Yeah, most of my music is ripped in flac, some in high quality mp3. I actually discovered that positioning makes a HUGE difference. As I've not used IEMs before, I didn't realise how much experimentation it takes to get it right. Literally a few hundred micron or a few arcminutes difference is actually audible. The main problem was that I had them in about a millimetre too deep. This is where the bloated bass was coming from. A lot of the problems I was having before are now non-existent. They still can't handle medium-high volumes, but the sound quality is quite respectable on medium volume. Orchestral stuff still suffers a little, but most other music sounds great.
I'll probably get some comply tips to try out as I'm interested in what all the fuss is about.