Pilgrim Noir

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.

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.

That sounds like just the sort of shit that I have no tolerance for. It’s such a dumb decision to price and value dance and insult your customer’s intelligence. You’re operating in a hobby with people that have some form of discretionary income. Maybe not every hobbyists, but a damn good amount of them are going to see through bullshit fairly easily. I immediately replaced the MKIV cable with a Hakugei Ashes. Thieaudio could’ve packed in a similarly beautiful cable for as much or less than their stock option. Elysian managed to do it for half the price with the Pilgrim Noire; that black/stealth Eros S is the only reason I own that IEM. I’m not even sure what it sounds like.

I picked up the 5+2 as well, and I agree with you that the slightly less energetic treble of the Explorers is what appealed more to me, especially for long listening sessions. It’s one of the few IEMs I could wear for 12-16 hours. If I ever overcompensate for the treble in a mix, I’m almost always going to run through a pair of diffuse field headphones like the 1990 or 770s and notice right away, but so far I haven’t had to correct much if at all. This is the same reason I preferred the Pilgrim Noire to the original Pilgrim. They were neutral, detailed, and more rounded off up top. Great working IEM as well, although overpriced.

Depends on the IEM. For my current rotation: for hip hop, EDM, and some modern metal, I go for bassier sets like the Thieaudio Origin, Monarch MKIV, Jupiter, Hype 4, Mega5est Bass+, etc., Classic rock, hard rock, 90s alternative and grunge, I run sets like the Pilgrim Noire, Letshuoer S08, Top Pro, Meze Alba, or Dusk. Classical, instrumental, acoustic, Aful Performer8, Top Pro, or S12 2024 Anniversary Edition. For gaming, either the Simgot EM6L, Top Pro, or Truthear Blue 2. There are qualities I like about each set. There are a few "all 'rounders" I'm happy to take with me when I travel -- if I had to give up my collection, these are probably the sets I would keep. Top Pro has definitely become one of those. Anything that balances sound and comfort is on that list. Alba is another, surprisingly.

The Performer8 is the best performer (pun intended) for orchestral music, but considering anime OSTs can often incorporate numerous other genres, you may want to consider something that's more of an all 'rounder. The P8 is the king of clarity and detail under $500. It's still one of the best IEMs in its price range for that use case. The Studio4, which is also a stellar set, is a little more mid-forward and will be more suitable for tracks with vocals and midrange instruments (strings, guitars, etc.). The Origin is one of the few sets I passed on so I can't comment on its performance as I don't like to recommend IEMs I haven't tested myself, but if you were considering the Dusk, I'd also look at the Elysian Pilgrim. It may be the best of both worlds; it has slightly more emphasized bass than the Studio4, but it is well-controlled and will add some additional energy and dynamics to OST tracks with electronic and percussive instruments. The Dusk is still a good option. This is one of the few cases where I would argue for using it in its analog tuning. The default DSP tuning wouldn't be suitable for your preferences anyways; and you could still use the DSP cable for those times when you wanted additional tunings available, or to experiment with other genres. People forget the analog tuning of the Dusk was still a very solid effort. It often gets criticized in relative comparisons to its DSP tuning, as the DSP tuning catered to a wide range of listeners, but if you remove those relative comparisons it can still stand on its own against other IEMs on the market.

If we’re talking the analog tuning of the Dusk, the Pilgrim would win out for me. Dusk with both its analog and default DSP tuning, it would be the Dusk. But my preferences are different, in that I do prefer warmer tunings to neutrality and I don’t mind a bit of a veil in the upper mids and treble.

Most of these are far too V or U-shaped for critical listening work. The P8 is probably closest, but is still far from neutral. The Studio 4, which was mentioned in passing, is a set I’ve personally used for light mixing work. The Pilgrim would also work in a pinch, but would benefit from a low shelf filter to bring the sub bass extension down a bit so you’re not compensating in your mixes. I ran in-ears as my stage monitors for many years, and some of the older models from Shure, Westone, Sennheiser, and other brands are much more neutral. Most IEMs in the hobby now are fairly bass boosted, and so I still run headphones for most of my critical listening work (LCD-2/LCD-X, HD 490s, HD 600, etc.). One caveat is that FatFreq does make a reference series that might be worth checking out. And they’re fairly cheap compared to the rest of their lineup. I might start there instead.

I wholeheartedly disagree with that take. I've never seen clrrelation between driver count and gaming ability. In fact i've only seen clear step ups with better made products, that clearly show what the intent is when the product is made and with stats to back them up, IE distortion over frequency graphs, better engineered drivers, etc. I enjoy multi driver iems as well, but for gaming my single dds have always been superior to even my Pilgrim noirs or even the Mest i tried

In my years being an audiophile, i've heard tons of speakers, headphones, and iems and i've always preferred natural sou'ding ones over bassy, or trebly ones. My favorite speakers for that are the Triangle Magellan Concertos sw2, but that's far from practical. In the iem space, i enjoyed the Pilgrim Noir a fair bit, but thr tuning is emphasizing bass and high treble too much. If you can, i highly suggest you try the Final A8000. It's timbre is the very best i've heard, in some aspects it even surpasses the Magellan speakers (and some others it fails to). It's rather peaky in the treble, but given proper recording and good source (and a fair bit more powee than you'd think) it has an ability to reproduce instrument timbre lile no other. Truly alone on the market in that regard.

Tbh i used to enjoy my hd800s a lot, but iems have spoiled the fun for me. The first iem where i realized i wouldn't go back to headphones were the Pilgrim Noirs. Already loved the Pilgrims, but the Noir sounded so much better, more separated, way mire effortless where the Silver Pilgrims are pushing the bass and mids way too much into your face. Those were exactly what i wanted, except for realist timbre and a but better imaging. When i got the Final A8000s, it was all over. Nothing sounds as good as those to my ears. I prefer them over the HE-1, which I've spent lots of time on. I EQ them, because i think i have a mild hearing loss around 620-780Hz, and i prefer more linear treble. But the raw capabilities of those IEMs are just nuts. Whatever you plug them into, you hear the flaws of. Even 6kUSD dacs, even top of the line niche headphone amps built in Poland by boutique builders. TL DR i think IEMs are just plain better than headphones. Bit of a pain in the ass to admit but i've switched fully and happy to do so

I prefer to tip roll for days/weeks to “EQ” and will only keep IEMs around that need PEQ if they are guilt-free affordable (for me.) 2025 GOATs no EQ: DMA, ET142 (Gold nozzle + medium foam) Great, no EQ: EDC Pro, Gale, PA02, Mimosa, Pilgrim, Pilgrim Noir, RSV Great with PEQ: Grit, Soundpeats H3, Relentless Great but needed PEQ and too $: CP622B, Monarch MKIV No real worst, but I’m disappointed with the Noah. I had the Yu9 Que and it needed a little EQing, and frankly EQ’d my Relentless to the same sound so out the Que went - thought the Noah would be it (meaning not needing EQ) but the Que bodies it in all sonic preferences I have.

A big leap... Elysian Pilgrim. It is currently on sale on AliEx (sale and coupon) Well within your budget. This set usually sells for just under 400. It is a slight U shape with good treble extension and nice bass presence. Out of YOUR list...Kiwi Ears Astral and Ziigaat Odyssey are both good buys as well.

The Pilgrim is very neutral, it feels like nothing is boosted, it reminds me of the Hexa but with better technicality. The Top Pro is a bit brighter, more exciting and I wanna say technically is slightly better than the pilgrim. To me the Top Pro is the way to go for sure.

The Horizon kinda reminds me of the Astral but wider, brighter and better at details retrieval. The soundstage is wide and open probably due to the elevated treble, it gives a sense of mystical, surreality and dreamlike to certain songs. I like it a lot

The pilgrim has clean midrange and It’s a great IEM, but no excitement whatsoever, technicality is good but it’s a bit boring. I would go for the Dusk, it is slightly bright neutral with beautiful bass boost. More exciting than pilgrim. Don’t expect a huge jump from the P7 but they are different I like having both.

Elysian Pilgrim and Kiwi Ears Aether punch above their weight.