[proedros]

Yeahhh but I had both the U and A18t, which are kinda a Zeus XR on steroids and neither was able to keep me satisfied so I don’t think that this experience is universally applicable

i think you are exaggerating but it's cool - i mean the OP here ranked Zeus XIV higher than a18 - and i have the XR version which offers you the R tuning as well

and judging the fact that i paid less than 50% of the price of a18 for a brand new custom zeus XR , you add all those up and you see why i feel like i got a bargain and i don't want (or have the ability) to spend 3-4K for a 5-10% improvement

cheers

 

[mvvRAZ]

i think you are exaggerating but it's cool - i mean the OP here ranked Zeus XIV higher than a18 - and i have the XR version which offers you the R tuning as well

and judging the fact that i paid less than 50% of the price of a18 for a brand new custom zeus XR , you add all those up and you see why i feel like i got a bargain and i don't want (or have the ability) to spend 3-4K for a 5-10% improvement

cheers

That's great, and if we want to get into the value for performance discussion I'm sure there's someone on the forums that got an IEM with a similar tonality as the Zeus XR for 50$ and feels like he got a great deal getting 90% of the what you're getting for a tenth of the price

I'm just saying that while you can get great value at any price point, it doesn't mean that your experience can be universally applied to everyone else - if we ignore the A18t, I can give you examples with multiple IEMs at the price point of the XR, or at double, triple or quadruple that and they still weren't what I deem to be good enough to make me happily quit audio

Honestly at this point I get better value on something like the Erl than I do on anything sub-1000, because at least I'd keep the Erl for a while and enjoy that as opposed to listening it for a week and then getting bored of it because of something else I own that I enjoy more

 

[mvvRAZ]

I hope somebody says that these are END GAME IEM's. At this price point if there is still room for improvement and people are waiting for new IEM in the future to beat the Thumimm's then there is some serious flaw.

The point of tech is that there is no endgame imo. As the technology gets better and the manufacturers get even crazier about the R&D of these products they'll keep on improving year after year

A 4000$ PC will still be obsolete in 10 years, regardless of what you put in it. Something that sounds good now will still sound good whenever, but if IEM tech has already peaked that'd be a sad sad thing

 

[proedros]

That's great, and if we want to get into the value for performance discussion I'm sure there's someone on the forums that got an IEM with a similar tonality as the Zeus XR for 50$ and feels like he got a great deal getting 90% of the what you're getting for a tenth of the price

if there is such an iem , please sign me up for it - again you are exaggerating to make a (invalid) point , so you see the pattern right ?

as for value for performance , well i have stayed with zeus for 3 years now and i am 101% happy/satisfied with it so yeah i think it covers all the VfP boxes as well - and it's TOTL stuff too.

whereas you (as you said it yourself) keep on buying a new totl iem every 3 months with no peace of mind.

in the end , this is a subjective hobby - and it also matters how much money you have/can burn too

cheers

 

[mvvRAZ]

if there is such an iem , please sign me up for it - again you are exaggerating to make a (invalid) point , so you see the pattern right ?

as for value for performance , well i have stayed with zeus for 3 years now and i am 101% happy/satisfied with it so yeah i think it covers all the VfP boxes as well - and it's TOTL stuff too.

whereas you (as you said it yourself) keep on buying a new totl iem every 3 months with no peace of mind.

in the end , this is a subjective hobby - and it also matters how much money you have/can burn too

cheers

I'm not exaggerating, I'm just making the point that it's way too subjective a hobby to be able to apply your experience with the Zeus XR to everyone that's ever been interested in audio. The way you feel like the Zeus gets you 90% of the current market's TOTLs, someone else feels like his 50$ IEM gets him to 90% of the Zeus XR, and is happy he got it at only a tenth of the price of a Zeus.

 

[toaster]

Gentlemen...GENTLEMEN...please!

A wise man once said:

"In the end, this is a subjective hobby - and it also matters how much money you have/can burn too.

 

[Frankie D]

I just received an email that the first batch of LE ERLKONIG’s will be shipping next week. Looking forward. Toaster beware!

 

[toaster]

who in the what now?

beware? i've been dying to have more people to share the erlky goodness with for quite a while. Exciting times ahead, for sure!

Only other iem i want to hear right now is the thum, as a potential more flamboyant partner to the erlky...

 

[Frankie D]

who in the what now?

beware? i've been dying to have more people to share the erlky goodness with for quite a while. Exciting times ahead, for sure!

Only other iem i want to hear right now is the thum, as a potential more flamboyant partner to the erlky...

Ha! Ha! Now, now, you know I’m kidding. Should be fun.

 

[gLer]

Something that sounds good now will still sound good whenever, but if IEM tech has already peaked that'd be a sad sad thing

I can only speak from a personal/subjective perspective of course, but once you're experienced enough (having heard a large variety of IEMs) and comfortable enough with your music preferences (you know exactly how you like your music to sound), it's quite easy to settle on an IEM/headphone or two and check out of the constant buy/sell/upgrade cycle.

Whether or not IEM tech has already peaked (I believe it has) 'endgame' is a choice, not a product. Once you've found something you can just plug in to your DAP and put on just about any song you enjoy with complete confidence that it will sound excellent, you can choose to be done with audio gear. If you can't, or get bored easily, you're probably just that type of person who gets easily bored, and needs constant change to stay entertained. And let me make it clear - there's absolutely nothing wrong with that! I'd also venture that someone who's never satisfied for more than a short while isn't really interested in how good the music sounds, but rather how different it can potentially sound with something new. Again, nothing wrong with that!

My personal goal is to find a combination of gear I can use to listen to my music as closely as possible to my personal sound preferences, and also use it to discover new music I like, without constantly feeling like I'm 'missing' something. Someone else's goal might be to listen to his music in as many different ways as possible, and keep pushing the bar as to how it sounds to them. If you're more like me, I believe 'endgame' is not that difficult to achieve. If you're more about new/different/better, there is no endgame - it's all about the game itself.

 

[toaster]

I can only speak from a personal/subjective perspective of course, but once you're experienced enough (having heard a large variety of IEMs) and comfortable enough with your music preferences (you know exactly how you like your music to sound), it's quite easy to settle on an IEM/headphone or two and check out of the constant buy/sell/upgrade cycle.

Whether or not IEM tech has already peaked (I believe it has) 'endgame' is a choice, not a product. Once you've found something you can just plug in to your DAP and put on just about any song you enjoy with complete confidence that it will sound excellent, you can choose to be done with audio gear. If you can't, or get bored easily, you're probably just that type of person who gets easily bored, and needs constant change to stay entertained. And let me make it clear - there's absolutely nothing wrong with that! I'd also venture that someone who's never satisfied for more than a short while isn't really interested in how good the music sounds, but rather how different it can potentially sound with something new. Again, nothing wrong with that!

My personal goal is to find a combination of gear I can use to listen to my music as closely as possible to my personal sound preferences, and also use it to discover new music I like, without constantly feeling like I'm 'missing' something. Someone else's goal might be to listen to his music in as many different ways as possible, and keep pushing the bar as to how it sounds to them. If you're more like me, I believe 'endgame' is not that difficult to achieve. If you're more about new/different/better, there is no endgame - it's all about the game itself.

Really well-written thoughts on the game, man.

 

[mvvRAZ]

I can only speak from a personal/subjective perspective of course, but once you're experienced enough (having heard a large variety of IEMs) and comfortable enough with your music preferences (you know exactly how you like your music to sound), it's quite easy to settle on an IEM/headphone or two and check out of the constant buy/sell/upgrade cycle.

Whether or not IEM tech has already peaked (I believe it has) 'endgame' is a choice, not a product. Once you've found something you can just plug in to your DAP and put on just about any song you enjoy with complete confidence that it will sound excellent, you can choose to be done with audio gear. If you can't, or get bored easily, you're probably just that type of person who gets easily bored, and needs constant change to stay entertained. And let me make it clear - there's absolutely nothing wrong with that! I'd also venture that someone who's never satisfied for more than a short while isn't really interested in how good the music sounds, but rather how different it can potentially sound with something new. Again, nothing wrong with that!

My personal goal is to find a combination of gear I can use to listen to my music as closely as possible to my personal sound preferences, and also use it to discover new music I like, without constantly feeling like I'm 'missing' something. Someone else's goal might be to listen to his music in as many different ways as possible, and keep pushing the bar as to how it sounds to them. If you're more like me, I believe 'endgame' is not that difficult to achieve. If you're more about new/different/better, there is no endgame - it's all about the game itself.

I agree - you could also both be looking for new gear and not feeling like you’re missing anything with your current setup(s)

I love the hobby, and I love the gear arguably more than I love the music itself. It’s a question of whether you’re looking for something to listen to music with, or you’re buying the gear for the sake of the gear

 

[Deezel177]

Hey, everyone! Just for fun, I recently compiled a ton of the music I listen to when I review gear onto a playlist on Spotify. Aside from giving me a quick-and-easy referral whenever anyone asks about my test tracks, I also just love sharing good music, and I think there may be a few bands/artists in there that y'all will really enjoy. So, if you were ever curious as to the kind of stuff I listened/reviewed to, or were just looking for some new music in general, feel free to head on over there and tell me what you think:



Cheers!

EDIT: 'Didn't know Head-Fi integrated Spotify playlists onto their forum posts. That's pretty cool! But, the playlist here only shows 100 of the 288 tracks, and it only plays previews. So, you'll have to go to the Spotify site or app for the full thing. Again, though, enjoy!

 

[Wyville]

Whether or not IEM tech has already peaked (I believe it has) 'endgame' is a choice, not a product.

Interesting thoughts and I definitely agree with the sentiment. One thing though, why do you think IEM tech has peaked? Just out of curiosity.

Personally, I think there is still plenty of progress possible because technology continues to change and there seems to be a drive within the industry to push for that change. So while one technology such as balanced armatures might be reaching the limit of what it can achieve (no idea if that is the case or not, just as an example), new technology is being introduced at what feels like an increasing pace. It might well be that in the vast majority of cases these new technologies produce only marginal gains, but sometimes the gains can be quite dramatic. Think for instance of the Helmholtz resonator used in the Custom Art FIBAE Black. It is really innovative and very effective at what it does.

The thing with progress (in a general sense) is that it is achieved by increasing our knowledge and because we can't evaluate something we at the moment have no knowledge of, we can't accurately predict if progress of something in particular has peaked or not. The best we can do is estimate based on history and current trends. I think a few companies in recent years have driven progress by thinking out of the box and pushing for new technology. This has resulted in the current trend of exploring new driver types (EST, planar, AMT, piezoelectric, etc) and various other technologies (Helmholtz resonator, tubeless designs, 3D printing, whatever the heck Sammy is using, etc), which I think provides increased potential for breakthrough technologies and implementations to emerge. Not that I am as familiar with developments in this industry as I am with those in the natural sciences, so take it with a grain of salt, but it certainly seems to me that there is a lot of potential left.

 

[rskbug]

I agree with GLer. I too believe the IEM tech has peaked out. I really doubt any $4,000/$5,000 etc. or higher up IEM from here on will produce any significant jumps in sound. The differentiation will be on sound signature and tuning.