u/Extension_South7174

I've enjoyed the IEMs I've bought(10 pairs) but I've also been let down quite a few times. I can honestly say out of all my headphones there was only one pair I was dissatisfied with ( 13 pairs). I have tried some kilobuck IEMs and haven't heard anything yet that can compete with cheaper headphones.

I think one of the huge problems of the industry is the glut of Chi-fi IEMs over saturating the market , almost every reviewer is a paid shill and claims his newest review is the greatest thing ever at its price range. Headphone reviews are much easier and reliable to get, but it's still better to demo in person.

Interestingly enough the IEMs I enjoyed the most were on the cheaper side of the spectrum (Hexa,Arrti T10, Kiwi Ears Aether)

I prefer a forward midrange and highs with tight bass, currently I own about 23 Headphones/IEMs from $20-$2k. But I truly don't believe price and performance are always relative. For instance I pulled out my $20 Zero 2s yesterday and enjoyed them immensely right after listening to 1k planar headphones. Anyway I don't want to drop a ton on my first purchase so I'm looking to spend $30 to $40 or less. I've heard good things about the Yincrow (,forget model number but it's around $20) and Flathead.com if I remember. Any recommendations on where to start would be appreciated, thanks

My Tidal experience didn't do too well so I'm ready to try to try Qobuz a shot. Hopefully their masters are better because I didn't hear any difference with high res, not that I expected to because using physical media and downloads I never did. I'll be ultra happy if I can just get 16/44.1 from better masters.

I was very generously gifted a set of HD 700s by the efforts of 2 redditors and I have to say these are some amazing headphones. I was looking for a decent pair of HD 700s for quite some time in my price range with no luck and my wish came true.🙂

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Comfort: By far the most comfortable set of headphones I have ever worn. They are light and just literally feel like they were molded for you. I have a large head with small ears so YMMY.

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Sound: after finding the right PEQ setting and making a few tweaks I was floored. The bass is definitely deeper and stronger than the HD 6XX. With the mid-range it's darn close but I still will give a slight advantage to the HD 6XX. The highs are much more detailed and crisper than the HD 6XX but without any sibliance

or harshness. The soundstage isn't the largest I've ever heard on an open back but it's definitely better than the "three bubble sound" the HD 600/HD 6XX/650 is known for ( personally I don't notice it that much). I mainly listen to grunge, new wave/80s,classic rock and jazz and they cover all the genres with no problems.

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I think if these had been around $700 they might not have failed as bad, with the $1,000 price point you could just say why not just save up an extra $800 for the HD 800 (I only have about a 10 minute in store demo experience with those, in 2013 , but I remember really liking the sound with no EQ. I was out of the headphone scene from late 2013-early 2024 so I missed out on alot of what happened to the HD 700s and why a lot of people didn't like them. Reading through some old posts has helped but haven't really heard much about people that love them. I always wanted a pair because everything that Axell Grell designed,I loved. I absolutely adore my Grell OAE 1 and if I had to buy it again at $500 I would even though I got my pair for a hundred bucks new from drop.

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I've seen some pretty crazy stuff on a different board such as someone recommending at least 1.5 w to successfully drive a Hfiman XS. I have a JDS Atom 2 but I mainly use a Fozi Audio DS1 "dongle" for 90% of my listening and it does fine. Bass doesn't sound any weaker and I've never even came close to having it clip despite some extreme frequency adjustments that required a negative 11 DB Preamp. I agree it's always better to have a little more power than you need but I see the same thing on some IEM recommendations that have a 114 DB sensitivity and people advise at least 500mw. How loud are they listening?

For me it has to be listening to a podcast about video games and I always doze off, I woke up listening to Bob Lazar talking about reverse engineering alien technology in Area 51. It was so interesting I stayed up another hour listening to him speak and it sent me down a huge rabbit hole regarding him.

I will probably keep it anyway just for the Dolby Atmos headphone content, it's hard to level match volume but I don't hear any huge improvement like everybody swears that Spotify is horrible and Tidal is so much better.

To start off everything I did was totally my fault but I was self-medicating from PTSD, anxiety and untreated depression. I spent most of it on opioids, Xanax and coke (crack and powder)but did everything else under the sun. I was also committing identity theft and had some different scams and hustles plus my family gave me quite a bit of money the first couple of years. There are some places on the dark web where you used to be able to buy 10 debit cards for $1,000 and you could max out the withdrawal each one but only use it one time. When I would do opioids I just wanted to chill and play video games or read but when I did Coke I had to have a female, whether she was a call girl or a cheap street girl it didn't matter, well of course I preferred the call girls (Many didn't do drugs but the ones that did was the best because they would still get paid and stay longer and get high for free) but the street girls what almost always do drugs with you (I could smoke $2,000 worth of great quality crack in 2 days) and if I didn't have a girl I would frap for the whole time while looking at porn.

The times I did crystal meth were out of this world. I would have to have multiple girls because none could keep up for days and days on and. I would literally frap for over 48-60 hours. Meth was way more euphoric than either smoking or snorting coke but to come down was much much more brutal. I would only do it about every month or two.

In the background I was always addicted to opioids there is no better feeling than an injection of good heroin,not cut with fentanyl. I would do a shot and play video games for hours. Even staring at the ground is incredibly enjoyable while you're on really good heroin. I have to have to admit back then if I could have been locked in a room and just injected with heroin and brought three meals a day and had some video games I could have existed in that room the rest of my life without any human contact.

I was receiving good VA benefits also so I was going to score and for some reason I just didn't go and I called my friend to pick me up and bring me to rehab that I had already been to a few times. But this time something was different and the last day I used was September 3rd 2020. It's still calls to me even now if I accidentally look at a girl in lingerie in a movie or Instagram I'll think of Coke or meth and how much fun it was to frap or bang call girls or trashy hoes. But then I'll think about the seven cats, two dogs, The house I have with my girlfriend who was completely accepting of my past, All of the things that I enjoy now that I couldn't before. If you read all this have fun out there but be careful at the same time.

Any help would be appreciated I used to use Utorrent back in the day but Google was much less restrictive with its search engine. Thanks guys!

I know the 150 to 160 db rating would be right next to the speakers but even 120-130db is unsafe. That much sound output (130 db) will cause almost instant hearing damage ,150-160 range it's like a gunshot continuously at point blank range next to your ear. I have a lot of good sound equipment and I want to enjoy it as long as possible.

https://musictech.com/news/l-acoustics-l1-cs1-line-array-loudspeakers/

Audio Brand Founder Spends $23,000 Testing 40 Subwoofers and Exposes Trusted Names Lying About Their Specs

Steven Wilson has launched a new music store featuring himself and other artists with most albums having a binaural track in addition to stereo and Dolby Atmos. I'm sure most of us are familiar with the incredible remastering work he has done and how great his own albums are with Porcupine Tree and his solo work.

I was ordering the non BT/ANC M4U 1 for $79, apparently they were out of stock so they substituted them with M4U II which were $240 more for no extra charge. You can still use them wired without the BT/ANC. From all the reviews I have read these seem like decent headphones but I never hear anything about them on here. PSB makes some pretty good home speakers also,anyway I'll find out tomorrow.