Elysian Acoustic Labs - Pilgrim Noir

I have the Pilgrim Noir, which supposedly are next level. [Headfonia Review] (https://search.app?link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.headfonia.com%2Feffect-audio-pilgrim-noir-review%2F3%2F&utm_campaign=aga&utm_source=agsadl2%2Csh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm2%2F4) To my ears, the Pilgrim Noires are as good or better than others that I paid a lot more money for.

Pilgrim Noir is very, very good. Heaps better than Pilgrim OG. Pilgrim OG sounds “dry” in the comparison.

Odd diatribe. Are you some kind of mind reader who somehow knows that most IEM buyers are lying to themselves and are actually just getting hoodwinked into wasting money by spending more? And how can you possibly know that IEMs aren’t “worth” their price? Worth is subjective, in the eye of the beholder. I disagree with your central claim that IEM buyers are not “getting quality for what they are paying.” I’ve owned IEMs across a reasonably wide price range from $15 to $1,300. The list of them includes the KZ ATE, Moondrop Aria, 7Hz Timeless, Sony IER-M9, Thieaudio Monarch MK4 and Nightjar Singularity. I also listened to the Elysian Pilgrim and Pilgrim Noir for a week when they were sent around on a demo tour. My source has either been a dongle DAC/amp (L&P W2, Cayin RU7) connected to an iPad or the Chord Mojo 2 + Poly streaming Roon. Each of the IEMs I listed sounds different and the sound quality is strongly, positively correlated with the price of the IEM. So as an example, the $220 7Hz Timeless sounds good and most people would be happy with it, but it delivers wooly, somewhat bloated bass. It’s really noticeably inferior in sound quality when compared to the Monarch MK4 or Nightjar Singularity, both of which sound much better to me. When I consider whether to buy an IEM, I don’t care about aesthetics in the slightest. I use IEMs exclusively at home and neither I nor my wife cares how they look. What I do care about is whether an IEM will last, meaning I greatly prefer IEMs with recessed 2-pin cable receptacles or MMCX connectors and try to make sure that the IEM manufacturer offers good long-term customer support. I won’t spend more than $1,500 on an IEM and think the pricing of TOTL IEMs has become absurd. You can buy a really good 2-channel system that will last forever for the price of some IEMs. You’d have to be very gullible to be “tricked” into buying IEMs by YouTube reviewers or comments from internet randos. Most hobbyists do a fair amount of legwork before buying. Ideally, you attend meets to actually demo IEMs to narrow down to the ones you like. On top of that, it’s worth seeing whether a consensus forms around an IEM among people you personally know or at least trust from their post history on various forums, but only after a new IEM loses its flavor-of-the-month status. And it makes sense to talk to retailers to see if the brand offers good long-term customer support. Finally, headphones offer a different listening experience from IEMs. I own a high-end headphone rig to listen to a set of HD800s. Yes, it offers a more realistic soundstage and better dynamics than IEMs, but the downside is that good full-size open-back headphones (which almost always sound better than closed-backs) don’t block out external noise, they leak noise to people around you, and are heavy and uncomfortable to wear for long periods. IEMs are more “in your head” but I really like how comparatively weightless and comfortable they are and how well they isolate from external noise.

It's me, I'm the musician. I've been gigging with KZ IEMs, I had sennheisers before that but they were crap (CX1 was a dud) and the KZ was cheap, sounded good for the money, and most importantly was unkillable. Tuning wise it's harsh but it does the job. The sennheiser were much worse. For actual music listening nowadays I use a Pilgrim Noir, and the KZ sleeps in my bass carry bag.

I've reviewed both the Pilgrim and the Noir, the Pilgrim kills everything in it's price range but can't compete with the Noir. The 4 way crossover makes such a huge difference, and overall imaging + separation makes a huge leap. Both are 5/5 in my book, tuning can be enjoyed right out of the box and without any worries about build quality or longevity issues