[kevms89]

So something just happened now that makes me question all this spending on HQ iems, so I was going through some old stuff in my drawer and came across these from my old sony ericsson phone.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Ericsson-Original-Headset-Walkman/dp/B0027V4AR4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1406126133&sr=8-4&keywords=sony+ericsson+headset&dpPl=1
 
I figured, let me test them out with all this HQ music and compare to my XBA30, back then I didnt know about music as I did now, so I plugged them in expecting to be disgusted; to my amazement....they sound great! I thought to myself ok its probably jsut the mind adjusting, I went to my xba30 expecting to be blown away, sure it has cleaner bass, bigger sound stage and little details but overall its not what IMO you would expect for a $200 iem compared to a measly $10 pair.
 
These sound very good, everything is super clear, the mids and highs are good, the lows are not as clear per say but they are there at least, aside from a slight low end leakage they are balanced as well.
 
Now obviously the 30's are better no doubt but are they $200 worthy? Recently I bought the xb90ex and those retailed for like $60, to my amazement too aside from the obvious low end and sub bass emphasis they are clear and the mids and highs are just as good as the 30, so I wonder are these $200, $300, $400+ iem's really worth it? Something like the re400 is another example of price/value.
 
I mean being 100% honest, if I was stuck with these headphones I would not be complaining at all, the only headphones I cant stand are earbuds, those things suck lol

 

[encoreAC]

yeah I got this feeling when I 1st tried a soundmagic e10 as a back up ear-phone. I compared them to my shure 425 and actually preferred to listen to my soundmagic pair.
 
From this I learned that higher priced ear phones are typically technically superior in terms of accuracy and details, but that does not mean that u won't prefer cheap earphones as the sound calibration might be just more suited for your taste. Sound preference is for a huge part subjective and technical superiority might not give you the feeling you wish from your headphone. 
 
As for me I have given up on high priced earphones as it is not worth it for me considering that I can enjoy cheaper earphones too.
 
Actually there a lot of good budget earphones right now with an really acceptable sound quality, at least a lot more than years before with the likes of Soundmagic e10/e30, Xiaomi Pistons, Vsonic VSD3(S), Zero Audio Tenore/Basso and Ostry KC06(A), which are costing less together than one premium in ear by sennheiser,shure or westone.

 

[Kaffeemann]

You think that there is a posive correlation between price and performance in IEMs. This assumption is wrong. You can get great IEMs for $20 or terrible for $200.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

  yeah I got this feeling when I 1st tried a soundmagic e10 as a back up ear-phone. I compared them to my shure 425 and actually preferred to listen to my soundmagic pair.
 
From this I learned that higher priced ear phones are typically technically superior in terms of accuracy and details, but that does not mean that u won't prefer cheap earphones as the sound calibration might be just more suited for your taste. Sound preference is for a huge part subjective and technical superiority might not give you the feeling you wish from your headphone. 
 
As for me I have given up on high priced earphones as it is not worth it for me considering that I can enjoy cheaper earphones too.
 
Actually there a lot of good budget earphones right now with an really acceptable sound quality, at least a lot more than years before with the likes of Soundmagic e10/e30, Xiaomi Pistons, Vsonic VSD3(S), Zero Audio Tenore/Basso and Ostry KC06(A), which are costing less together than one premium in ear by sennheiser,shure or westone.

 
I agree. Price and specs are no guarantee of sonic bliss. It's a personal thing. For a long time, I used Shure SE425. Good sound but a bit cold.  Then I bought a pair of NOCS NS400, and these are absolutely heavenly from an iPod Classic 7G lossless files. Comfy too. So, my Shures went into a drawer. Trust your ears, that's the rule I live by.

 

[pbui44]

It really all depends on the setup and your own ears. Even without a dedicated amp, my JVC HA-FX700 sound great in a quiet library, which is perfect for their lackluster sound isolation. The micro-details of the sub-bass, mid tonality, and treble sparkle really come out and show its worth over my House of Marley (open or closed) or modded Woodies Sport wooden in-ears. Watching documentaries and movies with home-theater-range sound quality is great, too. It makes you wonder how they put so many features in such a small in-ear headphone.

That's why there are so many reviews here. You get better with finding what you want and get more of what you want.

Edit: One of the weirdest things I noticed comparing my FX700 to some Denon/Lawton LA-7000 I heard recently is that I still preferred my FX700, despite the deeper bass, larger soundstage, and more full sound quality. Now that is comparing $300 in-ears to $1000 full-size over-ears with $700+ upgrades. Well, I also have a ATH-W5000, so that also makes a difference.

 

[Currawong]

Definitely a good question. Before the XBA series, I went and tried every pair of expensive IEMs I could in-store, and they were terrible in one way or another. The XBA series were the first that didn't sound awful to me.
 
The question about it being "worth it" is one we ask ourselves all the time. For some people it simply isn't. I remember back in high school the first time I heard the pop music I liked through my father's high-end stereo system and felt the same way: Sure it was clearer, but that didn't make it more enjoyable to listen to. 

 

[Deviltooth]

Lately I've found some amazing universal under $50 IEMs.  Alas, while they're very, very good they still don't reach the levels of my customs (or Noble 4).  For the majority of people the cheaper IEMs will come close enough that the additional costs for the top end can't be justified.  For others who aren't concerned about dollars or who are obsessive about sound, spending more does yield better results ( though sometimes you can also get ripped off like I did with the Unique Melody 3DDs).

 

[Aizura]

Listen to an ER4S on a good amp and then compare to some cheapo earphones.
You'd be like: wait, did part of the foam tip of the ER4 get stuck in my ears?

 

[haloxt]

IEM's used to be a lot cheaper before balanced armature drivers became popular. Some of the BA drivers aren't cheap and can make up a big chunk of the price of iem's, and there's a lot of R&D with expensive equipment and new manufacturing tools for BA iem's while on the other hand single dynamic driver iem's have had ages for R&D and a lot more manufacturers so there is relatively a lot less cost for making single driver dynamic iem's. Cheap iem's have a lot going for them in terms of economy of scale especially when they're meant to sit in all retail stores or be included with cellphones/mp3 players.
 
I've only tried one BA iem, the dn-2000, and I can't get over that its treble is sort of mediocre, and the $315 price is very steep for just over an ounce of electronics, especially when I consider that I chose to purchase the iem's instead of a nice Japanese-made IPS computer monitor for about the same price. With BA iem's priced as they are, I think they aren't worth it vs. full-sized headphones unless you want portability or isolation, and I expect their sound quality to continue to improve and their price to fall a lot over the next few years.

 

[encoreAC]

The Sony BA IEMs are known for average soundquality, but few other brands IEMs like HF5, ER4P, EX1000, ATH_CK100Pro and DBA02 shows lot more details.

For some people it is not about sound quality, but about sound signature. What's the use of the best detailed presentation, if u don't enjoy the music. Most people aren't audiophile, so I imagine they would prefer a excellent tuned fun IEM like the 35$ T1E over an technical excellent IEM Monitor as the Westone UM3X for 300$

 

[AUDIOBREEDER]

To my ears there isn't any point in me buying any high end stuff. For me I find sound better with my Sony EX300 iem compared to my westone 4 r,EX1000, PFE 132 etc.
Our ears are anatomically the same but our sound liking are different. To pay more than $400 on iem is not justifiable as I am enjoying sound with a sub $100.

 

[earfonia]

  So something just happened now that makes me question all this spending on HQ iems, so I was going through some old stuff in my drawer and came across these from my old sony ericsson phone.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Ericsson-Original-Headset-Walkman/dp/B0027V4AR4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1406126133&sr=8-4&keywords=sony+ericsson+headset&dpPl=1
 
I figured, let me test them out with all this HQ music and compare to my XBA30, back then I didnt know about music as I did now, so I plugged them in expecting to be disgusted; to my amazement....they sound great! I thought to myself ok its probably jsut the mind adjusting, I went to my xba30 expecting to be blown away, sure it has cleaner bass, bigger sound stage and little details but overall its not what IMO you would expect for a $200 iem compared to a measly $10 pair.
 
These sound very good, everything is super clear, the mids and highs are good, the lows are not as clear per say but they are there at least, aside from a slight low end leakage they are balanced as well.
 
Now obviously the 30's are better no doubt but are they $200 worthy? Recently I bought the xb90ex and those retailed for like $60, to my amazement too aside from the obvious low end and sub bass emphasis they are clear and the mids and highs are just as good as the 30, so I wonder are these $200, $300, $400+ iem's really worth it? Something like the re400 is another example of price/value.
 
I mean being 100% honest, if I was stuck with these headphones I would not be complaining at all, the only headphones I cant stand are earbuds, those things suck lol

 
These days with the buotique IEMs prices sky rocketing, it is hard to be honest in the forum.  If I share my genuine experience, that there are sub $50 IEM that really sounds better than some IEM over $500 that I've ever tried..., I will soon get arrows from all over the place...
Most people trust their eyes of the dollar sign more than their ears... 

 

[encoreAC]

   
These days with the buotique IEMs prices sky rocketing, it is hard to be honest in the forum.  If I share my genuine experience, that there are sub $50 IEM that really sounds better than some IEM over $500 that I've ever tried..., I will soon get arrows from all over the place...
Most people trust their eyes of the dollar sign more than their ears... 

 
The last years were damn good for budget enthusiast. These chinese IEM really becoming top class in terms of cost effectiveness. In the past cheap IEM's from oem brands like Sennheiser, Sony (beside MH1 ;D),Beyerdynamic, Klipsch really sucked. But now we can get a nice detailed all around sound for 35$ from a Havi B3 p1 for example.
 
I really like this progress and I am excited how the future goes.

 

[haloxt]

   
These days with the buotique IEMs prices sky rocketing, it is hard to be honest in the forum.  If I share my genuine experience, that there are sub $50 IEM that really sounds better than some IEM over $500 that I've ever tried..., I will soon get arrows from all over the place...
Most people trust their eyes of the dollar sign more than their ears... 

 
Most of the components in iem's are not that expensive. Much of money goes into R&D especially for all the BA stuff. Once all the new multidriver R&D have already been done and BA drivers don't cost $20+ a pop, I think $50-100 iem's will sound as good as today's high end universal iem's.

 

[Sweetmeat]

I imagine a high-end IEM may not sound any better than a cheap IEM when played from a cheap DAP or playing lossy files. In fact it could sound worse because the high-end IEM faithfully reproduces the distortion already present in the DAP/file. And don't forget many high-end IEMs are a difficult electrical load and require a good DAP to drive them properly.
 
But if you are happy with your current inexpensive IEM, you may want to stay off this site because this place tends to make you want to trade up.