Septet

Was just using my Kiwi Ears Septet out of my Schiit stack (Jotunheim 2, Lokius, Bifrost 2) for some gaming, but I plan to do some music listening with my FATFreq Maestro SE and HiBy R4 later today.

Agreed, the Aether is this expressive and emotional sound. I would argue if money isn’t an issue try the Kiwi Ears septet as it’s my favourite out of the Kiwis I’ve tried (ranking in order from best to worst) Septet, Aether/Orchestra, Quintet, anything else, then the Etude as these were seriously muddy imo

Maybe like the helios for an arya equivalent? I'm actually kinda looking for that too ngl. I have some lcd i3s I've been fiddling with to see if I can get similar technicals with a bit of a warmer sound for the mids without over boosting the lows but it's a work in progress so far. Otherwise, yeah you'd have to spend more towards the 300- 500 range or up I think to get a tuning as refined as the headphones all mentioned. I'm personally looking into the u12ts and symphonium crimson to pick up and see what it's like all the way up there.(second hand of course cause 2k on an iem is wild to say the least.)

Yeah at least to me, the helios was super airy and technical but not fatiguing. Lean sounding tho but ig that was the trade off for the technical sound performance. I'd only suggest checking second hand for that one since it's in a more reasonable ballpark of 450 or so( any totl stuff atp is exclusively a 'second hand buy' situation cause DAMN this economy rn is dog) but I totally get not going for it. Tbh I'd advise against just cause I'm in that boat and I'm dying to know what the 2k range iems sound like rn..... I'm cooked. On the i3, could find an isine 10 or 20 and just break out the eq if you ever wanna experience that as well, like 100 bucks second hand. Otherwise rapthook go? Don't know the exact name but it's something like that, same idea, different design, more readily available. Really odd iems tho ig the septet makes more sense for a semi transparent iem, sparkly/ treble spicy set. Def try the s12 again when circumstances permit. Might bit be the ideal sound but it's always fun to experience something different o7.

sorry for the late post but the best on my hunt for open back is the Kiwi Ears Septet. Just make sure you have a load of power to drive it otherwise it might just be the singular worst experience you can have with an IEM. If you are after a stupidly expansive soundstage the Kinera Nott Phantom also checks that bill.

I own over 20 sets of IEMs, and I can tell you that beyond any shadow of a doubt, the pricier ones sound better. I'm not trying to yuck your yum, or take away from your enjoyment of your IEMs, but threads like this always feel like weird coping. You don't need to justify the money you did or didn't spend. Enjoy your music! EDIT: Bro you own a Thieaudio Prestige and you're posting this? Come on now. I have two kilo-buck Theiaudio sets and they might as well be on a different planet than a 20$ set like this in terms of quality. What are we doing here?

The OPs IEMs are like...15$. There are dozens of sets from 80$+ up to $8000 that sound so so so so much better than these cheap budget sets.

Aful MagicOne Aful Explorer Kiwi Ears Quintet Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite Kiwi Ears Septet Moondrop Blessing Dusk Moondrop Hexa Moondrop Pure I could recommend pricier ones but most people aren't blowing 800$ on their first pair. Mo

This dude owns the Thieaudio Prestige, a $1200 set of IEMs. I don't understand what the fuck this thread is lol

If it's not your first IEM and you're not in "awe" then no? It sounds like you already own a 1200$ set of IEMs, so that'd be pretty dumb.