Clear Tune Monitors - CT-500 Pro

The ones I have experience with: **KZ** \- Cheap, readily available, easily replaced if they break. These are universal fit, so don't expect them to cancel all the noise around you. You'll find them for $20-80, depending upon how nice you want them to be. **CTM** \- I use these, and love them. I'm going on 8 years with the pair I have, and I've never had an issue with them. Playing while sweaty outdoors, doing choreography, bing thrown around in loading situations - they've never failed. I have the 5-driver model in a custom-molded setup. These are justifiably expensive, but they *are* worth the money, if you're looking for a long-term investment. In conversations with Cesar at CTM, he mentioned horn section players tend to like the 3-driver, and 5-driver models the most, while keyboard players gravitate toward the 4-driver, and bass players like the 6-driver or 7-driver models. The ones I have currently run about $950. I know this sounds like a paid endorsement, but I do not get paid in any way from these guys. I just really enjoy the work they do, and I adore them as people. **JH** \- People tend to like the JH stuff, but I've experienced some driver failures on ones I've used, as well as around me with other people's. They cost real money, and their customer support is solid, but I'd advise people to carry a set of backup IEMs, just in case. **UE** \- These guys appear to run a lot of promotions, which makes them more accessible for someone buying a set of IEMs from them. I haven't experienced anybody who dislikes them, which is of itself a pretty good product review. I know rhythm section, and vocal musicians who use their stuff. I haven't run into any brass/woodwind people. **Westone** \- I know one person who uses these. They don't seem to have a problem with them. **Shure** \- This is your most widely available option. The single driver are lacking in what they do. As you add more hardware inside them, they get more expensive, and sound a little better. I don't feel like this is where Shure excels as a company, but they try to push their IEMs with every wireless IEM system they sell. Honestly, they're fine; but I'd rather use something a little more thought-out in terms of what it does. I have several pairs of these that came with other gear, and I never use them. Assess how much money you have, and go from there. Some companies offer payment plans, which is immensely helpful toward getting something you want when you can work with the terms of those. If you absolutely need molded IEMs, that narrows down your search to the companies who make them - Shure and KZ do not, and those are your lowest cost options. Do you need a wireless IEM system as well, or is that taken care of for you? Optionally, if you're not moving around too much, the Behringer P3 is great to plug an XLR into, and plug your IEMs into. It'd clip onto either your belt, a pocket, or a music stand. If you want to go wireless, you're going to have to pay for something a little more expensive. The last thing you want is a system failure when you have no other options - these happen, and *fairly frequently* with crappy wireless gear. More expensive wireless gear will also have more options to bypass issues of clogged wireless bands, etc. If you play near a hotel, airport, marina, port, military base, lots of large buildings, a highly populated area, etc, you *will* have problems with finding a frequency.