My go-to audio device has been an over-ear Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless headset. I don't think I have a particularly good ear for discerning audio quality, but I've liked the momentum 3 (aside from some minor gripes), and found its ANC to be a daily necessity to avoid getting overstimulated from the auditory inputs in a large city.

I'm traveling soon on a long haul flight and wanted something that would be more compact and also less obstructive when sleeping. I debated and hemmed and hawed between wireless earbuds (worried I would lose TWS earbuds while traveling and, given one of my cat's track record of chewing up headphone cables, that those wireless but connected-to-each-other earbuds would meet the same fate, and a bit off-put by the price range for a decent pair) and a cheap pair of wired earbuds that wouldn't make my ears sore like the free airplane ones. Looking for earbuds with replaceable cables led me to this sub, and after some intense perusing, I settled on the 7Hz Salnotes Zero:2 and Tangzu wan'er 2. I decided to give a little review to share my first thoughts since a lot of similar posts I found on this sub were super helpful.

For some reason, it was way easier to get the eartips and cable on the Tangzu wan'er, while it took a lot of fiddling to get the Salnotes Zero:2 eartips and cable on. Not a big deal though.

Aesthetics: maybe it's not a huge factor here for most people since the focus is sound, but being a fan of demonstrator fountain pens, I was excited by the transparent design of these earbuds (I really couldn't go for the Kiwi ears Cadenza/Moondrop Chu II suggested in the mod post because I didn't like how they looked unfortunately). I was worried, however, that these earbuds would look really clunky when worn. Straight out of the box, the Zero:2 feel sleeker and the Tangzu Wan'er clunkier. In the ear, I prefer the look of the Tangzu wan'er personally. Very superficial, but I like that the Tangzu Wan'er stock cable is also translucent. The Zero:2 cable is black and contrasts too much with the earbuds.

Comfort: The Tangzu wan'er are more comfortable on my ear than the Zero:2 -- the plastic on the Zero:2 is molded in a way that hits a fold (?) on my ear that is a bit painful. The stock eartips for both earbuds feel fine, although I'm not well-informed on what would make a good vs bad eartip. 

Stock cable: the cable on the Wan'er is a bit chunky with a pretty hefty audio pin casing but somehow manages to feel a bit cheap. It seems to be reasonably durable. The Zero:2 has a much thinner cable, and the audio pin casing is a lot smaller. It's hard to grip the Zero:2's audio pin properly for removal because its very small and slippery, so I think that will be a failure point for my cable when I inevitably get frustrated and repeatedly pull it from the wire segment. I can see the Wan'er cable having a bit more longevity for me because of the easier to grip audio pin. I'd like to buy a new cable, but that's a later decision.

Audio: I started by listening to some music with the Tangzu wan'er, and found them just fine audio-wise. After a bit of back-and-forth swapping between the two on different songs, I slightly prefer the tuning on the Zero:2 (not surprised, as that is what I expected based on what I read on this subreddit). If it weren't for this, I was seriously contemplating seeing if I can return the Zero:2 because they are fairly uncomfortable for me. I prefer the Wan'er over the Zero:2 for playing on the Switch (tested on Zelda BOTW on the switch for like 30 seconds, so not a very thorough assessment) -- it feels a bit crisper while the Zero:2 feels a bit muffled. Both earbuds are doing pretty well at sound isolation with stock eartips, and I'm curious to see how this holds up on the airplane ride. I do prefer how music sounds from my Momentum 3 headset, but it could just be what I'm used to hearing becoming my preference... I'll take a risk and leave the momentum 3 at home, and take both earbuds with me for the trip :)

First IEMs, wish me luck in not falling down a rabbit hole!