I have a long standing history of hating IEMs, basically exhausting the entire Shure product line as well as a variety of Sonys, Beats, and others...all of which I found to be essentially trash. I stuck with a variety of beloved Sennheiser on-ear headphones until I came across the S4 from Klipsch. That humble IEM lead me to the Monster Turbine Pro Golds and my desire for better has lead me to purchase the UE 900.
While these are the best IEMs I have ever heard, I am still not convinced they're worth $320 more than the Klipsch or $150 more than the Monsters. Of course, the soundstage is infinitely wider and the mid-range much more buttery, but I am still struck at how weak the lower end in the UE 900 are. I am a Comply guy and I know I am getting a good seal and proper insertion depth, but I can only assume that I have a bad copy of this IEM? The bass is absolutely nowhere near as commanding as the reviews here would have you to believe. The plucks of a cello on a favorite Debussy recording of mine are not as punchy as those on the Monster Turbine Pro Gold. I will say it is perhaps more articulate in bass than the Monster Turbine Pro Gold, but the presence is just not there.