Hey guys,

A little Background:

When I was youngling in university fuelled by caffeine, angst, and agony, I would put on my headphones for hours and just listen to them. Didn't matter what I was listening to, literally listened to everything, Linkin Park, Chris Brown, EDM, recordings of rain falling, weird fuking asmr shit where girls whispered into your ears. Anyways fast forward 7 years and the only music I have listened to is top 100 in the confines of the radio of my car and the integrated speakers on my PC monitor. It's weird how I had completely lost touch with sound.

However, recently I randomly stumbled across some of Hans Zimmer work on the tubes, and the emotions came flooding back, (albeit it was played back as what I can only describe as a trash can, computer monitor speaker setup) I could hear the power in the music.

I was excited to hear music again and I was determined to hear the work as the master intended it to be. I immediately started researching headphones and quickly learned about sound signatures. With budget in mind, I settled for mx40 Audio Technica (I also was looking at 660s but I wasn't ready to go balls deep). I believed the neutral sound would give me the best natural representation of the music. and I was not disappointed (I mean there is nowhere else but up when your ears are calibrated to listening to shit). It was great, I listened to them for days on end... However, there was one problem.

The problem where the headphones hit a brick wall for me was when I started branching off to other genres of music on my Apple music app, especially hip-hop. I was like, "Oh man... I think I just understood what a flat neutral sound signature meant". Hip-hop sounded so flat, I could hardly hear any bass, there was no body, no life, no excitement.

Also, another gripe of the mx40 after hours and hours of listening to Hans Zimmer and some other orchestral music is that I don't believe it is the most accurate representation of each instrument. They do not sound like real instruments but more like just sound coming out of the speakers. I don't know if you get what I mean but I believe you guys call this Tone?

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SO... Audio gods this is where you guys step in and help guide this pleeb achieve audio Nirvana

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Short summary:

-I have chosen to go with IEM rather than Headphones for more accessibility(heard IEM are pretty freaking good now)

-I listen to a lot of Hans Zimmer, Johann johannsson

-Occasionally Hiphop, pop, lowfi

-Price 500-1000$ usd but open to suggestions on higher priced ones

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What I would like to see in the IEM:

Bass -Decent Bass, so I can at least enjoy some hip-hop beats as well, I rather have rumbling (texture?) bass than ones that slap. I don't listen really listen to rock or EDM that require a fast bass response.

Mid Bass- good body to the music

Mids- Mids should be clear and precise and accurate in nature of the instrument

Treble- not that into female vocals, however strings in an orchestra like the violin should be clear and transparent

Sounds stage- Would be great to have, not the most important thing? I don't really know, I believe the correct response if I wanted a good soundstage is getting an open back, which is not an option for me

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IEM I am currently looking at (open to other suggestions):

-Monarch mk2

-oracle mk2

-mest mk2

-mangrid top

-Elysian Acoustic Labs: GAEA

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This is my first post and I wonder if any of this made any sense "hmm emoji" or if what I am asking for is too much, might be a complete shit post, but on the other hand, maybe I can learn something haha

NB: I live in New Zealand and there is no way for me to test any of these products unfortunately, hence I am deciding through research :( ..... :)

Thanks for reading this long post!