The Headphone Show's Overall IEM Ranking List

What You Need To Know About This List

The following IEM ranking takes into consideration the reality that no IEM is perfect; that they can all be improved to some extent. You may notice that there are no 10/10 IEMs on this list, and that is because even the best IEMs on the market currently do not meet the standard of 10/10—the absolute zenith of IEM sound quality, absent any compromise.

This ranking is not based on the range of products currently available, but rather the full range of potential for what sound quality could be in a IEM. Note the scoring system for individual categories (found in our individual reviewer ranking lists) and you'll see that all IEMs have areas where they excel, and areas where they compromise.

While this list is solely an aggregation of the Sound scores from our 2 reviewers, on our individual lists we parse IEM sound quality in terms of Bass, Mids, Treble, and X-Factor. Each of these categories is scored SUBJECTIVELY, they are not based on measurements or target adherence whatsoever. Each of these categories has its own weighting specified by the reviewer in accordance with how they value each category. Comfort and Value are both factored into the Overall scores, and are again weighted according to the individual reviewer's priorities.

This list combines subjective sound quality ratings of IEMs from Resolve and listener based on our individual experiences and perspectives. We are not claiming these judgments to be universal. The "Average column" is color-coded: Green if both reviewers heard it and Yellow if only 1 reviewer heard it.

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