The HE1000SE of the IEM world is . . .

[seacard]

I've always been a regular headphone person and putting something in my ears just didn't appeal. But if I could find something like an HE1000SE in IEM format, that would help me in quite a few situations.

I've been here for 20 years and owned almost everything, until recently, the HD800S and the Sennheiser HE60/HE90 were my favorites. Then I discovered Hifiman and the HE1000SE. It is now my favorite headphone -- over the Susvara, over the HE90, over the Utopia, etc.

I know lots of people find it bright, but it sounds extremely clear to me, almost electrostatic, but with some heft (unlike the Shangri-la Jr, which is in my top 5 as well).

So, what is the HE1000SE of the IEM world?

(Also, I listen to mostly classical -- orchestral, chamber, lots of piano music, etc. If that matters.)

 

[KinGensai]

I'm going to try to parse what you're saying here.

From what I can find on the HE1000SE, it seems to be tuned to a modified version of the Diffuse Field target response curve, looks like a tamed gain region response and a slight bolstering of the sub bass response. The upper treble response also seems to be enhanced, which probably explains why people perceive it as a bright set.

That's easy enough to understand, but what is going to be more challenging is what you are actually hearing out of the HE1000SE vs what the graphs I could find recorded. If you are talking about technical performance, plenty of IEMs in the market can match it in nonlinear distortion measurements. The problem is when you want to get soundstage, IEMs ignore too many localization cues to properly replicate that without a binaural recording. Perception of soundstage is heavily influenced by the set's FR tuning decisions, so if you want an IEM that sounds correct to you, you're going to have to go one of two ways. You either go trial and error or you measure a part of your HRTF using in-ear microphones and find IEMs that line up with that graph. Either way, you'll probably end up having to use a crossfeeder and EQ to fine-tune whatever you choose because engineers have to assume too many variables to match your preferences exactly.

Headphones suffer from some of these problems sure, but IEMs are another beast entirely.