[ozarkcdn]

I love my he400's - open back / planar. Smooth open top end and not hissy.... would be nice to have something more portable if possible. The only earbuds I have are the 1more triple driver, and they aren't my thing at all. I actually prefer the sound from my liberty 2 pro wireless earbuds to those. If it matters, the L2P are a hybrid ba/dd. I definitely like a more open and expansive presentation & tight bottom end. I'm a jazz head. Are there some IEM's that I should research? My budget would be around $200usd ish

 

[IEMusic]

I love my he400's - open back / planar. Smooth open top end and not hissy.... would be nice to have something more portable if possible. The only earbuds I have are the 1more triple driver, and they aren't my thing at all. I actually prefer the sound from my liberty 2 pro wireless earbuds to those. If it matters, the L2P are a hybrid ba/dd. I definitely like a more open and expansive presentation & tight bottom end. I'm a jazz head. Are there some IEM's that I should research? My budget would be around $200usd ish

I you can tolerate prominent upper midrange frequencies, I can easily recommend the NF Audio NM2+. You can find it for a great deal right now, for 11/11, but that doesn’t give you time to research it. You could also look for a good deal on the Audeze iSine 10, as it is actually an open back “IEM”, but it provides no isolation. The caveat is you really need the Cipher cable to optimize the sound, and it only comes with an Apple Lightning plug.

 

[baskingshark]

There are a few open back IEMs I own, they generally give a better soundstage than closed backed ones, but at the expense of isolation. They do sound close to mini open backed headphones:

1) Toneking Ninetails - has front/rear tuning filters to give a total of 9 tuning configurations. Very versatile as such, can be V shaped to neutralish to basshead. Great timbre, not the best in technicalities too.
2) Final Audio E3000 - bullet shaped mild V shaped set. Very smooth, non fatiguing. Non detachable cable. One of the best imaging and soundstages at the sub $50 USD region. Midbass may be too bloated/slow for some, with darkish treble, but very good for long listening sessions. Power hungry, needs amping to scale.
3) Acoustic Effect TRY-01 - this is a japanese niche brand, non detachable 3.5 mm single ended, single BA. I think it is $150 USD, neutralish. Very good timbre for a pure BA set, smooth and coherent, very good details, imaging and instrument separation. Good for vocals. It has a lack of subbass though, due to the single BA limitation. Quite good isolation for a bullet type shell.


One other option is to use earbuds, they are very close to open backed headphones with better soundstage than IEMs, though they lack in isolation and subbass in general. If u are interested in earbuds, here's a good thread to ask more: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/