[Meshail]

Good day to you all

I have The Bit Opus#1 & Etymotic ER4XR I'm satisfied with Sound quality being better than my Poco F3 phone , yet it's not night and day difference
The question is do I upgrade my Opus#1 DAP or the ER4XR IEM to have a much much better sound quality , details, imaging etc. , I listen to all genres except metal & rock ( will start listening to them soon).

My budget isn't final yet , it will be around 500 $ but if I waited a year or so I could extend it to 1000 $ ( eying the Monarch mk II but not sure if I'll get an 800 $ upgrade value from my 200$ ER4XR)
So guys what's your advice?

 

[arijitroy2]

A transducer upgrade brings the most difference, hence upgrade the IEM.

 

[goodvibes]

Quantitative? yes. Qualitative? Not necessarily.

 

[Meshail]

Quantitative? yes. Qualitative? Not necessarily.

I don't fully understand you , you mean I would get more quantity but not quality? ,
More quantity of what ?

 

[goodvibes]

I don't fully understand you , you mean I would get more quantity but not quality? ,
More quantity of what ?

Things can sound more different but not be better or worse. Phones will almost always sound more different from one another than players. Point was more that a good source is as important as a good transducer. Hard to know which of the pair is your current weaker link until you do some compares.

 

[Tiax]

Sources largely don't matter, at least not with iems.
You just need something not too colored (unless that's what you want) and with output impedance as close to 0 as possible.
Even apple dongle is fine. Investing into better iems will give you much bigger difference.

 

[psikey]

Biggest impact to sound quality is the IEM over DAP/DAC.

I was underwhelmed with lower price IEM's I had before getting some Shure SE846's. I've paid more and got better since but going from Shure SE535 to SE846 was a massive leap for me sound wise.

Now what your brain & hearing like is something only you can know.

I've found I really like Sony tunning so now mostly use Sony IER-M9s with a Sony WM1AM2, but I'd still be happy if I only had my SE846.

Sources can matter greatly depending on IEM. If you have very sensitive IEM's like my SE846 the background noise level of some DAPs or DAC/AMPs can be very noticeable/annoying.

You really need to try them yourself if possible as we all have different hearing and what we like. Best bargain I got was some pre-owned Fiio FD7 single Berylium dynamic driver for £250 (rrp ~£600) and like everything about them, design, size, cable, sound.

Sometimes things are different rather than being better.

Apple dongle is indeed fine but a bit clinical. My Khadas Tea/iPhone 13 mini combo is much more musical and dynamic sounding, and different again to my excellent Sony WM1AM2.

Tip: Buy used and get better for your money. My last 3 IEM's were all pre-owned and massively reduced prices yet all looked new (a risk over buying new, sure).

 

[imfurunveren]

Sources largely don't matter, at least not with iems.
You just need something not too colored (unless that's what you want) and with output impedance as close to 0 as possible.
Even apple dongle is fine. Investing into better iems will give you much bigger difference.

I totally agree with you, my friend. I have fiio m11 pro + sennheiser ie900. I had poor performance headphones before. I just got my ie900s. I admit, maybe I can't use the iEM at full performance, but they still sound pretty good. For example, sometimes I listen to the same song from the spotify application on my phone, not from the flac tracks on my dap. The Sennheiser couple does a great job, even though it's an mp3. However, I still want to buy the Astell Kern Dap in the future. Even if there is a 20-30 percent difference between it and the M11 pro... (in my opinion)

 

[Jussei]

I'd be in the opposite camp of source vs. IEM. I prefer a great source over a great IEM. A high end IEM will sound 'better' than a $50 IEM regardless of source, but I'd rather listen to a good mid-fi IEM via a great source than an exceptional IEM through an average source, like an iPhone/dongle. I'm in the opinion that a really great source will bring out everything a mid-fi IEM would have to offer. An iPhone + dongle isn't able to fully express what higher end IEMs are capable of and a lot of what makes them special would be 'wasted.' I guess it's sort of like driving a Ferrari with crappy fuel and worn tires. It's still a Ferrari and will perform well, but not like it should. I'd rather have an older Corvette with 93 octane, good tires and all of the other necessities to allow it to perform at 100%.