[blackwave]

After much reading and touring my city listening to different full-sized headphones I ended up with a pair of Grado SR225's to play directly off my Ipod classic.

I fell in love with the clarity of the Grado's and for unamped full-sized headphones they beat the pants off anything else I listened to. After using them for about a month and a half I've realized that I really need something more portable. Also, I think I'm really missing out on the potential of these headphones by not amping them.

Sooo.. basically I'd like to find a nice IEM in the same price range the Grado's were (~$175-200ish) that would sound solid straight from an Ipod. Bass isn't a huge deal as long as the sound doesn't fall apart when it hits. Clarity is my weakness. I do like a nice full sound though.

I listen to a variety but mostly alternative rock with some jazz, classic rock, and occassional electronic sort of stuff (LCD Soundsystem, etc.) Some examples are Arcade Fire, Jeff Buckley, Modest Mouse, Tom Waits, Radiohead, Raconteurs, and Miles Davis.

Thanks for the advice! I'm a little overwhelmed at the choices!

 

[crewchief]

I too love my 225's and just recently got back into iem's with a pair of 530's. Now obviously the 530 is out of your price range that you quoted, but the Shure sound is right up my alley as far as the ease of driving straight out of my iTouch and the shure's have been known for their mid's like the grado's. I would suggest looking into the se310 or even some good web deals on the 420's. I know that there was a Best Buy here in Washington that were blowing out the 420's that they had in stock for $199 as they said that they were not going to directly stock them anymore. You might want to call your local BB and see if they are doing the same thing. Also on a side note I have many of the same musical tastes as you.

 

[r@mside]

I've never heard Grados. From the way they get described here, I always imagine them sounding close to the Denon C751.

 

[Bilavideo]

I love the Grados. I have a Grado collection of my own (iGrados, SR60s, SR80s, SR325i, RS1, GS1000). I love the clarity and detail. I put doughnut pads on an SR60 and took the back off (forcing me to superglue the headphone band to the bads) and was blown away by the clarity and controlled bass coming straight off the driver. I can't say enough.

Fortunately, you've become interested in IEMs at a very exciting time. Having checked into earphone market earlier on, when it was full of cheapo dynamic drivers from the very bottom of the junkpile, I was tempted to give up on them for life. But this is a very exciting time. I came back to discover an assortment of balanced armatures of surprising quality. As the state of the art (and marketplace) has moved to multi-drivers (with triplets scoring the biggest hits), you can buy single- and dual-armature driver phones for a lot less.

My personal favorites are the Westone UM3X but there's also the Westone 3, the Triple Fi 10, the SE530 and the Ety's. If you want to get a great single driver for a song, buy the Audeo PFE's directly from Phonak for $139. Phonak is a French company that makes hearing aids. The PFEs are all they sell. This is a phone that comes with a choice of two filters - grey and black. The grey filters will give you sparkly highs and rich mids. The black filters will temper the top end to give you richer bass. I like the PFEs with the blacks. The output is a little lower, so you have to crank up the volume a little higher, but it's worth it.

 

[parkscorner]

I've your same set of Grados. I needed a set of in ears for playing at musical venues thru personal monitor mixers from Hear Technologies.

I went with the Ultimate Ears 4 Pro—$400 plus the cost of making a mold.

I'd say the UE 4 Pro's are 70% of the fidelity of the Grados. Using the EQ on iTunes judiciously, they jump up to 85%.

Hope this helps.

 

[blackwave]

Thanks for the replies! I was reading about those Phonak ones earlier and the sound pretty good considering the price. I've also considered the leap to the Senn IE8's, but only if I could find them used.

You've given me some other good leads but hopefully I won't spend toooo much time reading about them on the company's dime

I'm sure I'll return with more questions.

 

[Dobber65]

blackwave, I found that my Turbines sounded the closest to my Grados out of all the IEMs I have and have tried. The Turbines capture the distorted electric guitars that is Grado's hallmark, while also having great bass and very good mids and treble (and I am not a basshead). Plus they are in the $100-$150 range depending on online store. They may give you a great lower-priced option as you learn about the different IEM sound signatures and what you prefer.

BTW, where are you located in KC? I'm over the border in OP.

 

[blackwave]

Thanks for the tip, Dobber. I'll definitely check them out.

I recently moved up north to Liberty (gag.) I moved from OP and was downtown before that. Wow, I get around lately! I bought the Grado's from Primus Audio Pleasure downtown by the way. Know of any other good shops around?