[Yggdrassilious]

The point is that stock earbuds from most other brands are better than ibuds. Buds from iRiver/Sony are tons better
 
Quote:

I think iBuds get unfairly bashed, specially by people who think that spending a lot of money on earphones/ headphones, amps, & cables is the only way to get good sound. I never got great sound out of the iBuds because of their design. However, when I pushed them in (but had to keep my hands keeping them in place) they actually sounded pretty good, at least the ones that came with the iPhone 3, Classic 2007 & 2009 and 4G & 5G Nanos.
 
Of course they don't sound like most of the phones listed in my sig, which are VERY expensive, but they're not as bad as people in these forums often make them out to be.
 
You often get a similar reaction when people compare customs to universal IEMs, when the truth of the matter is that some universals can sound as good, if not better, than some customs out there.

 

 

[theoriesoftopix]

I think there better than skullcandy, just fray away too easily.

 

[phntmsmshr]

Hate all earbuds because NONE of them sit in my ears, ever. Thankfully there's a world of IEMs out there. 

 

[deadhead12]

If it weren't for the ibuds, I would have never found head-fi, so I can't really hate.  

 

[bcasey25raptor]

i actually don't hate ibuds. for free they sound passable to me. they sound clear to me but they had 0 bass. to bad mine broke.

 

[bcasey25raptor]

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Why are there so many of these kinds of threads? It's largely just ignorance, and for most people, ignorance is bliss. If they're happy, then they're happy. I was perfectly content with using $10 sony cheapos for years. It was only until my sonys broke and I upgraded to $15 koss cheapos that a hidden longing for great sound was ignited within me. Not everyone is like this too. I'm sure many people here have let others listen to their outstanding head-fi, and although those people may have been thoroughly impressed, they were still happy afterwards still using their iBuds. 

perhaps your right. sometimes i prefer 10$ iems as they are cheap and portable. then again i don't like bringing my shure srh840 everywhere and the iems are less revealing of bad quality recordings.
 
 

 

[music_4321]

Quote:

The point is that stock earbuds from most other brands are better than ibuds. Buds from iRiver/Sony are tons better
 

The only other stock IEMs I've had are those that came with the Sony X1061, Sony NWZ-A847 & Sony NW-A857. It's a well known fact those 3 IEMs were/ are superior to what you get from most, if not all, other DAPs. However, I actually never tried any of them (still have my current A857 IEMs unopened) as I have better IEMs, but these 3 phones are considered premium IEMs and are not that cheap when purchased separately, specially the A857's. All 3 Sony DAPs, however, are VERY expensive, so in actual fact you ARE paying for better IEMs. I doubt other DAPs have such good stock IEMs, and doubt they'd be better SQ-wise than Apple iBuds.
 

 

[bangengeman]

For something that is essentially free, and we're complaining? I don't think that's being fair, right? iBuds are there to get you started right out of the box. And mind you, they don't sound awful. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that they sound just fine (not to be confused with good). Nothing earth-shattering, but it does its job. And they usually come with inline mics (for iPhones, not sure for the iPod touch/Nano), something that a lot of headphones here really don't have.
 
Analogy: Car stereo. Some of these sound decent out of the dealer, some of these don't. If you can, usually, your first upgrade is the sound system. You might spend on a car cover first, or maybe some tinting and some wheels or seat upgrades, but chances are, you upgrade your sound system too. Same thing with the iBuds: it's there, but it's not much, but it's there to get you started.
 
It's one thing to hate earbuds because they don't fit/isolate well. But for something that came free with your iPod, I think you can't complain much. And as deadhead12 said:
 
 
Quote:

If it weren't for the ibuds, I would have never found head-fi, so I can't really hate. 

 

 

[DaBomb77766]

Guys, the iBuds aren't exactly free, they're just adding to the cost of the iPod/iPhone.  Which is why the iPad doesn't come with one.
 
That said, I hear they can actually sound quite good if you get a pseudo-in-ear conversion thing like the yurbuds.

 

[EddieE]

I don’t hate them – they are what they are. All dap manufacturers package cheap ear buds with their products so people can use them out of the box. They figure if people will care they will buy their own and personal taste plays such a large part of headphone choice why should they second-guess the consumer by putting what they think sounds good in with the ipod and drive the price up – no guarantee the consumer will like them anyway. Saying other stock ear buds are better - well maybe a bit, I don't know - but the point is they are all rubbish. I'm not going to keep any of them so who cares if one is slightly less awful than another?
 
I do think it’s a shame so many people don’t care enough about music to invest in headphones to do it justice. I do get a bit annoyed when people think anything over £10 is too expensive for headphones when they spend more than that on a T-shirt and as much as decent headphones on a pair of shoes without blinking. As someone who knows a bit about headphones I get really bored and tired of people asking me for a recommendation of “great sounding, closed, full sized headphones, suitable for use out of an ipod” and then say they are willing to spend “as much as £30” and absolutely refuse to consider spending more even though they’ll buy a 15th pair of shoes for £200 without thinking twice. Yes, I work in an office with a 90% female work force…
 
But what annoys me more than all of that is sham-artists like Monster who use profits from their cable scams to pay celebrities to endorse cheap Chinese crap and sell it as the same price as premium headphones. So that’s taking advantage of people who actually do care enough to buy what they think are quality headphones and diverting money away from Sennheiser, beyer, Stax, Audio Technica, Denon et al into their dirty pockets. I prefer to see people wearing white ear buds than Beats.

 

[cifani090]

Quote:

Hate all earbuds because NONE of them sit in my ears, ever. Thankfully there's a world of IEMs out there. 

I was going to ask what was your age, but when i saw that you owned the Westone 4's i knew you found a pair of IEM's that fit your ear. 
 

 

[davidcotton]

Not sure if it was the white buds, but certainly they were stock, someone at work had them so loud it sounded like a radio playing in the back ground....

 

[DaBomb77766]

Quote:

Not sure if it was the white buds, but certainly they were stock, someone at work had them so loud it sounded like a radio playing in the back ground....

Ugh, I hate that, the tinny noise those create when turned up way too loud drives me mad...

 

[icedtrip]

I hate them for 2 main reasons.  Even at medium volume, people around can hear your music.  I hate it when I can hear other people's music, and I simply don't want to be that guy.  However, the #1 reason I hate them....they hurt my ears after only about 10 minutes.  My ears have never cared for buds, only IEMs are comfortable to me for portable use.
 
 
 

 

[rovex]

Does Steve Jobs wear the little White buds?