Budget IEM roundup, Serious edition

So I despise of overly bassy or U-shaped IEMs, which is how I chose the IEMs used for this comparison.

The contendors:


Moondrop Quarks, Final E500, Tin T1 and Tin T2. Used on that JCally JM10 adapter. I like how the CS43131 sounds.

Final E500
First and foremost these are warm, almost bassy sounding, The upper midrange is slightly recessed compared to the lower midrange, though I don't think the upper midrange tuning is bad. There's some treble bite, hence why I am using foam tips and also why it doesn't end up sounding super warmed over. Bass impact is quite good, as is extension.
It also doesn't have the most claustrophobic staging, actually sound rather open.
Where the issues begin is that to me it sounds very slow. Overall micro- and macrodynamics are quite limited. Resolution is subpar. Add to that a plasticky timbre and these are my least favorite.

Also normally left/right is color coded via the eartips, which I think is a bad design decision. With the foam tips it's hard to tell which side is which. The cable also isn't the most confidence inspiring.


Moondrop Quarks
These are also somewhat warm, sounding. However the upper midrange tuning is exactly the opposite with a peak around 3kHz. Otherwise I think they're nicely tuned. They have more of a bass emphasis that also bleeds into the lower midrange a bit. Extension also doesn't seem to be the best. You can improve both aspects by plugging the ports. They will still sound bassy, but with less bleed and centered more around the subbass.
Unfortunately they have a small soundstage and while the acoustics seem better than on the E500 (the treble is smoother) and technicalities seem somewhat better (faster sounding, a bit more resolving), the tuning does annoy me. Maybe a nozzle filter would get rid of the 3kHz peak, though I haven't tried.


Tin T1
I think they're somewhat hard to get. I bought these mainly out of curiosity because they measured horribly on the 711 coupler and looked great on the B&K 5128.
Well, mine came with a channel imbalance which partly explained the deviation: One channel was super bassy while the other one was rolled off. Yikes! I carefully played around with the port until I had a config with decent matching. I went for a neutral bass tuning, though I suspect they normally have a subbass boost.
Otherwise I think they sound like they measure on the 5128. Which is to say that they're more midrange focused and IMO more neutral compared to the T2. Which I think really is their main selling point.
The tonality is overall very close to neutral I'd say. Bass is sadly somewhat rolled off, but it's not too bad. The midrange is where they shine with a neutral tonality and a nice timbre to it, aswell. There are some treble peaks, but they're much more subdued than on the Tin T2.
The staging is quite large in comparison and imaging is pretty decent. They still sound somewhat sleepy as can happen with DD IEMs with drivers as large as this one. I just wish it had the bass extension and impact that such a large driver deserves.
A bit of damping goes a long way towards taming the treble peaks, though that does hurt the extension, which isn't too great to begin with.

The cable plain sucks. Mine was already beginning to seperate where it goes into the strain relief, so that didn't work at all. I had to use a special flexible superglue to glue it and it seems to hold, I just don't know for how long.


Tin T2
I specfically went for the OG version, since the newer ones seem tuned less towards my preferences.
I found them somewhat U shaped. Again, mine didn't have good channel matching. It wasn't as bad as with the T1, but one of the channels had more bass than the other one. It took some fiddling with the ports again to get it close to stock, which is where I left it.
The bass emphasis is tastefully done and doesn't bleed into the midrange too much. Or rather the gentle slope simply continues into the upper midrange, which I do hear as recessed. They also have a peak in the sibilance region, but with the foam tips I found it not too bad. I also find them to have a steely timbre.
In order to combat this I ended up putting a hollow cylinder of unicorn tail in the nozzle and replaced the metal filter with a fabric one from the RE-262/272 series.
Even so the timbre was still not as nice as the T1. However the technicalities are a bit better. It especially manages to sound speedier. Bass has some more texture and it's somewhat more resolving. I still didn't think it was that great, however.
That the cable is replaceable is what would win me over vs the T1. But sound-wise I think I prefer the T1.


So to put things into perspective I compared the group against two additional IEMs. The Moondrop Space Travel and the Q-Jays Gen 2.

Moondrop Space Travel
Despite them being TWS IEMs and far from lossless, I think these are the better IEMs acoustically. The tuning is better, they have a larger stage and seem to be faster sounding than any of the four above. No, they don't have the purity of sound that you get with an uncompressed stream and a decent dongle such as the JM10, but I think they're overall a more enjoyable listen. That should put into perspective how bad the above really all are.

Q-Jays Gen 2
I caved in and bought these from an EOL sale for a decent price. They're still more expensive than the others by quite a bit, but I really only meant to replace my broken Brainwavz B2, where the right housing seperated and I can't get the driver sealed again. Despite initally preferring the B2 in a direct comparison, I now think the Q-Jays do have some advantages.
Well, how do the others hold up against a TWFK IEM? They don't. The Q-jays are definitely much faster and more resolving sounding to the point where it's not fair to compare them. Technically they're better, but stock there's a large peak in the sibilance region. Well, I used some angel hair in the nozzle and it worked quite well, though some of it is still there.


Overall I was pretty disappointed by these cheap IEMs. It seems this space is dominated more by a FOTM market than there being real standouts and to me not even the venerable Tin T2 was that great. I think there used to be better deals in the past. Maybe there's something I missed - there ought to be.
I mainly bought them to calibrate my IEM coupler against and they should work quite well for that purpose. But for listening to music I'd take the Moondrop Space Travel.

 

@Serious - knowing your uncompromising tastes - none of the middle-ground will please you. The TOTL is another game of 'taste' - be careful out there.

You like the UERM - have you tried the Campfire Ara?

You like the HFM RE's - Single DD's are out there that are improvement technically, but if timbre is the thing for you - than maybe I don't know. The Ucotech RE-2 needs EQ, but is fair priced and gets you a long way. ER2XR / SR?

The IE 600 might be too colored for you, but it is a step in the right direction for Sennheiser IEMs

Nightjar Singularity is getting a lot of praise on HF, but I honestly don't think it is the kind you would like.

The S12 Pro sounded like how you described to me also - I modded them with micropore, it was better, but not where I wanted to be.

The S15, it is better, but I do like it more with EQ, but I don't need any mods to listen to them stock either.

I think you are a single driver fella like me - I'm still chasing like you. No answer here - sad face

If you are brave and patient, the LCD-i4 is a really neat product.

 

I find it somewhat infuriating that we no longer seem to have neutral IEMs at the top. Maybe I just don't know them, but neutrality seems to have gone out of the window in favor of taste. Even IEMs like the StereoPravada SB-7 which is supposed to be neutral... it just isn't.

Pretty sure I heard the Ara, but found it somewhat wonky. I found neither the original Andromeda, nor the Solaris to be an improvement over the UERM, tbh.

I quickly looked at the FR of the DD IEMs you mentioned. It's easy to just dismiss all of them like that, but I just can't imagine them hitting the sweet spot like the RE-272 does for me.

I will give the IE600 and IE900 a listen, that's for sure. I'm just curious how they compare against the RE-272 technically, even if they won't be as neutral.

I wanted to like the IE800. I even thought about buying one and stuffing the ports. But the RE-272 just plain beat it for me.

I tried the LCD-i4 a while back and didn't like it. I mean I even liked the STAX SR-001mk2 somewhat, even if crinacle thought they're mediocre.

When looking at the graphs the UERM and RE-272 have a similar response in the decade of 500Hz to 5kHz. I think that's what attracts me to them, even if 3kHz may indeed be a bit recessed objectively.

The 272 is midrange-focused, the UERM is just a tad U shaped, but I'd consider both neutral in the grand scheme of things.


Well, that's more or less the opposite of entry level gems, though. Back in the day we used to be able to buy TWFK IEMs for cheap or if you'd prefer a bit more midrange the older Apple MA850G ADDIEM wasn't too bad. Or the RE-400 (I always thought that series was a major downgrade, but even so the RE-400 was good value).
I was a bit disappointed that the Tin T2 seems so limited. They're supposed to be solid.