The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome.

[Yifang]

I would like to buy an inear earphone for a friend of mine so that he can gain experience with it, he has not used it yet, only headphones. So we need a model that is universally comfortable, small, light and has a good sound. it listens to everything, so you need an all-rounder tuning, harman target is close. hybrid or tribird would probably be the best, where the sub frequencies have DD. up to a maximum value of 300 dollars. I look forward to your definite suggestions.

Find a used or discounted Hisenior Mega5-EST, and if you can't, then you should definitely be able to find a Thieaudio Hype 4 within the price range.

 

[Smirk 24]

I would like to buy an inear earphone for a friend of mine so that he can gain experience with it, he has not used it yet, only headphones. So we need a model that is universally comfortable, small, light and has a good sound. it listens to everything, so you need an all-rounder tuning, harman target is close. hybrid or tribird would probably be the best, where the sub frequencies have DD. up to a maximum value of 300 dollars. I look forward to your definite suggestions.

I’d recommend qdc x FitEar Superior EX. AFUL Explorer is also quite good.

 

[drftr]

The whole TOTL debate is funny... what metric is "TOTL" being judged off?

All I can think of is the price it supposedly costs, and how much one would then cope after buying said items

Consumer brain is wild...

There's no way to objectively measure this is there? Subjective rankings of TOTL would be pretty worthless. For myself and also various others I know, there are many IEMs often talked about here as a "TOTL" that I wouldn't even consider at quite literally 1/10th the cost.

I think the term itself is somewhat obsolete.

Top Of The Line means exactly that, no matter what else is produced within that line and no matter the absolute price. The only thing that matters is the relative price within that product line. So if you have the A series of brand B with 3 IEMs of $20, $30, and $40, the last one is TOTL.

drftr

 

[RTodd]

I would like to buy an inear earphone for a friend of mine so that he can gain experience with it, he has not used it yet, only headphones. So we need a model that is universally comfortable, small, light and has a good sound. it listens to everything, so you need an all-rounder tuning, harman target is close. hybrid or tribird would probably be the best, where the sub frequencies have DD. up to a maximum value of 300 dollars. I look forward to your definite suggestions.

Isabellae may be just the ticket, it was for a friend of mine a few years back. $300 why not push it a little she is a gem, then again perhaps used may find one at that.

 

[Yifang]

Top Of The Line means exactly that, no matter what else is produced within that line and no matter the absolute price. The only thing that matters is the relative price within that product line. So if you have the A series of brand B with 3 IEMs of $20, $30, and $40, the last one is TOTL.

drftr

This is a take I can agree with, though I think Flagship is the better term for the most expensive/top tier product in a line-up.

I think there are various $500 models out there that are slept on and sound better than $3000+ flagships though.

TOTL is then very subjective.

 

[drftr]

This is a take I can agree with. I think there are various $500 TOTL out there that are slept on and sound better than $3000+ TOTLs.

That may or may not be true, but remember TOTL is not about absolute nor relative value. Nor is it about price. It's only about its place in a certain product line.

drftr

 

[Yifang]

That may or may not be true, but remember TOTL is not about absolute nor relative value. Nor is it about price. It's only about its place in a certain product line.

drftr

I edited my earlier post. Flagship should be the term for those cases IMO rather than TOTL.

 

[drftr]

TOTL is then very subjective.

Alright... So you're saying top of the line isn't always the top of the line then? If there ever was one thing objective then I thought it would be either extreme of a range, no matter whether it's top or bottom. But hey, I'm not a native English speaker.

drftr

 

[Yifang]

Alright... So you're saying top of the line isn't always the top of the line then? If there ever was one thing objective then I thought it would be either extreme of a range, no matter whether it's top or bottom. But hey, I'm not a native English speaker.

drftr

Well, Top Of The Line can be understood as Flagship if you would like to view it this way. It's pretty unfortunate that some TOTL/Flagships are horrendous though

 

[RTodd]

I edited my earlier post. Flagship should be the term for those cases IMO rather than TOTL.

Top Of The Line
is where the ear hooks are right?

 

[Yifang]

Top Of The Line
is where the ear hooks are right?

Maybe the plug side can also be considered the top?

 

[leylandi]

 

[Fafner]

Wonderful! Bruckner was one of a handful of composers that didn't outlive composing his ninth symphony. It seems to be a cursed number for a symphony as for Mahler it was the last symphony he finished (hopefully you're familiar with Abbado's Lucerne Mahler 9th!), while Beethoven, Schubert, Vaughan Williams and Dvorák all died just after completing. So whatever you do, never compose a ninth symphony!

drftr

Yeah, I own the Lucerne Ninth and was at the concerts as well. In fact, I was there at all LFO/Abbado concerts, great stuff!

 

[Tristy]

I need those gold EXTs in my life. Surprised at the Shanling release also

 

[Beh0lder]

Jokes aside, as always, thrust your own ears.

My triple flange days are over and I promised I will abstain from this self destructive practice. Going strong 10+ years!