Beginner IEM

[GTHintz]

I know people that go for the cheapo ZST and are happy. Personally I prefer the Shure 215se. (£85/$100USD) they are comfortable, fairly neutral, robust. I've had my pair for 8 years.
I'd go custom but I'm worried about them getting lost/damaged whereas the Shures are cheap enough to quickly replace without be feeling a big dent in the finances!!

I have the zst zstx and 215 Shures. The biggest advantage of the Shures is that they definitely have a much better driver than the kz. It's got a tighter sound that is more flexible to EQ. I was immediately happy to hear how much cleaner the tone is. Much more accurate and smoother sounding but still powerful when you bring the EQ. The zst and zstx is great for how loud it is but I think they are too hard on your ears over long periods. That piercing built in EQ is great for short sessions but it's hard to stick with them after a while when you're not hearing the overtones anymore because everything is fatigued. I've spent way too much time twisting knobs thinking something is missing but find it's just a lot of ear fatigue. For some reason the Shure 215 has definition in the sound but it's not so bright and piercing unless you set your EQ up that way. It also has a nicer low end because it feels more like how a nice bass amp would sound vs just hearing the lows without feeling the sub bass like with the kz. It's like depth but not mud. To me that's a nice touch and helps me EQ a better tone. The tuning of the 215 definitely works better with my preamp EQ and brings out more of everything. I've tried different EQ and different pedals and it all sounds better.

 

[mikeswals]

Shure 215, seems to be a standard for many years for a reason. I find they have great full band balance.

 

[GTHintz]

Shure 215, seems to be a standard for many years for a reason. I find they have great full band balance.

I know there's more technology now and the bar has been raised but these are still useable for sure. Far cry better than the stuff available at it's price back in the day.

 

[dazmond]

While I agree on the tips, I beg to differ on the advice towards bass heavy earpieces. When you listen to your bass with exaggerated response, you will probably process it so it sounds good to your ears, which entails that it will sound thinner everywhere else. A good pair of IEMs with a flat response is capable of producing heavy bass when you send it heavy bass.

I think this is great advice. I too found I prefer a pretty flat sounding IEM for monitoring that can take EQ. The ones I like for music listening were overwhelming on stage. My current fav is the budget salnotes 7hz zero. Most natural sounding mids and highs to my ear. Can dial in bass if needed. I didn't jive with the KZ zs10-too bassy and shrill high end for me. Lots of others in my circle seem to like them. The 7hz zero:2 is great for music listening with a bass boost in it's tuning, and I really want to try the Truthear Gate as an in between. The nice thing about chi-fi is there are published measurements to compare between choices. All the "musician" brand options are just over hyped marketing to me. Another important thing is how the sound board is being set and managed when sending your monitor signal. It can greatly change how it sounds in your ears. IMO your send should always be directly after gain stage, or gain stage+hpf is ok too. Then with a flat sounding iem, the signal will sound just as you are sending it.