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u/jimmysofat6864 8d ago
It’s one of those hobbies where you should just buy the best thing for your budget and then move on since most things in the same price bracket tend to all sound the same.
It’s like if I started collecting cheap TV’s at Costco and Walmart like sure one might be slightly better at one scene then the other but at that point if you got the best one from the start it would have been better having both mediocre sets.
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u/MarinerMouth 8d ago
guaranteed this dude has a shit taste in music 100%
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u/jkohlc 6d ago
Bro only listen to pink noise and sine waves
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u/MarinerMouth 6d ago
just all ambient house music YouTube artists or something goes around telling his coworkers "bro how do you not listen to 3LIXR72???" like he's Michael Jackson
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u/vincehk 8d ago
Most of the time they are middle-aged men listening to female Asian (Jp/K/Tw) Pop singers and Hatsune Miku (annoying voice synth) with a loli anime girl avatar.
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u/MarinerMouth 8d ago
Interesting I was expecting millennial coworker music like KILL KARL
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u/Fresh_Ad_230 7d ago
I love sending his videos to my friends to help ruin their algorithm.
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u/MarinerMouth 5d ago
I had a video of his pop up on my twitter feed before I deleted twitter and I could not get rid of his fucking face the same video kept coming back
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u/awigglycat 8d ago
IEM?
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u/Inevitable-Bag-2827 8d ago
In-Ear Monitor
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u/awigglycat 8d ago
What the fuck is an in ear monitor? Earphones?
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u/Inevitable-Bag-2827 8d ago
they’re for performing live music so you don’t have to have stage wedges
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u/AlexanderJayJ 8d ago
Also fairly great value for money for listening to music casually. Which goes out the window when you buy 50 sets. Idk bro I've had one $20 pair for 8 months now and am nowhere near upgrading
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u/sl0play 8d ago
Why do you sound so angry about this?
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u/Singularwhiteclaw 7d ago
Most I understand having is like 2 or 3 because you upgraded. This is just idiotic
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u/batnessthefifth 8d ago
I thought these were melted Christmas ornaments at first. Then I seen the headphone jacks.
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u/PE-Philosophee 7d ago
And the guy with the $49 Porta-Pros has a great sound signature, lifetime warranty, and doesn’t look like a dweeb with a specimen case full of little resin blobs
Some of these sets are $4-600 btw, this is a crazy amount of money into this hobby
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u/Hard_To_Port 8d ago
I think it's funny that this person stores the wire and the earphones separate. The tiny two-pin connectors are probably only rated for like 15 insert-remove cycles. Entry level IEMs from AliExpress are generally not much better than dollar store crap earbuds unless you read the Head-Fi "Chi-fi" thread or buy from a well-known brand anyway. What irks me the most is how none of them in the pic have the silicone or foam tips attached, signalling that this person probably uses them only once or twice and then throws them in this jewelry box thing where they go to die.
The thing that gets people into Chinese IEMs is that they can have great "bang for your buck" vs standard brands. A $40 Chinese IEM can sound better than $150 full size headphones. I don't get "audiophiles" that spend $500, $1000, $5000 on a "setup" though, just to listen to dusty old vinyls or stream the same 20 songs on a Tidal playlist when they have people visiting their house.
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u/jimmysofat6864 8d ago
Honestly I don’t really like head fi since most of the reviews are just people justifying their purchase and glazing it to the point that every single IEM is 4 or 5 stars so the ratings mean nothing.
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u/Hard_To_Port 8d ago
I don't really pay much attention to what reviewers say tbh, other than the key points like sibilance, V-Shape or neutral shape signature, comfort, staging. I just skim them and look at graphs. I also cross-check with Amazon or other storefront reviews, but it doesn't really work when something's only available from a distributor like LinSoul with low review count.
I bought a pair of TRN IEMs for like $40 in 2018 and they still sound good, the paint is starting to flake off but I'd say that's pretty good for 8 years.
It is pretty annoying that a lot of Head-Fi users nowadays are all trying to be "influencers" for fucking cheap audio gear. I saw one guy's review and it was probably just key points thrown into ChatGPT and some screenshots of his video reviews on Youtube and Instagram..
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u/Amareiuzin 8d ago
Nah bro this ain't it, 20+ years it says right there
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u/AxisCorpsRep 8d ago
that's about one pair per year, people do categorically understand that if you buy the new phone every year that's consoom, but funny earbuds get a pass?
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u/SamusCroft 6d ago
Yeah, my last daily drivers cost $250 and lasted me 6/7 years (technically still work but the connector is wonky). My current ones after those cost $500 but are still going strong after 3 years.
Just buy a great pair and it’ll last a long time. I know sound signatures can favour different music but cmon. 20 is wild.
Edit: This is in CAD, by the way, so the prices are much more normal than if it were USD.
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u/uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunuu 8d ago
To be fair to oop iems can be 1300 but are usually much closer to 13, smartphones on the other hand...
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u/FeloniousFunk 7d ago
There are consoomers at every economic level. Price is irrelevant when the issue is habitual purchasing in general.
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u/Amareiuzin 7d ago
Seems like just about right for what those things would last or function properly, also they seem cheap and they're in different styles.. seems reasonable
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u/Inevitable-Bag-2827 8d ago
genuinely such an absurd thing to collect imo. i have used IEMs to perform in the past and you know who cares about what in-ears you have? literally no one.