[CoryGillmore]

M9 currently appears to be out of stock everywhere in the US, anyone know when Sony will be restocking? Alternatively, any Canadian sources that will price match the US retail price of $1000USD, which is currently ~$1400CAD?

1400 Canadian is the exact same price as $1000 USD according to the current exchange rate.

 

[twiceboss]

M9 is out of stock? The living legend.

 

[twiceboss]

Is there any update on the custom reshelling m9? Wonder how it turns out.

 

[surfgeorge]

I am curious about one thing...
I heard the IER-M9 a little over a year ago in Japan at e-earphones, and really liked it, but considered it to be outside of my budget range.

In the year since then, the M9 popped up here and there in conversations, Toranku seemed to like it, Crinacle rated it well but not exceptional, but I never had the impression that it was getting a lot of attention.

Then, on March 30 @Damz87 posted about the sale on A2A in Australia and I took the opportunity to buy it. Since then I have been reading and following the devleopments around the M9, and I got the impression that it really has attracted a little more attention from the head-fi community. Toranku put it on his list of best IEMs, Crinacle changed the rating from A to the exclusive S tier, and I got the impression that it pops up more in discussions and recommendations.

I am wondering if it's just that I am paying more attention to the M9 or did you also recognize an increase in activity around it?

 

[jibberish]

I am curious about one thing...
I heard the IER-M9 a little over a year ago in Japan at e-earphones, and really liked it, but considered it to be outside of my budget range.

In the year since then, the M9 popped up here and there in conversations, Toranku seemed to like it, Crinacle rated it well but not exceptional, but I never had the impression that it was getting a lot of attention.

Then, on March 30 @Damz87 posted about the sale on A2A in Australia and I took the opportunity to buy it. Since then I have been reading and following the devleopments around the M9, and I got the impression that it really has attracted a little more attention from the head-fi community. Toranku put it on his list of best IEMs, Crinacle changed the rating from A to the exclusive S tier, and I got the impression that it pops up more in discussions and recommendations.

I am wondering if it's just that I am paying more attention to the M9 or did you also recognize an increase in activity around it?

For me, it's "permanent" price change from $1500 to $1000 put it on my radar, and I started looking into it more as an option. I do think that Crinacle's re-rank caused some buzz, I remember seeing people talk about it here and on Discord.

 

[twiceboss]

I am curious about one thing...
I heard the IER-M9 a little over a year ago in Japan at e-earphones, and really liked it, but considered it to be outside of my budget range.

In the year since then, the M9 popped up here and there in conversations, Toranku seemed to like it, Crinacle rated it well but not exceptional, but I never had the impression that it was getting a lot of attention.

Then, on March 30 @Damz87 posted about the sale on A2A in Australia and I took the opportunity to buy it. Since then I have been reading and following the devleopments around the M9, and I got the impression that it really has attracted a little more attention from the head-fi community. Toranku put it on his list of best IEMs, Crinacle changed the rating from A to the exclusive S tier, and I got the impression that it pops up more in discussions and recommendations.

I am wondering if it's just that I am paying more attention to the M9 or did you also recognize an increase in activity around it?

What i see is M9 is the hidden gem. Most likely M9 doesnt leave an extravagant feeling for the first impression. M9 is like growing in your head. The more you listen, the more you appreciate the tuning. It's not easy to find beautiful warm sounding without sacrificing resolution and its clear vocals.

 

[Raketen]

I am wondering if it's just that I am paying more attention to the M9 or did you also recognize an increase in activity around it?

For me, it's "permanent" price change from $1500 to $1000 put it on my radar, and I started looking into it more as an option. I do think that Crinacle's re-rank caused some buzz, I remember seeing people talk about it here and on Discord.

What i see is M9 is the hidden gem. Most likely M9 doesnt leave an extravagant feeling for the first impression. M9 is like growing in your head. The more you listen, the more you appreciate the tuning. It's not easy to find beautiful warm sounding without sacrificing resolution and its clear vocals.

I guess there is that sort of cognitive bias where our own focus on something causes a perception of increased prevalence, but I think interest has genuinely increased over time for those above reasons (my own purchase well after launch was driven by secondhand price + toranku's critique + me being a brainwashed sony fanboy AFAICT)

Sony also seem to trust that their brand does a lot of leg work for them & basically unconcerned with (or at least outside of industry events leaving it to their dealers & distributors) the type of enthusiast marketing that generates those big waves of initial interest & sales in places like head-fi. Being a 'prosumer'-ish IEM with a mellow tuning probably didn't help when they almost immediately after announced the ultra bling IER-Z1R, which is bound to generate more enthusiast interest.

IIRC N3 had kind of a similar trajectory. Low key launch which has been countered over time by word-of-mouth reputation building + IEM-fluencers + price drop putting it on more even footing with major competition (namely Andromeda).

 

[twiceboss]

I guess there is that sort of cognitive bias where our own focus on something causes a perception of increased prevalence, but I think interest has genuinely increased over time for those above reasons (my own purchase well after launch was driven by secondhand price + toranku's critique + me being a brainwashed sony fanboy AFAICT)

Sony also seem to trust that their brand does a lot of leg work for them & basically unconcerned with (or at least outside of industry events leaving it to their dealers & distributors) the type of enthusiast marketing that generates those big waves of initial interest & sales in places like head-fi. Being a 'prosumer'-ish IEM with a mellow tuning probably didn't help when they almost immediately after announced the ultra bling IER-Z1R, which is bound to generate more enthusiast interest.

IIRC N3 had kind of a similar trajectory. Low key launch which has been countered over time by word-of-mouth reputation building + IEM-fluencers + price drop putting it on more even footing with major competition (namely Andromeda).

It's all depend on preference. It was a damn long journey for me to find an iem that can complement my hd800 desktop. U can see my profile, how many totls i owned before i stop by with m9. Not saying that m9 is perfect because there are still departments that needed to be improved such as DD bass impact. However, this is the closest to perfect to my ears that i can handle.

 

[Raketen]

It's all depend on preference. It was a damn long journey for me to find an iem that can complement my hd800 desktop. U can see my profile, how many totls i owned before i stop by with m9. Not saying that m9 is perfect because there are still departments that needed to be improved such as DD bass impact. However, this is the closest to perfect to my ears that i can handle.

It's the Goldilocks problem- we have to try the scalding hot porridge and the congealed cold porridge before we can appreciate the lukewarm porridge, but at the beginning almost nobody is thinking "gosh, I would really like a bowl of lukewarm porridge" so we have to learn the hard way. I still often think I would like my porridge a little bit hotter but whenever I try a hotter porridge it turns out to be made from inferior oats.

 

[dazzerfong]

It's all depend on preference. It was a damn long journey for me to find an iem that can complement my hd800 desktop. U can see my profile, how many totls i owned before i stop by with m9. Not saying that m9 is perfect because there are still departments that needed to be improved such as DD bass impact. However, this is the closest to perfect to my ears that i can handle.

Amen. Pretty hard to go above the M9. If you're into bass, give the U12t a try: that's pretty much the only area I can think of where the U12t easily beats the M9. Everything else is a bit of a mixup.

I used to like hybrids, but felt that most of the ones on the market lose that bit of coherency when it swaps over from DD to BA. Like something's not quite right in the transition.

 

[twiceboss]

Amen. Pretty hard to go above the M9. If you're into bass, give the U12t a try: that's pretty much the only area I can think of where the U12t easily beats the M9. Everything else is a bit of a mixup.

I used to like hybrids, but felt that most of the ones on the market lose that bit of coherency when it swaps over from DD to BA. Like something's not quite right in the transition.

Iirc kse1200 has better lows than M9 but timbre is bad. Also VX has better subbass than M9 but literally zero soul. Solaris is great across the freq but that's all, same problem with VX, no soul.

Edit: to answer to your question, it's not about liking bass, it's about the feel of bass. The amount of bass is fine, but the feel isn't there because of the BA. No matter how great BA bass, BA bass doesn't do any justice to the "impact", the "air".

 

[anarch1st]

Is $1000 USD the real MSRP now in NA? Sony AU increased M9 MSRP to $1818 (10% GST makes it $2000 AUD) from $1544 ($1699 AUD with GST) which is about $1200 USD. That's an 18% change which is well beyond the AUD/USD FX changes. Z1R also went up by 20% while M7 was only 11% change.

 

[dazzerfong]

Iirc kse1200 has better lows than M9 but timbre is bad. Also VX has better subbass than M9 but literally zero soul. Solaris is great across the freq but that's all, same problem with VX, no soul.

Edit: to answer to your question, it's not about liking bass, it's about the feel of bass. The amount of bass is fine, but the feel isn't there because of the BA. No matter how great BA bass, BA bass doesn't do any justice to the "impact", the "air".

I've heard of BA IEMs that have a non-depressed sub-bass. It's the sub-bass that's really the nail in the coffin for a lot of BA IEMs which fail to convey its 'air'. A vented design helps in creating that bass sensation - that's something BA doesn't need strictly, but benefits from. I reckon that's where the stereotype of 'BA bass' originated from.

Felt that Solaris had a depressed upper mid, which screws with female vocals. Just like how IER-Z1R has a depressed lower mid, which screws with male vocals.

Is $1000 USD the real MSRP now? Sony AU increased M9 MSRP to $1818 (10% GST makes it $2000 AUD) from $1544 ($1699 AUD with GST) which is about $1200 USD. That's an 18% change which is well beyond the AUD/USD FX changes.

Minidisc has it for $1,700, but I feel like that's legacy pricing before new stock moves in.

 

[jibberish]

Is $1000 USD the real MSRP now in NA? Sony AU increased M9 MSRP to $1818 (10% GST makes it $2000 AUD) from $1544 ($1699 AUD with GST) which is about $1200 USD. That's an 18% change which is well beyond the AUD/USD FX changes. Z1R also went up by 20% while M7 was only 11% change.

It has been available for $1k from multiple retailers in the US for over 5 months now.

 

[quan72io]

Iirc kse1200 has better lows than M9 but timbre is bad. Also VX has better subbass than M9 but literally zero soul. Solaris is great across the freq but that's all, same problem with VX, no soul.

Edit: to answer to your question, it's not about liking bass, it's about the feel of bass. The amount of bass is fine, but the feel isn't there because of the BA. No matter how great BA bass, BA bass doesn't do any justice to the "impact", the "air".

Can you specify more about 'your feel of bass' and 'air"? Also what characteristics DD has that BA bass cannot stack up to? Let's say M9 bass vs Z1R bass, anything apart from the rumble and depth of the Z1R?