I’m curious if the chi-fi market will take over headphones in the coming years.
IEMs are a bit easier to be competitive at, not having to worry about acoustic effects of ear/head shape, ergonomics/comfort is much simpler with IEMs, etc.
But clearly good headphones are still working on a massive margin.
Going by Crinacle the current king of chi-fi is Moondrop.
Personally I own Moondrop Aria IEMs for on the road, and for home Shure 840a cans with 1540 pads to kill the extreme treble. My cans before that were Audio Technica M40x with felt mod + new pads.
I’m excited to see if chi-fi will be able to dethrone either of those bang-for-buck kings.
I did a similar surgery on a pair of Sony over the ears I mostly used when travelling, the older 900N.
It helped, but it's still no match for my SIVGAs :)
> Going by Crinacle the current king of chi-fi is Moondrop.
Agreed, I have their USB-C DAC, it's wonderful when used with the very comfortable SIVGA :)
It's hard to express what I like about the Linsoul: they are extremely versatile (custom cable etc) while also being very affordable (about $40) while offering an audio quality way above far pricier IEM.
So I purchased a few and keep a pair everywhere I may need them (car, office...) to have a consistent music experience without having to bother carrying them.
That's still possible with $200+ IEM, but not something I'd naturally do.
For music, I prefer something fully passive with a balanced TRRS cable, so both features are N/A on the models I use :)
When I need ANC, I have a pair of Sony XM and while they are great for these 2 parameters (ANC and good battery life), the SIVGA and LINSOUL offer me a better musical experience which is something I care about a whole lot more!
