Vaziyetu, can you tell us what kind of music you listen to please? That's quite important to know if you have test the earphones in a somewhat objective way. Your critic is full of strange prejudices and worth nothing in term of informations and facts. That's just trolling to me and nothing more. I owe a 700$ pair of custom iem (westone es2) as well as the Shure se420, V-Sonic Gr06, Ultimate ears Superfi5 Eb and some Denon and listen to alot of others one. NONE of them are perfect for everything. I listen to Jazz, Classical, Electro, Folk, rock and vocal music. I was very curious about the Xiaomi so I order some on Aliexpress from a trustable seller and paid 20$ all include. When I put them in my ears I was ******* amaze. I find them very elegant in their V-shape sounding with lot of texture and details because of the emphase on high frequencies, the bass was (thanks god) not as boomy as I was thinking but very well controled and with a good presence that make miracle for electro and jazz. All in all, I can't imagine ANY competition that can beat them at this price for a good pair of earphone. They do NOT sound good with must of classical music and YES the mids are somewhat shy but way less than lot of other V-shape earphones. I sincerly prefer them than my V-sonic Gr06 that cost 3 times the price and if I think about it perhaps I prefer them over the shure se420 too. The soundstage isn't enormous at all (their custom for this), but the fit is really important to have a full sound, when you find it (and its quite easy) the bass  unfold gently and embrace the soundstage to create a fuller richer sound, when you put it too far inside the ear canal the sound can be congested and therefore quite crappy. However, you are a disgrace for this community and no help at all for anybody that search constructive reviews for this earphone. Negative side of a product can be very interesting, but the reviewer must be credible.

LOL you should all relax. Anyway, vaziyetu's just sharing his opinion, which happens to be negative - nothing wrong with that, so no need to attack him just move along. JUst like there are tons of people who hype the Pistons ans recommend buying them, he can be bashing on them and recommending not to buy them. Just yin and yang keeping the world in balance
As for me - the pistons still give me no pleasure but maybe I should have taken them to dinner first.

Interesting you've listed a few models in your list I own and even though I have not burned these in (less than 4 hours on them), I'd happily put them up against a few models you've listed. 
 
Quite a nice model to my sound preference, I'd say you likely got one of the many knock-offs going around.

Why everyone gets so mad when someone disliked something that they like?
I think you guys take it too serious sometimes...

Just came across this review and I'm not going to attack the author nor defend the Pistons, which is something I have not heard. I simply encourage other people who come across this review to read some other reviews to make their own decision as to just what this review is. In my mind what this person is doing is very clear but don't be swayed from the Pistons with one review, especially with the huge fan base it has. 

This is so simple, just buy one from a proper source, and test it out.  It's so cheap that there's no reason you can't buy a pair for your non-audiophile family or friends.  The build quality looks nice enough and way above other 10-25 dollar earphones that I've seen.  Most are plastic and cheap looking.  I got a pair for my wife, and will test it out.  

Ah, thanks! That answered my questions. Happy Holidays!

Guys, while serious discussion is most welcome, personal attacks are not. I've deleted a number of comments in this review where, despite everything else, the comment contained a personal attack of some kind.

I must say, I'm relieved that vazietu edited his "review". Atleast it isn't as bad as it was originally. ie. Bad earphones; don't buy, full stop. 

No one asked for you "opinion" either. And no, I will not delete my comment because I wasn't lying, I was commemorating you on changing your original "review" (more like rant) to something that is at least close to a review.
 
Congrats!

No need to get so defensive. I was congratulating you.

It's ultra-fun to read that you learned English from Battlestar Galactica -- not because your circumstances are unusual but because most people would never admit as much.  You seem honest about yourself and your findings and unconcerned about whether other people agree, which is all to the good. I'm interested in what individuals hear, not consensus stats. Head-fi is far more interesting as a site for news, reviews, information and friendship than as a definer of member hierarchies.
 
Here's a possible rewrite of your opening (which I offer purely because you expressed your openness to the idea). 
 
"The soundstage is too small, which is why the mids, treble and bass -- basically all aspects of the frequency range -- seem squeezed.  Sonic details get lost and the signature is lackluster and grainy."
 
If it's OK with you, I won't bother emailing said rewrite because I think it's clear that I intend you no disrespect.  It should be obvious to everyone that your English slaps the bejesus out of my Turkic language skills!

scrypt, thanks for your opinions. but this is just another reason why i said such matters should be discussed with PM. your suggestion is too long, system will not going to accept it. discussing such matters publicly -even with good intentions- just making this page long and causing off topic garbage.
 
there's already a lot of people carrying garbage into my reviews as you can see. no need to create our own. don't get me wrong, i valued your opinions and thanks. 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4GXV4X1je88/SxAvLx5_UkI/AAAAAAAARFU/hsSZUIB40c8/s1600/s1.jpg
 
just saying...

This rant was hard to read. Ready to pull the trigger on these (from Kijiji) and thus headed over to Head-fi to get some opinions. However, I came full stop when I came to your rant. It is not a review, and fully agree with what everyone has said in regards to this rant. If you don't like something, then that's you issue. But to write a rant on the worlds most recognized headphone forum is just bad form, especially since you ignored the basic structure and purpose of a 'review'. Because of this rant, anything you say about any headphone in my eyes from here on in will be disregarded. 
 
The kicker is, I like rants, especially when they make sense, but this.....ya....even on my bad days of grumpiness I still take time to write something that is cohesive. Anyway, my 2 cents!

I kind of agree with the writer at some point.
When I got mine the first time, I felt it was not really up to the hype.
The soundstage was terrible, everything was squeezed into the center, there was lots of bass and was tight for the price range.
The soundstage was what really disappointed me but I read at head-fi people saying there is wide soundstage.
I have been using it for few weeks and it did not improve.
So I decided to do a burn-in for 50 hours straight. Pink noise at somewhat high volume.
Then when I tried it again, I can see the soundstage opening up. Not as wide as apple's earpods but significantly wider than out of the box.
Unfortunately, during the burn-in process, the bass is now somewhat loose and not as tight as before.
But I am satisfied now, losing a bit on the bass tightness is still worth for getting the wider soundstage.
Another thing, after few months of use, the ear plug rubber got ripped. But I am still okay with it because it comes with spare and the whole package is cheap. Still very much worth it.

Almost all the alternatives you mentioned google searched, seems pretty bad in most reviews and ratings...especially in head fi...

I didn't like piston 2 initially. Too much treble kills me. Mids were too recessed to be able to enjoy music.
But after doing some eq, I'm actually pretty fine with it. In fact I prefer samsung s3 iem over piston 2 if I use piston 2 without eq. I probably hated piston 2's sound signature. But I came to a realization after a freaking few months!? started eq, that hey, this guy actually has some good sound quality. My ears may probably become accustomed to piston 2, which I hoped really not.
But whenever I revert back to flat eq for piston 2 now... I really dislike it so much that I'm probaby better off with samsung iem. I really doubt people if they really like piston 2 with flat eq.
 
The eq I use is n shaped. Software is Android poweramp.
 
But then again, even if you really hate piston 2, I do not think it deserved a 0.5 star rating. 0.5 star rating is like more for those iems/headphones that cost $100 and sounded like $5. a $2 iem naturally have bad sound quality but hey it's just $2 and deserved err what 3 star rating? Coz You get what you pay for. My point is price and value should be included in consideration during a review.
 
Actually I can understand a bit, I initially wanted to give it 0.5 star rating because the treble is just too much, it's hurting my ears and its just not even usable imo. But seeing it its solvable for me and that sound signature is kinda subjective in some cases,and..hey! it has a mic and volume control, I would probably give it a 4/5 stars rating now.

0.5 star rating is not what I'd put.
But it is your review so you have all the rights to do so.
So lets move on.

I dun know man. But half a star rating is like even worse than beats/skullcandies..