[The Cugel]

Happy New Year to everyone!

I am looking to upgrade my IEMs. Currently I have RHA 750's which I like - they're comfortable for long periods and have a nice smooth sound, I drive them from an iPhone or Android. I also have HE-400's and love their sound. Nice and smooth, good but controlled bass. This is the sound I am after (if possible) in the new IEMs. I drive the HE-400 from my phones via a magni&modi schiit stack.

My budget is probably $400 for IEMs and I hope to add a mobile/portable DAC (dragonfly red/ifi micro dac) in the future. But I may consider getting more expensively priced IEMs second hand, so why don't we say up to a MSRP of about $700.

In descending order I am looking for:
Great sound - again I love the HE-400 sound and would love to get an IEM with this smoothness and controlled bass

Comfort - want to wear for hours on end without discomfort. I love the stock silicon tips that came with the rha 750.

Isolation - want to block out external sounds.

The IEMs should sound good with most musical genres but I mostly listen to scandanavian-style death metal (e.g. Insommnium, Amorphis, Amon Amarth), avant garde/extreme metal (e.g. Ne Obliviscaris), prog metal (e.g. Leprous, Caligula's Horse), cosmic/atmospheric metal (e.g. Mesarthim, Darkspace), orchestral metal (Nightwish, Delain), old school prog rock (Pink Floyd, Hawkwind) and space/trance/electronic (Orb, Boards of Canada, Future Sound of London).

 

[HydronQc]

Sub

 

[surfgeorge]

I asked for recommendations for IEMs that sound similar to my NightHawk/NightOwl and got the Shure 846SE recommended with the statement that they sound like a much higher resolving NightHawk.

Were outside my budget, but I bought some $180 Kanas Pro which should tick the smooth, detailed and good bass boxes, and should arrive soon. Expect them to be less warm and dark though compared to my NightHawk/Owl.

 

[harry501501]

Happy New Year to everyone!

I am looking to upgrade my IEMs. Currently I have RHA 750's which I like - they're comfortable for long periods and have a nice smooth sound, I drive them from an iPhone or Android. I also have HE-400's and love their sound. Nice and smooth, good but controlled bass. This is the sound I am after (if possible) in the new IEMs. I drive the HE-400 from my phones via a magni&modi schiit stack.

My budget is probably $400 for IEMs and I hope to add a mobile/portable DAC (dragonfly red/ifi micro dac) in the future. But I may consider getting more expensively priced IEMs second hand, so why don't we say up to a MSRP of about $700.

In descending order I am looking for:
Great sound - again I love the HE-400 sound and would love to get an IEM with this smoothness and controlled bass

Comfort - want to wear for hours on end without discomfort. I love the stock silicon tips that came with the rha 750.

Isolation - want to block out external sounds.

The IEMs should sound good with most musical genres but I mostly listen to scandanavian-style death metal (e.g. Insommnium, Amorphis, Amon Amarth), avant garde/extreme metal (e.g. Ne Obliviscaris), prog metal (e.g. Leprous, Caligula's Horse), cosmic/atmospheric metal (e.g. Mesarthim, Darkspace), orchestral metal (Nightwish, Delain), old school prog rock (Pink Floyd, Hawkwind) and space/trance/electronic (Orb, Boards of Canada, Future Sound of London).

Hi there, there are MANY IEMs that easily trump both the M750 and re-400 for sound. Re-400 was my first quality sounding earphone but terrible build quality. Looking back it's actually a very boring sound with poor bass. M750 has great build quality but MIDS are very recessed.

If it's a direct upgrade for the re-400 then the Brainwavz B400 is a big step up in quality for a similar sound... bass isn't overdone and it's just the right smoothness. Just better all over including build.

An upgrade to the 750 is the iBasso it01. Thicker sound like the 750 but more detailed and fun... again better all round.

If you're willing to buy from Asia then a whole load of options come up. BQEYZ BQ3 is a set that actually takes similar traits from both the re400 and 750 and it's only £45. I love my BGVP DMG but it's a much smoother sound but FAR more detailed and dynamic than both your sets.

You always have the favourites like 1More Triple Driver (which may not give you the isolation you need tho).

Cheaper options to look at that IMO sound better than your sets are KZ ZSN... under $20. Lots of good KZ sets.

Look at the Sub $100 Asia budget thread.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bes...reference-list.805930/page-1014#post-14694383

 

[harry501501]

As for DACs, Dragonfly Red is well liked but a bit dated now imo. Topping NX4 or SMSL IQ are good DAC/HP AMP.s with much better specs.

A cheaper option though is the Topping NX2 which I still use to this day for an OTG pairing with my Xduoo X3.

FIIO A3 is good portable set.

Maybe even get a DAP like the Shanling M0.

Good luck friend

 

[The Cugel]

I asked for recommendations for IEMs that sound similar to my NightHawk/NightOwl and got the Shure 846SE recommended with the statement that they sound like a much higher resolving NightHawk.

Were outside my budget, but I bought some $180 Kanas Pro which should tick the smooth, detailed and good bass boxes, and should arrive soon. Expect them to be less warm and dark though compared to my NightHawk/Owl.

Interesting. Thanks for the recommendation. I will look into these.

 

[The Cugel]

Hi there, there are MANY IEMs that easily trump both the M750 and re-400 for sound. Re-400 was my first quality sounding earphone but terrible build quality. Looking back it's actually a very boring sound with poor bass. M750 has great build quality but MIDS are very recessed.

If it's a direct upgrade for the re-400 then the Brainwavz B400 is a big step up in quality for a similar sound... bass isn't overdone and it's just the right smoothness. Just better all over including build.

An upgrade to the 750 is the iBasso it01. Thicker sound like the 750 but more detailed and fun... again better all round.

If you're willing to buy from Asia then a whole load of options come up. BQEYZ BQ3 is a set that actually takes similar traits from both the re400 and 750 and it's only £45. I love my BGVP DMG but it's a much smoother sound but FAR more detailed and dynamic than both your sets.

You always have the favourites like 1More Triple Driver (which may not give you the isolation you need tho).

Cheaper options to look at that IMO sound better than your sets are KZ ZSN... under $20. Lots of good KZ sets.

Look at the Sub $100 Asia budget thread.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bes...reference-list.805930/page-1014#post-14694383

Thanks for your detailed response. I did look at the massive Chi-Fi thread and there was just so much stuff in there that I started to get all ADD.

I was looking for a sound like my Hifiman HE-400 planar cans not the RE-400 iems. But I appreciate your response nonetheless, interesting upgrade options to my RHA MA-750 indeed!