Going through this journey I got a lot of recommendations claiming those things are THE HEADPHONES and nothing can beat it and… And sometimes I get a little disappointed for spending loads of bucks at a “meh” headphone. But I can’t blame them, I know that one thing that is good for one may not be for the other.
I see people asking this question about the “best”, but audio and music are very subjective. That’s why we get many different answers and there is no “better headphones”. So for YOU, what’s the best audio device and you love to listen in them?
UE 18+ Pro (gen 2) is the best I’ve used from a subjective standpoint. It has the most life like sound and comprehensively so. It’s faults are mostly a limit of its era of hardware. There’s one below that I use far more often though. This is…less fun…than other options. It’s great for classical music and video games where the realism of the sound benefits the presentation more than others. But for everthing else, it’s oddly a more boring experience, very good, but boring.
I did pick up the Thiele Audio Monarch MKII with the idea that it could dethrone them, but they were mainly a lateral move and just different. There’s good selection of drivers and crossover setup. It covers the spectrum evenly and quite completely. The balance odd this IEM is quite good in body and energy thoroughout. The slightly bassy emphasis can be fun. The quality of sound is technically good. But I find the sound lacks some dynamics and punch (less effortless). It has high total output though, bit it perpetually sounds forever dynamically compressed, even with a lot of amp behind it. The high driver count and skill level of the engineers causes a unique problem of coherency. The blending of the drivers in the time domain is mismatched. They got levels set well but not time, and it messes with the sound some. It also makes for a blurrier sound stage. Both the one above and especially the one below highlight the shortcomings from this lapse in refinement. It’s a product that feels like it needs more polish (and MKIII came out, but I don’t know if any of this was fixed).
However, what I use most is the Shure SE846. This has for some time been my go-to IEM for general use. It has the best construction, most technical refinement, best highs, best level of detail, great imaging, excellent mids, and excellent bass for a BA driver setup, including doing very well for like end extension and especially body of note. This is the IEM I’d keep if I was forced to sell everything else I own. This is THE BRST engineered IEM I own, period, by a mile. There’s some limits of its age and strictly BA design, but it is exceptional for its hardware.