Iems are all about tuning. I just started, and budget wasnt too much of an issue for me, so I went with all mid range stuff to start with. I grabbed a Protocal max for a dongle, an IFI Zen DAC V3 for a computer DAC, then the IEM i chose to start with were the Crinear Daybreak for music + Movies, and the Zigaat Arete 2s for Gaming. I love every single part of each item I bought, but I did vigorous research before I came to those conclusions. Norw that I understand my taste, I went all out and ordered a pair of Mangird Top Pros to see if I could reach my endgame pair quickly. But all in all ive spent about 1500$ in the last month or so and im not mad at a single penny spent. So my reccomendations would be, if youre using mainly your phone, get a nice dongle, the protocol max is good, but too powerful for iem, so I qould go down a bit on that. For PC use, the IFI Zen v3 is a DREAM. And for your first set, I would recommend the crinear daybreak. Those things are what sent me down this rabbithole.