I discovered IEM’s i.e the existence of budget IEM’s of the made in China and designed in China variety about a year ago. So late 2023 and the whole of 2024, was the year (approx) of :
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Far too much research on consumer and Hi-fi DACs, dongles, Headphone amps, and IEMs.
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The learning curve to buy the budget items from KZ/CCA and learning what good sounds like, now have a Zero 2 and an ARTTI T10.
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Prior to this, being snubbed on professional web sites like SoundOnSound.com, where they would cringe at the possibility of mixing on IEMs. And finding more information and understanding elsewhere, like here and on audiosciencereview. I’m relatively new here, and only came over after also discovering the measurement police on audiosciencereview, i.e struggling to find the right measurements to explain what I was hearing.
Yes here you have measurements but you accomodate non measurable opinions. Good.
My thinking is that audio technology is in waves, Every 5 years or so, there will be another incremental shift that will take transducer technology, one step further, so I think every year even if you are retired from the hobby, there will be more to upgrade to. Cos it does get better.
The headphones of 20 years ago, the HD 6XX’s gang, in my opinion, while their frequency responses may be somewhat oK, we are are in a new dispensation, with a race to the bottom, to eliminate distortion, resonances, and improve tunings, so that one barely needs any EQ, and the stock sound is good enough for casual listening.
I feel the same, that I’ll give things a break from purchasing, and try to buy just one more item a year, max two. The issue is - where is the joy? One or two devices that one knows well, optimises well, or a bunch that one buys hoping that each one solves the fundamental problem, but as I have learnt from the headphone U tube channel, we all hear differently, so no head based listening device will suit everyone. There is a level of personalisation needed to take a good listening device to stratospheric heights, based on EQ, crossfeed, proper pads/eartips, and proper placement and probably nothing more.
It’s similar to music, which is better to have a collection of music one knows and enjoys well, or to keep discovering. With music I came to the conclusion, I will never hear more than 1 millionth of the possible music released to date, so searching and discovering is a bit of a futile exercise. No harm in the occasional discovery, But have I done justice to ALL the music I have heard in the decades. I’ll never be able to listen to all the music I have already heard, it’s just too much. So in music, I’ve resolved to rather than go on an unending search, which will never be satisfied, cos there is too much out there, put more focus on enjoying the music and the artists I already know, and enjoy this well. Even this I will never be able to do justice too, cos with streaming, there is just far too much to be discovered, from what I already know and have heard.
I feel listening devices are the same. It is an endless search, there will always be on more speaker, headphone, IEM on the horizon, better in some ways, but I do not need that. Why? The purpose was to enjoy the music, not buy gear. The gear is only a means to an end. So the litmus test, is when one, as the OP said, gets to the point where the listening device, causes the music to become difficult to avoid. And the end goal is reached, when all I want to do is discover more of what was already in the music, I have already heard a thousand times. Which the more revealing technology now enables. Rediscovering music I already know, every single time I hear it. When the listening device is so good, that it reveals how good some music is, that one can listen to it over and over and over again, without getting bored, cos of the never ending layers of discovery, hearing things one never heard before, or hearing them far better than before.
Yes it’s fun to read about gear, enjoyable, like unpuzzling a riddle. And occasionally, no more than twice a year buy something affordable - $50 to $100 max total additional spend per year, on the hobby. Clearly in a world where the medium of streaming is more accessible, makes sense to carry our speakers with us - i.e IEMs and Headphones. Which sound even better than many speakers, especially as we do not have room acoustics to deal with, in head worn devices. A wonderful time to be alive.
But there is room for more. Excellent guides to help newcomers. There is a lot of information out there, much of it conflicting. Similar to trying to learn about health on Youtube, everyone is a doctor!, including my cat, who is allowed to give health advice. We have lost a lot of the curating that ye old magazines once did, and now its utter confusion. So many voices. Who does one listen to?
And there are so many products out there. So many. Once upon a time it was a simple choice - AG K701, Q701(The Quincy endorsed version), AKG K702, AKG K712, AKG K612, Sennheiser HD 600/650, SONY MDR 7506, and pretty much that was it, almost. Just get one. But now with 100’s of products out there, in IEM land, it’s a nightmare a bad dream. We need much better ways to sift through the madness and disinformation, so that the bad products and those making them, go out of business, and only the best survive.
Happy new year!
