[Joshatdot]

I've got into selling old-ish Discman, Walkman, Armband/Headband Radios .. Sony's, Panasonic's, Awia's .. etc.  Along with testing them before I sell  them .. I've been testing out various OEM headphones they come with, or some other cheep ones they come with when I buy them.  They're usually buds, bud headbands, or regular type headphones .. and they all usually sound like rubbish.  Heavily veiled/muffled, or somewhat fairly clear mids & highs (but still veiled) and no bass at all .. or just plain ultra garbage.
 
I've been comparing them to my JVC HA-FX33s (stock but with Shure Orange Foams), JVC-HA-FX34's (all stock), JVC HA-FX66's (with Shure Olives jammed on  them), Koss KSC-75's (stock), Koss KSC-35's (my own Kramer mod version), and my atrio M5's.
 
They all sound LOADS and LOADS better then the stock/OEM ones, and they all can be bought for $15 or much much less (except the KSC-35s).  Yes they have some issues/flaws .. but compared to the stock/OEM ones .. they're great!
 
It's funny, the best clean/clear & sound stage sounding .. IMHO are the HA-FX66's (with Shure Olives, but not sure if that really makes a difference).
 
This is all based on what I have available to me .. I have not tried much else.   I've been searching Amazon.com's site for 4+ star rating headphones that are $10 or less.  I've found these: JVC HA-F130s/140s Gumys, Panasonic RP-HV21's, Memorex EB200A's, Sony MDR-E10LP's,  Philips SHE263x/27's, Coby CVE92's (yes Coby's they have over 800 reviews and are 4+ rated overall), Panasonic RP-HT21's.  They all have different colors, SKU/Model numbers .. but overall they have atleast 10+ reviews, and score 4+.
 
I am almost tempted to buy some and compare them to the OEMs and my value cans.  What do you think?

 

[Confispect]

Are we too picky on head-fi about cheap/value phones, possibly but the standard phones that come with players beg to be upgraded.

 

[ljokerl]

Quote:

This is all based on what I have available to me .. I have not tried much else.   I've been searching Amazon.com's site for 4+ star rating headphones that are $10 or less.  I've found these: JVC HA-F130s/140s Gumys, Panasonic RP-HV21's, Memorex EB200A's, Sony MDR-E10LP's,  Philips SHE263x/27's, Coby CVE92's (yes Coby's they have over 800 reviews and are 4+ rated overall), Panasonic RP-HT21's.  They all have different colors, SKU/Model numbers .. but overall they have atleast 10+ reviews, and score 4+.
 
I am almost tempted to buy some and compare them to the OEMs and my value cans.  What do you think?

A lot of the Skullcandy sets have 4-star average reviews too and some of them sound worse than stock earbuds (ahem... Smokin'). I've tried the Coby CVE92 expecting them to at least be decent but they were truly awful - genuinely worse than my Sansa buds. The Coby CVEM79 'Jammerz Platinum' are about $10 and much better. There are some other good ones to be had around $10 - the Earsquake SHA, elago E3, Meelec M2, some of the China-sourced Kanen models - but shooting in the dark can be a bit risky.
 
There are also some stock earphones that are unreasonably good - the Sony MDR-EX082 that comes with a lot of Walkman players is significantly better than many of the aftermarket products in the <$30 range, for example.
 
Having purchased a few dozen budget sets I have to question the purpose of it aside from spending a couple of bucks for the thrill of anticipation in finding the one decent set out of dozens. There are many known models in the $20-40 range that are a guaranteed and significant upgrade from stock buds so buying several $10 sets on a whim is a questionable gamble. The market is expanding at an unprecedented rate and manufacturers, especially smaller ones that cannot squeeze by on branding or advertising, are racing to pack more and more bang/buck into their product. What was once down the JVC Marshmallows vs AirCushions vs entry-level sennheisers is now a market as varied and complex as that of top-tiers, albeit with more limitations on average. So are $10 sets overlooked? Probably. Is the trend justified in terms of there being noticeable gains to be had by doubling or tripling that budget? I would say yes.

 

[rymd]

Are we too picky? I didn't really understand your question but I would not say so. We're music and audio lovers right...? so we strive for the better over worse. anyways, amazon reviews are the WORST source of information for audio related stuff. many of those 4 stars should actually be more like 1-2 stars. 
you can play cheapophone roulette but i would advise against getting the jvc gumy. it's horrible

 

[ProjectDenz]

I think there is a misconception about star ratings. A 4+ star rating does not automatically put it into the 'top-tier' category for headphones in terms of sq. That 4+ star rating is based on many things, price, value, performance, durability etc.

Amazon ratings are questionable anyways.