CrinEar Reference

Best kilobuck IEMs you can get for 350

Very happy with these, up there with much, much more expensive IEMs. Nicely detailed, and while I might prefer a touch more bass, the bass that is there is excellent. Punchy, well textured, and blends in well to the music. The 'neutral' tuning means it sounds good with a wide variety of music, portraying them without much colouration. Of course, that also means it might not be the best fit for you or your favourite genre. No such thing as the perfect headphone, after all. Comfortable fit, can wear for hours without worry, good passive sound isolation. While I have a couple other IEMs that I think are better (for my preferences), they are both far more expensive, and have tuning that other might not like, or are less comfortable. (for reference: Audeze Eucild, Symphonium X Elise Europa). But that difference is *slight*, and not worth paying up to 4 times as much for. There's nothing I'm aware of that matches the price/performance of these things.

Good purchase

Went to the Hangout to try out the Monolith, but went home with the Reference. With the Reference, familiar songs in my library sound exciting again, because of how much new sounds I can actually pick up. I also find it novel for a reference set not to lack good bass. All in all, it’s all a very refreshing experience to me, and I’m a glad customer. :)

Easy to EQ

These are great IEMs for experimenting with EQ because it is so easy to tune the sound without causing weird spikes.