Hello, I just joined, primarily for the audiophile products. Looking at purchasing the NHT C3 speakers for our new living room. Space is about 15 feet wide by 33 long and they will fire long ways. Space is just for general listening, music room with all equipment is downstairs, so hoping they will fill it with sound nicely. Cheers.
Mar 18, 2024
IEMs also tend to have very different 2nd and 3rd order distortion characteristics. You also tend to not need to worry about CDSs with IEMs but it can come in handy to understand if a set has any "ringing" issues.
In regards to impedance, depending on if it's a balanced armature and its crossover design, a hybrid system with crossovers, planar, or dynamic driver, the source can drastically change the sound and presentation. For example, the Campfire Andromeda is notorious for this. They are incredibly sensitive so unless your source is well under 1 ohm, you'll get some hiss. They also change drastically under a low OI (brighter, more resolving) or a higher OI around 3 ohms (warmer, more bass). Go too high and they start to sound odd and introduce odd harmonics and distortions.
I even forgot to bring up tip rolling which can have a significant impact on catering the sound to your liking (silicone vs foam). When it comes to cables, I have had very few instances in where this actually mattered. The one time it caught my attention was with the Andromeda. I went with a pure copper cable or its SPC Litz cable due to its impedance changes. This allowed me to use the Andro on less sensitive sources without hiss and added the right amount of warmth I wanted from them. This isn't common but is something that should be kept in mind as you try to nail down the sound you're looking for from your IEMs.
And honestly, for $200, you have a wealth of great sets to sample. Nowadays, this is the primo range for most and technology has really pushed what an entry level IEM can sound like. IEMs have so much more variation than headphones so it can be a bit daunting finding something you love but when you do, its much easier moving forward to know what speaks to you. Personally, I would go for comfort first and sound second. Even if their sound quality isn't summit-fi, having a comfortable, smooth, well-rounded IEM will benefit you more than something polarizing and niche that just reviews well. At least as you get started to find your preference.
You do make a good point on customs being tuned for your ears. Starting with your ear shape and adjusting based on that to get to the target response has merit for sure. Maybe I really will have to break my rule and get some customs. I just need to find some with published response curves so I can try to figure out which ones I want.
As far as budget CIEMs go, Custom Art gets mentioned a lot and people have a lot of good things to say about them: https://thecustomart.com/fibae-1/. There are a few others too should you want to do some more research and inquire further: Alclair Reference, Alclair Dual, UE 4 Pro, Cleartune CTM-200, and 1964 Audio A2e.
If you'd like recommendations for universals just let me know.