Well - thanks very much for detailed reply Chris.
If I grasped correctly your message:
IF budget < $200 THEN
Rose Mini2 OR Brainwavs B200
ELSE
Eternal Melody EM-2;
...which leaves me just with a question: What about MR3? How does MR3 (although "old") measure up with other options? Would you still recommend it among those new competitors?
Thanks again.
Ohhhhh, I thought you already had the MR3 and wanted another IEM. My bad.
On the technical level and in terms of soundstage (expansion, separation, three-dimensionality), the MR3 scores the highest out of the mentioned models. The only area where it falls a bit behind compared to the B200 and Mini2 is treble evenness/treble realism (the MR3 is certainly not bad in this regard albeit a bit too bright at ~ 5 and ~ 8 kHz, however the B200 and Mini2 really rise the bar in the < $200 multi-BA category when it comes to evenness/naturalness of the highs).