IE 600

Fwiw I heard IE600 and prefer my much cheaper and much sturdier EA1000

Is it? I regret buying mine. I was expecting Sennheiser sound, but I underestimated how V-Shaped their tuning is. I can barely listen to them without EQ. This IEM is not even remotely similiar to their over-ear lineup.

Okay so I finally got them and for me I can notice some differences. What surprised me the most is the fit, with the IE600 I get a perfect seal with the standard silicon tips by just placing them in my ear gently every single time. This wasn't the case with the IE200 where I needed those orange tips. That was very weird since they look so similar. (Besides the different material of the casing) Regarding sound I would say the IE600 feel especially more detailed to me than the IE200. They sound great and I prefer them over them so far. But it's very hard to give details about this for me at this point. I notice these changes more significantly when I use a pair of headphones for a while and then change back, so I might still need some time with them. Also: I don't have a lot of experience with IEMs, the only other pair I own are the Dusk x crinacle and quality wise the IE600 are definitely closer to those than to the IE200. So far I absolutely love them and it was the right choice for ME. Would I recommend them to someone else? Probably not when you need to pay a couple hundred bucks more than for the IE200. If you don't care that much about money I would say go for it and try them some day, but if you're not getting a very good deal I think they're difficult to justify from a financial perspective. Still, you're getting amazing quality from them and they're awesome - as long as they work. Cause a lot of people are reporting about quality control issues and them breaking pretty quickly. I can't say anything about that so far, that's also something I still need to figure out with more time.

I bought the IE600 because as you said people liked it more and it was mid forward (with a bass boost) which I wanted for my tuning rather than hyper analytical like the IE900. But If my IE600 died and at the current discount I could get it for a change, you can always try and return it or sell it at some point if you don’t like it and get the IE600 again.

You should definitely check out the Sennheiser IE line. From their cheapest IE200 , their midrange IE600 and to the most expansive IE900 they are all amazing iems, with incredibly small shells. Small enough to actually sleep with, as they do not stick outside of the ear.

Exactly the same experience like yours. I started with IE600 and like it a lot. Jumped to IE900 later because of a deal too good to miss. It is truly an endgame IEM. The bass texture and clarity is way above IE600, I also appreciate the extended treble. I described it as analytical bass head IEM. The FR cannot justify it, it is a shame that so many people simply bash it based on graph alone. The bass texture, clarity, and sound cohesion cannot be read via graph. You have too listen to it. It stands pretty well against my HD800s and E3 for analytical listening, and go toe to toe against MDR z1r for fun stuff. It is such a good value to me. My 2022 Focal Utopia is on its way, we will see how much I still love it after Utopia.

That's currently the closest option that we have. Ie200 and 600. Not that interesting from just the tuning perspective but as overall package it's just unbeatable.