I’ve tried many lower end (hero, diamondback, etc) and never heard much improvement until I moved to Nordost. I’ve used Heimdall 1s and Heimdalls 2s and Frey 1s. For my money, I’ve stayed with used Frey 1s for all my ICs. Pretty much equal to Heimdall 2s but available used pretty reasonably. I’ve also been impressed with Acoustic Zen ICs but I found them stiff and hard to route. Lately I switched my speaker cables to Morrow SP5s and really like the sound and the flexibility. If I were starting over I’d test the Morrow ICs (well priced new I think) against Frey 1s (used).
