[raymanh]

Looking for some audio equipment for a friend's birthday. I was going to get her an IEM, probably the BLON BL03's until she showed me what she wanted which was earbuds. She likes to be able to hear her surroundings and doesn't care about sound quality. The only requirement she has is that they are durable and won't break like her previous earbuds have.

So for about $20, what can I get? I have no clue about the earbud market.

Thanks.

 

[baskingshark]

Looking for some audio equipment for a friend's birthday. I was going to get her an IEM, probably the BLON BL03's until she showed me what she wanted which was earbuds. She likes to be able to hear her surroundings and doesn't care about sound quality. The only requirement she has is that they are durable and won't break like her previous earbuds have.

So for about $20, what can I get? I have no clue about the earbud market.

Thanks.

U can ask more in the dedicated earbuds thread on headfi: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/

The folks there are quite friendly.

For earbuds that are $20 USD, you can read about"

1) Yincrow X6 - similar tuning to BLON BL-03, in having big delicious bass and rolled off treble; good timbre but bottlenecked at technicalities, just like the BLON BL-03.

2) RY4S Plus 32 ohm - V shaped, fun sounding set. Quite good price to performance ratio.

3) SMABAT M0 - this set is pretty unique in that u can buy aftermarket drivers and dampers to change the sound signature. It is really crazy with the number of permutations that this set can give. With just the stock tuning, it is a neutralish bright set with good technicalities, but an anemic bass. Good for vocal lovers, but not for bassheads.

 

[raymanh]

U can ask more in the dedicated earbuds thread on headfi: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/

The folks there are quite friendly.

For earbuds that are $20 USD, you can read about"

1) Yincrow X6 - similar tuning to BLON BL-03, in having big delicious bass and rolled off treble; good timbre but bottlenecked at technicalities, just like the BLON BL-03.

2) RY4S Plus 32 ohm - V shaped, fun sounding set. Quite good price to performance ratio.

3) SMABAT M0 - this set is pretty unique in that u can buy aftermarket drivers and dampers to change the sound signature. It is really crazy with the number of permutations that this set can give. With just the stock tuning, it is a neutralish bright set with good technicalities, but an anemic bass. Good for vocal lovers, but not for bassheads.

Thanks for the suggestions.

The Yincrows are available in my country and the fact that they're bass heavy seems good since my friend will likely not wear them with a good seal, so added bass to compensate is good. BTW, why even are earbuds a thing, do people get a seal with them? I've never had a pair of ear buds that sealed well and therefore sounded good.

I completely forgot about that thread, I'll post a question over there too.

 

[someguyontheinternet]

Some people either want less isolation or have problems from putting things inside the ear canal or simply find it uncomfortable to put things in their ear canal.

 

[baskingshark]

Thanks for the suggestions.

The Yincrows are available in my country and the fact that they're bass heavy seems good since my friend will likely not wear them with a good seal, so added bass to compensate is good. BTW, why even are earbuds a thing, do people get a seal with them? I've never had a pair of ear buds that sealed well and therefore sounded good.

I completely forgot about that thread, I'll post a question over there too.

Earbuds have no seal, they are closer to open backed headphones than IEMs actually.

As such, earbuds in general give superior soundstage to IEMs, but due to the lack of seal, isolation suffers, and subbass extension too. But there are some pricier earbuds eg SMABAT series that have some acoustic labryinth design such that the subbass is still good, but most earbuds have weak subbass in general.

 

[raymanh]

So change of plan, sorry.

So the birthday is actually quite soon and I just realised that all these chi-fi products won't won't arrive on time.

What are some good buds from more established brands than I can just get in a physical store. How about these:

Philips SHE3000
Philips SHE2105
ATH C555
ATH C505

(I am curious myself about buds, so will buy myself some Yincrow X6's, thanks for the suggestion!)