The only IEM's I have used are the Shure se500,se530 and se535. Two of them were under warranty replacement due to the cable breaking right next to one of the monitors.
If you are looking at these models, I can only recommend the se535 due to having a modular cable, that is much tougher to begin with as well.
They do sound really, really nice though; why I kept on with them.
The best forum I have found for this sort of question is:
Also, you need to choose whether you want to have custom moulded ones or not: livewires > se535 for example, but it's more hassle to get the moulds done, but are around the same price point etc.
My advice, would be to list the models you are interested in, and individually search for them on head fi. You will find all the information you could ever need this way :)
of course. monitors have their specific use and 'music and tv' is not that at all. that's why I'm trying to persuade comrade from potentially wasting his money. and for 150$ you cun buy some seriously good earphones.
wanted to try something new. isolation. and none of the headphones i have or tried are comfortable after a while. i don't necessarily want expensive, custom ones.
I understand, but for the money you have you can buy excelent earphones (even custom made to fit you perfectly) which aren't monitors. you would hate them anyway, because they are engineered to transmit raw recording signal, no 'musical' enhancements at all. And certainly not to isolate you completely. I'd say rethink the situation and search a little bit more outside iems.
Edited by super_koziol at 20:05 BST, 25 August 2012