My place is having an Audio Visual convention with various or gears including speakers, amps, headphones, iems etc which many of them just arrived and have their first spotlight in Malaysia. I went yesterday to try some of them.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliate with any of the items, and description are just based on a 5-10 mins listening from my phone ->apple dongle. Most of the gears I didnt know the price before hand unless specified.
Truthear Nova: Sounds meh, build quality feels plasticky, cable feels cheap too, but overall aesthetic is okay with the colour. After googling the price, 7hz timeless or even s12 pro sounds better and feel more premium to me.
Sony M9: I know the price of this before listening because of its status. Fit is very good and light, Imaging is damn good with very good bass. It might sound a bit "boring" for some people, but I like it.
Moondrop Dark Saber: This unit if not from demo unit, its a personal unit from a friend there. First touch, build quality meh, black colour wood like design looks nice on photo but irl not so much. Fit wise same as Variations (Variations fit my ears nicely). Sounds average, similar to variations but warmer, doesnt worth the price above variations.
Fiio fx15: Fiio 1st tribid? Build quality is very good, cables too. Fit is very comfortable. Sound wise feels more detail than the Variations and definitely better than Dark Saber.
Andromeda 2023: Build quality as usual from previous Campfire audio products, cable feels cheap. Sound wise, imaging and soundstage spectacular but tuning wise sounds weird, low mid to bass sounds bloated to me. ( I didnt know they increase the price so much from previous Andromeda which is a no for me).
Vision Ears VE3/8: We just have this brand arrived locally so I am very excited to this this premium brand. VE3 sounds very not detailed, feel like moondrop lowerend DD level. VE8 is very good, like very very good on resolution, separation and imaging even more than u12t but not much. After looking at the price I understand why :)
Kinera Loki: This is END GAME level for me, i used same songs to listen all the gears there (Chinese Pop and Italian Opera) this give me 3d like feeling especially the hi hats and ride sound, its damn good. Not sure if its the Bone conduction taht make the feeling, I dont feel this on Mest 1 and 2.Cable feels too heavy for me. After checking the price, I put it down and leave, because I dont think I will ever pay this much.
MM100 vs MM500: I compared this A&B on the spot and I know the price for mm100 before hand because I am actually interested on this. MM100 sounds very good, sounds close enough to MM500 and for me better than the Arya Organic (The place is noisy, and open back listening might not be accurate). Soundstage is good, with decent imaging. But I personally do not think its better than Sundara, QC wise maybe.
That wraps up for my short trip to Audio Convention, I try to make this brief, and not all gears were written, so if you guys have any questions I would gladly answer in comments. :)
Monarch mk2.
I sold almost everything else because of this iem. Coz its so good that I dont feel like i want to use anything else, and i have tried and own some other iems that cost 2-3 times the price.
I mainly listen to pop, jazz, classical.