[Billyak]

Thieaudio Legacy 4. Terrible timbre, plasticky sounding with a hot top end. Switches don't do anything and it does not take EQ well at all.

On the plus side it is probably the best fitting iem I own.

 

[Whazzzup]

old apple ear buds

 

[Damz87]

The campfire gang will likely take out their pitchforks, but the Trifecta is seriously lowFI sounding.

Bass bleeds everywhere. Veiled sound with poor resolution. Even some sets at 10% the price beat it in technicalities (it costs $3375 USD BTW).

Agree. Trifecta is the biggest disappointment I’ve experienced. Way overpriced for its sound quality IMHO.

 

[Yifang]

The campfire gang will likely take out their pitchforks, but the Trifecta is seriously lowFI sounding.

Bass bleeds everywhere. Veiled sound with poor resolution. Even some sets at 10% the price beat it in technicalities (it costs $3375 USD BTW).

Most definitely the Trifecta.

I would rather listen to various <$100 IEMs than Trifecta lol... No idea who in their sane mind (or ears) decided to allow this to become an actual product.

 

[iDesign]

A18s

 

[originalsnuffy]

Cool thread. We probably need one about which IEMs ended being better than you thought?

In general what disappoints me is how hard it is to get a comfortable IEM. So many are so large they don't fit naturally into my ear. My old FKC8 pair fits in well, but even a relatively simple unit like the Letshuoer S12 is fairly large.

I also regret that my attempts to purchase cheap Crinnacle IEMs seems to not work out as well as I would hope. I could not get good bass with the $25 Crinnacle 7hz Zero 2 everybody raves about.

 

[Hanesu]

JH Audio Layla....sounded dull and strange to me. For sure not like it should for its asking price. But that was back in the days when flagships were still beneath the 2000 mark

 

[BS5711]

Dethonray Tender 1.

After Letshuoer S12 I wanted a “premium” planar experience so after reading reviews and user comments I blind bought them.

I initially liked them but I soon tired of them and eventually gave up on them altogether.

As I recall they lacked a bit of top end sparkle and seriously lacked bottom end leaving a very midrange bias. That tuning sounded pretty decent with some music but less than enjoyable with other music and I found myself skipping songs all over the place and seeking out tracks that they were OK on.

That wore thin quickly which combined with fit issues for me due to short nozzles was the end of the journey.

I wanted to like them and at times with certain music I did but after really trying to get on with them they ended up being a disappointment overall.

I couldn’t sell them in my part of the world so I discovered what the inside of a previously functioning planar IEM looked like. That is pretty unspectacular, looked like a generic driver shoved in a fancy shaped shell with no sign of any sort of “tuning” by way of filters or such like.

 

[concordelover]

Cool thread. We probably need one about which IEMs ended being better than you thought?

In general what disappoints me is how hard it is to get a comfortable IEM. So many are so large they don't fit naturally into my ear. My old FKC8 pair fits in well, but even a relatively simple unit like the Letshuoer S12 is fairly large.

I also regret that my attempts to purchase cheap Crinnacle IEMs seems to not work out as well as I would hope. I could not get good bass with the $25 Crinnacle 7hz Zero 2 everybody raves about.

Similar experience regarding Crinnacle IEM 's. Sent the Zero Red back to Amazon. God bless Jeff Bezos's no quibble returns policy.

 

[Sitilac]

I recently bought the Xenns Up to be a bassy allrounder for me and personally for me but I didn't actually feel like the slam was there for the bass that a lot of the reviews cited. But maybe I just need to listen to some more neutral iems to reset my definition of bass lol...

 

[InvisibleInk]

I recently bought the Xenns Up to be a bassy allrounder for me and personally for me but I didn't actually feel like the slam was there for the bass that a lot of the reviews cited. But maybe I just need to listen to some more neutral iems to reset my definition of bass lol...

Haven't heard that one, but I'm kind of aware of reviewers liking its bass. Did you try tip-rolling? Maybe something like the black Final-E types might help.

 

[Sitilac]

Haven't heard that one, but I'm kind of aware of reviewers liking its bass. Did you try tip-rolling? Maybe something like the black Final-E types might help.

Yeah I was pretty surprised not liking the bass response on the iems I do have a pair of black Final-E types lying around I might try those out and hopefully they might help me like them a bit more.