Worst/Most overpriced IEMS

Discussion in 'IEMs and Portable Gear' started by Judeus, Nov 1, 2015.

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Worst/Most overpriced IEMS

  1. Shure SE846

    15 vote(s)
    16.1%
  2. JH Audio Layla

    32 vote(s)
    34.4%
  3. Sennheiser IE800 (production)

    19 vote(s)
    20.4%
  4. UE 18 PRO

    5 vote(s)
    5.4%
  5. Sony XBA Z5

    7 vote(s)
    7.5%
  6. Westone W60

    9 vote(s)
    9.7%
  7. JH Audio Roxanne

    31 vote(s)
    33.3%
  8. Noble K10

    17 vote(s)
    18.3%
  9. Dita "the truth"

    16 vote(s)
    17.2%
  10. AKG K3003

    14 vote(s)
    15.1%
  11. JH Audio Angie

    11 vote(s)
    11.8%
  12. 64Ears (basically everything)

    8 vote(s)
    8.6%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. jowls

    jowls Never shitposts (please) - Friend

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    LOL. I made the 'amazeballs' comment about K10 but this is pretty much what I meant.

    The GIF John drops in the HF thread continuously is actually pretty accurate.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. Kunlun

    Kunlun cat-alyzes cat-aclysmic cat-erwauling - Friend

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    This is a joke, right?

    How much do you think the Roxanne costs to make?

    Jh pays way less for knowles and sonion BAs than you would. While the total might be more than $200, it isn't as much more than you'd imagine.

    It's really weird when people don't understand this. I'm thinking of the idiot who opened up a savant and was like "these parts don't cost the exact amount the earphone costs!!!"
     
  3. Kunlun

    Kunlun cat-alyzes cat-aclysmic cat-erwauling - Friend

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    I'm not saying the roxanne isn't overpriced (it is and there was a total hypefest when it came out to a thud of breaking cables made in China and CF manufacturing crap), just that what's a reasonable price is based on more than parts cost.
     
  4. proflitoto

    proflitoto New

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    It's not just that. The youtube video showed that the Savant uses a simple stock ohm resistor to perform the cross over function, and it used two stock filters, all of which you could easily get on Digikey. So the Savant has zero sophisticated tuning in the cross-over network.

    If we're going to be honest, it's really easy to make a technically capable IEM. Just buy a solid full-range $30 Knowles BA driver from Digikey and put it in an IEM shell, and it will sound decent. Whether the headfi community decides that it just sounds OK and competent, or if they imagine that it's the greatest thing in the world -- who knows. You gotta roll the dice and see how they come out. But what we've learned from the Savant is that you can load the dice by giving your IEM some fancy name and refusing to tell your customers what's inside. If you do that, they'll be more likely to be hypnotized down the "omg this is the greatest thing I've ever heard" path.
     
  5. proflitoto

    proflitoto New

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    It probably is. I paid $1,300 for mine and don't regret it at all (in fact, since then I've purchased three expensive IEMs and returned or sold all of them, at a loss or restocking fee, because I preferred the Roxanne and I only have so much time to listen to IEMs). But $1,300 might have been too much, who knows, and I don't know why the current one costs $1,549. But the Layla is definitely overpriced by any objective measure. What's crazy is the prices just keep going up. The manufacturers are going crazy.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2015
  6. Kunlun

    Kunlun cat-alyzes cat-aclysmic cat-erwauling - Friend

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    If it sounds great to you, then it's worth it.

    No question prices are getting crazy.

    I think the savant sounds pretty good, no comment on price point. However, I've spoken with John Moulton about the savant. A lot of thought went into the tuning of that, and I'll say a listen bears that out. The price of components doesn't really tell the story. I'm not defending the price or whatever, just that judging it by components alone is something people that comes from people who don't seem to understand how an iem is well made. With BAs, there are a lot of iems that are just components thrown together and they sound crappy.

    To be honest, when new ciems come out and they get "advertisement reviews" or hype, I'm skeptical. A multi-BA design needs to really prove itself before I'll believe it sounds very much different than most other BA designs.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2015
  7. Kunlun

    Kunlun cat-alyzes cat-aclysmic cat-erwauling - Friend

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    Oh, and to show I mean what I say:

    There's a high end iem which would have sold for $1,400 which none of you will ever hear because my feedback to the manufacturer was so clearly...mostly positive but a little negative for an earphone of that price.

    And it sounds really good, too--except for a thing or two that I was stubbornly clear needed fixing...and couldn't be, it turns out. But, anything less than hyping a product is taken as totally trashing it.

    Still better than the Roxanne! But they yanked it and are going another way.

    As for the K10, I wrote the second review ever out for it. You can see it on hf. I like it, and my review was certainly my honest take (well-amped!), but I can see what people are saying about it here as being like the popular do-it-all kid sort of sound, no earphone is for everyone.
     
  8. nudd

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    OK I really don't agree with this. Back in the early 2000s, iRiver (as it was then called) came out with a totally awesome DAP/recorder in the IHP-1xx series. These were the bees knees and totally slayed iPods. It had stereo recording, analog and OPTICAL line in and line out functionality, multiformat (including ogg vorbis support and lossless) CODEC compatibility (up to 44.1/48 khz) and you could record to WAV or MP3 with support for phantom power. It was also one of the very first rockbox targets and was even more awesome with rockbox.

    It was also tiny and AFAIK it became one of the bootleg taper's de-facto devices.

    Now tell me who are the producer of mediocre MP3 players?

    iRiver admittedly took many steps and just made relatively crippled and crappy DAPs since those glory days, but they certainly have an elite pedigree when it comes to the history of DAPs.
     
  9. proflitoto

    proflitoto New

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    When I purchased players back then, the gotos were the Creative Jukebox, original Ipod etc. Iriver wasn't even a player.
     
  10. OniWan-Kenobi

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    The Z5 has an exquisite sound for a universal IEM. Not the last word on detail retrieval, but they are musical (read: infectiously enjoyable) and speaker-like (read:live-sounding)
     
  11. Malik

    Malik New

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    Lol Roxanne one of the best iems you can get! What do you compare to? ))) And im not talking to tastes and preferences.
     
  12. Malik

    Malik New

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    After listening all iems from $500 to 3k i ended up ordering custom JH Roxanne2.
     
  13. BenjaminBore

    BenjaminBore Friend

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    @Malik Do you think that responding to the two year old post of a banned member, without any context or explanation of your opinion, contributes to increasing your or the SBAF community’s shared knowledge?

    So you ordered an IEM, that’s great. Have you listened to it yet? Can you provide any insight into that IEM? Impressions, comparisons, comments on issues etc? If not, then best to hold off from posting until you can.

    In a place that puts the signal-to-noise ratio above all else, these two posts are pure noise. Threads aren’t the place to share contentless comments, please go and read the intro thread: http://superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/what-is-sbaf-must-read-version-2.5555/

    And for good measure I suggest you read the old one too: http://superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/must-read-for-new-members.3/

    After that I would recommend you take some time to get to know the culture and the expectations of members better before posting more.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2018
  14. Malik

    Malik New

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    Man i didn't really saw the date i guess im stoned like a f***k man. Well i actually liked Noble kaiser encore a little more but... didn't want to spent 300 dollars. Roxanne sounds a little dark and encore sounds a little more brighter and a little clearer...
    By the way Mr.smart guy, all those models still in production so people who searching for info still can get it from here so u a little bit wrong Mr.Smart****
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2018
  15. songmic

    songmic Gear cycler East Asia edition

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    Would @zerodeefex or any mod kindly come down and put this dickwad out of his misery before he produces more noise? We already know how this is going to unfold, we’ve seen it a million times already.
     
  16. insidious meme

    insidious meme Ambivalent Kumquat

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    Just hit the report button on his post and copy pasta your post Should be faster for a mod to take a look
     
  17. Malik

    Malik New

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    dickwad is your father! ok? ) i didn't offend anyone you prostitute. I don't think you could say this words in my face you keyboard warrior son of a prostitute! lol... go f**k your own mom while listening ipad with iphone iems ))))
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    That decision disqualifies you from membership here.
     
  19. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    New member registrations are now closed.
     

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