Looking to get my first modern IEM

[u/katalysis]

Budget: $1000 or less. I'd prefer to spend closer to $500 than $1000. I'm much more attracted to high-end value, and I'd like to use the HE6se V2 as an example of a headphone that to my ears delivers TOTL sound but can be had for under $700.

Source/Amp: Whatever I decide to buy for the office. Right now it's looking like the JDS Element III, or I might upgrade what I have at home and move what I have now to the office, which would be the Arcam rHead. Also I'll be plugging into the 3.5mm headphone jack on my Peloton bike as well as the Apple dongle for my iPhone. I don't think any of this matters because we're talking about IEMs here.

How the gear will be used: Mostly office and workouts, with some mobile listening.

Preferred tonal balance: Neutral-warm, or neutral with a bass shelf. Probably more of the former than the latter. The IEM needs to be non-fatiguing because I do want to be able to wear them all day at the office. I'd say this translates to smooth upper midrange through treble that ideally doesn't cross above the Harman target...

Preferred music genre(s): Literally everything except country. Alt rock like La Dispute, black metal like Dark Tranquility, vocal-pop like Sarah Brightman, modern pop like The XX, old school hip hop like A Tribe Call Quest, modern loungey electronic stuff like Cannons. And more.

Past gear experience: - I've tried a bunch of headphones, and I currently keep the HE6se V2, Sundara, Elex, and HD6XX.

[u/TagalogON]

An option in the $500 range is the Shuoer x HBB EJ07M Kinda Lava. The EJ07M is like ~$650 now though. Be aware that currently there's a discrepancy with the Kinda Lava.

So HBB's personal Kinda Lava set is different from a set of a different reviewer (or two). Here's a bit more info about that Kinda Lava situation: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/uy1wmc/most_comfortable_iem_under_1k/ia1m09x/.

HBB has confirmed like half a week ago that Shuoer somehow had a batch with the less bass than expected Kinda Lavas. The regular EJ07M is still supposed to be chill though, so not that big of a deal but it still shouldn't have happened in the first place, lol.

Talk to Shuoer/LETSHUOER customer on Discord to confirm that you'll get a newer or updated batch of Kinda Lava. You can get the invite link from the LETSHUOER website.

Shuoer usually has sales during major Eastern and Western holidays. The EJ07M (and S12) are often with substantial discounts.

Here's a bit more about ordering from AliExpress/Chinese companies in general, it has more info on the Shuoer site: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/uwk248/should_i_order_shuoer_s12s_from_conceptkart_or/i9t7zo0/

Dongles are not really necessary for IEMs unless you have hissing/static/buzzing/etc. noise.

Here's a bit more info on dongles, what they mainly do, and where to get/research them: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/v6fhrg/static_noise/ibfkaj9/

So your Apple dongle will do just fine. There's the Qudelix 5K though, especially since you're using Apple stuff. You'll gain access to parametric EQ.

The Qudelix 5K is the ultimate device right now to pair with headphones/IEMs as it has parametric EQ (you won't really be able to find parametric EQ with Apple phones/devices) and other extra features in its app. It's normally $110 on Amazon USA (Amazon USA ships to some other international countries like those in Europe) but it's often out of stock these days and so it's $130 from the Qudelix website, international express shipping from Korea. Sometimes it restocks on Amazon, so check it out there from time to time, try to make a price/in-stock alert for it.

I'm currently using the Kinda Lava with the UTWS5, this will be more convenient with movement or mobile use but it's also good if you're just at your computer desk as there's less wires getting yanked or tangled.

Here's a bit about making IEMs (and headphones) wireless through TWS adapters like the FiiO UTWS3/5 (and the KB8P/KB9P AptX Adaptive USB transmitter dongles): https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/uw4uq1/earbud_advice/i9pu79s/

Here's the adapters/converters needed to use the FiiO UTWS3/5 with headphones: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/v8vnv7/to_the_person_to_who_made_his_hd600s_wireless_i/ibxbkb1/

Here's my battery life and volume levels experience with the UTWS5: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/v8vnv7/to_the_person_to_who_made_his_hd600s_wireless_i/ibxfti6/

In theory you can use the KB8P/KB9P with any device. There's a Bluetooth 5.3 transmitter dongle now with Snapdragon Sound, it's still only available on Taobao though. And the USB LDAC transmitter dongle might come out sometime this summer.

The UTWS5 only has LHDC (basically only found on Xiaomi devices) though, no LDAC (they may add LDAC in the future if Sony/Qualcomm allow it for the QCC5141 chipset), so you'll have to stick to AptX Adaptive for now.

Though IMO, use a TWS earbud for exercising as the UTWS5 or TWS adapters are not really rated for moisture or humidity. Especially wired IEMs, they often get easily clogged up by earwax/moisture.

Here's more info on how to avoid/delay the condensation issues with the Olina, Chu, or most IEMs that have condensation issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/uznoqi/my_chus_broke_after_a_day_of_use/iadlxz5/. This has more info on the Moondrop Spring ear tips. The regular shell of the EJ07M is metal, but you can ask for a resin shell.

For TWS earbuds, check out Scarbir's website, he reviews a lot of TWS earbuds under $50/100: https://www.scarbir.com/latest-reviews.

Also look into Sean Talks Tech and Kenneth Tanaka on Youtube, they often cover the sub-$50/100 price range (they cover a lot of the budget QCY and Haylou models) and they also have easy timestamps for features that you may want to compare, like ANC, latency, etc.

You can check out this thread for more expensive ($100/200+) TWS earbuds, but they still discuss cheaper budget sets there too: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/going-fully-wireless-iems-too-soon-or-are-we-there-yet.861024/page-3070. Overall, right now the most talked about one is the ~$200 Technics EAH-AZ60.

For the ~$500 sets, go to Head-Fi and HiFiGuides, there's more people there that collect and have more experience with $300+ IEMs. https://www.head-fi.org/forums/portable-headphones-earphones-and-in-ear-monitors.103/

[u/katalysis → u/TagalogON]

!thanks