IEMs at home

Dave Merrill

Dave Merrill

Axe-Master
Are people using IEMs at home, for recreational play, and/or building presets?

I'm wondering if investing in those makes more sense than buying better FRFRs.
 
For the amount of money it would take to get some decent IEMs, you could get some pretty good studio monitors and acoustic treatment.

I have 64audio A12 IEMs for live but at home I use my studio monitors or Ollo S4X headphones. [Edit: now using Ollo's latest open-back model, S5X.] Even excellent headphones/IEMs like those I mentioned are a difficult medium to dial in sounds unless you really understand how their particular sound translates to a live environment.

With speakers you can generally pick two between low cost, quality/accuracy, and sheer volume. For dialing in sounds at home, studio monitors and acoustic treatment are a better choice than FRFR because you don’t need to pay for the sheer volume capability of an FRFR and more of that money can go into the quality / accuracy of the speakers. Also when people get FRFRs at home the tendency is to put them in a corner on the floor of an untreated room which is not ideal if your goal is accuracy. With studio monitors you’re also less likely to mistake “louder” for “better.”
 
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I use custom IEMs exclusively at home — their sonic benefits (highly accurate sound, complete isolation from room acoustics and a consistent “sound stage” regardless of where I choose to move/stand) outperform even my pro studio monitor chain. While my IEMs of choice are not inexpensive (FutureSonic MG5 powered by an iBasso “Boa” belt-pack line amp) neither are my studio monitors — but the expense is commensurate with my AFX3 and didn’t require “wife negotiations” re: visually/monetarily expensive acoustic treatment options.
 
I like playing through IEMs at home. They are light weight, comfortable, cut out outside noise, they don’t bleed sound, and they sound good. I also use studio monitors or a power amp and cab on the rare occasion that I have the house to myself.

I have built presets on the IEMs and they translate pretty well to my monitors, but I’m not someone who claims to have golden ears by any means.
 
My wife appreciates it when I do. I have had good luck with the Shure psm300 system that came with the metal body pack. The tones seem to translate fairly close to dialing in with my head rush frfr112. No complaints. Going to try them next weekend at a gig. Live I need an frfr regardless in order to get that singing sustain feedback.
 
If not using speakers, I will often opt for a pair of open back headphones instead of IEMs. Easier to deal with and more comfortable for long sessions.

might add that my very last block before Output is a GEQ with different profiles depending on whether I am using IEMs, speakers or headphones. These corrections ensure all presets sound the same regardless of listening device.
 
I would say by far making sure you have sensible high and low cuts somewhere really helps the sounds even out across the in ears to frfrs. They seem more accurate to boot, but that’s my opinion. I usually start with 80z and 6500hz in the cab preamp section for electric guitar and tweak from there based on what you’re going for.
 
Yep, I switch between IEMs and studio monitors. I use IEMs live, so want to make sure things sound good there and the monitors are for cranking up to confirm the presets sound good loud.
IEMs also exaggerate small volume differences between presets, so I usually level with them too.
 
Yep when I can be bothered putting them in. I have Eris E5 monitors too but I use iem live so it’s good to get a good reference. Shure SE215s are pretty cheap and ‘good enough’. Nobody in our drunk rowdy audience will be listening to the tone that closely so I don’t worry about how ‘accurate’ iems are.
 
tysonlt said:
Yep when I can be bothered putting them in. I have Eris E5 monitors too but I use iem live so it’s good to get a good reference. Shure SE215s are pretty cheap and ‘good enough’. Nobody in our drunk rowdy audience will be listening to the tone that closely so I don’t worry about how ‘accurate’ iems are.
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What do you drive those Shures with at home? Probably not the Axe headphone out I'd guess.
 
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