[Green Golden Retriver]

Accidentally stumble on this topic in 2020. Yes! I have tried iem from 70 usd to 3600 usd. Higher price doesn’t mean better sound quality. But I have found many high priced iem that sounds very very good. Whether it is worth it is up to you to decide. For me, YES!

 

[AndroidVageta]

Accidentally stumble on this topic in 2020. Yes! I have tried iem from 70 usd to 3600 usd. Higher price doesn’t mean better sound quality. But I have found many high priced iem that sounds very very good. Whether it is worth it is up to you to decide. For me, YES!

Having owned the ~$350 used/$450 new Koss ESP-950 now for a few months I'm even more convinced super expensive stuff isn't worth it considering these are by far the best headphone I've ever heard while costing 2-3x less than other headphones I've owned or heard.

And don't get me wrong, higher end stuff can be and is certainly good (most of the time at least), it can definitely be worth it. I guess my point is that price isn't a good gauge in the audio world when it comes to how good it sounds. I've owned $12 earbuds that sound better than a considerable amount of $150+ IEM's I've had.

Of course it's all subjective in the end but my experience has been that good headphones come in all sorts of pricing and a cheap headphone isn't necessarily cheap sounding nor is something expensive or highly technical an automatic win.

 

[Edward777]

Does anyone ever respond to threads that aren't about a specific headphone? Do normal conversations about random stuff not take place here?

Honestly, no. HeadFi is a very boring board that I don't go to anymore. All people talk about is literally one headphone at a time in huge threads that are about a zillion pages long. Who has the time to read through 5,000 pages on a specific headphone? Not a very fun board in my opinion.

 

[Cuebbing]

Definitely all subjective.
For me, heck ya 'some' expensive IEMs are worth it.
IEMs as a whole have been improving over time. Enough that I don't see myself buying headphones again. The recent rise of low cost/Chi-fi IEMs has been good to see. I have plenty of good/very good ones. I have a number of expensive ones also and for my specific preferences I can't find any low cost IEMs that can match a couple of my hi dollar ones.
Sure it still stands that there are examples of expensive sets that aren't worth it and countless low end sets that are awful. I think to the point you are raising that for a good amount of casual listeners that there is a good selection of Chi-fi IEMs that they would be happy with. My wallet will be happy to see chifi catch the hi end but (for me) it's not there.
Also, I tend to view my listening setup as a whole or solution vs an individual component. If I have a crappy source with a great IEM I won't enjoy it, same as a great source with a crappy IEM.
(Some day true wireless will catch up to where I don't need/want a dac/AMP setup.)

 

[baskingshark]

Definitely all subjective.
For me, heck ya 'some' expensive IEMs are worth it.
IEMs as a whole have been improving over time. Enough that I don't see myself buying headphones again. The recent rise of low cost/Chi-fi IEMs has been good to see. I have plenty of good/very good ones. I have a number of expensive ones also and for my specific preferences I can't find any low cost IEMs that can match a couple of my hi dollar ones.
Sure it still stands that there are examples of expensive sets that aren't worth it and countless low end sets that are awful. I think to the point you are raising that for a good amount of casual listeners that there is a good selection of Chi-fi IEMs that they would be happy with. My wallet will be happy to see chifi catch the hi end but (for me) it's not there.
Also, I tend to view my listening setup as a whole or solution vs an individual component. If I have a crappy source with a great IEM I won't enjoy it, same as a great source with a crappy IEM.
(Some day true wireless will catch up to where I don't need/want a dac/AMP setup.)

Agree CHIFI IEMs have caught up to the budget/midfi western brands in terms of sonic performance. Headphones is another story though, the western and japanese brands still are king IMO.

As for CHIFI catching the high end, actually I auditioned a QDC Anole VX a few months back, it is $2ish K USD set, 10 BA set with tuning switches. Wow, excellent technical performance, I think it isn't far away from some western TOTL brands actually. Wish I could afford it though, but in this covid economy had to leave the shop empty handed.