Yup.

This hobby - like most niche hobbies - is just an excuse for consumerism. And some are all to eager to fuel it.

This hobby is easily the worst for it, especially with the endless collabs.

My left ear piece stopped working just sitting on my desk.

But, sure, take them into a hot tub.

E-MU Teak are addicting, make music fun, and provide just enough isolation I can block out other noise without all the sacrifices of closed backs.

I have no idea why you are being downvoted.

It's fine if they A/B with both right next to each other; however, I have heard/seen comparisons that were clearly from memory.

Memory is a horrible documentarian.

Did you return the Timeless via Amazon?

Why are you buying both the S12 and the Timeless?

It was likely used 'auditioned' by someone and returned.

Every other person on this subreddit is buying like 12 different products off of amazon and just returning the ones they don't want.

There is literally some guy buying every cheap chi-fi in ear, comparing them, and returning all of them.

Apparently, nobody sees the issue with this practice.

This is the result of people demanding the ability to 'audition' cheap, relatively decent sounding products, in a subjective hobby dominated by shills reviewers.

Actions have consequences. IE: The advice I see here of just buy off of Amazon and abuse the return policy to audition cheap IEMs results in used ear tips down the line.

The pressure from the noise cancelling in my Sony WH-1000XM3's can sometimes aggravate a headache.

I have found that, depending on what I am doing, I will use either the ANC headphones or IEMs with foam tips for passive, or Emu-Teaks, which are Semi-Open and very comfortable for me.

I recently picked up some Air Pods Pro 2s and haven't had the same issue with their ANC implementation as I did with the Sony's.

Try a bio-dyna.

I recommend the EMU Teak.

If you can get the stock pads to fit your ears, I think they are worth trying based on what you are looking for: Bass and are often criticized for not being mid-forward enough. Some complain about the treble - and I notice it on certain recordings - but these are genuinely my favorite headphones.

You could also try the Edition XS.

There are a ton of headphones that will work off of the same dongle that powers the IEMs without issue.

While tonality is preference based: The dynamic range, sense of space, and 'slam' created by a headphone can't be mimicked in an IEM.

In general: Speakers > Headphones > IEM at similar price points.

However, it depends on the listening environment. Most good headphones are Open Back. My house is old and my home office overlooks a busy street. I can't enjoy Open Back headphones due to the noise pollution. And I can't focus with speakers.

So I have a semi-open headphone that works most of the time (E-mu teak), an IEM (B2Dusk) for when its busy or I want isolation, and a pair of noise cancelers for piping in white noise when I have to focus on a high functioning task.

I have also put the nose cancellers overtop the B2Dusks for more or less complete silence.

TL:DR - Depends on use case more then anything else.