What IEM Should I Buy? Under $500 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

shadowspine · Mar 9, 2013 at 12:36 PM

I am looking for a new pair of IEM. I listen to alot of classic rock, some acoustic, jazz, country,metal, classical.. so pretty much everything but the majority is the classic rock. I would perfer them to have detachable cables and be as neutral sounding as possible. Soundstage/Presnetation and Mids are extremely important to me. Also trebble should be good aswell. When it comes to bass i want it to be present and tight. If the track calls for a lot of bass i want to be able to reproduce it, but if it calls for little bass, i just want to hear the little bit of bass but still present.

I have been looking at the Heir 4.ai and am about to buy them.
What do you guys think, anything better?

TwinQY · Mar 9, 2013 at 9:26 PM

Quote:

shadowspine said:
I am looking for a new pair of IEM. I listen to alot of classic rock, some acoustic, jazz, country,metal, classical.. so pretty much everything but the majority is the classic rock. I would perfer them to have detachable cables and be as neutral sounding as possible. Soundstage/Presnetation and Mids are extremely important to me. Also trebble should be good aswell. When it comes to bass i want it to be present and tight. If the track calls for a lot of bass i want to be able to reproduce it, but if it calls for little bass, i just want to hear the little bit of bass but still present.

I have been looking at the Heir 4.ai and am about to buy them.
What do you guys think, anything better?

Since you're looking at the 4.Ai, will assume that the budget stretches to ~400? Personally did not find the 4.Ai to be especially neutral during the short time I had with them. Anyways, tight bass that drops on a dime, detachable cables, nice mids and treble, seems like the UE900 might be up your alley.

shadowspine · Mar 11, 2013 at 8:38 PM

i will look into them!

Ypoknons · Mar 12, 2013 at 2:00 AM

In my honest view despite their relatively low cost the Phonak PFE 112 or Ey ER4 are just as good as the $500 IEMs, maybe a bit muddier in the soundstage but they're balanced in FR, have tight bass, no boosted mids but also nothing wierd going on there. The other $500 types I've heard or owed, the UE900, Sony EX-1000, Westone 4R, Tzar 350, they're all good performers, but if asked I'd just say PFE or ER4.