SE535 (Pro)

I've owned all 4 levels of quality of the Shure IEMs (2xx, 4xx, 5xx and now 8xx). Each step up is a pretty huge jump in quality, especially between the 2s (which I consider pretty shitty tbh and not worth the price) to the 4s. Now that my ears are used to the quality of the 846s, I can't go back. It's like going from 4k back to 720p, or OLED back to IPS

My first (for me) very expensive IEM's were Shure SE535's. I was amazed by the details I never heard before in songs i've listened to for years.

I mean yea of course that's not a hot take or anything, headphones or iems or even speakers can all sound better then one another within a similar price range. now will they definitively? Absolutely not but they have the possibility to and can. That said U say 1000$ iems are beating 1500$ headphones but u list a bunch of headphones that are nowhere near 1500$ as ur examples.....That seems a bit odd. I'd much rather listen to my he1000se if I'm looking for sound quality rather than my Kaiser 10 even if both sound good for example. Anyway I was a big iem fan in the early 2010s started with an old kilpsch model I forgot the name of that used to sell for 50$ at futureshop before moving on to the kilpsch x10. Then the Weston 3umx to the Weston 4 and then Shure 535. Then moved up to shit outside my local area and was popular on the headfi forums back then in the fitear 334 and aurisonics asg 2 (later updated to the 2.5 when sent in for repair one time) before finally settling on the Noble Kaiser 10. What I learned from that is iems can sound amazing and despite me thinking that sound quality was what I cared about most, what actually matters most is comfort and that's why nowadays I use the non insertion version of airpods 90% of the time instead of reaching for one.

Shure SE846. They aren't perfect but pretty good even though more on the pricy side. They have a fairly neutral sound and clear even when a lot of sounds are played at once. I had the Shure SE535 before. They are not as good and need a little bit of equalizer tweaking but have a better worth to price ratio. SE846 are heavier than the SE535 and your ears may need a bit longer to adjust to them. Since you don't seem to listen to a lot of technical music the SE846 are probably overkill but the SE535 may hit the mark.

I'm rolling an XVive system for wireless IEM (small, cheap, rechargeable - not the best sound, range) with Shure SE-535 (triple driver = Awesome)