Back in high school, when I’d scraped together every last cent to buy a Sennheiser MX500 and plugged it into an iPAQ hx2412 to listen to Tony Daimoku with great relish, I’d already heard of Audio-Technica and was quite impressed by it. The reason wasn’t sound quality or anything like that — it was just that hearing the name made a triangle (the little steel percussion instrument I’d banged in elementary school music class) pop into my head. Later, as I sank deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit of audiophile mysticism, the idea that “Audio-Technica = female vocal poison” gradually dissolved into my brain. Honestly, I’d always wanted to try out just how poisonous the legendary Audio-Technica was for female vocals. Later I bought a CKM55 — no particular feeling on first listen, but after listening for a while, especially after switching to other buds later on, I realized what was good about it. That feeling of retaining both female vocals and bass at the same time was indeed nice. After that I kept wanting to get an Audio-Technica around the thousand-yuan mark, but Audio-Technica’s good stuff, including the CK100pro, can’t be had for a thousand yuan — too expensive, couldn’t afford it. Until one day my brain short-circuited and I bought Audio-Technica’s new product, the ATH-IM03, and my wish to “finally listen to a high-end Audio-Technica” was fulfilled.

I’m the kind of guy who feels like something’s missing without BGM, so I need music with me in all sorts of situations — whether I’m alone for a long stretch or just trying to wall myself off for a while. Anyway, this habit started back in middle school when I began listening to the radio. In high school I got my first MP3 player, a Walkman perfume-bottle model. I honestly can’t say exactly when I started inexplicably chasing sound quality. Anyway, once I had a job and money, I accumulated a bunch of slightly more audiophile-ish gear — players, sound cards, headphones, earphones. So this time I’ll talk about the three IEMs I’ve actually been listening to: TF10, ER4P, and Creative IE3. I really hate using baffling vocabulary when describing sound quality — half those terms I can’t even feel the meaning of myself. So, as the title says: no mysticism, just impressions. Source: Sony F807, all music in FLAC.