7th Acoustics - Supernova

I've spent years looking for Moondrop Starfield upgrade, so far I have listened around 40+ of the most popular and most recommended iems with prices up to 1300$. I was thinking of writing an article about all the iems I have tested and what I have learned, but I just don't have that much time to share a detailed findings unfortunately. But in short I can tell you this - if you have good hearing and appreciate the real/natural/reference sound then Moondrop Starfield iems are simply unbeatable in sub $1300. Yes, they are not perfect sounding, BUT they have not a single minor or major flaw, have good to excellent sound across the board, very comfortable to wear and their overall sound signature is very similar to the reference Genelec monitors. Yes, other more expensive iems can have a slightly more natural mids, or more detailed highs, or wider stage, or better bass, but they ALL have at least one major flaw or more often several minor and major flaws, like being big and getting hot and uncomfortable very quickly or having much worse mids or much worse highs. So overall they always lose to Starfields and often are simply unacceptable sounding without EQ. MOST common and prominent flaw of expensive iems (like the often recommended Monarch MKII/MKIII or PRESTIGE LTD) is very harsh and sibilant high frequencies. People who enjoy and recommend these iem have damaged hearing and by listening to them they damage it even more. So unless you have hardware to equalize the iems, I would recommend to avoid buying any expensive ones. Possibly there are some iems that are overall better than Moondrop Starfield in over 1300$ range and that is what I plan to investigate in the upcoming months/years when I have time to spare. The only iems that got close to be a replacement for Moondrop Starfield are 7th Acoustics Supernova. They have some minor flaws like highs being borderline harsh, slightly weak bass, poor and cheap accessories with only balanced cable, sealed design that makes it quite challenging to find the right eartips and right insertion depth. But after spending some time and money experimenting with different eartips and external DACs to get less harsh sound and not so tight fit, I found the right balance so they now sound like 10-20% better than Starfields depending on the song. But it all cost me over $1000, meaning over 10x the price of Starfields for some small (still noticeable) improvements. So unless you have $1K to waste I would recommend staying with Starfields and saving the money.

7th Acoustics Supernova, AFUL Cantor, Monarch Mk2/3, Moondrop S8, Used Campfire Andromeda are some of my favs under $1000

I have these, they don’t change the sound. I use my 7th acoustic supernova with them, totally fine. Sometimes I can hear the noise floor.

No iem will give you wallhacks or anything like that, the Aful explorer does what I need and more even compared to my supernovas and dusks and performer 8s. Spending this much just for gaming is not worth it

I would never tell anyone to blind buy as it is so difficult to interpret preferences and take unknown physical differences into account but the Supernova is the one iem I own which people seem to consistently like.