Well despite the lack of recommendations on my post in the intro forum I decided to dive in with a few buds after reading wayyyy too much of this thread. I also purchased a fiio x3ii as my first dap since my phone is always out of storage.
These are the Faaeal Snow Lotus 1.0+ CE and the Earbuds Anonymous EA buds. I got the EA buds and I thought they sounded good but struggled a bit with irritation from the fit. Then I got the Snow Lotus 1.0+ and wow they sound great. So good, that I haven't really listened to the EA buds very much since. The sound stage and imaging is much better on the Snow Lotus and it also seems to have more bass extension. This is most notable when gaming, I can tell footstep positions much better with the Snow Lotus (on par with my ATH-AD700X). I struggle to tell a difference with sound stage when listening to music. The cable on the EA buds is nicer/lighter but the SL has a more premium feeling 3.5mm jack. Both came with high quality foams and I can't tell a difference between the included and the hiegi ones I ordered (except maybe in QC). I'm using 1 regular + 1 donut on both as I found the extra padding of double foams made them less prone to irritation. I'm not much for describing sound signatures but I can say that I really enjoy the SL.
Still have the R4YS on the way but as far as budget buds, I think I'm pretty happy.
Snow Lotus 1.0+ is definitely one of the best imaging earbuds I tried yet. Very good mids and treble too, althought a bit bass light for my tastes (so it requires a bit of amp in this section for best results).Well despite the lack of recommendations on my post in the intro forum I decided to dive in with a few buds after reading wayyyy too much of this thread. I also purchased a fiio x3ii as my first dap since my phone is always out of storage.
These are the Faaeal Snow Lotus 1.0+ CE and the Earbuds Anonymous EA buds. I got the EA buds and I thought they sounded good but struggled a bit with irritation from the fit. Then I got the Snow Lotus 1.0+ and wow they sound great. So good, that I haven't really listened to the EA buds very much since. The sound stage and imaging is much better on the Snow Lotus and it also seems to have more bass extension. This is most notable when gaming, I can tell footstep positions much better with the Snow Lotus (on par with my ATH-AD700X). I struggle to tell a difference with sound stage when listening to music. The cable on the EA buds is nicer/lighter but the SL has a more premium feeling 3.5mm jack. Both came with high quality foams and I can't tell a difference between the included and the hiegi ones I ordered (except maybe in QC). I'm using 1 regular + 1 donut on both as I found the extra padding of double foams made them less prone to irritation. I'm not much for describing sound signatures but I can say that I really enjoy the SL.
Still have the R4YS on the way but as far as budget buds, I think I'm pretty happy.
Good luck, because I tried to dismantle 1 of my 2 pairs and I completely scratched one drivers trying to open it, even with a LOT of airdryer (and for a very long time), so I decided to give up.
I had 1.0 (before making it MMXC) and the 1.0+ sounds even better than 1.0 (at least to me). Larger and deeper soundstage, better imaging and definition, slightly mids and highs (from what I remember).
Here is a comparison.
