[JEHL]

Hello guys,
I’m a newbie around here and I’ve already posted a thread in the new & recommendation section regarding a budget in-ear headphones that are kinda comfortable in ear for longer usage (3-4 or maybe even more sessions). I wanna use them mainly for my pc/ iPhone(casual gaming & music), I don’t need specifically accurate sounds and I usually listen to all kind of music genre (maybe a little bit more on the bass side for techno/ house music, but also piano and high sounds, let’s say). The idea is I need a more or less budget pair with built-in microphone. A member around here recommended Jade Audio EA3 (unfortunately, not available with shipping to my country) or KBear KS2.
If you have any other recommendations (more or less 50$ or so), I’d be grateful.
Thank ya in advance!

I think Final E3000 could probably cover the gaming aspect very well due to its open back design as well as the comfort due to how tiny it is. Not sure if it's exactly the signature (Neutral with a midbass boost I believe) you want or if it's available where you live for that matter, nor I own it either to give actual impressions of it myself however. you may wanna also drive it out of the apple lightning connector even if it has a 3.5mm jack due to not quite hard but harder than average to drive nature.

Edit: Forgot also final charges like $10 more for built in microphone as well.

It's also hardwired so there's that as well.

 

[unifutomaki]

Hello guys,
I’m a newbie around here and I’ve already posted a thread in the new & recommendation section regarding a budget in-ear headphones that are kinda comfortable in ear for longer usage (3-4 or maybe even more sessions). I wanna use them mainly for my pc/ iPhone(casual gaming & music), I don’t need specifically accurate sounds and I usually listen to all kind of music genre (maybe a little bit more on the bass side for techno/ house music, but also piano and high sounds, let’s say). The idea is I need a more or less budget pair with built-in microphone. A member around here recommended Jade Audio EA3 (unfortunately, not available with shipping to my country) or KBear KS2.
If you have any other recommendations (more or less 50$ or so), I’d be grateful.
Thank ya in advance!

The KBEar KB04 is like the KS2 but much more refined, and it really doesn't cost much more. KZ ZSN (Pro) is cheap yet well-built and fun-sounding. TFZ Live 1 would also be within budget, though there aren't many reviews of it out right now it should nonetheless be pretty consistent with other TFZ products. All of these can be bought with mic cable included.

 

[unifutomaki]

Off-topic observation after looking around other sections of Head-Fi: it seems that money really cannot buy happiness as the more expensive the gear being discussed is (especially when you get to kilobuck levels), the more unhappy, frustrated and dissatisfied people seem to be.

Meanwhile down here with my budget bois we're just generally cool and chill and appreciate the products for the imperfect gadgets that they are. I myself have never experienced more euphoria and emotion from my music than I have managed to get this week from a $40 DAC/amp, $50 IEMs, and $10 app. Throw another $30 on there for a headphone option, and what a headphone it is too. Human behaviour is fascinating really

 

[fonkepala]

Off-topic observation after looking around other sections of Head-Fi: it seems that money really cannot buy happiness as the more expensive the gear being discussed is (especially when you get to kilobuck levels), the more unhappy, frustrated and dissatisfied people seem to be.

Meanwhile down here with my budget bois we're just generally cool and chill and appreciate the products for the imperfect gadgets that they are. I myself have never experienced more euphoria and emotion from my music than I have managed to get this week from a $40 DAC/amp, $50 IEMs, and $10 app. Throw another $30 on there for a headphone option, and what a headphone it is too. Human behaviour is fascinating really

Tell me more about 'em bad bois that you mentioned!

 

[baskingshark]

Off-topic observation after looking around other sections of Head-Fi: it seems that money really cannot buy happiness as the more expensive the gear being discussed is (especially when you get to kilobuck levels), the more unhappy, frustrated and dissatisfied people seem to be.

Meanwhile down here with my budget bois we're just generally cool and chill and appreciate the products for the imperfect gadgets that they are. I myself have never experienced more euphoria and emotion from my music than I have managed to get this week from a $40 DAC/amp, $50 IEMs, and $10 app. Throw another $30 on there for a headphone option, and what a headphone it is too. Human behaviour is fascinating really

Yes agreed, cost does not equate to sound quality. Most of my more expensive western midfi gear are gathering dust in the drawers, whereas my most used gear are cheaper CHIFI, some costing 10% of these western stuff (eg Sennheiser IEMs, Westone IEMs and Shure IEMs), but almost hitting the same sound quality as them, or in some cases surpassing the western stuff.

Perhaps in the headphone segment, the western brands are still king, but in the last 2 - 3 years, CHIFI IEMs have really caught up to their western counterparts and provide superb price to performance ratio. 3 years ago, a triple driver IEM would cost north of $200 USD, a single driver set would be close to $100 USD. Nowadays, 20 bucks can get u a decent multi driver set even (with detachable cable to boot, while some western gear are still churning out non detachable cables on IEMs which are potential points of failure). Really really thankful that the barrier to entering this hobby has been pushed low, so most of us can have a small taste of the "audiophile" hobby without needing to sell a kidney. I remembered previously I could only buy one triple driver western IEM maybe once every 5 years.

Speaking about kilobuck levels, the $1000 - 2000 USD gear I've auditioned (no $ to afford them or bring them home!), some of these summitFI are more refined and better in sound than the midfi CHIFI stuff, but the difference is like 10 - 20% in technicalities and maybe tuning is more refined, but personally I can't justify a 10 times price increase to chase the last 10% in sound. No doubt for some the 10% is worth the diminishing returns to chase, but more so in this covid economy, I can't see many people splurging on TOTL and summitFI gear when there's uncertainty in jobs and employment.

QC may be an issue for budget CHIFI, but I've had more QC problems in western gear surprisingly, and most of the western gear are made in China anyways! But maybe buying these CHIFI from a place where there's returns/refunds like Amazon is an option, or even if one CHIFI dies, one can still get 9 others for the same cost of one western IEM.

 

[chinmie]

Yes agreed, cost does not equate to sound quality. Most of my more expensive western midfi gear are gathering dust in the drawers, whereas my most used gear are cheaper CHIFI, some costing 10% of these western stuff (eg Sennheiser IEMs, Westone IEMs and Shure IEMs), but almost hitting the same sound quality as them, or in some cases surpassing the western stuff.

Perhaps in the headphone segment, the western brands are still king, but in the last 2 - 3 years, CHIFI IEMs have really caught up to their western counterparts and provide superb price to performance ratio. 3 years ago, a triple driver IEM would cost north of $200 USD, a single driver set would be close to $100 USD. Nowadays, 20 bucks can get u a decent multi driver set even (with detachable cable to boot, while some western gear are still churning out non detachable cables on IEMs which are potential points of failure). Really really thankful that the barrier to entering this hobby has been pushed low, so most of us can have a small taste of the "audiophile" hobby without needing to sell a kidney. I remembered previously I could only buy one triple driver western IEM maybe once every 5 years.

Speaking about kilobuck levels, the $1000 - 2000 USD gear I've auditioned (no $ to afford them or bring them home!), some of these summitFI are more refined and better in sound than the midfi CHIFI stuff, but the difference is like 10 - 20% in technicalities and maybe tuning is more refined, but personally I can't justify a 10 times price increase to chase the last 10% in sound. No doubt for some the 10% is worth the diminishing returns to chase, but more so in this covid economy, I can't see many people splurging on TOTL and summitFI gear when there's uncertainty in jobs and employment.

QC may be an issue for budget CHIFI, but I've had more QC problems in western gear surprisingly, and most of the western gear are made in China anyways! But maybe buying these CHIFI from a place where there's returns/refunds like Amazon is an option, or even if one CHIFI dies, one can still get 9 others for the same cost of one western IEM.

the good thing with the more popular chifis have become nowadays, there are more distributors (at least in my country) of those brands like KZs, Moondrops, Tinaudio, etc, so it's better just to buy them in my country rather than ordering myself from AE. similar price with better after sales/warranty protection

 

[JEHL]

the good thing with the more popular chifis have become nowadays, there are more distributors (at least in my country) of those brands like KZs, Moondrops, Tinaudio, etc, so it's better just to buy them in my country rather than ordering myself from AE. similar price with better after sales/warranty protection

Hopefully I won't be a corpse by the time that's possible where I live.

 

[Ptm981]

Haha, thanks for the quick reply. I will check them out and see what I can find available. I checked out before the Final Audio E3000, but I was kind repulsive in terms of design, meanwhile I love the KBear design, but if you say that they are more comfortable, I'll take that it consideration.
Also, I think that paying more money to more expensive products, you have more expectations and you are more of a critic at that point. If you get a bargain on those cheap headphones you'll be really satisfied with what you got and you couldn't really ask for more. Though, I was checking out some of those cheap ones in my country and they are not really cheap at all. For example a pair of 1More Quad Drivers are around 200$ and other brands like KBear you won't even find locally, unfortunately or you're gonna find them at a price at which you can buy a pair of Bose.

 

[dharmasteve]

Off-topic observation after looking around other sections of Head-Fi: it seems that money really cannot buy happiness as the more expensive the gear being discussed is (especially when you get to kilobuck levels), the more unhappy, frustrated and dissatisfied people seem to be.

Meanwhile down here with my budget bois we're just generally cool and chill and appreciate the products for the imperfect gadgets that they are. I myself have never experienced more euphoria and emotion from my music than I have managed to get this week from a $40 DAC/amp, $50 IEMs, and $10 app. Throw another $30 on there for a headphone option, and what a headphone it is too. Human behaviour is fascinating really

Happiness for some comes in the form of the Blon 03. Sound that for some is magically above it's measly price. For some this analogue sounding champion is up there with some of the TOTL. It now appears in blue. It truly has the magic but can be hampered by getting them to fit ears. So are you willing to pass the ChiFi initiation test and go the extra mile?

 

[unifutomaki]

Happiness for some comes in the form of the Blon 03. Sound that for some is magically above it's measly price. For some this analogue sounding champion is up there with some of the TOTL. It now appears in blue. It truly has the magic but can be hampered by getting them to fit ears. So are you willing to pass the ChiFi initiation test and go the extra mile?

Haha, getting the BL-03 to work is almost a hobby in itself I admire the dedication to the belief and the driams

 

[seanwee]

Off-topic observation after looking around other sections of Head-Fi: it seems that money really cannot buy happiness as the more expensive the gear being discussed is (especially when you get to kilobuck levels), the more unhappy, frustrated and dissatisfied people seem to be.

Meanwhile down here with my budget bois we're just generally cool and chill and appreciate the products for the imperfect gadgets that they are. I myself have never experienced more euphoria and emotion from my music than I have managed to get this week from a $40 DAC/amp, $50 IEMs, and $10 app. Throw another $30 on there for a headphone option, and what a headphone it is too. Human behaviour is fascinating really

10x $100 iems will bring you much more enjoyment than a single pair of $1000 iems. New toy syndrome is real.

 

[jeejack]

Anyone tried these? https://www.amazon.com/CCA-Headphones-Detachable-Tangle-Free-Audiophile/dp/B07WYWGLKW

Lovely iem's. As colleagues said, you can find many reviews on the forum

 

[JEHL]

Haha, thanks for the quick reply. I will check them out and see what I can find available. I checked out before the Final Audio E3000, but I was kind repulsive in terms of design, meanwhile I love the KBear design, but if you say that they are more comfortable, I'll take that it consideration.
Also, I think that paying more money to more expensive products, you have more expectations and you are more of a critic at that point. If you get a bargain on those cheap headphones you'll be really satisfied with what you got and you couldn't really ask for more. Though, I was checking out some of those cheap ones in my country and they are not really cheap at all. For example a pair of 1More Quad Drivers are around 200$ and other brands like KBear you won't even find locally, unfortunately or you're gonna find them at a price at which you can buy a pair of Bose.

This doesn't surprise me at all, in fact the opposite would surprise me. To paraphrase in what was I believe his CCA CA16 review. Despite putting it at the very top of his tier list the IER-Z1R's asking price simply prevented HBB's mind from being blown, since the asking price sets his expectations that high, on the other hand his mind is blown quite often in the sub $200 realm with probably too many examples to post.

Trying my BL-03 for the first time made me ROFLcopter since it just wipes the floor with my nephew's Beats Solo3 despite being like 5 times as expensive. My sister, who tried it first since her husband ordered it with his amazon prime account, was similarly blown by it to the point of being interested in buying a pair herself alongside a 2-pin bluetooth module (still dunno what to suggest here).

I also wanna touch further on the appreciation that Chinese IEM makers make so MANY of their sub $100 IEMs (Sometimes even all the way down to $15) with detachable cable (As if their sound wasn't mind blowing enough already). Too many headphones, IEMs and everything in between that dies, dies cable first. Only seen like 2 headphones (out of 20 or so) die anywhere else and was due to broken headband.

Japan seems like they'd give a good shot sound wise, but hardwiring anything sub $200 seems kinda... archaic, often with meh strain reliefs.

Meanwhile the western seems to be unable to catch up... Kinda hope it doesn't stay that way

Edit: There's also Crinacle's IER-Z1R's review where at one point mentions he could probably think of IEMs that match 80-90% of the IER-Z1R for like 1/8-1/4 of the price. It's probably safe to say that the difference between the A ranked IEMs and the S ranked ones are... Last lousy points.

Apparently his mind was completely blown by what the KSC-75 delivers sound wise for $20.

HiFi Dreams has quite the collection anywhere from $2 earbuds to the $1500 Campfire Solaris. His current favorite recommendations? FiiO FD1 and TinHiFi T2+.both available at $60 I believe.

 

[chinmie]

This doesn't surprise me at all, in fact the opposite would surprise me. To paraphrase in what was I believe his CCA CA16 review. Despite putting it at the very top of his tier list the IER-Z1R's asking price simply prevented HBB's mind from being blown, since the asking price sets his expectations that high, on the other hand his mind is blown quite often in the sub $200 realm with probably too many examples to post.

Trying my BL-03 for the first time made me ROFLcopter since it just wipes the floor with my nephew's Beats Solo3 despite being like 5 times as expensive. My sister, who tried it first since her husband ordered it with his amazon prime account, was similarly blown by it to the point of being interested in buying a pair herself alongside a 2-pin bluetooth module (still dunno what to suggest here).

I also wanna touch further on the appreciation that Chinese IEM makers make so MANY of their sub $100 IEMs (Sometimes even all the way down to $15) with detachable cable (As if their sound wasn't mind blowing enough already). Too many headphones, IEMs and everything in between that dies, dies cable first. Only seen like 2 headphones (out of 20 or so) die anywhere else and was due to broken headband.

Japan seems like they'd give a good shot sound wise, but hardwiring anything sub $200 seems kinda... archaic, often with meh strain reliefs.

Meanwhile the western seems to be unable to catch up... Kinda hope it doesn't stay that way

Edit: There's also Crinacle's IER-Z1R's review where at one point mentions he could probably think of IEMs that match 80-90% of the IER-Z1R for like 1/8-1/4 of the price. It's probably safe to say that the difference between the A ranked IEMs and the S ranked ones are... Last lousy points.

Apparently his mind was completely blown by what the KSC-75 delivers sound wise for $20.

HiFi Dreams has quite the collection anywhere from $2 earbuds to the $1500 Campfire Solaris. His current favorite recommendations? FiiO FD1 and TinHiFi T2+.both available at $60 I believe.

someone on the WF-1000XM3 thread here said he can have about 70-80% of the IER-1ZR sound from the XM3.. i haven't heard the 1ZR myself, but i did heard the M7 and M9, and some other "kilobuck" IEMs, so i can believe what he claim to be reasonably true.

and the T2+ (and the banned MT100} are still some of of the best sounding for me even without considering the price bracket. i haven't heard the T4 though, but after hearing many, and finding this T2+, i don't really care or find the urge to do so

 

[gooeyrich]

https://drop.com/buy/blon-bl-03-iem

$22.