[baskingshark]

A thought occurred to me and I just wanted to throw this out here: if you are dissatisfied with the tonality of the buds you have purchased, it is so easy to change the balance. For instance, if your buds are too bright, try HeiGi foams. If your buds are too dull, check out VE foams. If those are too extreme, there are plenty in the middle. I can tune about any bud to sound close (enough) to my 650 just by changing foams. In the case of the SMABAT, they can become a fairly similar sound but with deeper bass with the right filter and foam combo. Maybe the best thing About earbuds is how easy and cheap they are to tune. You look at how much trouble it is to tweak IEMs or any kind of Princess Leah looking Can. There’s just nothing as cheap and easy to tweak as buds. Especially if you are concerned with consistency. On ear earphones would be as easy, but there are nowhere near the selection of foams and they generally cost more(though still doable). Changing pads on cans is COSTLY. Almost every pad change costs as much as a nice set of buds. If you’re not tweaking your buds to match your preferences, you are missing out. Simple as that.

Speaking of Heigi foams, does anyone know the cheapest place to get em from?

I am fast running out of them!

 

[zeinharis]

Playing around with the EQ for ME80 and this settings produces a more musical yet retains its details.

 

[sutosuto]

Speaking of Heigi foams, does anyone know the cheapest place to get em from?

I am fast running out of them!

I got from Jietu on Shopee for S$3-4 last week

 

[fonkepala]

Speaking of Heigi foams, does anyone know the cheapest place to get em from?

I am fast running out of them!

I haven't tried Hiegi foams before. Might pick up some. Do the white color foams discolor/stain easily?

 

[baskingshark]

I haven't tried Hiegi foams before. Might pick up some. Do the white color foams discolor/stain easily?

Yes the white ones stain easily unfortunately. They pick all sorts of crap and turn brownish after a while and look a bit unhygenic.

The irony is that the black ones are probably just as dirty, just that we can't see it haha.

 

[chinmie]

Yes the white ones stain easily unfortunately. They pick all sorts of crap and turn brownish after a while and look a bit unhygenic.

The irony is that the black ones are probably just as dirty, just that we can't see it haha.

i try to make a habit of washing my earbud foams in light shampoo/soap each time i feel (or smell ) they're dirty. same goes to my IEM eartips too

 

[baskingshark]

i try to make a habit of washing my earbud foams in light shampoo/soap each time i feel (or smell ) they're dirty. same goes to my IEM eartips too

Well foam covers and foam eartips are in general less durable than silicone tips/covers. They do have a shelf life in terms of use, before they tear or disintegrate, depends on the climate you are at too. Even if one washes them, they do wear out sooner or later.

Good thing is the foam covers are generally cheap, so replacement sets are relatively affordable.

 

[shahrul5689]

This JCALLY EP09 comes with a case or you bought separately?

hye bro, do you have ep05 and 08 too? i bought 05 1st, then 08 and lastly 09 out of compulsive order. I didnt found any review at all for them and reading your impression made my day, i use 09 with balanced nowdays and 08 for bluetooth; this earbuds never sound hollow like my iems and cheaper too!

 

[Ronion]

Another strategy would be to wash your ears occasionally. I try to wash mine once a month wether they need it or not (joking).

I do EQ my stuff as well, but I have to admit I find it elegant to just get it right in the first place.

 

[fonkepala]

Yes the white ones stain easily unfortunately. They pick all sorts of crap and turn brownish after a while and look a bit unhygenic.

The irony is that the black ones are probably just as dirty, just that we can't see it haha.

Right. Thanks for the info. Black ones it is then.

 

[Ronion]

The only thing I dislike about having all black pads is the difficulty in discerning left and right when the lights are down low. The Apple Pods alleviate that problem, but they sure don’t sound like high end buds. All of them end up looking like my dog’s toe pads in the end anyway. There’s merit in just starting out that way

 

[1clearhead]

hye bro, do you have ep05 and 08 too? i bought 05 1st, then 08 and lastly 09 out of compulsive order. I didnt found any review at all for them and reading your impression made my day, i use 09 with balanced nowdays and 08 for bluetooth; this earbuds never sound hollow like my iems and cheaper too!

Even though I have the EP05, I mostly wrote more impressions on the EP09. You can check out the links below...

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/post-16308003

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/post-16309071

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/post-16316946

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/post-16327586

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/post-16329574

-Clear

 

[1clearhead]

hye bro, do you have ep05 and 08 too? i bought 05 1st, then 08 and lastly 09 out of compulsive order. I didnt found any review at all for them and reading your impression made my day, i use 09 with balanced nowdays and 08 for bluetooth; this earbuds never sound hollow like my iems and cheaper too!

By the way, I don't have the EP08. How do they compare to the EP09?

Thanks in advance!

-Clear

 

[chinmie]

Well foam covers and foam eartips are in general less durable than silicone tips/covers. They do have a shelf life in terms of use, before they tear or disintegrate, depends on the climate you are at too. Even if one washes them, they do wear out sooner or later.

Good thing is the foam covers are generally cheap, so replacement sets are relatively affordable.

indeed, most of my "no name" foams and those i got free from the earbuds usually deteriorated and crumbled like dust even in their plastic packages.
The surprising exceptions are Hiegis and those thin "monk like" foams that i got from Aliexpress, those seem to last forever unless i got them ripped from usage

 

[Cynical L]

On the topic of tuning via foam/covers has any one tried the thick silicone rings by niceHCK?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100....store_pc_allProduct.8148356.1.46746360xuTkIc

They have a picture of them on mx500 shells and they appear to cover some of the driver holes, they also place the drivers physically further away than the 4x cheaper silicone rings everyone else sells.

I am interested because I just found out my everted anti tragus is not at all standard and that most of you are probably getting a better fit than my malformed ears are giving me. Yesterday I put 3 trig rain donut foams on to a mx500 shell to great success, getting secure enough that a very light tug on the cable doesn't cause it to lose seal in the top back part of the ear.