive speed readers:

THE PROBLEM IS NOT WITH THE TIPS OR THE SEAL OR THE FIT!"

note the CAPITALS ! That's so you don't miss it

or this:

"And maybe one of the fanbois can explain how a different tip is supposed to correct very imbalanced drivers?"

When someone can rationally demonstrate how changing tips will correct a 5 dB driver imbalance, or the faults illustrated by the extraordinarily bad square wave plots, I may revisit these IEMs. In the meantime, back in the actual physical world, can the next speed reading monoprice fan please just take their magic tips and sit on them? Thank you. Yes I do know they won't notice or comprehend this any better than all the other stuff that they already missed. ha ha. My theory is that the sound waves given off by these IEMs are so unbalanced and disturbing to human musical sensibility that it negatively impacts the brain, inducing word blindness and the reasoning powers of a jelly. If anyone wants to turn back years of education, centuries of culture and the many thousands of years of evolution and become utterly impervious to language and reason, may I suggest you need do no more than get some monoprice IEMs and use them daily? Use whichever tips you like but don't tell me about it. kthxbye.

No need to get so defensive. Note the capitals: I WAS JUST STATING MY OWN OPINION AND IMPRESSIONS. And for me the tips that I mentioned made a marked improvement. I don't have the explanation for it, nor do I need one to know what worked for me.

And btw, I wasn't really directing the "Try them with the Vmoda tips" to you - I know that you wouldn't do so. It was actually a suggestion for others who might be open to trying them. Sorry for not being clear.

Not defensive, more like annoyed And mostly just very bored of comments that self-evidently are not a result of actually reading the review or previous comments.

Hey, we don't understand the bad review but there's different strokes for different folks. I see Guys with UGLY girlfriends too. That's ok. Guys like what they like. All of our ears aren't the same, Our brain processing the signal could be different too. As an example, how does anybody know that when we all are looking at the blue sky that we are all seeing (perceiving) the same color?  We can't possibly know that. I wanted to comment an argument with this review, but I can't tell him what HE HEARS. I can only tell what I hear, And in my ears these Monoprice sound GREAT!