Yes, the main metric to use when choosing an IEM is performance/price, not performance alone, as in everything else generally. Sometimes a Matrix glitch occurs

Yes, the main metric to use when choosing an IEM is performance/price, not performance alone, as in everything else generally. Sometimes a Matrix glitch occurs and someone produces a total outlier, like Philips SHE3580, a $10 little wonder I used for many years to write music, and the mixes produced with those translated literally everywhere without any surprises (in audio engineering, translation is the ability of an audio track to sound as close as possible to the sound engineer's intent on as wide range of audio equipment as possible). They had a single diaphragm drive, which is usually regarded as slow and less precise than other types of drivers, but they sounded very linear and only slightly less precise than many much more expensive models with multiple balanced armature drivers. I believe, their performance/price ratio was closer to infinity than anything out there on the market. But alas, built with biodergadation or planned obsolescence in mind, they finally deteriorated mechanically to the point of falling apart completely.