Any recommendations in the sub $500 IEMs category?
I have on the radar the Moondrop Blessing 2 and the Thieaudio Legacy 3.
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I have the old Moondrop Kanas Pro – used them today for 30 minutes and they are quite satisfying for general use. @Antdroid?
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I have both the Legacy 3 and Blessing 2 in for loan from @antdroid right now. I find that the Legacy 3 has more bass thump when getting a proper seal, but the detail retrieval on the B2 is far superior. Vocals on the B2 can be a bit shouty at times but not often, and the treble is crisp.
I find the L3 a simple IEM to listen to if you want some bass, and just something to listen to when doing other things. I think for any detailed listening the B2 is superior. B2 is significantly bigger than the L3; however, I found the L3 to cause some hot spots in my ear. B2 is comfortable but I get some ear ache after an hour or two, but YMMV.
Build on the B2 feels much higher quality over the L3 as well, and the cable is much nicer on the B2 as well.
I have both the ER2XR and ER2SE in for loan/review as well and think the B2 is much better than those 2 as well. It has detail retrieval that is pretty close to my Andromedas, and a nice balanced listen for most genres.
I am writing up a shoot-out review style for these 4 IEMs atm and will be uploading it in a couple days, might be beneficial for you since it will go into much more depth and comparisons.
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Blessing 2 is great as @dncnexus said. L3 is just a nice beater IEM that you can get in a custom form for super cheap. It has good tonality for the most part but isnt the best for technical performance. I put it in the same category as Kanas Pro/Starfield probably. The Blessing 2 is a step up in performance, but with a more referency sound.
Are you looking for any sound signature?
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Thanks @dncnexus, I look forwards to reading your review.
Currently my favourite IEM is the Starfield.
I said I wouldn’t spend more than that on an IEM but as it gets so hot here for so long, I am ending up using IEMs far more than I would choose to.
For “beater” IEMs, I already have a ton of cheap (sub 100) sets, plus whatever I end up reviewing.
I am interested in a set that would basically live on my desk and be better at detail etc. than the Moondrop. I don’t need it to be bass heavy at all, as long as it is not missing bass. Basically a neutral IEM with good detail etc.
Yea, then I would recommend the Blessing 2. It’s a little hard to come by right now but I saw that Penon Audio may have it in stock. They are based in Hong Kong.
Etymotic are always good choices too.
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I keep avoiding Etymotic because I can’t get on with deep insertion, so I am guessing I won’t like them.
They have small cones, large cones, and standard foam tips. The foam tips work like any other foam tip, with normal depth. However, I don’t like the ER4XR as well as the Kanas Pro for everyday less-noisy environments. The thin Etymotic sound tube seems to cause excessive sibilance.
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I bought the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, PI2AES - Pro Audio Shield and the other items suggested in the link you provided (not received yet). Have received my Modius, Asgard 3 and all the assorted cables I am going to need. I would like use Roon, Audirvana or some other digital audio playback program, but since I am not hooking up a laptop/PC to this system, I am not sure how I can get that part to work (cannot do it through the iPad/iPhone, obviously, but will stream some from both - Amazon HD Ultra, etc.). This is when I realized the Raspberry Pi 4 is actually a mini computer, so now I am wondering if there is a way to utilize that for Roon, etc. If there is, can someone enlighten me as to what I am going to need to do and if I need more hardware to make it happen. Getting very close, hoping this is the last bit before my setup is complete, at least for the time being.
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You can use the Pi as a ROON end-point. You just need to use something else on the same network as your ROON server (such as a Nucleus, PC, or Mac).
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So I am going to have to use a PC or Mac no matter what to utilize Roon or Audirvana (Nucleus sounds nice, but not practical for my purposes, expense wise)? Not what I was hoping for, but that is sure what it looked like - have an old Asus laptop that is pretty slow and do not want to drag it out everytime I want to listen to music since this is for a living room listening situation, not an office. Realize I can use my iPad/iPhone as remotes for Roon, etc. with a PC or Mac, which may be what I ultimately have to do. This is why I was ideally wanting to use my iPad to stream from, which I realize I can, just will not have access to Roon, etc. Any other options that I am missing for my streaming entertainment, via the Raspberry Pi4 or anything else, I’m a noob and still trying to get the lay of the land here, who knew the complexities of getting into the audiophile headphone game? Wondering now if I end up having to get a new laptop, if I should have even gotten the Raspberry Pi 4/Pi2AES - Pro Audio Shield - what would I ultimately need it for? Thank goodness for this forum, really appreciate all the help so far, invaluable!
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Roon core has to be running on a computer somewhere on your network. It’s the brains of the operation. Once it is, it will be able to see your Pie2Aes device as an endpoint and you can stream to it at will.
Many people set up a tiny NUC like this and leave it running 24/7. With these, you can install Roon ROCK very easily and be done with it.
The NUCs don’t come with RAM or storage, so you would need to add that.
The RAM and HDD they link to in the Roon Rock article is perfect for this, and I would suggest this HDD to store your music. If your local music library is more than 500GB, go for the 1TB version. (The operating system hard drive can’t be used for music storage.)
They suggest either the Intel I3 or I7 processor versions, but I’m willing to bet that the I5 might be good.
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Couldn’t the NUC be used as the end-point as well making the Pi he just bought obsolete?
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You can also run the Roon Core as your sole Roon instance (i.e. use it as the interface and player as well). It’s not recommended, for quality purposes, but it can certainly be done (I know a number of people that run the whole thing directly on their laptops).
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The NUC doesn’t have AES or particularly good audio outputs. It’s just not built to do what the Pie2Aes is built to do.
I run my Roon core on an old gaming pc that I retired and it sits next to my NAS that stores the music. It acts like a central server for accessing the NAS, as a Plex server, and as the Roon server. (Edit - and as a proxy server, DNS server, firewall, VPN host, etc…) It’s hooked up to an old monitor, and I can fiddle with everything directly, or use the web interfaces / remote desktop connect to it from elsewhere.
A Pie2Aes will obviously sit with the audio equipment. Where you don’t want a big PC or laptop cluttering things up.
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When I first got Roon, thats how I ran it. If your entire headphone setup is already at a single computer workstation, just set Roon up there and you’re good.
If you want untethered control of the music no matter where you are, a NUC and Roon endpoints will let you do everything from anywhere.
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I found that ROON runs nicely on a Mac Mini. Not too big an investment, Mine’s the late 2014 model with 8 gig ram and an i5. You can often find buys on late model Mac Mini refurbs on the Apple store website also. The Mini is blessedly quiet.
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More excellent advice, thanks! It looks like the Roon route will have to be down the road a little bit due to a recent move/remodel. I will now be getting a computer that will be doing double duty as a home studio recording computer and a streaming computer. The recording aspect is what will make the computer more expensive than something that would handle the streaming aspect alone. Will stick to seeing how streaming to the Raspberry Pi 4/PI2AES - Pro Audio Shield via Amazon Ultra HD, Qobuz, etc. works/sounds for now. Hope it will be satisfying.
I did setup my Asgard 3 and Modius last night and had some issues getting PCM out of my coaxial and optical outs from my Oppo BDP 83 SE player. One of the reasons I got the Modius was to be able to listen to my SACDs from the Oppo, but bypassing the Oppo DAC. Sadly, it appears the Oppo only passes LPCM or Bitstream through the coaxial/optical outs. I did run from the analog/RCA outs of the Oppo to the Asgard 3 and it sounded very nice. Will be getting the Raspberry Pi 4/PI2AES with the Pro Audio Shield so that I can stream my iPad to the stack, prob via Amazon Ultra HD, Qobuz, etc.
I have been into audio (live sound, recording and mid-hi fi stereo) for a number of years, so have a reasonable idea of what I think is good quality sound. I did have the disturbing thought as I listened to the Elegias via the RCA outs of the Oppo, this sounds very nice, but my main stereo has something more going on, so I can see a rabbit hole approaching…
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@ProfFalkin thank you for the links to the instructions and site to purchase the cable components. I make a pair of XLR cables that actually work and only required one burn blister from the soldering iron 
I decided to make one red and one black.
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