[Pietrone]

Background
I come from the 1More Triple Driver, which I enjoyed even though they were slightly relaxed and not amazing. Anyway they did a fine job. When the cable broke I hate I could not replace it. That is why I am not buying those iems again, I am looking for replaceable cables.

Now I've got TinHifi P1, which is notoriously power hungry and I ended up with a 2.5mm balanced cable. Other than that I am lacking body due to bass and sub-bass lacking. Yes, I am not listening anymore one of my main listenings: metal and djent.

Problem
Well, I am missing an IEMs to be used while commuting, for virtual meeting, to be attached to the phone or tablet and still enjoy some music through it or through my cyrrus soundkey.

What I am looking for and asking you to advise me on:

• replaceable cable
• comfortable for long hours
• easy to drive for commuting
• microphone (I know I can add it if the cable can be replaced)
• Fun and full sound, energetic but on the warmer side
• I want bass but not mud (and not trash like the fiio f9)
• value

I plant to abuse this earphones so I do not want to spend too much. Even though, I will look for the best value for money. I just want to enjoy my music again, while being able to receive a call while in train.

I am in europe, so my buying is limited to what is available here.

What do you suggest me to buy? Thanks in advance

 

[Congregator]

Hi!

Based on your requests, I can recommend the following brands:
1. Shure. 535 and 846 really good stuff
2. Ultimate Ears, 64 Audio, Jerry Harvey. Yes, there are professional brands, but sound of they models created first for artist's emotional
3. Russians-based brands MyST (best in-ear isodynamic I ever heard, much better than 64 Audio for me) or System Elements (professional brand like Ultimate Ears, but with sweety sound and you can choose any connector for headphones),

 

[earmonger]

Hi!

Based on your requests, I can recommend the following brands:
1. Shure. 535 and 846 really good stuff
2. Ultimate Ears, 64 Audio, Jerry Harvey. Yes, there are professional brands, but sound of they models created first for artist's emotional
3. Russians-based brands MyST (best in-ear isodynamic I ever heard, much better than 64 Audio for me) or System Elements (professional brand like Ultimate Ears, but with sweety sound and you can choose any connector for headphones),

None of those are cheap knock-around IEMs for commuting. Pietrone, are you willing to order from AliExpress and wait for slow shipping?

 

[Pietrone]

None of those are cheap knock-around IEMs for commuting. Pietrone, are you willing to order from AliExpress and wait for slow shipping?

Yes, if that is the only solution. I am no aware of comfy chi fi iems though. Tell me sir, what were you thinking about?

 

[earmonger]

OK, I know you wanted detachable cables, but how about hard-wired but ultra-cheap, good-sounding, very tiny (comfortable, disappears in your ear) with serious bass? For under $10.

You can find a lot about the Sony MH750 with a Head-Fi search.

See if this seller (in China) sends to Italy. Most MH750s are counterfeit but Head-Fi people have said this seller has the real ones.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/304069747002

I got real MH750 from an Ebay seller named spassear, who appears and disappears; that seller might also be a source for you.

Comfort is different for everyone, unfortunately. One inexpensive Chi-Fi that worked for me is QKZ VK4. I had to try a lot of tips to get them to fit firmly enough for bass. But once I got large, soft, silicones that worked, these ugly things are surprisingly good for under $15. . .

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003801473736.html

If you look in the Chi-Fi or Discovery threads there are many budget alternatives. Lots of recommendations for various Moondrop, KZ and CCA models.

I got the QKZ V4 for my knock-around pair, and the Geek Wold GK10 for my other budget experiment; both of them really need the right tips, but I'm happy with both of them. (The GK10 are very warm and a little pushy on the bass; better with EQ.)

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/qkz-vk4-iem.24598/reviews

I haven't tried other budget stuff, though all the Head-Fi love makes things like the Moondrop Aria and Heart Mirror sound very tempting.

My feeling is you don't need ultra-hi-fi for commuting--you just need something with a good seal to shut out noise, and then satisfactory sound. So you should be able to find a budget pair that does the job. With any luck you might even find Chi-Fi sellers on European Amazon so you won't have to wait so long.

 

[kadinh]

cca cra

$20

taking the budget audio world by storm right now

 

[PopZeus]

Not sure what your budget is but Moondrop Aria is my go-to recommendation. There are cheaper options that compare favorably to the Aria but I haven't heard them first hand. I think at this point, 2-pin cables w/mics are fairly common so tou shouldn't have too much of a problem finding one to fit the Moondrops.

 

[Pietrone]

ok guys, thank you all for your leads.
I am realizing something though, maybe my research has to fail because I was framing it wrong. I looked at the option I have here in europe, stuff like final audio, sennheiser, shure, klipsch etc., excluding chi-fi iems like Aria only because of comfort, and I could not fine anything that was it.

I gave it some more thought, concluding that now that I am accustomed to the tinaudio P1 I am afraid of not being satisfied by sub 100 earphones. What I am missing from P1 is a good bass capable of acting as a "coat" when I listen to music and to reproduce crunchy low-tuned distorted guitars, and something easy to drive off a phone if needed for a call. Hence, I am concluding two thing:

• I need to spend more: please help me understand how much more
• I will probably just buy a mic cable and replace the stock one

So, my research now has new things I am looking for:

• the iem must be easy to drive
• must be comfortable to wear (I know it is personal but some earphones are generally less comfortable than others, I would avoid that)
• The IEM should be able to provide crunchy guitar tones from distorted low-tuned guitars (i love djent) without sacrificing the rest

I do not need the IEM to shine in everything, I just want to have good mids and treble, with a more than good bass. For example, the shozy from 1.1 delivered an outstanding bass, but heavily failed on other compartment, especially highs.
The other quality I care of, ranked are:

1. Good crunchyness to distorted bass without sacrificing the rest
2. Good separation ( I do listen a lot of prog)
3. Imaging

Now, the question is also how much do I need to spend, and what is worth it.
For example, is worth to spend 220 for the satsuma? In the CA realm, for example, should I look at satsuma and should it be enough to satisfy me or that ain't comparable to the P1? Should I look for Holocene or Mammoth?
I never tried other good IEMS than P1, so I do not know what range I am looking for or anything.
Please help

I also do not know if I should reframe this post, I think I am chaning the title. Anyway please help me with my research and to understand how things on the market compare to each other and what satisfy best my needs best.

Thank you all for your time and patience.

 

[cerbatillo]

ok guys, thank you all for your leads.
I am realizing something though, maybe my research has to fail because I was framing it wrong. I looked at the option I have here in europe, stuff like final audio, sennheiser, shure, klipsch etc., excluding chi-fi iems like Aria only because of comfort, and I could not fine anything that was it.

I gave it some more thought, concluding that now that I am accustomed to the tinaudio P1 I am afraid of not being satisfied by sub 100 earphones. What I am missing from P1 is a good bass capable of acting as a "coat" when I listen to music and to reproduce crunchy low-tuned distorted guitars, and something easy to drive off a phone if needed for a call. Hence, I am concluding two thing:

• I need to spend more: please help me understand how much more
• I will probably just buy a mic cable and replace the stock one

So, my research now has new things I am looking for:

• the iem must be easy to drive
• must be comfortable to wear (I know it is personal but some earphones are generally less comfortable than others, I would avoid that)
• The IEM should be able to provide crunchy guitar tones from distorted low-tuned guitars (i love djent) without sacrificing the rest

I do not need the IEM to shine in everything, I just want to have good mids and treble, with a more than good bass. For example, the shozy from 1.1 delivered an outstanding bass, but heavily failed on other compartment, especially highs.
The other quality I care of, ranked are:

1. Good crunchyness to distorted bass without sacrificing the rest
2. Good separation ( I do listen a lot of prog)
3. Imaging

Now, the question is also how much do I need to spend, and what is worth it.
For example, is worth to spend 220 for the satsuma? In the CA realm, for example, should I look at satsuma and should it be enough to satisfy me or that ain't comparable to the P1? Should I look for Holocene or Mammoth?
I never tried other good IEMS than P1, so I do not know what range I am looking for or anything.
Please help

I also do not know if I should reframe this post, I think I am chaning the title. Anyway please help me with my research and to understand how things on the market compare to each other and what satisfy best my needs best.

Thank you all for your time and patience.

I am in a similar situation, and I also share that djent point, so after all this time, what would be your recs or advice ?

 

[Pietrone]

I am in a similar situation, and I also share that djent point, so after all this time, what would be your recs or advice ?

Hi, interesting question.

I will quote a friend on this. Get something with good technicalities then tweak the tuning to your liking and that should work. I will make an example, I had the P1 tinhifi for a while, and they were nice but just not satisfying. I prefer more bass and impact and grit (crunch). Then we the qudelix I transofred those IEMs through EQ and now they are absolutely perfect for metal and DJENT in terms of satisfaction. Then I got the famous ANDRO2020. That set is magic. However, the tuning was not my favourite, not for djent at least, though for me it was working very well with Between the buried and me for example (well, yes, they need a lot of separation ). Would I reccomend the Andro? Asolutely generally speaking, because they are a majestic piece of equipment, but not necessarily their stock tuning, not for Dkent at least, according to my taste.
Then it happened that my ear started ringing due to my jaw. I had to stop wearing the Andro and IEMs in general. I went to the audologist, he told me it was fine to wear headphones, because they do not create issues to the ear canal and jaw. I was using the HD660s in parallel with the andros by the way, and they absolutely work well with Djent for me! However, meanwhile I stop listening to anything due the ringing and the audologist tells me my earing is fine and to avoid IEMS, I have access only to cheap car audio and my old audiotechnica m40x. Guess what, after that stop anything was so good to hear from! However, there was another consideration to this, the tuning of the m40x I had not listened for a while, and that enhanced bass compared to Andros, P1 and hd660s, was an absolute pleasure, especially with djent! those guitars were satisfying.

So what is my point? My point is that technicality is good and the more the merrier, but the pleasure of music comes from music, and tuning is probably subjective, but it is through that the the music delivers and gets pleasent. My conclusions is that musicality is key, and it depends on many factors. the HD660s generally speaking sounds good with any genres and album. And even there, I found that some album plays better on different equipment, with different stock tuning. Even on the HD660s I have an EQ profile on the qudelix which adds energy and brightness if I am in the mood for that.

However, I am enjoying a lot my metalcore and djent on hd660s, UE roll speaker or the m40x at times and it is absolutely fantastic! And this is just the gear I have. Other than this I have tried also the P1 (lacking bass, but again, can be very nice with right EQ; and the cadenza).

My general conclusion is that getting back to musicality (the period without listening at all helped) is key to enjoyment, and that to sacrifice bass to analyse can take away too much! The hd660s are not bassy at all, but still extremely musical and play wonderfully with heavy genres. and yes, right EQ can open them up and take the "veil" again


My suggestion would be to find something known to have decent tech and musicality, that can reasonably play well with EQ (if you know an EQ signature you enjoy, and buy something with completely opposity EQ, than probably you would stretch the physical limits of the drivers), then with some EQ you can find your sweetspot.

My favourite at the moment is absolutely the HD660s among everything I have and had for djent (yes, for djent for me the HD660s are more satisfying than the andros [stock tuning comparison]), both of them with stock tuning.


I wish I had tried bassier good IEMs to understand if they can bring what I was missing in the tuning from the Andros for example. Hope my 2cents helps

 

[cerbatillo]

Hi, interesting question.

I will quote a friend on this. Get something with good technicalities then tweak the tuning to your liking and that should work. I will make an example, I had the P1 tinhifi for a while, and they were nice but just not satisfying. I prefer more bass and impact and grit (crunch). Then we the qudelix I transofred those IEMs through EQ and now they are absolutely perfect for metal and DJENT in terms of satisfaction. Then I got the famous ANDRO2020. That set is magic. However, the tuning was not my favourite, not for djent at least, though for me it was working very well with Between the buried and me for example (well, yes, they need a lot of separation ). Would I reccomend the Andro? Asolutely generally speaking, because they are a majestic piece of equipment, but not necessarily their stock tuning, not for Dkent at least, according to my taste.
Then it happened that my ear started ringing due to my jaw. I had to stop wearing the Andro and IEMs in general. I went to the audologist, he told me it was fine to wear headphones, because they do not create issues to the ear canal and jaw. I was using the HD660s in parallel with the andros by the way, and they absolutely work well with Djent for me! However, meanwhile I stop listening to anything due the ringing and the audologist tells me my earing is fine and to avoid IEMS, I have access only to cheap car audio and my old audiotechnica m40x. Guess what, after that stop anything was so good to hear from! However, there was another consideration to this, the tuning of the m40x I had not listened for a while, and that enhanced bass compared to Andros, P1 and hd660s, was an absolute pleasure, especially with djent! those guitars were satisfying.

So what is my point? My point is that technicality is good and the more the merrier, but the pleasure of music comes from music, and tuning is probably subjective, but it is through that the the music delivers and gets pleasent. My conclusions is that musicality is key, and it depends on many factors. the HD660s generally speaking sounds good with any genres and album. And even there, I found that some album plays better on different equipment, with different stock tuning. Even on the HD660s I have an EQ profile on the qudelix which adds energy and brightness if I am in the mood for that.

However, I am enjoying a lot my metalcore and djent on hd660s, UE roll speaker or the m40x at times and it is absolutely fantastic! And this is just the gear I have. Other than this I have tried also the P1 (lacking bass, but again, can be very nice with right EQ; and the cadenza).

My general conclusion is that getting back to musicality (the period without listening at all helped) is key to enjoyment, and that to sacrifice bass to analyse can take away too much! The hd660s are not bassy at all, but still extremely musical and play wonderfully with heavy genres. and yes, right EQ can open them up and take the "veil" again


My suggestion would be to find something known to have decent tech and musicality, that can reasonably play well with EQ (if you know an EQ signature you enjoy, and buy something with completely opposity EQ, than probably you would stretch the physical limits of the drivers), then with some EQ you can find your sweetspot.

My favourite at the moment is absolutely the HD660s among everything I have and had for djent (yes, for djent for me the HD660s are more satisfying than the andros [stock tuning comparison]), both of them with stock tuning.


I wish I had tried bassier good IEMs to understand if they can bring what I was missing in the tuning from the Andros for example. Hope my 2cents helps

Thanks for the detail in the answers, yeah man that eternal fight some basshead we have between fun and analytic, maybe its a mission imposible thing but I still have hope, I will try to EQ. About the sets... its a shame what happened to you with iems but I still prefer them over headphones, lately I have been looking forwards to the mangird xenns up cause it seems to fit that border line of fun and detail, some people say bass doesnt bleeds to the mids a all and others say that yes they do. And this is particularly important in djent that plays in that freqs. But I suppose they will be fine bc I have the legato which really bleeds the mids although is fun but I miss that refined sound of the raptgo, I wish the mangird or any other iem can fill both.

 

[Rackhour]

You mentioned Final Audio. My current favorite basshead IEM at the moment is the Final Audio E4000. This is mostly subjective, but I think they can hit your points.

- easy to drive: I just came home minutes ago while wearing my E4000, which was plugged to an Apple Lightning dongle connected to my iPhone. This is probably going to be the most objective part of my post.
- price: google says this goes for EUR130 brand new.
- comfort: I would argue that Final makes some of the softest, most comfortable cables. There is (edit) quite a bit of microphonics if you let the cable down`without fastening them to your chin, but this is almost eliminated completely if you run the cable over the top of your ears, and fasten them to your chin. The stock silicone tips are also very soft. And the buds are bullet shaped, so you have more flexibility as to how you insert them.
- sound: by far the most subjective. Off the top of my head, the Shure SE215 is the E4000’s closest competitor in terms of price and sound signature. But the E4000’s highs sound clearer than the Shure’s.

It’s getting late over here, so I can’t sample Djent; I’ve been on an EDM wave right now.

 

[Pietrone]

Hi, interesting question.

I will quote a friend on this. Get something with good technicalities then tweak the tuning to your liking and that should work. I will make an example, I had the P1 tinhifi for a while, and they were nice but just not satisfying. I prefer more bass and impact and grit (crunch). Then we the qudelix I transofred those IEMs through EQ and now they are absolutely perfect for metal and DJENT in terms of satisfaction. Then I got the famous ANDRO2020. That set is magic. However, the tuning was not my favourite, not for djent at least, though for me it was working very well with Between the buried and me for example (well, yes, they need a lot of separation ). Would I reccomend the Andro? Asolutely generally speaking, because they are a majestic piece of equipment, but not necessarily their stock tuning, not for Dkent at least, according to my taste.
Then it happened that my ear started ringing due to my jaw. I had to stop wearing the Andro and IEMs in general. I went to the audologist, he told me it was fine to wear headphones, because they do not create issues to the ear canal and jaw. I was using the HD660s in parallel with the andros by the way, and they absolutely work well with Djent for me! However, meanwhile I stop listening to anything due the ringing and the audologist tells me my earing is fine and to avoid IEMS, I have access only to cheap car audio and my old audiotechnica m40x. Guess what, after that stop anything was so good to hear from! However, there was another consideration to this, the tuning of the m40x I had not listened for a while, and that enhanced bass compared to Andros, P1 and hd660s, was an absolute pleasure, especially with djent! those guitars were satisfying.

So what is my point? My point is that technicality is good and the more the merrier, but the pleasure of music comes from music, and tuning is probably subjective, but it is through that the the music delivers and gets pleasent. My conclusions is that musicality is key, and it depends on many factors. the HD660s generally speaking sounds good with any genres and album. And even there, I found that some album plays better on different equipment, with different stock tuning. Even on the HD660s I have an EQ profile on the qudelix which adds energy and brightness if I am in the mood for that.

However, I am enjoying a lot my metalcore and djent on hd660s, UE roll speaker or the m40x at times and it is absolutely fantastic! And this is just the gear I have. Other than this I have tried also the P1 (lacking bass, but again, can be very nice with right EQ; and the cadenza).

My general conclusion is that getting back to musicality (the period without listening at all helped) is key to enjoyment, and that to sacrifice bass to analyse can take away too much! The hd660s are not bassy at all, but still extremely musical and play wonderfully with heavy genres. and yes, right EQ can open them up and take the "veil" again


My suggestion would be to find something known to have decent tech and musicality, that can reasonably play well with EQ (if you know an EQ signature you enjoy, and buy something with completely opposity EQ, than probably you would stretch the physical limits of the drivers), then with some EQ you can find your sweetspot.

My favourite at the moment is absolutely the HD660s among everything I have and had for djent (yes, for djent for me the HD660s are more satisfying than the andros [stock tuning comparison]), both of them with stock tuning.


I wish I had tried bassier good IEMs to understand if they can bring what I was missing in the tuning from the Andros for example. Hope my

PPerson

Thanks for the detail in the answers, yeah man that eternal fight some basshead we have between fun and analytic, maybe its a mission imposible thing but I still have hope, I will try to EQ. About the sets... its a shame what happened to you with iems but I still prefer them over headphones, lately I have been looking forwards to the mangird xenns up cause it seems to fit that border line of fun and detail, some people say bass doesnt bleeds to the mids a all and others say that yes they do. And this is particularly important in djent that plays in that freqs. But I suppose they will be fine bc I have the legato which really bleeds the mids although is fun but I miss that refined sound of the raptgo, I wish the mangird or any other iem can fi

You mentioned Final Audio. My current favorite basshead IEM at the moment is the Final Audio E4000. This is mostly subjective, but I think they can hit your points.

- easy to drive: I just came home minutes ago while wearing my E4000, which was plugged to an Apple Lightning dongle connected to my iPhone. This is probably going to be the most objective part of my post.
- price: google says this goes for EUR130 brand new.
- comfort: I would argue that Final makes some of the softest, most comfortable cables. There is a little bit of microphonics if you let the cable down, but this is almost eliminated completely if you run the cable over the top of your ears. The stock silicone tips are also very soft. And the buds are bullet shaped, so you have more flexibility as to how you insert them.
- sound: by far the most subjective. Off the top of my head, the Shure SE215 is the E4000’s closest competitor in terms of price and sound signature. But the E4000’s highs sound clearer than the Shure’s.

It’s getting late over here, so I can’t sample Djent; I’ve been on an EMD wave right now.

OT. Love some relaxing djent at night. Latest metalcore album I relaxed has bene Fatalism, recently is the latest from Frostbitt

 

[Rackhour]

Love some relaxing djent at night. Latest metalcore album I relaxed has bene Fatalism, recently is the latest from Frostbitt

It's morning where I am right now, and your reply reminded me to look up some djent. I listened to the first two songs from this YouTube video: - no idea if this is "djent" or not, but thanks for introducing a new genre/subgenre/whatever!

I listened with both my E4000 and the Final Audio A5000, as these two have very, very contrasting sound signatures.

Overall, with the E4000, the low end almost sounds like it's vibrating, for lack of a better term. Like a low rumble throughout the songs. Switching over to the A5000, that rumble is gone, and the bass line feels more recessed. Less rumbling overall. For the second song, Ouroboros, I think this has that crunchy distorted guitar you're talking about.

I *think* you might like the E4000, but you and I have very different ears.