[Darksoul]

Which IEM you would get? For the sake of conversation, let's limit it to in ear monitors. I know it isn't the most original question...

I'd go for the Studio 64 Tia Fourte. Maybe I bought into the hype and all the confusing words that I barely understand, nevertheless I think it's an interesting IEM. Maybe someday when I don't have so much work to do, I'll get to audition them at a Canjam.

 

[1TrickPony]

Look into crinnacle's list. Plenty of fantastic choices. Not sure what you want, but there's some really well loved 1k iems on that list!

 

[bvng3540]

The last 3 years I has all TOTL iems from all the big player but I always go back for JH Audio Layla, you still can get one for sound 1k or less, I’m not JH Audio fan boy at all, but I has and had 13 Layla, 3 Roxanne, 5 Lola and 1 16v2

 

[rayliam80]

If that were ever my position, I'd spend money to travel around first to Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and at least a few Can Jams around the world before making a commitment to at least one or two TOTL IEMs.

 

[pbui44]

LCD-i4+SilverDragonV1+ALOCDM+A&KSP1000

 

[tienbasse]

You probably meant if you had thousands of dollars to SPEND.
Because if you wanted to spare money, you certainly wouldn't buy high-end IEMs.

Honestly I don't see the point here, you don't spend for the sake of spending, you spend money on IEMs in the hope of getting a model which suits your preference in terms of tuning.
Which doesn't imply you HAVE to spend thousands of dollars to get the right match.
Thinking that spending more WILL get automatically you "better" sound quality is a bloody myth that led to things like "driver number war" and other non-innovative designs.

Any brand that can't describe to you HOW they tuned their IEMs so you can see whether you would like it or not, and any brand which keeps spouting nonsense like "better sound", "different sound", "innovative design" probably has nothing concrete to sell and just wants to grab easy cash.

Which is why I liked brand like CustomArt so much, and why I have no consideration for brands like Empire Ears/EU/HifiMan (among many others), that don't even bother describing properly of how they tuned their high-end IEMs and expect you to buy because "hey, I paid 2500$ so it has to be so good!" even though nothing was provided to sustain these cheesy claims.
But hey, people are free to pay 3000$ blindlessly and convince themselves they weren't r*ped with a big bat, which is going to happen 90% of the time in the absence of honest reviews to debunk the "myth" and properly describe sound tuning.

 

[pbui44]

But hey, people are free to pay 3000$ blindlessly and convince themselves they weren't r*ped with a big bat, which is going to happen 90% of the time in the absence of honest reviews to debunk the "myth" and properly describe sound tuning.

Hopefully there are no spikes or barbed wire on those bats, either.

 

[kdphan]

more $$ doesn't mean better

YOU have to find something that suits your taste and that taste can vary depending on your mood.

This is why I have a few different types of IEMs. As @tienbasse mentioned above, look at the thread @crinacle created. It was very helpful when I was looking around for new IEMs.

There are great IEM to be found for under $1k.

One of my favorite IEMs can be found for about $400 nowadays (Sennheiser IE800).

 

[DRuM]

I would buy the Audeze LCD i4 just from what I've read about them from users here and a youtube review comparing them against Noble K10UA and Dita The Dream. They are apparently somewhat other worldly with amazing 3D imaging.

 

[Redcarmoose]

It’s totally all about learning which sound signature you like. Also besides everyone’s taste being different, there is the shape of the IEM.

Some fit better than others.

So it helps to go around and listen to a bunch in person. Price can be meaningless if you don’t gell with the sound signature.