I am looking for a nice portable setup. I need the iems, source (unless my ipod touch 2g is sufficient), and portable amp/cables (please leave opinion on these) if needed. My budget for the iems alone is 300, but it is lenient.
You really aren't giving us much to go on. What kind of sound-sig do you prefer? Bassy? Detailed? Analytical? Fun? What kind of music do you listen to? Do you need a lot of isolation?
I'll go ahead and blindly recommend the Sony EX1000. You can find it for around $300 and a bit above.
Sorry, my bad. I listen to a good deal of dubstep, classic rock, alt rock, classical, and a little bit of hip hop/pop. Isolation is great to have, but not a factor at all for me, and I want some fun sounding earphones. I listen to music for enjoyment, not to a/b for the best set up in the whole world. I haven't decided on whether to go custom or universal yet. I like the 1964 ears Quads in custom for their great bang for the buck, but I hear the sm3's are also very nice. What do you think?
Sorry, my bad. I listen to a good deal of dubstep, classic rock, alt rock, classical, and a little bit of hip hop/pop. Isolation is great to have, but not a factor at all for me, and I want some fun sounding earphones. I listen to music for enjoyment, not to a/b for the best set up in the whole world. I haven't decided on whether to go custom or universal yet. I like the 1964 ears Quads in custom for their great bang for the buck, but I hear the sm3's are also very nice. What do you think?
Your question about customs vs universal. I went custom about 5 years ago and will never go back. Now universals you get more for the money sonically to a degree. Now there are so Anny affordable customs it is a pretty easy step. When I went custom route there were only 3 companies doing customs. I say look into the jh5 from jhaudio. They are a bit over your price but I presume they sound amazing for the price. They would compare to my ue5c I got as my first custom. I went from the shure e5c to the ultimate ears ue5c and was a vast improvement.
Second question about customs. Yes many improve more after amping them as long as you have a good source. If you have a bad source and low quality music it will show more on most customs.
thanks for the answer. has anyone heard the jh5 and 1964 ears Quads both? I would like to know which offers better price/performance.
What do you consider low quality music and a bad source to be? I use my ipod touch 2g currently with mp3 files at 192-320 kbps. Should I rip them all to 320, should I change the source?
Well I don't like anything below 320kb/s but usually do loseless as I can hear the difference most of the time. There are some vbr that is not top bad but I can still hear the difference in a well recorded album.
Based on owners impressions and reviews, those 2 couldn't be more different form each other. I think you really may want to figure out what kind of sound signature you want before jumping into customs. When you buy a universal and don't like it, it's very easy to resell most of them for 85% or more of retail. Resale on customs is much, much less. So my 2 cents is to dabble in universals until you know exactly what you want in a custom.
I will recommend to try first universal IEMs with AMPs like Sennheiser IE8(pair well with Nuforce Icon Mobile), JVC FX700(deep reverbing bass, wide soundstage), MTP Gold(rich punchy bass and overall detailed), MTP Copper(detailed yet fun to listen with punchy bass), SM3 V2(very detailed and wide soundstage), Westone 3(offers punchy bass and overall very detailed) and they all shows great results.
I am interested in either the sm3 or one of the monster turbine pros. what is the difference between the copper and gold? Also, what amps would pair well with these, or do they not need amping?
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