Shure - SE846 (Gen 1)

in tier 1 valorant, players are provided with shure se846 pros which are typically worn under a set of overear headsets that pump in white noise to mute out crowd noise/casters and also let the players communicate with each other. audio has always been an important aspect of pro play, teams will often base their entire strategy on certain players being in key parts of the map which let them gather important information through audio queues which can be hard to listen out for considering that 4 other people will be talking at any given time + white noise. a lot of lost rounds can be directly linked to players missing important sound queues aswell due to the aforementioned factors

IEMs:- Campfire Andro 2020 > Shure se846 > Sennheiser ie800 > Dunu sa6 > Sony mdr ex800 > Sony xba N3 > final a4000 > Sennheiser ie200 > etymotic er2xr > Sennheiser ie600 > Kiwiears Cadenza > Shure se215 > blon bl03 > Moondrop Space travel Headphones:- Audeze LCD2C > AKG K701 > hd600 > hd660s > hd6xx > hd650 > Meze 109 > Koss porta pro > Grado sr225 > Grado sr80

First, you need to make sure you have a mixer with additional outputs that allow you to create an independent mix for the IEM. All voices and instruments need to run through the mixer for you to hear them. Ideally there should be two channels for each person using IEMs, stereo mixes make it much easier to hear everything clearly. Then, you either need either a wireless setup to transmit that signal to the pack you carry with you to drive the IEMs, or you need a headphone driver and long cable. Lastly the IEMs - bassists have it worse than some, because IEMs that produce clear, accurate low frequencies tend to be more expensive than what other players can get by with. If you are on a limited budget, buying used can allow you to afford more than what you would get buying new. I'm not familiar with most of what's on the market, but I'm using Shure SE846 with custom molded sleeves, and bass comes through well on these compared to some of the lower models. A nice thing about Shure earbuds is that you can split up the cost by buying them and using standard sleeves, and upgrading to custom sleeves later if you are happy with the sound.

UE 18+ Pro (gen 2) > Thiel Audio Monarch MKII > Shure SE846 > Sennheiser HD800S > Hisenior Mega5EST > Ortofon E-Q8 > JVC HA-FW1800 > Focal Clear OG > Sennheiser (Drop) HD6XX >Audio Technica CK10 There's my top 10, but I could keep going or include a pile of older stuff. I have like 50 I could mush into a big list. The UE 18+ Pro is the single best thing I own. I could call the Monarch MKII as a holistically better product, but the UE is intrinsically more special. However, most of the time my go-to is the SE846. I tend to grab that most of the time over everything else. The HD800S I just sold. It's competent, but I wanted better. I'm spoiled by the capability of IEMs which are just better. The Mega5EST was neat and really well balanced but softer/milder than my preference. The Ortofon E-Q8 still impresses me to this day despite being obsolesced for many years. It is an unequivocally impressive single BA (of sorts) IEM and fun to listen to. I would have LOVED to see Ortofon continue the work and build a proper headphone line. Their one effort of their E-Q5, E-Q7, and E-Q8 units wee exceptionally. The JVC FW1800 is a good driver, albeit a little midbass peaky for my taste as its configured, resolving, detailed, and shows the benefits of smaller dynamic drivers over full size cans. This is why both the Clear OG and HD6XX lag behind. They are comparatively more lethargic presentations. The Clear is high detail, aka "Clear" and more detail oriented than the HD6XX or even the HD800S. The HD6XX is a great everybody product, well balanced, slightly dark, a little forward, but it does a lot of things well. And lastly the CK10, a very old, very special IEM from rather early days of 2 driver IEMs. Audio Technica of this era really made special things. It's a shame they kind of faded away and stopped being a major player.

64 Audio 12T and Campfire Andromeda is another. I'd say that even old school stuff like the Aurisonics ASG 2.5 might still be perfectly good today and Shure SE846 still has its fans.

I'm quite pleased with them. I started in iems in the wrong direction, the expensive ones. So far my history is shure se846, Noble k10, campfire Solaris, anole vx, empire ears legend x, and then Oriolus traillii. Then I wanted to get into headphones the same way, settled with the dunu sa6 mkii and fatfreq maestro mini for my iems. Found a good deal on tea pros, got em and it's what I listen to the most now. I do miss some lushness in the mids, but my music is better suited to v shape anyways, probably my ideal would be u shape (EDM, pop, hip hop) and I only got it because I heard it was good for gaming. It's so good at all of that, that I listen to it more than the Stax setup I bought. At retail price, I'd strongly consider it. At sale or good condition second hand, it's an instant buy for me

Because I care about my ears, 22 years in. They don't ring after sets. I immediately put on ear plugs before and afterward. I don't use the house monitors, and any delay from monitor to main system doesn't affect me in the slightest. Mine are the Shure 846s, but if those ever fail, I'll go for Ultimate Ears customs.