Rankings
Good picks
IEM | Score | Summary |
---|---|---|
Moondrop Aria | 73 | Well worth it's price, very pleasant tuning with a good balance of tonality and warmth, and providing an impressive soundstage exceeding expectations, held back by it's "smeary bass". |
TinHiFi T2 Plus | 73 | Pleasantly tuned and neutral sounding, the tonality is almost spot on, aside from some bloat in the upper mids. Not for everyone, can be percieved as cold/anemic. |
BLON BL03 | 70 | Well balanced V-shape with a decent tonality to the upper mids, and though lower mids are a little scooped the BL03 manages to be inoffensive on the ears in the treble making it suitable to most people who want a well-executed V-shaped signature. |
Moondrop Crescent | 66 | A gem of its time, lost to the ashes of discontinuation. You will be missed. |
Sony MH755 / MH750 | 55 | A harman-ish IEM, hard to come by nowadays but pleasantly tuned and inoffensive, though mildly shouty. |
Moondrop Quarks | -- | Relatively well tuned V-shaped IEM only let down by sounding extremely narrow. A winner in its low price bracket. |
Decent
IEM | Score | Summary |
---|---|---|
Samsung AKG EO-IG955 | -- | Well balanced v-shaped tuning that results in something marginally shouty, but overall pleasant. |
Moondrop Spaceship | -- | A better built, more neutral, more expensive, but shoutier Quarks. Performs well tech wise but can be harsh to listen to. |
TinHiFi T2 | -- | The old budget recommendation for neutrality, having since been overshadowed by it's T2 Plus successor. Tonally decent, though particularly anemic sounding and lacking in bass extension, and can often be fatiguing to listen to. |
KZ ZSN Pro | -- | A well balanced v-shaped tuning, with good punch in the bass, and better tonality than the original, at the cost of being fatiguing. |
KZ ZSN | -- | A well balanced v-shaped tuning, with good punch in the bass, and competent tonality. |
Mediocre
IEM | Score | Summary |
---|---|---|
Senfer DT6 | 43 | An attempt at something between v-shaped and neutral that suffers from strange tonality in the upper mids, and boomy midbass. Not the worst, but nothing special. |
KZ ZST | -- | An earlier KZ model, with expected v-shaped tuning. Tone is slightly off, with a shouty upper midrange. |
KZ ATE / KZ ATR | -- | The KZs that started it all. Expected KZ v-shaped tuning, with no treble extension and a shouty midrange. |
EZAudio D4 | -- | A budget recommendation that disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Looks pretty, feels not so pretty, and sounds very mediocre, with yet some more v-shaped tuning. |
Disappointments
IEM | Score | Summary |
---|---|---|
Sony MDR-EX15LP | -- | A victim to Sony's modern iteration of the MDR in-ear line-up. Dark sounding, with no treble extension. |
TRN V80 | -- | Yet another overhyped v-shaped IEM that suffers from severe piercing treble issues. |
KZ ZSA | -- | Yet another overhyped KZ IEM that suffers from severe piercing treble issues. |
Hot garbage
IEM | Score | Summary |
---|---|---|
British Airways Complementary Earphones | 0 | I should have been paid for enduring the displeasure of listening to something so abysmal. Alas, here we are. Ruins music. |