seanwee
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2015
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When I got the M9, I already had the FDX1 and honestly i'd say theres only a 5% difference between the two. Where the M9 has a slightly warmer sound with better bass, the FDX1 has a more neutral sound with better clarity.Hello friend. In his list, I'd take the ThieAudio, Unique Melody and Final Audio offerings over the U18, which is in my opinion the best sounding 64 Audio product. I think if your goal is to get the best possible technical capabilities in your most favorite tuning, it is very likely that you are looking at a $1000 price tag. If you are willing to make sacrifices in tuning and/or technical capabilities, or understand you don't need perfection when you listen on the train most of the time, then we are talking sub $300 solutions.
That sounds about right. There are, however, gems that don't come by very often that becomes the gold reference of some high price points, such as the Sony M9 and the VE6. IMO they are worth it, because they are actually pushing the boundaries.
On EE: There are a few IEMs companies that have a track record so questionable that I just can't take them seriously. Like EE (back when they were EarWerkz) with the Legend R and Valkyrie and CA with the Vega. Like, if a company honest thinks a sound like that is worth an arm and a leg, I have to seriously question their taste in music and sound. I was laughing reading those reviews trying to make out what music would sound good on the CA Vega. Even when they finally did put out some good products like Odin and Andro, through apparently years of trial and error, they are still trying to charge people an arm and a leg for those.
This means when I have a choice, e.g. two similarly tuned products in the same price range, everything else equal, I would lean towards a company that has a good track record, e.g. Vision Ears, Unique Melody, Sony etc. I just know that these designers care about music. They don't have to know what is a good sound from studying consumer feedback. They knew it from day 1.
The only reason I got it is because I managed to get it used at sub-500 dollars from a friend. Don't get me wrong, its an excellent sounding iem, but its not worth the kilobuck price tag imo.
Can you provide some comparisons between the blessing 2 dusk and Sony M9/FDX1? I've been holding off on the B2d for a bit now cuz i'm not sure if it will be an upgrade or just a side grade.I don't have a large enough sample size to identify the exact price to performance inflection point. However right now, having recently had the FDX1, the MD+, the Moondrop Blessing 2 Dusk, the Dunu SA6, Sony M9s and the OG Solaris, I'd say the Blessing 2 Dusk hit the sweet spot for me.
My experience has been that there's a clear relationship between price and technicalities, but not nearly as close a correlation between price and tuning and so called intangibles like timbre or cohesion. These factors matter to me more than squeezing the last bit of detail or separation out of track and so I've found myself staying in the mid range more than TOTL range.
Thanks