[Yifang]

Diminishing returns in IEM is already at the $20-$50 ChiFi IEMs, and above that it goes downhill pretty quickly. The last 5% is just PURE preference especially in the summit level. Me personally, I'm hitting 95% of Orioulus Trailli and ALL of 4K IEMs and up with my Campfire Bonneville, but for others, a Truthear Zero Red sound better than the Bonneville since they dislike the sound signature of Bonneville quite profoundly

This is truly one of the comments of all time!

 

[goodvibes]

For me, it was the Moondrop S8 with comply tips and matching cable choice that got me there. It sounds like a single driver but optimized for all ranges at the same time without compromise. Percentages are meaningless as it's a qualitative and not quantitative assessment of meeting a personal requirement to achieve a required message from a performance. If I was using a sub $500 dap or phone as source, i would agree that under $100 is fine for most. It's so relative to expectations and quality of the entire chain.

 

[raibeli]

For me diminishing returns start when there is sound with enough headroom. After that it's just about personal preferences.

I haven't tried an IEM more expensive than my Hybrid 3 Pro (700€), nor do i have an urge to. I started my journey with the intention to find "The One" I'd be satisfied with and could whole heartedly enjoy my entire music library with. I fell in love with the H3 pro and I knew I'd found the one I was looking for. Then i set out on a quest to find something with similar tonal quality for a lower price to chuck in to my backbag. After reading and watching a bunch of reviews I decided to go with the final A4000. It's tonally close enough to the H3 pro so that there is no "tonal disconnect" between my setups, just pure enjoyment without my brain having to adjust or "correct" anything. I got the A4000 for about 130€ and the H3 pro is 700€, and I'd still buy it if I already had the A4000 before it. It's just that much better for me and my budget to justify 5x the price

Now I have a bunch of stuff I don't listen to, some of it I gave to my wife but some are just gathering dust Tho I don't regret any of those purchases either because I purposefully got gear that graphs differently and with different driver configs to find what I like. I hope this didn't go too far from the subject in question.

 

[o0genesis0o]

For me diminishing returns start when there is sound with enough headroom. After that it's just about personal preferences.

I haven't tried an IEM more expensive than my Hybrid 3 Pro (700€), nor do i have an urge to. I started my journey with the intention to find "The One" I'd be satisfied with and could whole heartedly enjoy my entire music library with. I fell in love with the H3 pro and I knew I'd found the one I was looking for. Then i set out on a quest to find something with similar tonal quality for a lower price to chuck in to my backbag. After reading and watching a bunch of reviews I decided to go with the final A4000. It's tonally close enough to the H3 pro so that there is no "tonal disconnect" between my setups, just pure enjoyment without my brain having to adjust or "correct" anything. I got the A4000 for about 130€ and the H3 pro is 700€, and I'd still buy it if I already had the A4000 before it. It's just that much better for me and my budget to justify 5x the price

Now I have a bunch of stuff I don't listen to, some of it I gave to my wife but some are just gathering dust Tho I don't regret any of those purchases either because I purposefully got gear that graphs differently and with different driver configs to find what I like. I hope this didn't go too far from the subject in question.

You have such eccentric setups (in a good way)

 

[raibeli]

You have such eccentric setups (in a good way)

I started out with chinese brands, but after a few QC disappointments I just abandoned that market. Didn't want to treat QC as a game of chance and the aftercare was bad aswell in those cases. YMMW

 

[MagicMitch]

I've tried earphones across all ranges. IE200, IE600, Shuoer S12 Pro, U4s, IER-Z1R, Meastro SE, ThieAudio Hype2, and finally a custom Fir XE6. My favorite of the bunch for universals was easily Hype 2 because of the fit and tuning relative to its price range. I'm going to test the Hype 4 first to compare against the Hype 2 and then probably sell both the Supernova and U4s that I still own and only keep the Hype 2 or 4 and my XE6. Diminishing returns hits right around the $300-$400 range for me.

My favorite tuning regardless of price was the Maestro SE but the fit was so godawful that I couldn't wear it for longer than an hour without pain.

 

[Ryokan]

My favourite iem's cost between $1k and $2k, the ones I own(ed) that are much cheaper and one more expensive set hardly get used now. Sets costing around $300 sounded good before I bought the others, which are clearer, airier, have superior separation, detail and imaging. I wish I could say ones costing $50-$300 are 95% of my others but after 20mins I'm soon swopping them over.

 

[kmhaynes]

Again, personal tastes + available money to spend are biggest factors. I have a $200 Ikko OH10 that I like better than my $1,500 original retail Campfire Solaris 2020 (which is for sale, BTW!), so my personal tastes dictate that cost-to-satisfaction ratio. It will be the opposite for other listeners who hear those 2 IEMs. My Tansio Mirai at $500 is a better that the OH10, but the sound is not far off the OH10, so again my personal tastes and amount I'm willing to spend guide me. I've not heard any of the $2-4,000 IEMs out there, so who knows what I might do if I heard the Trialli for example and fell for it!

 

[o0genesis0o]

Again, personal tastes + available money to spend are biggest factors. I have a $200 Ikko OH10 that I like better than my $1,500 original retail Campfire Solaris 2020 (which is for sale, BTW!), so my personal tastes dictate that cost-to-satisfaction ratio. It will be the opposite for other listeners who hear those 2 IEMs. My Tansio Mirai at $500 is a better that the OH10, but the sound is not far off the OH10, so again my personal tastes and amount I'm willing to spend guide me. I've not heard any of the $2-4,000 IEMs out there, so who knows what I might do if I heard the Trialli for example and fell for it!

I like to look at IEMs like I look at monitors. More money = more resolution, contrast, refresh rate, and fancy features like VRR. In IEM world, these correlate to “technical performance” (be it a function of FR or whatever unmeasurable factor). Tonality is like the colour scheme (vibrant, flat, “film simulation”, whatever).

In my experience so far:

• More money, putting into good IEM (not crappy overpriced ones), tend to lead to better technical performance. Once in a while there is a cheaper IEM that breaks the mould in technical performance, but that’s a rare case.
• Of course technology improves over time. The level of expensive IEMs of yester-years is achieved by cheaper IEMs today.
• The technical performance does not correlate to subjective enjoyment for some (many?) listeners. So if one index IEM by “how this IEM makes me feel”, then the price/performance rating would be all over the place.
• The diminishing return kicks at the boundary of one’s expectations. For example, I don’t have GPU to drive 4k screen at high refresh rate, and no space to use a big monitor either, so 1080@144Hz is more than enough, above is “diminishing”. Others might accept nothing less than 4k@60 because they have experienced that level.

 

[MudEnjoyer]

Most of the stuff worth owning is 4 digits anyway. Anything below that tends to have safe uninspired slop tunings for the unwashed masses, boring cookie cutter designs and more than questionable build quality.

So yeah in my experience if you want something cool you need to open your wallet wide. Isolation, build quality, premium feel and good design are more important than sound quality for me at least.

Since I am collecting and enjoy having stuff in rotation, I seek to have stuff that has something special, and that tends to be priced higher due to simple market segmentation.

Diminishing returns is when you pay more than what the IER-Z1R costs. We’re talking about three custom in house built drivers built in Japan with impeccable craftsmanship and build quality. If you’re dropping more than that for someone shoving off the shelf drivers into a 3D printed resin shell and seeing what sticks this time you’re just being scammed.

 

[baneand]

I call this "personal level of enjoyment" scale (it would be great if there is such a thing). But basically I remember when I got into this madness (I consider it like a psychological condition now), the Beyerdynamic 1990 pro were giving me big jump in enjoying my music - before that one I was mostly on bluetooth headphones/earphones. After that everything was pretty much small changes in my music but I am enjoying it (almost) equally. Last few "summit fi" iems I got (Fir Rn6, Trifecta, Grand Maestro), were basically just a different presentation of music with 1-2 "specialty" things they do, but still I am enjoying the music same way. I figured that the mental burn-in is enough - if you don't change and don't know about other gear, you will will just enjoy your music with current gear. Still addiction continues on this forum...still hard to resist new gear for no reason

 

[Merkurio]

I've had them up to $800 for a few pairs. Try the 7hz Salnotes Zero:2 and you'll have a great value for money baseline for judging everything else. I have a Moondrop Blessing 3 sitting in a box while using my $24 Zero:2 daily.
Prices don't even matter with the IEM technology advances and prices plummetting for great ones. The Truthear Zero Red or Blue are ones I have also. Those and a $9 Apple USB adapter and you can't go wrong.

Zero 2 with little EQ to match my personal HRTF is truly endgame material.

Several high-end IEMs have passed through my hands (the most recent ones being the KSE1200 and the IE900 that I recently sold), and although I've achieved fantastic results with all of them through EQ, it's been the same case with the Zero 2, and only at a fraction of the cost with minimal effort, because the sound signature is already almost there.