Currently? Still the BA Chopin. The subbass is there when you need it, and it hides away when you don't. It's not strong on male vocals, but damn is it good with J-Pop.
> But chopin would be my pick because it has good qc
That IEM is notorious for the faceplates falling off. It's probably not as big an issue as its made out to be, but putting it ahead of other IEMs *solely on the basis of QC* is frankly ridiculous. By most accounts it's a good IEM in spite of that though.
I'd put it ahead of the Defiant for QC though, given about 25% of those have venting issues, which is a pretty huge QC issue. That said, the venting issue is something you find about right away and can get a replacement (assuming you bought from Amazon, which is what I advise people to do with these). The faceplates falling off is something that will most likely happen after a year or so, depending on how long the glue holds up. If you're unlucky and they fall of while you're outside and get lost, it can be quite a serious issue.
Another one for OP's list is the TRN Shell. It's a bit under budget ($40 on sale, a bit more otherwise) but it holds up pretty well against most of the $100 options with a v-shaped tuning. I'd forget about the Zero Red (not much of an upgrade, nozzles are massive) and the Blue 2 (horrible treble and poorly designed impedance sensitivity). I like the Truthear Pure myself, but it might lean a bit dark for OP.
Someone mentioned it in a comment a few days ago, so it definitely still happens. I didn't bookmark it though. It used to get an occasional post about it, with some replies mentioning the same thing happened to them. I've seen at least one post before mentioning it happening with the new faceplate design, which answered the question I had in the back of my head about whether they'd changed their production process by the time that 2nd revision came out. The answer seems to be no, it's just a random issue and not something they can control for.
But yeah it's probably not a super common issue, though it does seem to be more common than the average rate of faceplates falling off other IEMs (which also happens - all IEMs have some random failures now and then).
Agree that the Defiant has worse QC, although as I mentioned I also tend to weigh these things against how severe the modes of failure are, if it does go wrong. For example I have no issues recommending the EM6L despite the issue with the nozzle covers occasionally falling off, because so far in 100% of cases where it has happened, it's been an easy fix. I try to mention it whenever I do though, so people at least know about it and can weigh up the balance of risks for themselves.
The reason I recommend getting an IEM like the Defiant from Amazon is that if there's a problem you can normally get a replacement sent out next day. Amazon still have really good customer service (although it is being slowly enshittified). And it's not actually cheaper anywhere else, from what I've seen. Amazon's sale prices have been at least as good as Aliexpress too.
Some Reviewers are pretty open when it comes to different tunings. Take Mark Ryan / SuperReviews for example. He gives high ratings to IEMs which do not really hit his FR target. E.g. Gizaudio Chopin, which is more of a harman tuned IEM received a 5/5 by him. A good reviewer knows his preferences and sensitivities which are not universal and are able to tell you if something sounds tastefully or even great independently from personal preferences. Jays Audio is similar, in his top-10 there are many IEMs with different tunings.
Of course, there are also reviewers which seem to be more tied to a specific tuning. Take Precogvision or Listener for example. If you check the graphs of their top-10 IEMs they are tuned similar based on their preferred tuning (Precogvision: V/U-Shaped or even W-Shaped/Elysian-Style IEMs) Listener: warm-tilted JM-1 DF).
So you have two options:
1) Find your preferences with EQ and check which reviewers seem to have a strong preference to this target
2) Find your preferences with EQ and check out the reviewers which have no strong preferences to any target
Cadenza 4 is one of the most well known female vocals set for sure and it also EQs quite well if you're into that. Alternatively something Harman like the Truthear Nova (foam tips required), Supermix 4, or Binary Chopin is probably fine as that tuning is often female vocal forward
Beginning-Way-746
