What music do you primarily listen too? Do you like bass, treble, or mids or prefer a balanced monitor type earphone?
@
Brendon, @
esanthosh, @
cranky. These guys are well versed with audio here.
I had a bought set of IEMs once, probably a Sennheiser and probably the exact same one as the one mentioned by TS. I kid you not, I gave them away to a colleague after an hour of listening. It felt like I had a finger or two in my ear (not mine, at that) all the time. I can't even wear regular headphones, because of extreme physical discomfort. I do have a pair of Senns lying around, but those are for dire times only. I had briefly considered the M-50 but abandoned the idea as it seemed to be an experiment that would lead nowhere. OTOH given the prices of those today, I may have been able to turn a profit now.
I alternate my listening between three reasonably expensive stereo systems, a couple of decent-sounding DIY nutjobs and two multichannel systems that are used for when I like to be indelicate. A monitoring setup is in the offing for a small project studio, but that's some way away.
As for tonal balance, I like a presentation that is revealing without being shouty, and articulate, non-muddy bass even if it sacrifices impact. I basically listen to every genre of western music there is except trash metal and rap, and most of my music collection is CD quality or higher. All my systems are tuned to be able to show off that collection.
No cans, never, sorry. Won't be able to contribute to the OP very much. The first two tagged though are known headphiles as is @
FaH33m, they'll be far more helpful. Good Luck.