Currently my 4 best buds are the 150ohm SMABAT M2s(40Ohm driver is Floating belly up), the VE Zen Lite, the LBBs, and the EA Earbuds and I was interested in doing a rap shootout Which is not where buds excel, but it is a genre I listen to often and I wanted to see what I should be placing in my ear for the purpose When I need to be able to hear my environment. I listened at multiple volume levels through the Qudelix with the bass under 40Hz cut. I mostly listened to Detroit rappers over a period of 4 hours.
The clear winner is the SMABAT. It has the best bass by far, the clearest vocal, and the a more prominent/clearest treble, a great head stage, and just sounds bigger and more composed than the other 3. None of them audibly struggled at any volume I’d ever listen to.
The next 3 are a mixed bag. Well, they are all a mixed bag really, but SQ goes to the SMABAT.
The LBBs has the next clearest vocal, a bit less pronounced bass but good quality, and probably the best head stage overall (the SMABAT is similar in that regard).
The Earbuds Anonymous have more bass than the LBBs that’s similarly deep (though slightly deeper), but the mid bass more creeps into the vocal more. It has the second most elevated treble level, but tied for the smallest head stage.
THE EA and LBBs have similar clarity/quality in the bass, but the LBBs is closer to a “reference” tuning.
The VE Zen Lite have a warm, prominent, muddier bass that bleeds into the vocal more than the others while it simultaneously has the least extension. It also has a head stage similar in size to the EA Earbuds. The vocal isn’t always buried though (And buried is a harsh word for it), it depends on the rapper. The treble is also the most recessed. As far as rap goes, it handles the genre fairly well—as in it doesn’t distort at sane levels, but I prefer all the others. It’s treble resolution seems to be roughly the same as the LBBs and the EA Earbuds but definitely lower in overall level.
The sound breakdown would look like this to my ear: SMABAT 150 Ohm driver in the M2s Pro shell>LBBs=(Roughly but I’d probably give the nod to the LBBs)EA Earbuds>VE Zen Lite.
Now for comfort it would look like this: VE Zen Lite (easily)>LBBs(definitely)>M2s Pro>EA Earbuds (by a lesser margin but still without a doubt).
Stability: same as comfort.
Ease of driving: LLBs(easily)>EA Earbuds(definitely)>SMABAT>Zen Lite(by a smaller amount)
build quality: SMABAT (but conversely perhaps the easiest to break due to the fact that everything can be modified by my monkey fingers)>Zen Lite(most durable build for sure)>EA Earbuds>LBBs(the shells are great but the strain relief, or rather the lack of, makes me feel like I’m going to break it)
cost: VE Zen Lite($70)>SMABAT($64)>LBBs($35)>EA Earbuds ($25)
Best looking: SMABAT(easily)>LBBs(definitely)>EA Earbuds>Zen Lite
EDIT: THIS IS IMPORTANT
The Zen Lite listening session was done with some generic donut hole foams. That does not characterize the buds well at all. In fact these buds turn out to be every bit the sonic equals of the AE Earbuds and the LBBs. Perhaps their superiors in fact. I also wouldn’t use HeiGi foam on them. Right now I have some fluffy donut foams on them and I don’t know the make. There are rubber rings from VE that work really well with them as do shark fins, but these fluffy foam donuts have been the best overall for me so far. I’ll update this when I figure out what these foams are for future reference of folks who may come across this comparison.