The issue with being a beginner is not knowing what sound you like. While the ie200 are great you might not like the sound signature, so it’s best to get a couple cheap iem’s $20-50 that are different. Get something warm, something bright and something neutral etc. Then once you figure out what you like then you can invest more money into the hobby.

I don’t know much about iem’s but I do have really expensive headphones. I started with 5-6 headphones at about $100, then picked by favorite 3-4 and bought the upgraded versions at $500-600. Once I figured out what sound I liked I went to an audio store and jumped into $2000 headphones and I haven’t looked back.

My audio journey took 8 years so there’s no rush to spend money.

For 150$ I heard the truthear nova is a good option and are pretty durable

Less and less these days, because true wireless have gotten so good. You can pickup Airpod Pro 2 (lightning) models for like 150ish on ebay used and they take the fight to most wired iems in that price range anyway

If you can hear the differences, it’s worth it, if you can’t then just get a pair that feels comfortable and have the functions you need. If you don’t break them often like having a tendency to put them into the washing machine, then it’s worth it, if you do break them often then get something mid-range like 50-100 and that way you won’t feel as heartbroken when they go poof.

For me, the comfort and the quality improvement in listening is enough to justify it. Plus even a $50 one lasted years for me as a daily driver so I know the latter part is t a problem for me.

From my experience, the cheap ones just doesn’t have the same comfort and quality. It’s nice to block out the sounds when commuting but that’s about it. It hurt my ears when used for extended period (small ears) and the sound is just noticeably sub-par. Of course those chifi does have good quality FOR THEIR PRICE, but that’s the point, it’s for their price bracket.

I would say the cable type can be important. I have a moondrop aria salnotes zero, the aria fabric cable feels not very strong and after a year started to make weird sounds along with getting tangled often so I need to buy a new one while the almost 4 times cheaper zero cable has felt much more sturdy and works great. in terms of sound the aria is a little better but not even close to 4 times the price but that might be because the fit is better on the zero for me.

“Investment”? No. Consumer products should not be considered investments.

Buying multiple sets of cheap IEMs might end up costing as much as one more expensive in the long run. Cheap IEMs have gotten really great, but there still is a very noticeable difference as you move up the ladder a couple of hundred bucks. That being said, value is very personal and depends on how much you care for the improvement in sound quality.

They definitely do get noticeably better up until atleast 150. After that returns somewhat diminish. If that’s worth it for you is up to how much you care about sound quality. 20$ can get you a pair thats perfectly satisfying for most people who just want to listen to music and don’t care much about getting the most fidelity they can get

If you wanna go cheap get Kiwi Ears Cadenza

If you don’t know your sound signature preferences, if you are that much beginners,i will recommend to buy 7hz salnotes zero(20 dollar).as this item is dead neutral, you can able to realise which frequency you need more or less. Based on that you can invest on higher iem later knowing your sound preferences

Buy a pair of quality iems in metal housing, avoid chifi, take good care of them, problem solved. I wouldn’t call $150 iems expensive at all.

IE 200 is miles better sonically and comfort wise compared to anything chifi, and it has a warranty you can actually use. Bass leak is nonexistent if you install the tips correctly. Cable could use an upgrade tho, a nice Hakugei Surfer with mmcx+ is like 40 bucks on Hifigo.

It’ll last quite a while with care, if such iem was out when I started the hobby I wouldn’t have spent nearly as much in IEMs as I have now. I have an IE900 and it’s great, but I wouldn’t have bothered

Consider a planar, while they have less impact they bass goes deeper and sounds much more separated, however, distorts easier with EQ, however, it’s harder to hear that distortion over a dynamic driver.

Is it worth it - yes, if they’re detailed. You’ll like the music either way but you’ll appreciate the separation and detail at $150.

The ms1 galaxy is only $16, I would buy that and a $100-$150 planar like an S12 pro.

My dad really likes his Truthear Hola, he’s had it for a couple months with no complaints so far I’d probably recommend the ie200 though

Ive had the 1More Quad Drivers for like 5 years now and the little fuckers are built like a tank, refuse to die (and im NOT nice to them). I think they were $120. The sound is 75% of the way there so i just tweak the eq, and theyre comfortable.

Before that tried many, many sub-$60 iems and none of them lasted me more than a year and none sounded as good.

Only other quality iems i had way back in the day were ER4s and they also lasted years.

nowadays tho, i think most mid-level iems sound like shit. I wouldnt pay 30 bucks for most of the weird tunings ppl seem to like on the $200-500 range. Theyre either bass bloated or super tizzy most of the time.

So i would say absolutely try before u buy. Theres far too many options to choose from compared to 10 yrs ago.

And if u dont like the sound of what u got eq can only take u so far. My rule of thumb for eq is: if i can tolerate the sound it can be fixed, if i absolutely hate it no amount of fiddling will.