Headphones

I bought Sennheiser IE80 8 yeas ago. They still work like absolutely new to this day, and they do sound better than any sub 50$ chi fi that I have ever heard. They have seen some abuse also, gym use with sweat, cycling use, commute, etc - absolutely like new after 8 years of torture, and they sound better.

I think now looking at these 8 years that 300$ was cheap as fk, even tho it was like half the salary at the time.

For 150$ I heard the truthear nova is a good option and are pretty durable

Less and less these days, because true wireless have gotten so good. You can pickup Airpod Pro 2 (lightning) models for like 150ish on ebay used and they take the fight to most wired iems in that price range anyway

If you can hear the differences, it's worth it, if you can't then just get a pair that feels comfortable and have the functions you need. If you don't break them often like having a tendency to put them into the washing machine, then it's worth it, if you do break them often then get something mid-range like 50-100 and that way you won't feel as heartbroken when they go poof.

For me, the comfort and the quality improvement in listening is enough to justify it. Plus even a $50 one lasted years for me as a daily driver so I know the latter part is t a problem for me.

From my experience, the cheap ones just doesn't have the same comfort and quality. It's nice to block out the sounds when commuting but that's about it. It hurt my ears when used for extended period (small ears) and the sound is just noticeably sub-par. Of course those chifi does have good quality FOR THEIR PRICE, but that's the point, it's for their price bracket.

I would say the cable type can be important. I have a moondrop aria salnotes zero, the aria fabric cable feels not very strong and after a year started to make weird sounds along with getting tangled often so I need to buy a new one while the almost 4 times cheaper zero cable has felt much more sturdy and works great. in terms of sound the aria is a little better but not even close to 4 times the price but that might be because the fit is better on the zero for me.

"Investment"? No. Consumer products should not be considered investments.

Buying multiple sets of cheap IEMs might end up costing as much as one more expensive in the long run. Cheap IEMs have gotten really great, but there still is a very noticeable difference as you move up the ladder a couple of hundred bucks. That being said, value is very personal and depends on how much you care for the improvement in sound quality.

They definitely do get noticeably better up until atleast 150. After that returns somewhat diminish. If that's worth it for you is up to how much you care about sound quality. 20$ can get you a pair thats perfectly satisfying for most people who just want to listen to music and don't care much about getting the most fidelity they can get

If you wanna go cheap get Kiwi Ears Cadenza

If you don't know your sound signature preferences, if you are that much beginners,i will recommend to buy 7hz salnotes zero(20 dollar).as this item is dead neutral, you can able to realise which frequency you need more or less. Based on that you can invest on higher iem later knowing your sound preferences

Buy a pair of quality iems in metal housing, avoid chifi, take good care of them, problem solved. I wouldn't call $150 iems expensive at all.

IE 200 is miles better sonically and comfort wise compared to anything chifi, and it has a warranty you can actually use. Bass leak is nonexistent if you install the tips correctly. Cable could use an upgrade tho, a nice Hakugei Surfer with mmcx+ is like 40 bucks on Hifigo.

It'll last quite a while with care, if such iem was out when I started the hobby I wouldn't have spent nearly as much in IEMs as I have now. I have an IE900 and it's great, but I wouldn't have bothered

Consider a planar, while they have less impact they bass goes deeper and sounds much more separated, however, distorts easier with EQ, however, it's harder to hear that distortion over a dynamic driver.

Is it worth it - yes, if they're detailed. You'll like the music either way but you'll appreciate the separation and detail at $150.

The ms1 galaxy is only $16, I would buy that and a $100-$150 planar like an S12 pro.

My dad really likes his Truthear Hola, he’s had it for a couple months with no complaints so far I’d probably recommend the ie200 though

Ive had the 1More Quad Drivers for like 5 years now and the little fuckers are built like a tank, refuse to die (and im NOT nice to them). I think they were $120. The sound is 75% of the way there so i just tweak the eq, and theyre comfortable.

Before that tried many, many sub-$60 iems and none of them lasted me more than a year and none sounded as good.

Only other quality iems i had way back in the day were ER4s and they also lasted years.

nowadays tho, i think most mid-level iems sound like shit. I wouldnt pay 30 bucks for most of the weird tunings ppl seem to like on the $200-500 range. Theyre either bass bloated or super tizzy most of the time.

So i would say absolutely try before u buy. Theres far too many options to choose from compared to 10 yrs ago.

And if u dont like the sound of what u got eq can only take u so far. My rule of thumb for eq is: if i can tolerate the sound it can be fixed, if i absolutely hate it no amount of fiddling will.

IE200 is well worth your time

get a hexa

Like all things in life, "worth" is very subjective and different for each person. What something is worth it to you may not be worth it to others, and vice versa.

Music and listening to music is one of my favorite hobbies and passion in life. I personally think expensive audio gear is worth it to me. I've spent thousands of dollars in the past decade on audio gear and think it's worth it. Other rich people with a lot more disposable income than me have spent tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands on audio gear.

Bought the Thieaudio Monarch MKIII when it launched and it's been one of my favorite purchases, even though it's expensive for most folks. Spent $400+ on cables for it too. Worth it to me, but not to a lot of people on Reddit or in general.

IE200 have absolutely awful cable and you can't change it because it's modifier mmcx, so standard ones won't work, you gotta spend another $100 to get their own upgrade cable, if you don't mind a bit of BA timbre from relatively cheap hybrids go with Truthear Hexa, basically on par with Moondrop KATO but hybrid instead of single DD so you get a bit of that BA timbre, otherwise matches 1:1 to KATO in everything and KATO is a very good $189 IEM one of price point defining IEMs

Buy some cheap sets to figure out what you like. Then go from there.

Been using the IE600 as daily iem for about a year and yes its worth it. Used it in gym, bus, work, rain (not like a strong rain airpods’ purpose is the rain), and every condition you can imagine. Still like new.

I think sennheisers are always a good investment because of how durable they are. I have chi-fi IEMs (FIIO) that started getting issues after 2 months and I have IE600 and HD650 with 0 problems at all. I dropped the 650's many times and the IE600 feel way more sturdy than other cheap plastic IEMs so IMO I'd go for the Senn

But cheap and find the signature you like first.

Anything over $100 I don't take out of the house unless it's bluetooth

IEMs are very personal. If possible try before you buy something expensive, or buy from somewhere with free returns. But yes any headphone upgrade is worth it if you enjoy using them more.

IEM within 200$ range are consider novice, if talking about Sennheiser’s. I would recommend you go for Chi fi’s like Fiio or Moondrop with the similar price range they got more advanced quality iems. Sennheiser IE200 just slighty sits below middle range and really easy to become your second iem later on.

Honestly near flagship iems sounds better than near flagship headphones sometimes...

I have a set of 64 audio u12t and tia trio, either of those will sound good enough that you'd never want anything better for outdoor use tbh.

I love my Salnotes Dioko. I upgraded from my KZ ZSN PRO X, and the difference is night and day. For $100 my experience was better than a mid $20 option. If you can be happy at $20-30 that’s great but I found a lot of technical improvements spending the extra money. So to spend an extra $50 for someone that you can keep and enjoy more.

It depends how much you like music. If you just need something on in the background for commutes or you enjoy music but don't need to hear all the details then a cheap set is fine.

If you're really into music and want to be immersed in it then it's absolutely worth it to invest in more expensive iems. I own the 7hz Timeless which are a great set, but once I upgraded to the FiiO FH7 I stopped using them because the more expensive set was so much better.

When you jump up in price and get the right set you get enveloped in sound. You'll hear details you've never heard before, you'll experience the sound extend outside your head and instruments separate from the mix so you point them out individually, you'll feel bass rumble in your body instead of just slam in your ears. It's a totally different experience.

My advice would be to buy second-hand, then that $200 will get you something worth ~$350-400, then get a Qudelix or BTR5. That will bring you a long way instantly and give you a lot to play with for a while.

Spend more to get good quality, no need to reach 100 bucks bracket, any 50-80 bucks range is good enough on this day

Buy a very cheap DD iem, and a very cheap BA iem to give yourself a frame of reference for driver style and fit. Then research and make an informed decision about one good pair that you’ll be comfortable with for a long time.

I would just buy something like the Simgot EM6L, and if you don't like the cable replace it.

Definitely cheep chi-fi. There are all kinds of sound signatures present under $50. I’ve got some KZ’s for stupid v shaped fun, salnotes zero for close to neutral, and truthear HOLA for something in between.

I think it’s worth it. Just make sure you do research and get the correct one.

Have a look at AFUL performer 5. These are awesome with most types of music . Plenty of reviews out there

Im pretty crazy with how I treat my iems, I buy expensive ones here and there and my heyday broke because of bad factory shenanigans and the replacement they sent me was the wrong side and they refused to fix it so I threw mine in the trash. that being said, as long as the only part that breaks is cables I think it's fine to spend like 150 and up on it. I've never had a problem with em and the only time I did was with a cable I accidentally elbowed. Honestly though, the under 100 market has gotten so amazing, I'm struggling to find an upgrade to my HBB PR2s

I got a pair of moondrop stellarius. I prefer headphones, but iems are underestimated. I wouldn't call chifi cheap*, but moondrop and ikko makes great iems. Mostly use iems for Soundstage and accurate bass.

My 119.00 iems are equal too a t50rp with better eq profiling imo.

Looks down at my Monarch MKii’s Uuummmmmmm

The issue with being a beginner is not knowing what sound you like. While the ie200 are great you might not like the sound signature, so it's best to get a couple cheap iem's $20-50 that are different. Get something warm, something bright and something neutral etc. Then once you figure out what you like then you can invest more money into the hobby.

I don't know much about iem's but I do have really expensive headphones. I started with 5-6 headphones at about $100, then picked by favorite 3-4 and bought the upgraded versions at $500-600. Once I figured out what sound I liked I went to an audio store and jumped into $2000 headphones and I haven't looked back.

My audio journey took 8 years so there's no rush to spend money.