[Vidal]

No, not even close. They have different sound signatures as IM70 being much more balanced than the bassy Swing IE800.

Swing IE800 has too much bass and harsh treble so I gave it to my friend. If you like IM70 you should check CKR9 for an upgrade.

 
We must have got different versions then. I hate overly bassy earphones. One thing my pair of Swings aren't is too bassy, and there's no harsh treble either.
 
I'm listening to them right now - maybe you were unlucky with yours.

 

[CoiL]

Guys, those are DIY "IE800" and there are so many of them with same look but different name. Maybe ozkan mean mid-bass because I`ve noticed that many of those "IE800" have overly boosted mid-bass like my Yinjw ceramic "IE800" had.

 

[Vidal]

  Sheeeet if only you had posted this 24 hours earlier I wouldn't have ordered one.

 
Maybe I got a bad one, the software looks to be fairly new (low numbers) maybe they'll update it. 
 
Interface Oddities -
 
1. to change volume you press and hold the bottom bit of the click wheel, a volume knob appears on the screen and you click left or right on the wheel.
2. moving within a vertical list you use left and right not up down, down moves you back in the menu
3. Creating a playlist 'adding tracks to memory' doesn't pick up tracks on the TF card
 
I mean there are other oddities but these are the ones that annoyed me the most. The screen is pretty low resolution and it's slow in playing a track from the CF. I'm going to stick with the S5 and try to get refund on this. On the plus side I bought a UMI Touch Phablet which works perfectly with Apple Music and my Fiio K1, it'll also take a 128Gb card.

 

[CoiL]

Posting here too...

  Hey guys! I`m asking advice about cheapo DAPs. I wish to get something decent sounding around 30$ price range for my gf. 
These are some options:
 
1) ONN W8
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2016-New-Bluetooth-Hifi-MP3-Player-8GB-Memory-with-External-Audio-Speaker-With-Pedometer/32601517532.html
 
2) ONN W6
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2016-New-professional-MP3-Bluetooth-Music-Player-8GB-storage-1-8-Inch-Screen-60h-Sports-MP3/32682542919.html
 
3) Idealist S1813
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2016-New-Idealist-S1813-metal-MP3-Walkman-MP-4-lossless-music-player-card-running-I-Walkman/32691338345.html
 
4) Ruizu X01
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-2015-Arrive-4GB-MP3-Player-1-8-Inch-Screen-Can-Play-80-hours-Original-RUIZU/32343842864.html
 
5) X11
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2015-new-X11-8GB-Professional-lossless-music-mp3-hifi-music-player-with-TFT-screen-support/32685693417.html
 
6) Benjie C1
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/BENJIE-C1-8G-OGG-APE-FLAC-High-Quality-Entry-level-Lossless-Mini-Music-Player/32636927335.html
 
7) Benjie S5
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Original-MP3-Player-8GB-BENJIE-S5-Metal-APE-FLAC-WAV-High-Sound-Quality-Entry-level-Lossless/32646673512.html
 
8) Newsmy A33
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Newsmy-A33-MP3-High-Quality-lossless-audio-Player-FM-Mini-Screen-Lovely-Fever-Music-MP3-WMA/32265086226.html
 
9) Ruizu X08
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Speaker-1-8-8GB-MP4-Player-Slim-Video-Radio-FM-Player-For-64GB-Micro-SD-TF/32552061616.html
 
EDIT: added these two options:
15) Ruizu X18
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Original-RUIZU-X18-Latest-Version-Bluetooth-4-0-Sport-MP3-Player-with-8G-can-playing130/32673102480.html
 
16) Hello X01
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Original-Bluetooth-Sport-MP3-Player-with-Pedo-Meter-Touch-screen-8G-Support-extended-128G/32688919187.html
 
 
Which ones are bad straight off and which are with good SQ?
 
Or should I go straight for "next tier" for about twice the price with one of those (if they really sound better)?
 
10) Fiio M3
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Fiio-M3-Digital-Portable-Music-Player-8GB-microSD-Expansion-Earphone/32582023466.html
 
11) ONN X6
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2015-New-ONN-X6-8GB-lossless-music-mp3-HiFi-player-with-TFT-screen-support-APE-FLAC/32538115016.html
 
12) ONN X5
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Arrival-ONN-X5-MP3-HIFI-Music-Player-with-HD-OLED-Screen-Support-APE-FLAC-ALAC/32536176427.html
 
13) Newsmy G1
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/36hours-play-Newsmy-G1-HiFi-metal-lossess-enthusiast-MP3-with-8GB-Support-MP3-WMA-APE-FLAC/32337296867.html
 
14) xDuoo X2
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1-piece-ie80-earphones-Storae-bag-for-ie80-or-ie8i-top-quality-ie80-earphone-free-shipping/1298518444.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_0,searchweb201602_1_10057_10056_10055_10037_10049_10059_9995_10032_10058_10017_405_404_407_10040,searchweb201603_4&btsid=9a813786-8065-401d-980f-847552d3ebb9
 
 
Will those cheaper ones all be inferior to xDuoo X2 or are there any with similar SQ?
 
Thanks in advance for advice!

 

[Vidal]

Guys, I know this is a thread for great bargain buys - I thought I share one to avoid - MK800 earphones.
 
They look like Mannhas E170, in fact they have a better cable and mic. Soundwise the difference is night and day, they're rubbish. No bass, low sensitivity, like multi story car park crime, they're wrong on so many levels.

 

[Rainmaker91]

  Sheeeet if only you had posted this 24 hours earlier I wouldn't have ordered one.

There is often time to stop the order if it hasnt been sent yet. I have done it with success on Aliexpress before, so it's worth a try.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

  Posting here too...

 
I will go for the Xduoo X2 at 35$ from here if I were you (price is to good and change the game):
http://www.gearbest.com/mp3-mp4-players/pp_373989.html
 
Other good sounding one are the Fiio M3, Onn X5, Benjie S5 and Idealist S1813.
 
The ONN X5 have a untrustable firmware as well as the Idealist, both crash or have problem reading card sometime.
Did not try the M3 and S5 but they look more stable from what I read.
Soundwise ONN X5 is very good, Idealist a little better than Ruizu X02.
 
Xduoo is the way to go for the better sound and amping while M3 and S5 have better battery life and perhaps UI.
 
Hope this help!

 

[Saoshyant]

I'm still quite curious about the Benjie K9 myself, it's inexpensive & fits the budget @CoiL stated, plus it seems to offer a ton for the cost.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

No, not even close. They have different sound signatures as IM70 being much more balanced than the bassy Swing IE800.

Swing IE800 has too much bass and harsh treble so I gave it to my friend. If you like IM70 you should check CKR9 for an upgrade.

My Swing too are not bassy and as I have buy other ones for my friends and test it before giving them all the Swing were identical in sound signature..wich is punchy bass (more appropriate for rock than rap)  but not bassy at all and neutral and detailed sounding. Little bright perhaps but don,t find the treble harsh.
Perhaps the source was overly bassy?
 
What is you music source for these IE800?
 
 
IM70 look intriguing tough

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

PS: About this MAIN Chinese thread unfortunate event that look complicate to fully understand, I will say that it's sad that it interfer with other threads as well as all the Headfi community. I don't want to be a revolutionnary guy here or anything but this Paulpark222 look like a dishonnest dude and I can surely find other one like him on headfi that just live from free reviews sample, in fact, sometime they write in their review that they receive one and as soon as you receive something free your judgment will became a little more subjective. It happen sometime that anybody can receive a free sample from somewhere but when ALL your reviews are Free sample, well, something is wrong for sure. I'm not a police so I will not name who I think at this moment, but I admit that he got on my nerfs and that he surely listen to Brithney Spear to write his fast reviews. Anyway, just don't want this forum to became a bad communist movie with all this censorship...when a earphones have only one name or brand we can't change it for another and this censorship can became a real burden for my best-off list. I don't want to have to erase good earphones suggestions and fall into ''headfi subjectivity'' instead of ''HIFI Objectivity'' that's all i'm saying.
 
Amen.

 

[ozkan]

My Swing too are not bassy and as I have buy other ones for my friends and test it before giving them all the Swing were identical in sound signature..wich is punchy bass (more appropriate for rock than rap)  but not bassy at all and neutral and detailed sounding. Little bright perhaps but don,t find the treble harsh.
Perhaps the source was overly bassy?

What is you music source for these IE800?


IM70 look intriguing tough:wink_face:

My source is Ritmix RF-7650 which is same as the Kogan and supposed to be bass light for many and me also. I hate using EQ on any of my sources and set EQ to off. Maybe my pair was a bassy one but it's not mid-bass. I had to use Comply tips to decrease the subbass and remove the harshness.

 

[CoiL]

 

  Posting here too...

 
I will go for the Xduoo X2 at 35$ from here if I were you (price is to good and change the game):
http://www.gearbest.com/mp3-mp4-players/pp_373989.html
 
Other good sounding one are the Fiio M3, Onn X5, Benjie S5 and Idealist S1813.
 
The ONN X5 have a untrustable firmware as well as the Idealist, both crash or have problem reading card sometime.
Did not try the M3 and S5 but they look more stable from what I read.
Soundwise ONN X5 is very good, Idealist a little better than Ruizu X02.
 
Xduoo is the way to go for the better sound and amping while M3 and S5 have better battery life and perhaps UI.
 
Hope this help!

X2 and X5 are top of my list and I`m leaning towards X5. From what I`ve read, after FW upgrade it should sound very good for price it goes. 
About M3 I`ve read not so good things and it`s kinda out of my list.
Lets say, at the moment my list in preference order is like this:
1) ONN X5
2) xDuoo X2
3) Idealist S1813
4) Benjie S5
5) X11
 
No idea though how they sound and perform with firmware.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

I really like how the ONN X5 sound, however I did not make the firmware update because I did not find anybody that was able to install it properly...
can you give me the link of where you read an Happy ending with the firmware?
I will like to know how to install it...a tutorial in english will be very usefull as it's all in chinese otherwise.
 
Other issue with th X5 is the phone out, it can make static noise with some headphones plug like with my Portapro. Never have this kind of problem with any other music players. I guess it's because of the ''amping module'' they use that can adapt to the Ohm as they said. It did not occur with any of my earphones tough...The firmware have more probles with some microSD cards too, it's safer to use 32g I think but not sure.
 
Xduoo is a better and more trustable company than ONN imo and I utterly enjoy my Xduoo X3 so perhaps I will myself get a X2 just to have the whole Xduoo groupie collection! Got a Xduoo X1 on his way so my collection already begin hehe

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

My source is Ritmix RF-7650 which is same as the Kogan and supposed to be bass light for many and me also. I hate using EQ on any of my sources and set EQ to off. Maybe my pair was a bassy one but it's not mid-bass. I had to use Comply tips to decrease the subbass and remove the harshness.

Okay, strange...I like using Ibasso Dx80 with them because it give more bass...so, that is not normal for sure.
 
Will not be the first time that a bad quality check occur with this type of IEM tough...that's the (little) risk of the game I guest.
Never cool when it happen.

 

[Vidal]

You only have to look how Amazon's review have been polluted with free sample reviews, most of the earphones are reviewed by people who's reviews are usually about toasters not earphones.
 
I was sent a pair of Banjos because I was less than flattering about a pair of Pros, they asked me to write a review about the Banjos after getting them. As much as I like the Banjos, there's no way I'd write a review unless I'd paid for them myself. I offered to send them back but they said I could keep them.
 
There are reviewers on here who aren't influenced by the free samples though, in fact I suspect some are a little over critical to remove any shadow of doubt over their objectivity.