When and why IEM became a thing for music listening?

[BS5711]

It seems to me that when you’re multitasking walking down the street, convenience is the primary concern. If you’re at home in your living room focusing on listening to the music, sound quality might be worth a little fiddling around with stuff, but not on the go. But maybe that’s just me.

Audiophiles seem to want to wear a hair shirt and suffer for sound, hauling around multiple boxes with bulky wires and a bunch of dials and buttons. They appear to equate inconvenience with quality. Makes no sense.

Absolutely.

I use a wired set of IEM with a small bluetooth DAC/amp (FiiO BTR7) controlled from my phone when out for walk. I don't desperately need every level of convenience that my wireless Sony XM5 offers and for me the set up I use is preferred overall. I am not interested in taking a call over IEM, I will pull them out and take the call or return it later.

For certain I don't get lugging a bunch of gear around to listen to music but for me one cable running to my left pocket is a non issue.

 

[msing539]

Maybe I'm not understanding what people are carrying around to listen to wired iems.

The bulk and weight between a tws plus case and charging cable... is not far off from a portable dac, short cable, and wired iems.

 

[bigshot]

I carry an iPods case and my iPhone. I have 500 MB of music on a micro SD card. It all fits in my shirt pocket with room for my glasses.

This works for music, phone calls, zoom, YouTube and audible books. I can check email and surf the web too.

 

[Killcomic]

I use wired IEMs, mostly because there's no rechargeable batteries that will die after a couple of years. It's also cheaper and I'm yet to hear a wireless IEM that I like.
It's a matter of cost and convenience as I can plug them into anything without worrying if it has Bluetooth.
I have some headphones at home, but I prefer the intimacy of IEMs, as I feel like detail is literally thrown at my eardrums. I wear them for music listening as opposed to my headphones that I only use for videos and such on my PC.
I'm really not bothered by having to deal with wires. I used a walkman throughout my rny entire childhood!

 

[71 dB]

I have 500 MB of music on a micro SD card.

500 MB? In 2024? That's less than 50 minutes of music at CD quality and a few hours if good quality data compressed audio like 256 AAC is used. Are you sure it isn't (much) more than 500 MB? 32 GB perhaps?

 

[bigshot]

My library is at AAC256 VBR. I mistyped though. It is 500 GB, not MB. I have two of them. One is popular music and the other is classical.

 

[2leftears]

I use wired IEMs, mostly because there's no rechargeable batteries that will die after a couple of years.

I'm probably showing my age, but in general I still can't get my head around paying hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars for a consumer electronic device that has non-replaceable batteries with a very limited lifespan. That's just economic and environmental madness. Sometimes you have no choice but I try and avoid them.

I would hope most IEM makers offer a battery replacement service, but I suspect some are simply considered a disposable product. At least with IEMs the ratio of battery waste vs. other material waste is more reasonable than with many other type of products. Whether it make economic sense is up to the user to decide.

 

[joshnor713]

I think it has a lot to do with lifestyle. High-end IEMs are practical for audiophiles on the go, when you must travel light and don't want to sacrifice too much. High-end IEMs can keep up with high-end over-ears. Despite the physics against them, manufacturers have put a lot of work into them over many years to still make them a stellar audiophile experience.

I travel quite a bit and while I would always prefer to take my adored closed-backs, I can't always. I'm actually on a train right now with my IE 900 and Mojo 2 and get almost as good experience with my HD 820 at home. And that's with something I can stuff in my pocket. That's the power of high-end IEMs.

 

[audionooby]

I don’t have IEMs… I have AirPods. So I have a couple of dumb questions… Do IEMs have noise cancelling like buds? Do they have pass through on the noise cancelling so you can talk to someone while wearing them? Are they as easy to pop in and out as buds? Are they wireless? Can you adjust the volume and change noise cancelling modes on the IEM itself so you don’t have to pull out your phone? These are all features that are important to me.

Here’s my (sort of) review of the SE846 that touches on its passive noise isolation, and use with the TW2 ear hook adapters, where I talk about some of your questions:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/shure-se846-impressions-thread.675219/post-18405560

 

[Blackwoof]

Because they outperform dynamic headphones by a lot & are basically like Planar HP's. Was funny seeing Reddit get mad about that fact with the ER4XR basically being a full upgrade to the HD650/HD6XX in IEM form. I can EQ them with 4 ~ 6db 105Hz Low shelf giving me bass cannons that are detail pushers that I can use anywhere, Assuming I don't get get clowns that lash out because I'm listening to something & can't take the hint I don't care.

 

[gaex86]

Because they outperform dynamic headphones by a lot & are basically like Planar HP's. Was funny seeing Reddit get mad about that fact with the ER4XR basically being a full upgrade to the HD650/HD6XX in IEM form. I can EQ them with 4 ~ 6db 105Hz Low shelf giving me bass cannons that are detail pushers that I can use anywhere, Assuming I don't get get clowns that lash out because I'm listening to something & can't take the hint I don't care.

Who said that? How IEMs outperform EVERY dynamic headphones? And in which field they outperform that?

 

[Shawnb]

Audiophiles seem to want to wear a hair shirt and suffer for sound, hauling around multiple boxes with bulky wires and a bunch of dials and buttons. They appear to equate inconvenience with quality. Makes no sense.

When mobile inconvenience does equal quality. Specially when you're at the TOTL range and the gains are minuscule. The more convenience you want the more you sacrifice in quality.

Maybe I'm not understanding what people are carrying around to listen to wired iems.

The bulk and weight between a tws plus case and charging cable... is not far off from a portable dac, short cable, and wired iems.

Going extreme like taking any TOTL DAP using it as the source and adding a TOTL mobile DAC and AMP. Though at this point I'd rather just stay home

 

[bigshot]

When I’m going around town I don’t need the best quality. But I do need convenience. When I’m at home focused on music listening, I’ll put up with a bit more. But I really think usability and simplicity is a primary necessity in home electronics. If it’s a pain to set up and operate, it won’t get used as much.

You can have good sound AND convenience. Contrary to what many audiophiles believe, inconvenience doesn’t mean better sound.

 

[Killcomic]

When I’m going around town I don’t need the best quality. But I do need convenience. When I’m at home focused on music listening, I’ll put up with a bit more. But I really think usability and simplicity is a primary necessity in home electronics. If it’s a pain to set up and operate, it won’t get used as much.

You can have good sound AND convenience. Contrary to what many audiophiles believe, inconvenience doesn’t mean better sound.

What? You're not willing to walk around like this?! You are no audiophile!

 

[bigshot]

I’m sure the haircut is acoustically designed!