What IEMs do you recommend around $300?
Jul 10, 2008 at 12:36 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 11

V3lier

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I have a Cowon D2 which how everyone knows is a bit on the "cold" side. I listen to a lot of different types of music; Hip-hop (not new but old Illmatic type), Jazz, Cumbia, Reggaeton, Classic and many more.

I'm a perfectionist so deciding IEMs is very hard. I chose around $300 dollars because I could save more but I'm also going to be buying a 16GB D2 which is around $250 and I don't want to spend too much on IEMs even though I really love music.

I currently have Skullcandies so anything will be better but I would like to get an IEM worth the money. It has to have good isolation because I don't want any sound coming out when I'm listening to my music, and the build has to be good to. Other than that, recommend your personal favorite IEM. I will be checking reviews and such too
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Edit: Also some other things you guys should know is that I have no Amp. From what I know, the D2 can take on many IEMs with no problems. If you think I should go Custom then recommend me a company to check out. Custom is interesting me a lot
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From what I've been reading the Ultimate Ears Triple.fi 10 Pro are the best of the best right now. Also I would like to go Custom so I'm wondering about the LiveWires and also the FreQs. Which one should I go for? LiveWires, FreQs, or the UE?
 
Jul 10, 2008 at 2:53 AM Post #3 of 11
you can do a search and find a lot of answers
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, but I guess you are a lazy fella just like me
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. Anyway I have the TF10s and they are good but getting them to sit comfortably in my ears has been an issue. So getting a good fit is a personal thing, other than that they do sound amazing. I am them using them with my D2
 
Jul 10, 2008 at 3:06 AM Post #4 of 11
x2 on the TF10s and I have no trouble with the fit especially with comply T-500 foam tips. I have compared these to the shure 530s, Ety ER4s, Sleek SA6 and this beats them hands down. The only thing better may be customs. That may be something to look at.

Good Luck
 
Jul 10, 2008 at 12:32 PM Post #6 of 11
I'd say either the Sleek Audio SA6s or the Futuresonics Atrio's. The UE TF10 should also be a good choice.
 
Jul 10, 2008 at 1:01 PM Post #7 of 11
I have listened to SE530 & Triple Fi 10 on a D2.... My personal taste was definitely for the Triple Fi as I found the 530s bass overrepresented and treble not as finely detailed -however they did present midbass well (kick drums I remember as very good if a little overemphasised); TF10 were very clear, easy to follow instrument detail, with a winning top end and bass clarity, but this is to my ears, of course. Your preferences may well be different. For your music tastes, you may well find 530 perfect.

SA6 could very interesting as you can tune them to some degree.

From what I read of the various customs - if I could afford it & wanted to go that dedicated route, I would definitely pursue them.

And, to steal or paraphrase Ivor Tiefenbrun of Linn : 'if it sounds good, it is good'
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Jul 10, 2008 at 1:32 PM Post #8 of 11
For around $300 you can just about have anything on the market including a lot of custom options.

From my own listening history, I would say that you probably won't go wrong with either the Ultimate Ears TF10 or the Sleek SA6.

I will add the following caveat since I see you mention the lack of amp: In my experience, the TF10 genuinely need an amp to get the full spectrum of sound out of - they were decent unamped, very good IEMs, but not something that stood out relative to their cost. Amped, though, they were generally flat out amazing. The only two elements that bothered me sonically is that their very low end and very high end are pushed past my personal tastes. I have no idea why people like the increased bass of the SE530 because I personally found even the TF10 overdone when you had bass heavy songs (e.g. R&B and Rap/Hip Hop). There was nothing wrong with the bass, it was always very tight and refined, I just felt the recreation of the sort of physical thump you get from full loudspeakers on just your ear drum and immediate skull bones to be over the top and distracting. Similar reaction to their very high end, certain intruments came across as bordering on harsh and piercing - some regard this as "high energy" or what have you, I found it took away from their general clear and pleasing sound signature.

Conversely, the SA6 are very consistent performers and sound almost identical unamped. I tried both, put them head to head, and wound up returning the TF10 and keeping the SA6. As a point of reference, when I was using the TF10, I was always carrying around my amp with me, sans amp it just wasn't that satisfying, but I don't bother amping the SA6 at all, it just doesn't make enough sonic difference and they're plenty pleasing right out of the headphone jack.

If you find the TF10's sound signature your cup of tea with the intense very high and very low end, I believe you will find them amazing, I'm just not sure that without an amp you'll be getting all you can from them. Conversely, the SA6 are very solid performers for less money and close enough to the sound quality of the TF10 that I had no qualms packing the TF10 up for return once I'd had some time to compare them to the SA6.
 
Jul 10, 2008 at 2:56 PM Post #9 of 11
I personally found a noticeable improvement from amping. Especially when I'm on my laptop, but on my D2, I find the amp makes the SA6 sound even sweeter than unamped (probably because the SA6's have a high impedence of 50ohm, which make it a good candidate for amping).
 
Jul 10, 2008 at 3:34 PM Post #11 of 11
Quote:

Originally Posted by robojack /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I personally found a noticeable improvement from amping. Especially when I'm on my laptop, but on my D2, I find the amp makes the SA6 sound even sweeter than unamped (probably because the SA6's have a high impedence of 50ohm, which make it a good candidate for amping).


I think they're better amped, they're just not so much better amped I regard the sound quality differential worth the trade off of lugging around an iPod with LOD rubber banded to an amp. I don't think their impedance has much real world effect, I don't find I need to turn up the volume noticeably higher with the SA6 than I did with the 32 ohm triple.fi or, for that matter, my 16 ohm JVC gumy earbuds.

Unamped, I'd take the SA6 over TF10 with no qualifications, amped it's a qualified SA6 over the TF10 because for most music, the TF10 is the better choice, but only slightly, and since for the other music the SA6 beats the TF10 handily, it's the more consistent performer to me.
 

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