seanwee
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2015
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That's actually really hard to quantify and there is no hard and fast rule over how good an expensive iem sounds over a cheaper iem. For instance, I would say that my FDX1 poops all over the LCD-i4 because it has a really bad tuning for its price. Poor tuning is not exclusive to cheaper sets, just look at the Campfire Audio Solstice and Equinox.Seems like an exaggeration in the opposite way the goodness of $3k IEMs are described. Seems the sweet spot for cost vs performance is somewhere between $150 and $250 though I would personably miss the benefits I get from a well chosen IEM that costs in the $700 to $1000 range. Obviously, it's diminishing returns but it's difficult to put a price on goosebumps.
You'll get far more mileage looking for your ideal tuning at a set price range first, rather than thinking you need to "upgrade" to a pricier iem. Under $250 is enough in my experience. It'll be best if you can find a place where you can demo at least mid to high end sets first so you have an idea of how the "best" sounds like first, then you can look for similarly tuned iems that fit said preference.
Personally I've found that the right tuning will already get you 75% there and its easy to find your right tuning with chifi sets under $100. Then as you go up the price range you're just getting small upgrades here and there like tighter bass, more extended highs as well as nice personal tweaks you may find to your liking like slightly more rumble, slightly warmer mids, crispier sound, larger soundstage etc. Once you get past around $500 you're just chasing the last 1% whether its extension, refinement or soundstage.
Yes, there may be gems that can surprise you with how much better they are over the very top end of iems but so far the only one that is another level better than any other summit fi iem i've heard is the DMP-Z1 (Single ended) into the IER-Z1R. Only that pairing has a binaural/out of your head soundstage i've never heard before in any iem. Either of the two alone don't come close to that level.