Headphones

As someone who demo'd the Volur and U4S...

No.

Past a certain point, price is mostly just a number. If you want to find your ideal sound signature, it may end up costing more, but that's not because it costs more. In the high end, you find fewer products aiming for a middle ground or an average preference, and more and more it's about the specifics, with unique and even esoteric sound signatures. Some do this tastefully, others not so much. But don't think that just because you get into the $1k plus territory that your experience is necessarily going to be better than if would be if you just happened to find the right fit for your HRTF and preference at a lower price point.

Yes and no. They're not worth 2x of chi fi brands, but the reason they are is because they pay real wages. They are still top tier iems though.

If you are happy with your current IEMs then don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

Go ahead and listen to other brands, designs, price points etc if you like and then you can either make an informed decision based on something you have heard and liked yourself, or you can stick with what you have.

(FWIW, I really like my U4s - they sound great, I like the fact you can actually tweak the sound slightly with the different Apex modules, they are well made and they fit me really well.)

I’m about 2 hours into owning Thieaudio Monarch MKii’s, they are better than my SE535’s and and modern $300 true wireless I have heard…

I just bought a TOTL Thieaudio Prestige LTD. I spent hours auditioning different ones to make sure that this particular IEM can handle every genre of music that I listen to.

I made the purchase for peace of mind - now I KNOW I will never want anything more. I am planning to give away all my cheaper IEMs.

Stupid expensive, yes, but if you can afford it, then it's up to you whether you can justify the cost or not.

I had a s8f and friend …. Ie900 , mest mk2 , u12t … are sooooo much better …. Completely satisfied

You own the S8F’s?

Get a new friend.

To me only u4s and u18t are good in SQ (u18t price is overpriced tho) The rest doesnt seems to be worth it ( i havent tried blanc, trio, u6t, volur so that can be excluded)

No gear is worth the exorbitant pricing that manufacturers ask so, like the other user, I stick to the used market. I've owned 5 different 64 audio models and I've liked them all for one reason or another. I love the apex system, venting, they use in their gear; this means that they tend to isolate less than other gear.

I haven't gotten around to trying the U4s yet but I owned the U12t's, U6t's, Nio's, Duo's, and currently the Tia Trio's. I don't recommend the Duo's, I've recently commented on them about why I think they fall short. The U6t's are just fantastic sounding, the Nio's are super versatile, and the U4s are very well received. They can all be had (used) under $1k and occasionally you can find the U12t's around $1k. You can find the U4s open box from retailers with warranty, for under $1k and while I haven't tried them, they seem like a no brainer if you're looking to get into 64 audio gear.

There's a lot of good gear by other manufacturers and 64 Audio certainly isn't the end all - their products just work well for me.

If you like BA timbre sure

I like mine. I have a pair of U12Ts, I prefer the gold module they just released and I use custom ear tips. Stock cable sucks but I enjoy them. Although I bought mine used from Audio46 so I got a solid discount while getting the warranty. The hobby is finding something you like and sticking with it.

U12ts are generally lauded as the pinnacle of iems. Pick them up used for half the price if you want them

If you can demo them, then demo them and form an opinion.

I have 3 64A IEMs, they are all custom which makes it somewhat a different comparison.

In terms of sound, it's a step up from the blessing 2 I suppose but I'll be honest I can't tell the difference, outside tuning.

People talk about these micro details like leading edges of gutair plucks and etc.

Yeah it all sounds good to me tbh.

However I do like 64a custom IEMs, with the apex system. I can put the most open module in and leave the IEMs in for like 8 hours.

Pause the music and talk to people, order coffee and etc.

Go home, blast the AC and put the close module in to block out the sounds.

But if you are happy with your current IEM stay put, there is no giant leap in terms of sound qaulity, and in some cases you may even EQ down on your high end IEMs to deal with extremely boosted treble.

I don't think they are worth it.

I have the U12T ($2k) and the Trio ($2.3k) ... they're decent but no way are they worth their full MSRP. I got them secondhand for just under $1k each and while that is palatable they wouldn't even be my first choice at that.

IMO the likes of the Monarch Mk2/Mk3 are better, at $999.

And there's huge diminishing returns before that, there's not a HUGE difference between $300-500 IEMs like the Hype2, Xenns Top, Variations and the Monarch Mk2/3. There is a difference, and I do think the Monarchs are better... but it's subtle. I suspect I'd include the Blessing 3 in there as well, I haven't heard it yet.

I get the impression that 64 Audio was more worth it when these first came out, these IEMs came out over 5 years ago, in 2017, and a lot has happened in the IEM market since then, particularly from Chi-Fi, IEMs have just got so much better and so much cheaper in the last 5 years.

They also appeal specifically to stage performance and they do have some features, like the linear impedance on their multi-BA stuff, and extremely high sensitivity, that means they will play with a consistent FR and LOUD on absolutely anything you plug them into. So this is a selling point for an artist who may not know what sort of high impedance low power pack they are going to get, the 64 Audio stuff will just work on it.

The Monarchs will boost the bass to high heaven if you plug them into anything with high output impedance. This isn't an issue for home audiophiles who can control their sources and it's not remotely difficult to get high quality low output impedance sources these days, even a $9 Apple dongle is low OI. But that could be a selling point for an artist, between radio packs, studio equipment, audio interfaces, there just isn't that same attention paid to output impedance with a lot of "pro audio" stuff and a lot of it is very high impedance and would actually be unusable with a lot of modern audiophile IEMs.

The likes of the Monarchs, or just about any other Chi-Fi audiophile IEM are also harder to drive, those specifically are not the worst but there are other IEMs that are genuinely hard to drive. So again, if you were comparing in a stage setting where you need a certain volume and maybe the radio you have is just low power and it can't get there with a harder to drive IEM but the 64 Audio stuff will play super loud on anything. Ironically though this does also mean if you are using them on a modern device, you have the opposite problem of limited volume range. Even on a dongle like the Questyle M15, in low gain, balanced, I am stuck between 5% and 8% Windows volume with the U12T. Anything over 8% is getting into hearing damage territory.

Don't get me wrong on this either- these are very good IEMs. I just don't think they are worth $2-2.3k.

I happen to own both the S8f and the U12t sets, so there's my 2cents fwiw: the S8f, out of the box, sounds kinda wonky. It's very v-shaped, which is something you either like or dislike. Also, the BA timbre is very present on this set. The U12ts, on the other hand, have very good timbre, are much more w-shaped and sound much more natural. For me personally, out of the box, the U12ts wins hands down, if price is not of concern. With that being said, my daily driver is actually the S8f set, since they're much more lightweight (and therefore more comfortable, long term), cheaper (so less afraid of losing them during a commute) and respond very well to proper EQ targets. I actually EQ'ed my set to sound like the U12ts, since I like their FR so much; doing that actually brings the two sets very, very close in terms of how they sound. To conclude, I'd recommend first trying to EQ your set to the U12ts' target before buying, so you'll get an overall feel what you'd get yourself into. Hope this helps; never forget to enjoy the music more than the hardware!

I have the Tia Trio, is it worth the $2300? Hell No. Is it blissful listening? Hells Yeah. Warm with great Mids and satisfying sparkle, I listen to EDM (mostly Trance and Progressive). My only caveat about the 64 audio is the fit. I have chifi’s, my favorite are Moondrop Chu and Truthear Red by Crin, and Truthear Hola. These chifi sound amazing for their price.

ive listened to a lot of iems including 5000+ dollar ones and u12t is my favorite. but i recognize that everyone is different and the price is probably not worth it to most people. also if you are satisfied with what you have then i dont see the point buying something off of someone else's opinion. if you can maybe try them and decide for yourself.