64 Audio - Aspire 1

I havent tried that many IEM’s in the $300-$350 price bracket, but I have the 64 Audio Aspire 1 and the Etymotic ER4XR and the Shures are the ones I keep coming back too. They take a second to get used to, like all audio things, but once you do they are crystal clear with good separation and balance, everything just sounds so tight and engaging while being well controlled. Imaging and detail are great and nothing steps over anything else, everything has room to move. The cable is terrible tho, replaced it with the Campfire Audio Timestream and couldn’t be happier. The clarity is just great, clear without being thin. Everything else I have sounds stuffy by comparison. I prefer these to my IE600’s 9 days out of 10.

Edit: oof, sorry for the long post. I just really love talking about this stuff, lol. For reference, I’m using the Shure’s with their stock tips and the IE600’s with the Spiral Dot Pro tips as these are the tips I’ve tried that give me the best performance out of them. The Aonic 4’s have the edge in comfort and security for starters. The IE600’s, while light, dont sit as well in my ears compared to the Shure’s. Its more of a light contact thats just a little over enough to form a seal than the security of the basically rubber earplugs the Shure’s are. The seal is so good on the Aonic 4 that if you push it in deep enough and let go it will create a partial vacuum in your ear that lowers the overall volume while not still making a “pop” when removing them. They are very thoughtfully designed and are incredibly comfortable and secure. They aren’t going anywhere, while I need to fiddle with the IE600’s more to get it secure. Shure’s win hands down In isolation. On their own they do an above average job, but pump some noise through them and you can cut out a lot, which makes sense since these are meant to be stage monitors. While not being able to kill it, I was able to mow the lawn on my loud ass zero-turn and got the noise down to a comfortable level while still being able to hear my audio book without having to fill in the gaps of dialogue with guesses. I find the sound signature of the Aonic 4’s to be more honest and accurate than the IE600’s. The Shure’s can sound a little flat but everything is there and its still engaging. Everything is on the same level with room to move and even in crazy parts of songs throughout different genres its still incredibly easy to isolate and listen to individual parts of the music, nothing steps on one another at any point. I find that each area of the FR on the IE600’s can get in the way of the rest of the mix sometimes, particularly the treble. I’m listening to Paradise by Coldplay rn on the IE600’s and the trebble is really dominant and can be heard the loudest at all times. The clarity and detail of the Shure’s gives each part of the mix a lot of depth as well, with the IE600’s everything is more or less on the surface and while it sounds good, it doesn’t grab me as hard. The texture of the parts of the mix on the IE600’s sounds simpler than the Shure’s. The vocals particularly sound more simple on the IE600’s than the Aonic 4’s that have a bit more substance to them. I’m the kind of person who finds it hard to understand lyrics in songs 90% of the time so having that extra detail is important for me. For Hotel California its not an issue, but for alternative rock and metal it becomes more of a challenge. The IE600’s do a good job of putting vocals forward but with the cymbals dominating or the bass kicking to hard sometimes it can get in the way and I have to try harder to focus. Let’s go back to Hotel California. I feel that the Aonic 4’s give me the entire frequency range compared to the IE600’s. With the IE600’s I hear three main things, Bass, Vocals, Treble. Basically, kick drum, voice, cymbal, dominating the frequency range with the guitar fighting to get through. With the Aonic 4 they are equally balanced while still being easily separable. I get bass, vocals, and treble while still being able to enjoy everything in between. Nothing is overpowering or offensive. Just swapped over the Aonic 4’s and just realized there is a bass guitar in there, where did *that* come from? The imaging is great as well, I play a lot of VR games so I use these when my head gets too hot from my HD620s’s. Though I will admit that my 64 Audio Aspire 1’s have the edge in imaging. Overall, I find that my Shure’s give me more of the things I value, though thats not to say I dislike my IE600’s. I have an entire wall of headphones and earphones that I pick through to find the sound I like in that moment, it seems to be a new sound every day and I’ve rarely found a day where I cant find a set of cans that can satisfy it. While 9 times out of 10 I pick my Aonic 4’s over my IE600’s there is that one day where all I want to listen to are my Sennheisers. I’ve kept every piece of audio gear I’ve liked for that reason, while also they cost nothing to hold onto.

Quality bass beats more bass every day of the week. I have some 64 Audio Aspire 1’s and when I first plug em into my head the bass drowns me, it’s just so oversaturated. Top end can be pretty weak as well so at its worst I have two subwoofers in my head until I get used to it. Once I do get used to it they’re fine, the imaging and depth is good but they aren’t as comfortable, isolating and clear as the Aonic 4’s so I only ever use them for VR anymore and in that regard they are fantastic. Outside of that I need to wake up wanting their sound or they just appeal to me for music. Everything about the Shure’s sound is tight, including the bass. There is very little looseness, per lack of a better term, its just sound on, sound off, its crisp and clear. I never feel like the music is just one single noise, everything is always separate and adjusting

If you don't practice with IEMs, it would be better to not play with them either. The difference in volume perception, cue mix, and dealing with human interactions is pretty significant compared to the relative ease of sliding down your 'phones. Side note: most people see the visual cue of 'headphones on' and hold back on coming up to the booth - not so with IEMs. They just don't see them! I'm fortunate to have universal ear holes ?!!! so my set of 64Audio are great. Tried the Sennheiser HD-25 and they're good, also but actually did hurt my ears after a long gig. They also seemed to be tuned to clip certain frequencies but that could have just been my perception, Found that the bass was almost always too rich, when I really needed the mids to be in my sweet spot. The other gotcha with wearing IEMs, whether you get a custom fit or get away with the universal fits, is that you have to absolutely know, trust and believe in your FOH music management. You obviously don't need a booming booth monitor but if you're also controlling your own FOH on the fly, IEMs are not good for keeping your overall volume balanced. If you have to manage your own sound, I wouldn't trust my IEMs to not get in the way.