[AndroidVageta]

That´s why i have written "designed"... .

I also said a lot more past what you quoted. There are clear examples of "designed and made in China" IEM's that are clearly top-tier sound. Again, my Shockwaves are Chi-fi, born and raised, and best nearly anything I've owned or heard. I have a list above of what I've owned...and sold...and none of it outside one or two come close to the Shockwaves. Where it's designed doesn't really matter...it's WHO designs it and the Chinese have good ears just like the Germans or Swedish or South Koreans or Japanese or Americans, etc.

 

[papa_mia]

I mean if you think they can just stick 8 drivers into a shell that sounds as good, if not better than every other companies who charge much more then what else is there to discuss?
Edit: I brought up the VE8 because they happen to have the same configurations as the CCA C16, which is 8 drivers per side. Or you prefer the KZ ZS10 and the equally impressed, the Andromeda with 5 drivers per side?

 

[tegR]

After buying the so called giant killer 5ba kz as10 everyone was going on about when they came out i was actually seriously disappointed when i heard them. Why would 8 equally cheap drivers sound any better?
Learned from all the chifi crap that i'm more than happy with my lz a4

 

[boblauer]

I kind of get where the question is going so rather than debate or bash I'l say why I choose to spend $$ on CIEM's from a boutique company. Simply stated comparable/better/more stable sound qualities but most importantly to me the support and customer satisfaction I have received from my boutique company of choice. Call me a fan boy or whatever(BTW I'm in my early 60's so hardly a boy maybe fan old fart is better) but I appreciate what it takes to run a world class company and support Empire Ears and pay the boutique price because to me that part of the transaction is worth the cost. I own 2 CIEM's from them and may pick up a third this SoCal CanJam. There's a lot more to a preferred business transaction than just the quantitative aspects. Same reason some people prefer an MBZ over a say Hyundai. The intrinsic satisfaction, perceived to them value and quite often the customer appreciation/satisfaction given. Both are cars both have an engine and wheels and get you places. Possibly one other point would be the ability to customize to your liking with infinite combinations including personal designs. Anyway if someone is happy with a say $200 unit versus a $750 unit similar in specs that's great and so glad for them, same in the other direction. That's the beauty of the life we live in.

 

[FastAndClean]

there is some excellent dynamic driver in ears from china (Kanas Pro,Tanchjim Oxygen), with multi BA and hybrids they are still developing, however i have two multi BA earphones with good quality drivers that are kind of colored and not well thought in the tuning area, i thing eventually they will get there or they already have great multi BA models that are more expensive than my sets
well established brands know how to tune them, they are spending time testing and fine tuning , with the cheap multi BA Chinese sets that is not happening at this moment, the main goal is mass producing with some kind of tuning, usually more bass - better
about the drivers count, Etymotic showed that you can achieve high quality sound with only one BA, so more drivers is not always better

 

[stimuz]

It's ALL in the markup. Like the VE8 dude buddy above keeps mentioning...$2600 for a CIEM...there's no way it cost anywhere near that to actually make.

I mean to be fair, its almost impossible to compete with Chinas prices for niche products, especially when a lot of times they're the ones manufacturing these products and use their knowledge of said manufacturing to enter that market with their own offering.

Theres also the cost of running a business outside of china and the fact that IEMs and headphones that aren't super mainstream aren't selling by the thousands or millions, but more likely by the low hundreds, I can understand. I'll understand, but I won't agree with people try who to justify it for any reason other than that it is what it is

 

[Audiophonicalistic]

China has cheap everything and goes well beyond the iem market. You can get a awesome custom fitted suit for a few hundred vs what you'd pay in the states. I'm gonna buy your iem you mention and see how it really is. Never purchased a Chinese iem but have heard a lot about it.

 

[BananaOoyoo]

That´s it! And i havent heard a worldclass iem designed in China yet.

QDC makes some fantastic IEMs... but then again, the Gemini and Anole VX are both $2000+
Lark Studio is pretty good (LSIV, LSX) and there’s also Unique Melody, though their studs don’t fit my ears. Rhapsodio and Aroma are based in HK.

I haven’t heard any budget Chinese IEMs that compete with the big boys though.

 

[AndroidVageta]

Never purchased a Chinese iem but have heard a lot about it.

C16 or Shockwave 3?

 

[AndroidVageta]

I haven’t heard any budget Chinese IEMs that compete with the big boys though.

Give the Shockwave 3's a shot if you have the cash. Maybe my ears are dumb but I swear they're the best headphone I've ever owned outside the HD800.

 

[Shivas]

I would think that the cost is driven by the choice of the balanced armatures, the tuning of each individual balance armature, and most importantly, the implementation of the crossover. Higher end crossovers involve more than a 3rd order implementation. VE, if I am not wrong here, uses a 4th order crossover. The calculations involved to identify the best components for a complex crossover isn't as easy. And tuning of the BAs themselves require much expertise. For example, Campfire Audio does not use a crossover in the Andromeda, but has engineers who specifically tune the BAs from Sonion. The resulting frequency graphs would be similar to an IEM with a crossover. The cost is more driven by engineering expertise I would say. Currently, some high-end IEMs are now being 3D printed. But, the amount of effort that goes into engineering an IEM from scratch, built by hand, is second to none.

 

[Hanesu]

Interesting questions are being asked in this thread - thanks to its author!

I agree with many here...that driver count does not necessarily go ahead with better sound quality.

But then, on the other hand, what is "it" that is responsible for improvement in sq and is "it" still worth the yearly increasing prices that well known companies charge for their flagships?
"It" are slight changes in materials, housings, sound canals etc. They lead to slight changes in sound. Yes, reasearch has to be done by experimenting with these slight changes ...
but do you really think that materials and development costs have gone up to 800% compared to only 10 years ago?

I highly doubt it! Unfortunately.

We are not talking about small price changes....
Only some years ago, IEMs (and even headphones) that costed about 1000 dollars were considered as very expensive. Now 2000 or 3000 seem to be completely "normal" in our community and prices go up to 8000! That is absolutely crazy if you think about the fact, that the technology itself has almost not changed (compared to computers or smartphones, for example)!

Just think about earphones like the EX1000. As you can read in this forum, in the opinion of many, they are still competetive with actual models (of course depending on taste of the listener) and dynamic drivers are just celebrating their „comeback“. They used to cost about 500!
I am almost certain, if Sony (secretly) puts them into a a newly designed shell and sells them again as "new dynamic driver flagship earphone" for 3000 dollar - in our days even a lot more people would Buy them and write here „they sound equal or better than other flagship phones in this price range“. Just because of that new price tag they would have „flagship status“ again.

I think the only reason why we have these crazy prices now is people accepting them and their strive to own the newest snd greatest. This is somehow natural, but I feel recently it has become a bit out of control. IEM-Companies just try out how far they can go by making prices higher and higher....and people are still buying.

That is why, myself, I almost only buy used stuff in these days. And also consider to try out more ChiFi in future...

 

[BananaOoyoo]

Give the Shockwave 3's a shot if you have the cash. Maybe my ears are dumb but I swear they're the best headphone I've ever owned outside the HD800.

Not sure where I can try out the Shockwave 3. I’m sitting in a store right trying out the King III, Oxygen, and Kanas Pro... and they’re fine I guess? Will be stopping by a different place to try the new Rhapsodio IEMs soon.

 

[Ra97oR]

Out of all the new uber expensive new IEMs, the "relatively modest" Sony IER-Z1R impress me the most in that class. There are clearly engineering effort and great attention to detail put into it.

I also yet to find a CIEM company that rivals the fit and finish from FitEar either. I have heard a few more budget level CIEM while in Hong Kong and none are up to my personal standard with clear colouration to the sound. Sounds is too subjective to call out expensive IEMs to be just the same as the budget ones. but I do not find them to match up to my favourites (note that Sony EX800ST, M9, Z1R, FitEar MH334SR, Periodic Audio Be are not excatly megabucks nowadays)

 

[AndroidVageta]

Sounds is too subjective to call out expensive IEMs to be just the same as the budget ones. but I do not find them to match up to my favourites

I guess that's partially my point. Not saying ALL high-end expensive IEM's aren't worth it...certainly not saying ALL Chi-fi IEM's are worth it. Just that, in my experience, there's certainly NOTHING that equates to "more money = more/better sound". Again, I'm not an idiot, and I know that my experiences with my Shockwave 3 are true. For a 5-driver hybrid Chi-fi IEM they rival or surpass IEM's by MUCH large companies and cost MUCH less than other IEM's.

So yeah, I wouldn't claim that the CCA C16 is the same as the VE8 but is the VE8 really worth it's $2,500 price tag vs. ~$80? Nah, I've never heard the VE8 but can unequivocally say it isn't. Marketing, employee pay, elitism, prestige, etc make it worth that much, not the actual sound and hardware.