[MaxwellDemon]

God, first serious IEM was ER-4... but the first sets of IEM that really made me fell in love with the hobby all those years ago were Westone 4 and EX1000 combo. Which is kinda insane because I thought they were expensive, now I have spent like 10x the cost of those 2 IEMs for only one IEM in my collection.

Having said that, my longest surviving IEM (and the one that made me "retire" from the hobby 8 years ago) is the UM Miracle, which I still enjoy up to this day!

A photo of my old UM Miracle still rocking despite my abuse to them, now paired with the Traillii stock cables. I think this IEM is now coming up to 10 years old?

 

[FOUNDERZERO]

My first IEMs: Klipsch Image S4

I still have them around... somewhere!

 

[Onurb8690]

First IEM was a CIEM Earsonics EM3 Pro, around 2010

They still play at 100% after 23 years!!!!

 

[cn11]

I blame this damn wallet killing rabbit hole I'm wayyyy down on a long time ago ex-gf. It was around the early 2000's, and she bought me a pair of B&O A8's as congratulations on a new job... Said she thought I should have something cool looking to listen to at work rather than my clunker headphones. From there, I found my way on this site, and started trying out things like the Ety ER4P, Shure E2c, and didn't like them as much due to not having enough bass, and being too thin sounding. Then I really started buying and trying lots of stuff, and gradually started to get to some earphones with signatures I liked more. Some of the earlier ones that came / went were FutureSonics Atrio, Klipsch Image X10 (as seen a few posts back), Sleek SA6, IE8, Denon C710, the Monster Turbine Copper/ MS Tribute... And it just went (goes) on and on from there!

 

[Tybot]

I don't know if it is because I used to sleep with them => I broke 3 times de IE900, twice the IE600 and once the IE800.. So I definitely gave up to use any Sennheiser for sleeping.. Sennheiser replaced twice the IE900 and once IE600 under warranty and then I gave up with them.

I used for a long time Xelento with a balanced cable to an ifi Go blu and never broke up and probably the most comfortable to sleep with Soundcore A10 ( just limited to 5 hours playing time), unfortunately there can be some annoying drivers flex issue when moving the head on the side on my pillow.

Actually I am sleeping with :

1) Tangzu Princess Chang Le (amazing SQ for the price) disappears in the ears so impossible to feel anything while sleeping (with Spinfit CP1025 M)... same level of comfort as IE800.
2) Sony IER-M9, it's a low profile enough, but not as comfy as Xelento or IE900/600 but, I love the SQ (a pure balanced SQ with a perfect timbre like a reference for any genre and this IEM can probably be annoying for many users)
3) I use also a surprising good Kiwi Ears Quintet which a low profile enough too ... for 220€, maybe the best real bargain for 2023 with the 15€ of Princess Chang Le ?.. probably SQ is a bit more fun than IER-M9 but still balanced enough and same comfort as M9 for sleeping.
4) Sony WF-1000XM5 .. is just a bit too thick (not low profile enough for my ears) so it wakes up some nights due to a lack of comfort, but touch control are efficient and it offers the best battery playing time in LDAC mode of all my TWS and is as good as the iFi Go blu and far better than BTR7 or UP4(2022).

Usually to control my Z Fold 5 (after the 2, 3 & 4), I use the Sony RMT-NWS20, so I don't really touch the TWS or BT receiver clipped on my T Shirt Collar

I had my IE800 converted to mmcx. Finding the right cable made all the difference for me while sleeping as far as durability. I move a lot on my sleep and am 6’4” and just south of 300lbs. I probably have 1000 nights with IE800 and 200+ with IE900. One thing to note is I have big ears. I can sleep with UM Mest with only very slight issues. Just won’t do it regularly with 2-pin IEMs. So small IEMs have a pretty big cavern to protect them in my ears.

 

[Scubadevils]

My first proper step into IEMs was around 2008 when I bought the Sennheiser CX95 - I was doing a lot of travel at the time and wanted something smaller than headphones and with better isolation than buds. I then moved up to the IE8i in I think 2011 - they served me very well all the way to 2020… the pandemic definitely led me to the proper addiction kicking in!

As a hoarder, I of course still have both…

 

[Scubadevils]

How would you compare Singularity to Melodic Artification Eclipse?

Very hard to say from memory but Singularity more detailed, more extended up top and larger stage. Eclipse more laid back, and I think the sub stood out a bit more - not necessarily in quantity, more in terms of its position like a 2.1 channel system. Again, I’m not great with audio memory!

 

[Rockwell75]

If we're going right down to the brass tacks this little device here is what kicked off my life-long fascination with portable audio. The yellow and black Sony sports walkman from about 1991 or so...with "auto reverse".



The most interesting difference from those days is that it was all about the player-- the transducers themselves were of negligible quality and almost an afterthought.

 

[bigbeans]

The most interesting difference from those days is that it was all about the player-- the transducers themselves were of negligible quality and almost an afterthought.

How far we've come. Transducer cables get the same care and attention as the players use to get back in the day.

 

[Scubadevils]

If we're going right down to the brass tacks this little device here is what kicked off my life-long fascination with portable audio. The yellow and black Sony sports walkman from about 1991 or so...with "auto reverse".



The most interesting difference from those days is that it was all about the player-- the transducers themselves were of negligible quality and almost an afterthought.

I can’t recall the model but my first Walkman was bought in 1987 (my hoarding wasn’t as effective back then it seems) - I was visiting my uncle in Singapore with my family, and I’ll never forget the excitement of buying it - I even remember the department store: Lucky Plaza. I had no tapes with me, so borrowed a few from my uncle - the very first I played was ‘Invisible Touch’ by Genisis. As a 12 year old, that definitely kicked in a lifetime obsession and a couple of decades career with consumer electronics!

 

[Rockwell75]

I can’t recall the model but my first Walkman was bought in 1987 (my hoarding wasn’t as effective back then it seems) - I was visiting my uncle in Singapore with my family, and I’ll never forget the excitement of buying it - I even remember the department store: Lucky Plaza. I had no tapes with me, so borrowed a few from my uncle - the very first I played was ‘Invisible Touch’ by Genisis. As a 12 year old, that definitely kicked in a lifetime obsession and a couple of decades career with consumer electronics!

One thing I miss about those days is making mix tapes. It was a clumsy and awkward process but so satisfying in the end.

How far we've come. Transducer cables get the same care and attention as the players use to get back in the day.

Yes and transducers are widely considered the single most important variable.

 

[fejnomit]

If we're going right down to the brass tacks this little device here is what kicked off my life-long fascination with portable audio. The yellow and black Sony sports walkman from about 1991 or so...with "auto reverse".



The most interesting difference from those days is that it was all about the player-- the transducers themselves were of negligible quality and almost an afterthought.

Yes very good point. All the marketing specs had to do with the functions of the cassette player - with the orange foam headset being a total trashable add-on (or later, the yellow plastic buds-on-a-band.) I had something similar to the one above, but that was a little later in life. In the mid to late 1980's, I used this one and loved it to death. The tape stuck out of the machine. I thought it was the height of cool. Now they're $1500 on Ebay!

 

[orifiel]

I started my audio journey with the typical Sony and Aiwa earbuds (the cheap ones) and the Sony and Aiwa Personal Stereos with cassette (later known as Walkmans),

then i swich to the Apple Ipod and the IEMs from Apple, then swich this for 2 or 3 kinds of Bose in ears…in this times i think that 150USD are a very expensive price for an earphone .
Some years after that i find some Audio Store in my country and I came out of it carrying this

And this

The FiiO X5ii and the Dunu DN-2000 were my first real approach to hi res audio

Then it cames some more big names: IE800, SE846, Westone W40, W60 and W80, Andromeda, Solaris, etc…

and now a big black hole in my wallet, that i’m trying to shrink

But it has been quite a big, interesting and funny journey

 

[lllEvo]

God, first serious IEM was ER-4... but the first sets of IEM that really made me fell in love with the hobby all those years ago were Westone 4 and EX1000 combo. Which is kinda insane because I thought they were expensive, now I have spent like 10x the cost of those 2 IEMs for only one IEM in my collection.

Having said that, my longest surviving IEM (and the one that made me "retire" from the hobby 8 years ago) is the UM Miracle, which I still enjoy up to this day!

A photo of my old UM Miracle still rocking despite my abuse to them, now paired with the Traillii stock cables. I think this IEM is now coming up to 10 years old?

Oh my! a fellow from the Miracle and Mentor v1 days. I broke my Miracle years ago and could no longer recall how exactly it sounds, can you kindly give a short impression?

 

[Imusicman]

Very exciting impressions, thank you for that!

How did you like Storm exactly? How would you compare it to Mentor (for example, technically like soundstage)? Would you choose Storm or Mentor if you could? Which DAP did you use?

Hi, I used my trusty little Shanling MO first then the new latest Silver Cayin house brick for the Mentor. This was an excellent combination. Again my Shanling with the Storm then the guys gave me their Hiby RSll Pro to use. Honestly I think I would struggle to give you any kind of detailed, accurate comparisons under show conditions. I just know that the Mentor was the one that left the biggest lasting impression on me. However I do suspect that the Storm would probably be the more technically impressive IEM when listening at home on better gear