[earIEMusik]

Recently i have been looking into custom IEM's, specifically the UM Merlin. Now to fund this purchase i will have to sell my Denon AH-D7000's and accompanying Matrix M-Stage/Cube. 
 
I will then be using the Merlin as my home and portable rig.
 
My question, what will i miss from my D7000's? 
 
What does this full size can offer over the cutoms, and vice versa.
 
Talk me into/out of this!
 
Thanks!

 

[zalbard]

They are discontinued, keep that in mind. Hard to get them back if you do miss them.

 

[earIEMusik]

Interesting...

Think they will then increase in resell value? Or depreciate because of new models?

Thanks,

Nate

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Recently i have been looking into custom IEM's, specifically the UM Merlin. Now to fund this purchase i will have to sell my Denon AH-D7000's and accompanying Matrix M-Stage/Cube. 
 
I will then be using the Merlin as my home and portable rig.
 
My question, what will i miss from my D7000's? 
 
What does this full size can offer over the cutoms, and vice versa.
 
Talk me into/out of this!
 
Thanks!

 
Heya,
 
I would say you will miss:
 

1. Comfort (unless you already wear IEM's full time, having something in your ear is not always a good thing)
2. Style (wood is gorgeous)
3. Resale appeal
4. Potentially the signature sound

 
I can't stress enough that if you do not already wear IEM's full time for audio, switching to them by selling a flagship could be a big mistake. You may like them at first, but then as the honeymoon phase wears off, you may find that they're either not comfortable, or cause you problems you didn't anticipate (like reactions your ears may have or new sensitivities you didn't know you were going to have). Then a few months later when you realize you want to go back to full-size headphones, you won't be able to get the D7000 back likely. The D7000 used to be a solid $600 used (near new). But I'm sure you'll see it climb towards the $800+ mark, if not higher. The new D7100 is here and priced at the $1k mark, but it has a different sound, and very different style to it, the D7000 will continue to have appeal and demand, so it's re-sale value will do nothing but increase at this point. All the discontinued Denons are selling for significantly more than they used to now that they're discontinued; testament that they were excellent and discontinuing them in favor of this urban-style junk did nothing for their marketing to the hi-fi audience and everything to do with market shares. But that's another story.
 
I would keep the Denons. Trial the IEM's a while. If you for sure finally get to the point where you can wear them full time and like them more than the Denons, and you feel like selling the Denons, then sell them maybe and re-coupe some capital. But I would not sell the Denons and then get IEM's and then see if you like them. Get the IEM's first. Sell Denons later, if you get to that.
 
Very best,

 

[earIEMusik]

MalVeauX,

Thank you very much for the detailed and incredibly informative response!

I appreciate it as your answer will truly help with my decision.

This is just what I was looking for!

Thanks again!

Nate