This review took a very long time to finish, and the word count nearly hitting 8,500 shows there's clearly a lot I had to talk about. It is a two-in-one review which began with a detailed review of the Lime Ears Pneuma—a novel hybrid driver set of IEMs from a relatively small outfit in Poland that's famous for its in-ear monitors and custom-fit designs. With the Pneuma, Lime Ears is using a single dynamic driver dedicated to sub-bass presence, which makes for a great example of tonality and technicality being distinct criteria to judge IEMs upon. For the first time, I also found an implementation of a tuning switch, nozzle, and filter instead of something I'd set up once and forget, often going between both permutations depending on what I was listening to. There is more than ongoing guesswork here, which is what a few companies employing such customization options need to learn about. Indeed, there's another set I am checking out right now that's so bad in this regard that it makes the Lime Ears Pneuma's engineering and design seem like a scientific marvel.

While not originally planned as part of this review, I am glad I covered the Hapa Audio KnØt IEM cable with the Lime Ears Pneuma. Both companies share a lot in common, and the two products even more so. The KnØt IEM cable is all sorts of overkill, and I absolutely love it for that. It's as custom and bespoke as it gets, to where you have a proper consultation session to decide on colors, conductors, beads, and connectors, and even there you will find open-ended options for a truly unique cable made for you. This is effectively the custom IEM equivalent for cables, and Hapa Audio is not the first to get into the kilobuck range for cables. Indeed, there are some cables that cost more than three to four times as much, and people clearly purchase them.

Do either of these merit their asking price? I am totally going to cop out on that one because I don't know, at least with the limited experience I have in this price range. I think the Lime Ears Pneuma is in need of some tuning corrections which can at least be quantified. I also pointed out some examples that I would rather purchase for lower cost, but acknowledge that it does a few things very few do, and the main reason to look at Lime Ears is for its extensive selection of custom fit IEM designs. The Pneuma in its current state is harder for me to recommend, at least for the universal fit that's also on the larger side of average. The Hapa Audio KnØt IEM cable, on the other hand, is even harder to quantify given that outside of the aesthetics and customization options discussed already, you will already know whether such an expensive cable is for you or not. If it is, then great, and I hope you do enjoy it. But most others need to be absolutely sure they have everything in their chain sorted out before they commit to a cable like this, which is something you will use across multiple IEMs, assuming they use the same connector. I want to see Hapa Audio put its engineering credits towards a modular connector on either end, and it will then have something to boast about.