I was in need of a decent pair of IEMs to wear on the trail for when I'm cycling, running and what not to use with my phone. Read all the reviews online praising these for the low price. Got them for around 12$ on GearBest so unless GB started shipping fakes, I'm pretty sure they're legit. Took the better part of a month to get them though.
Anyways, the packaging is impressive, you get a nice set of tips for them - I only found the mediums - which are on the headphones when you buy them, and the large ones to be usable. The other ones, S and XS do not seal for me at all and all the bass leaks out, I hear nothing below 500 Hz.
I prefer the M tips (and they do change the sound quite a bit so experiment with that). However I've found my experience with these phones to be not so in line with the reviews.
"Smooth treble, too much bass?" Hmm, found quite the opposite. When listening at the same volume as on my Superlux 668B, the treble kills my ears. It's not so much that the phones are overly bright, it's that there are what seems to be some really nasty high-Q resonances in the 2-4K range of up to 6 dB or so which I haven't even been able to isolate that well with a good VST EQ. Simply when certain sounds play, especially white noise sweeps in EDM music, some of these frequencies just go so much higher than the rest of the signal that it literally hurts my ears. I have to turn it down, but then at that point, everything is too quiet and the bass disappears even further.
Oh and about the bass, it's nice, tight, but it's not really deep enough to be immersive and to really hear the low end. Seems to roll off fast below 60 Hz or so. 60-150 Hz is OK and then the midrange dips quite significantly again, leaving things sounding distant and hollow, lacking depth. They're definitely not warm. Even my Superlux which is generally regarded as a mid-light set of headphones, brings sounds closer to the front than these.
So, for the price I don't think I can buy much better (though I have yet to try some of the KZ models), 12$ and I guess they're fairly good for the money, but not really 'giant killers' of any kind and for me they definitely didn't live up to the hype.
Would I still recommend them to someone? Probably, simply on the off chance that they're just not compatible with my ears. My brother doesn't seem to complain about them being shrill so I might hand them over to him.
Anyways, the packaging is impressive, you get a nice set of tips for them - I only found the mediums - which are on the headphones when you buy them, and the large ones to be usable. The other ones, S and XS do not seal for me at all and all the bass leaks out, I hear nothing below 500 Hz.
I prefer the M tips (and they do change the sound quite a bit so experiment with that). However I've found my experience with these phones to be not so in line with the reviews.
"Smooth treble, too much bass?" Hmm, found quite the opposite. When listening at the same volume as on my Superlux 668B, the treble kills my ears. It's not so much that the phones are overly bright, it's that there are what seems to be some really nasty high-Q resonances in the 2-4K range of up to 6 dB or so which I haven't even been able to isolate that well with a good VST EQ. Simply when certain sounds play, especially white noise sweeps in EDM music, some of these frequencies just go so much higher than the rest of the signal that it literally hurts my ears. I have to turn it down, but then at that point, everything is too quiet and the bass disappears even further.
Oh and about the bass, it's nice, tight, but it's not really deep enough to be immersive and to really hear the low end. Seems to roll off fast below 60 Hz or so. 60-150 Hz is OK and then the midrange dips quite significantly again, leaving things sounding distant and hollow, lacking depth. They're definitely not warm. Even my Superlux which is generally regarded as a mid-light set of headphones, brings sounds closer to the front than these.
So, for the price I don't think I can buy much better (though I have yet to try some of the KZ models), 12$ and I guess they're fairly good for the money, but not really 'giant killers' of any kind and for me they definitely didn't live up to the hype.
Would I still recommend them to someone? Probably, simply on the off chance that they're just not compatible with my ears. My brother doesn't seem to complain about them being shrill so I might hand them over to him.