[oknenir]

I am considering getting the Moondrop Katos to use where there is no desktop gear around. My main (and pretty much the only one) headphone is Focal Elegia.

In my modest experience, IEMs seem to provide more bang for the buck. For instance, can't think of a €45 headphone that would better the €45 KZ ZSX (although not a great IEM by any means). Can't even think of a €45 heapdhone for that matter

I was thinking, if the $189 would match the performance of a €900 Elegia... well, let's say €500 Elegia

So I googled IEMS vs Headphones and to my surprise, most of the opinions I found were saying that IEMs can't even match the same priced headphones

Most of these posts were from 2019/2020, so I thought if they were referencing some older IEMs (wanted to type "western brand IEMs", but don't know of any of those from that time), and current production Chinese IEMs have fixed this gap?

Anyway what's your thoughts on the particular case (Kato/Elegia) and on the question in general: today how does a decent Chinese IEM compare to (any origin) headphones in the same price range? Or what price IEM will be at the same level of what price headphone?

Let's not dive into the differences of the form-factors and the cons of those. It's not about the choice of one or the other, it's about one complementing the other without much loss.

 

[oknenir]

Did I post to the wrong section? No responses

 

[sydofne]

While I didn't listen to many iems and that much of headphones. In my experience, 100 dollar below headphones are not that great, below that you can get some IEMs that are really good and even punch above their price tag. After I would say 150 dollar where open back headphones start to be good (560s, new hifiman entry line) and for example after 300 dollar (Sundara), I believe headphones are better, especially in technicalities. However I never listened to 500+ dollar IEMs or even 1000+, but i believe in this territory, headphones in general should be better.

And saying this you might be surprised by the Kato, it might even make you question if spending more is worth it, even in headphones. I never listened to them, but they should be good. As the new planar around that price as well

 

[jsmiller58]

I am considering getting the Moondrop Katos to use where there is no desktop gear around. My main (and pretty much the only one) headphone is Focal Elegia.

In my modest experience, IEMs seem to provide more bang for the buck. For instance, can't think of a €45 headphone that would better the €45 KZ ZSX (although not a great IEM by any means). Can't even think of a €45 heapdhone for that matter

I was thinking, if the $189 would match the performance of a €900 Elegia... well, let's say €500 Elegia

So I googled IEMS vs Headphones and to my surprise, most of the opinions I found were saying that IEMs can't even match the same priced headphones

Most of these posts were from 2019/2020, so I thought if they were referencing some older IEMs (wanted to type "western brand IEMs", but don't know of any of those from that time), and current production Chinese IEMs have fixed this gap?

Anyway what's your thoughts on the particular case (Kato/Elegia) and on the question in general: today how does a decent Chinese IEM compare to (any origin) headphones in the same price range? Or what price IEM will be at the same level of what price headphone?

Let's not dive into the differences of the form-factors and the cons of those. It's not about the choice of one or the other, it's about one complementing the other without much loss.

I have several headphones, some of which include in no particular order ZMF Eikon, Focal/Drop Elex, Sundara, Thieaudio Phantom, Dan Clark Aeon Noire, Mr Speakers Aeon Flow Closed, Tygr 300, HE 560, Dan Clark / Drop CX, and quite a few more.

For what I am looking for (which is clean sound and Harman like signature) I think my (in no particular order) Kato, Midnight, Oracle, T3 Plus, Thieaudio L4, Tripowin Mele, Timeless 7Hz, and many more handily beat my over ear headphones for what I am looking for - a particular sound signature and the clean sound that you get when you don’t have to deal with the messy sound reflections going on between headphones and your head and ears.

But I don’t care very much about things that over ears would excel in such as soundstage.

This is just my opinion. Lots of other people will feel precisely the opposite as I do.