In-Ear Monitors
An in-ear monitor puts the driver at the entrance to your ear canal instead of over your ear. That one change does most of the work in the category. Isolation goes up without any electronics involved, the power required drops to almost nothing, and the whole thing fits in a pocket.
It also moves the most important variable from the product to your ears. An in-ear only works when it seals, and the seal depends on the shape of your ear canal and on the tip at the end of the nozzle. An expensive in-ear that does not seal sounds thin, weak in the bass and simply wrong, and it will sound that way in every review you read afterwards too. Tips are the first thing to change and the last thing most people think of.
Meze's flagship in-ear, one dynamic driver in a single-piece titanium shell, and the replacement for the discontinued Advar.
Which one
Fit first, and it is not close. Most in-ears ship with three or four sizes of silicone tip, which covers most people. Foam tips seal differently and hold better in some ears, and a size that works in one of your ears does not always work in the other. If you take one thing from this page: work through the tips before you judge an in-ear. The gap between the right tip and the wrong one is larger than the gap between two models $100 apart.
Then the driver question, which is the argument this category likes to have. A single dynamic driver moves air the way a small loudspeaker does, needs no crossover, and tends to hang together from top to bottom. Balanced armatures are smaller and faster, several of them can split the range between them, and splitting it requires a crossover that has to be got right. Hybrids use both, and electrostatic tweeters add a third kind on top. None of that is a ranking. A good single dynamic beats a poorly integrated six driver array and costs less.
Which one
Fit first, and it is not close. Most in-ears ship with three or four sizes of silicone tip, which covers most people. Foam tips seal differently and hold better in some ears, and a size that works in one of your ears does not always work in the other. If you take one thing from this page: work through the tips before you judge an in-ear. The gap between the right tip and the wrong one is larger than the gap between two models $100 apart.
Then the driver question, which is the argument this category likes to have. A single dynamic driver moves air the way a small loudspeaker does, needs no crossover, and tends to hang together from top to bottom. Balanced armatures are smaller and faster, several of them can split the range between them, and splitting it requires a crossover that has to be got right. Hybrids use both, and electrostatic tweeters add a third kind on top. None of that is a ranking. A good single dynamic beats a poorly integrated six driver array and costs less.
Cables, and wired or wireless
Cable and connector matter more here than the marketing suggests, for a dull reason: this is the part that gets wound, pocketed and pulled. A detachable cable on a standard connector, usually two pin or MMCX, turns a cable failure into a $20 part instead of a dead earphone. It also lets you change the length and the plug later.
Wired or wireless is the last fork. True wireless buys convenience and costs you the battery's lifespan, which is usually where the product ends rather than where the sound does. At a desk, wired is cheaper, lighter, and lasts until you break it.
Cables, and wired or wireless
Cable and connector matter more here than the marketing suggests, for a dull reason: this is the part that gets wound, pocketed and pulled. A detachable cable on a standard connector, usually two pin or MMCX, turns a cable failure into a $20 part instead of a dead earphone. It also lets you change the length and the plug later.
Wired or wireless is the last fork. True wireless buys convenience and costs you the battery's lifespan, which is usually where the product ends rather than where the sound does. At a desk, wired is cheaper, lighter, and lasts until you break it.
Worth knowing
Isolation is the feature people underrate and the one they would actually notice every day. A well sealed in-ear cuts outside noise by a useful margin with no batteries and no processing, and the quiet lets you listen at a lower volume, which is better for your ears and, at low levels, makes everything clearer. Active noise cancelling is added on top of that, not instead of it.
Driver count is the specification most often used as a proxy for quality and the one that deserves it least. Eight drivers means eight things that have to be crossed over correctly. A maker who fits two and gets the integration right will beat a maker who fits eight and does not, and nothing on the box tells you which you are holding.
Worth knowing
Isolation is the feature people underrate and the one they would actually notice every day. A well sealed in-ear cuts outside noise by a useful margin with no batteries and no processing, and the quiet lets you listen at a lower volume, which is better for your ears and, at low levels, makes everything clearer. Active noise cancelling is added on top of that, not instead of it.
Driver count is the specification most often used as a proxy for quality and the one that deserves it least. Eight drivers means eight things that have to be crossed over correctly. A maker who fits two and gets the integration right will beat a maker who fits eight and does not, and nothing on the box tells you which you are holding.
Volume, filters and connectors
Fit is also a safety question nobody raises. Because an in-ear seals, it removes the ambient sound that normally tells you how loud you are playing music. People listen louder through in-ears than through headphones without noticing, which is the one genuine hearing risk in this hobby. If you wear them for hours, set the volume in a quiet room rather than on a bus.
Two failure modes are worth knowing in advance. Nozzle filters clog with ear wax, and a blocked filter reads as a dead or dull side, which is a cheap part rather than a fault. And the cable connector is the mechanical weak point on nearly every design, so treat the join gently and do not store them wound tight around a phone.
Volume, filters and connectors
Fit is also a safety question nobody raises. Because an in-ear seals, it removes the ambient sound that normally tells you how loud you are playing music. People listen louder through in-ears than through headphones without noticing, which is the one genuine hearing risk in this hobby. If you wear them for hours, set the volume in a quiet room rather than on a bus.
Two failure modes are worth knowing in advance. Nozzle filters clog with ear wax, and a blocked filter reads as a dead or dull side, which is a cheap part rather than a fault. And the cable connector is the mechanical weak point on nearly every design, so treat the join gently and do not store them wound tight around a phone.
Worth reading
All guides
For a first pair of in-ears: the Truthear Hexa at $79.99, the Sennheiser IE 200 as a second pair once you know in-ears fit you, and who should skip in-ears entirely.
Where you listen, how closely you listen, and what it takes to drive the thing. Answer those three and the catalogue narrows fast. Picks at every step.
Ohms, sensitivity, and the needs-an-amp argument. What the number actually tells you about a headphone, and the cases where it tells you nothing useful.
We take in-ear monitors on consignment and in trade. Tell us what you have.
What you get either way
The listening room
Third floor at 215 East Lewis Street in Livingston, by appointment. An hour in the room settles this faster than anything either of us could write.
How we grade
Used and consigned gear is graded at the worst axis and never averaged. Every defect is named on the listing and the standard is published, so as described is something you can hold us to.
