My first post on head-fi, have been reading the thread for a while, you guys rock! So much information on this thread, always wanted to enter the hifi world but without our Chinese fellows that would just be prohibitively expensive for me since I don't live anywhere near a pro audio store to test some products, it was always a blind online shopping game for me and if i wanted to return the goods there was always the customs taxes and everything else making the whole process ridiculously hard, time consuming and even more expensive!
Well, I just ordered EMI CI880 (Estron C630) on tidebay since the price on ali had skyrocked and amazon uk does not ship to my country.
Here is the link if anyone is interested, don't know how good tidebuy service is, my first order there.
https://www.tidebuy.com/product/Estron-C630-Hifi-Stereo-Wire-Control-Headset-12733714.html
Also waiting for KZ-ZS5 and Einsear T2 to arrive, as soon as I can provide reviews and comparisons, I'll.
About cheap headphones, I have the ISK MDH9999(isk hd980 in some countries) AKG K271MKII's clone but with 32ohm instead of AKG's 55Ω, and they are probably the best bang for the buck on headphone's hifi division, even hooked up straight from the PS4 Dual Shock 4 it provides good sub-bass and mid-bass kick feel that I did not expect from a monitor ''lean ass bass'' headphone, really wide soundstage(and they are closed-back) and overall crisp audio experience! Like I said, they are legendary flat and crisp (to the point of exposing bad quality records and mixing quickly), so don't expect fancy-fun bass EQ straight from the cans and that led me to search for a good portable amp with some eq just out of curiosity, but specially to test some IEM and earbuds for gaming(PS4) and to listen to music while traveling.
Probably the best cheap option would be the bluetooth kit for KZ-ZS5, but i strive for more options, really want to compare different earphones and not all of them perform that well straight from portable sources. Right now I'm thinking about Fiio A5 or Q1. Q1 has the best battery life (+30 hours) and that would be a major plus for me, specially for gaming, but I don't know how good A5 is, since that would be my only portable amp, really difficult to choose blindly, probably both would serve me well. I know it is not a phone amp thread but would like to know your opinions, what do you guys think?