Monoprice 8320 IEM

Allow me to preface this by saying that I have way more experience with headphones. The only IEMs I've ever owned before this were some cheapie $20 Sony IEMs, the MeElec CW31s, and the MeElect M9-BK. I've sold every IEM I've owned before this one, mostly because I felt like they never got any head time compared to my full-sized cans.

The packaging for the 8320 was about was minimalist as you can get -- there were the IEMs with inserts already on, no alternative inserts, no box, just a small plastic bag. 

The design felt pretty solid, especially for a headphone of its price. The clothed cable was a nice touch and felt like a definite step up over typical cables for low end earbuds and IEMs, but it did feel cheap. I did find that they very often got tangled. I'm actually very impressed with the durability of the cable so far. I've already accidentally hard slammed the car door on this cable, pulling the Monoprices out of my pocket with such force that one of the tips flew off and they still worked perfectly afterwards.  

The comfort could be better, but I'm not a giant fan of cheap IEM comfort. The lack of additional, different sized inserts is somewhat annoying, but they're also $7. The comfort is acceptable, but not something I'd want to wear all day. 

As for the sound, the bass is tight and punchy. The sub-bass isn't quite that extended and you get the typical dynamic driver drop-off at the sub-bass frequencies. Bass had a solid amount of impact, but the rumble made bass-heavy electronic music feel a little lacking. Overall, though, I found the bass response to be solid. The mids had a surprising amount of clarity. By no means was it crystal clear, but it was better than I remembered my CW31s. Overall, the details in the mids and highs was solid.

For the price, I give the Monoprice 8320s my highest praise. They're certainly not hi-fi audio, but they're absolute monsters in their price range. Most $7 earphones sound and feel like absolute crap, but these could definitely compete with the $20-40 MeElecs. 

I got these for ~$10 online. I must say the first thing I noticed was the shoddy build quality. However, considering the asking price and the decent sound quality, this is really nitpicking. The cable is actually decent enough, especially for the price, being a braided sort of fabric. 

On to sound quality! These things sound incredible compared to stock earbuds.

The bass is very present and strong, punchy even, but feels cold and kind of harsh in places. Sub-bass is very good for a headphone in this price range, as long as the seal is perfect.

The mids feel recessed, almost drowned out by the bass in some songs. 

Highs are fairly detailed but sound tinny and harsh, which is a turn-off for me. Jazz sounds absolutely terrible on these.

There was barely any improvement over 50 hours of burn in.

The sound stage is about as flat as a piece of paper. On more aggressive, bass-oriented songs,

the bass completely covers much of the mids. Even though the bass is so strong, it sounds thin and far too harsh.

There is barely any instrument separation.

Build quality on these is the worst out of anything I have ever seen. On my pair the filter screen above the drivers fell off after about a week. 

However, I guess they had to make up the price of the drivers somehow.

Overall, not the greatest. My $30 set of JVC HA-S600 full-size cans completely destroys these in every possible way, as do many pairs of cheap ~$15 IEMs I've owned.

Seriously, if you're thinking of spending the ten bucks, why not spend another 5 and actually get something halfway decent sounding? There are plenty of other options,

and I feel as though this set of IEMs has been severely over-hyped. 

These IEMs were a surprise to me, after all the reviews I read I am still not sure if my pair is defective, but so far nothing seems to show that.

I was extremely disappointed with the 8320. Highs are detailed without being sibilant but I never use mine due to:

-Soundstage is tiny. They sound flat and distant. Sound appeats to come from inside your head, cold and not involving.

-Bass is acceptable but depends on good fit.

-Format is not very good. Over-the-ears are my favorite but their format does not allow for a deep insertions/good isolation, they are not particularly comfortable. Also despite the format, it is easier to let the cable to down instead of over-the-ear.

-Cable is very thin and microphonic.

-Build quality is low, but perhaps acceptable for the cost.

Problems 2 and 3 can be mitigated with better tips, probably triflanges. However I could never get past #1. To me they sound as if they are worth indeed no more than $10.

Other headphones I own/compare to:

IEM: Sony E888, Fischer Audio Eterna, Mylar X3, RE0

Other: Sennheiser HD590, Sony MDR-CD3000, Koss PortaPro.