I decided to eq a pair of $30 intime sora 2019 light iems which use a piezoelectric driver in a tiny shell to match my favourite iem the yanyin x hbb mahina, a higher end $650 tribrid, using a iec711 clone mic and a qudelix 5k
People make it seem like it isn't possible for them to sound similar and claim "frequency response isn't everything", " you can't fix this and that with eq" etc, I get that it's physically impossible to make them identical, but I felt like they could get close
After eq the sound signature was almost identical to the point i'd forget which pair I was listening to when going back and forward and simply just enjoying listening to the music, of course when you really pay attention you can hear the quality difference, but it gets WAY closer than people would have you believe and if you're simply listening to music for the music it's more than adequate
The sora's sounded all wrong beforehand and I simply put it down to the fact it uses a piezo driver in a tiny shell, but eq really did "fix" the way they sound, i'm sure you can't fix every iem with eq but if a $30 piezo iem can suddenly sound warm lush and open like the mahinas i'd definitely be weary of people claiming frequency response isn't everything
Of course I do expect people to disagree, "ackshually the 3rd harmonic of the piezo causes the roll off of the cymbal strike at 5:34 in this particullar song to sound sligtly incorrect ruining the song entirely and causing me migranes 🤓"
I personally use the sora's when riding my bike, the tiny shell minimizes the amount of wind turbulance woosh noise, and since i'm not fully focused on the music when riding I don't notice the quality difference and can have my favourite iem sound with no risk of breaking an actual expensive pair
Dark secrets of audio revealed. Go to the oratory sub and ask about it, it comes up there often enough. The copes people go through to imagine a world in which EQ can’t bring most headphones into a reasonably audible match - Audibly indifferent in a lot more cases than any Head-Fi person wants to admit - are staggering. Obviously there’s some things that can’t be reproduced headphone to headphone but you can get damn close with a lot of them.
IEMs being the easiest to do this with. Sorry folks.
This is why I have two modes in the hobby. I have my very science-minded measurement obsessed minmax approach where I’m bringing everything to Harman and EQ is the alpha and the omega and I waste not a cent on frivolous audio jewelry and I know amps are the same and DACs are blah blah blah side
And then the side where I like listening to random headphones and IEMs without any EQ to hear some interesting signatures. I want to hear them as they were designed. Imperfectly. With shitty metrics and mistakes. With dumb bass and treble I know was a design error. Dig through the budget realm looking for gems. Try older pairs that I know have a FR that’s looks like a serial killer taking a detector test and see if I like the sound. I buy pretty boxes that cost more and do the same as ugly boxes. I knowingly engage in “bad” audio habits counter to the community standards. Because it’s fun. And hobbies are supposed to be fun.