Looking for IEMs ~£300 for classical/folk music

[Zero3]

I am looking to buy a new set of IEMs.

Budget - at most £300, but fairly flexible here. Happy to spend less!

Source/Amp - various laptops and iPhone XS. No amp and I would prefer keeping it that way.

How the gear will be used - mainly office, so passive noise isolation is quite appreciated (already use foam tips). Not planning to use it on the move as I have truly wireless headset already which I am happy with.

Preferred music genre(s) - I mainly listen to folk and classical music. Female voices dominate my preference these days. Any suggestions as to what to look for would be nice.

Past gear experience - I have RHA T10i and RHA True Connect. They both sound OK, but nothing to really compare against. I got a chance to try UE900s which definitely sound better - not sure if it's my head, but it has better sound stage and better separation of instruments/vocals. I know, not too techy description! It just sounds clearer.

However, bass solos just sound much deeper with a bit of echo on T10i.

What aspect of your current listening experience would you like to improve? - sound quality and comfort. T10i's are quite heavy, stick out a bit too much for my liking and there's too many metal bits banging around. MMCX connector would also be appreciated.



Current contenders are:

• UE900s if I can grab a pair cheaply (there seems to be few on eBay every now and then). They are the most expensive IEMs I ever listened to. While they do sound nice, quite few reviews mentioned about lacking mids and female voices not being represented best. Still better than anything else I listened to.
  
  
• Oriveti OH300. They are meant to have more balanced sound profile from what I gathered. I don't have a way of listening to them, unfortunately.
  

Any recommendations welcome!

 

[baskingshark]

Hi I would recommend the Audiosense T800. It retails at $298 USD on Amazon or Aliexpress. 8 Knowles BA drivers per side.
Very good isolation, comfortable. MMCX connector.
Excellent imaging, details, instrument separation, soundstage. The tonality and timbre of voices and instruments is quite good. Easy to drive from phone. I love it for acoustic music, so I would assume the folk music you listen to has guitars?
Only thing is the treble on this IEM is slightly on the harsh side, so if you are treble sensitive it may be an issue. But there are ways to lower the treble, you can read more in the forums and reviews on it.

I've not listened to your 2 contenders so maybe the others can chime in with more advise.

 

[Zero3]

Hi I would recommend the Audiosense T800. It retails at $298 USD on Amazon or Aliexpress. 8 Knowles BA drivers per side.
Very good isolation, comfortable. MMCX connector.
Excellent imaging, details, instrument separation, soundstage. The tonality and timbre of voices and instruments is quite good. Easy to drive from phone. I love it for acoustic music, so I would assume the folk music you listen to has guitars?
Only thing is the treble on this IEM is slightly on the harsh side, so if you are treble sensitive it may be an issue. But there are ways to lower the treble, you can read more in the forums and reviews on it.

I've not listened to your 2 contenders so maybe the others can chime in with more advise.

Many thanks! I will look them up, although looks like it might be a trouble getting them in the UK.

Folk wise, it's guitars, banjo, bass, cello and what not! As someone said, let me paraphrase, The Devil Makes Three is like 3 concerts in one - so there's a bit of everything thrown in there. That'd be Sarah Jarosz, Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Devil Makes Three, etc.
Classical music wise, it's mainly piano dominated. Fabrizio Paterlini, Max Richter, Sophie Hutchings to name few.

 

[serman005]

You might also look into a Campfire IO and see what you think. It's conceivable it could work.

 

[FastAndClean]

Audiosense T800, Campfire IO sound very uneven, T800 is great, amazing bass too

 

[Zero3]

Thanks folk.

How do these compare to ue900s? It looks like I might be able to pick them up at 50-70% of the price of other contenders. Granted, they wouldn’t be brand new, but it’s still a huge saving.

I’ve been quite happy with how they sound to be honest, but not sure if I’m missing anything out!

The number of drivers and their quality is just so confusing to me, still. Am I right that it’s a bit of marketing?

 

[baskingshark]

Thanks folk.

How do these compare to ue900s? It looks like I might be able to pick them up at 50-70% of the price of other contenders. Granted, they wouldn’t be brand new, but it’s still a huge saving.

I’ve been quite happy with how they sound to be honest, but not sure if I’m missing anything out!

The number of drivers and their quality is just so confusing to me, still. Am I right that it’s a bit of marketing?

Tuning of an IEM is more important than driver count IMO. But generally an IEM that has more drivers can adequately handle each frequency range's music better.

I own a few other budget chinese brand IEMs and agree that some of them just stuff as many drivers as they can into a shell and don't adequately tune their product.

In the T800's case, the driver count is no gimmick and their 8 BA knowles drivers do really separate and layer and image instruments excellently. Very good for critical listening and appreciation of microdetails. But it also has great bass due to its design and can still make the music sound good, without being an overly analytical boring IEM.

As for knowles drivers, they are appreciated in the audiophile world due to their better quality than other budget driver brands that the budget companies use, YMMV.

I hope u find what you are looking for! Your budget should be able to get u quite a lot of good midrange options!