Since buying my ZST which was my first foray into CHIFI, I am actually glad I ordered all the KZs that I did. It was a fun journey and I learned a lot. While I sold off most of them now, I ended up keeping the ES4 the EDR1, ED9 and ZSN. You can buy all 4 of these IEMs for about $33. That's amazing to me.
Before that, and like most people, I was at the mercy of the big name brands. Of course they were all $100-$300 each. Pretty difficult pill to swallow buying something like that and not liking it. At the same time that's one reason EQ exist.
Anyway here is a graph from a 2012 Audio Technica IEM that cost $230. It was highly praised as a great IEM and Rec'd here. Never heard one person bad talk the thing.
My how much time has changed is the past few years. Thanks to KZ and other Chinese companies, making good sounding stuff affordable for people now.
BTW, I have that IEM. Its comparable to ZS6/ZSA to me. Both of which can be picked up for about $35 now.
Fully agree with you. Just about 3 years ago, we would have to pay ~ $200 - 300 USD for a triple driver western brand IEM. I've been buying westone IEMs for the past 10 years and can personally say many of the CHIFI IEMs can now match their sound quality at a fraction of the cost. I've stopped patronizing most of the western brands ever since my first foray into the CHIFI world, which was the KZ ZS6 (even though its treble peak was a bit of a killer to me, I thought the rest of the tuning wasn't bad for the price).
I'm very happy to see KZ and the other CHIFI companies evolving and catching up to their western counterparts since and am thankful these CHIFI companies can give us a small taste of audiophile quality without burning a hole in the wallet.