[captione]

hi earbud experts.
I am looking to try some earbuds as I am a little unsatisfied with iems in terms of overall body and soundstage.
I listen to a wide variety of genres and play lots of games and I am looking for something with a good range of use cases but in general I prefer some bass with good timbre and a little sparkle on the high end.
right now my budget is around 100$ and would love some recommendations to start down this rabbit hole
thanks in advance!

I would suggest buying a bunch of the cheapest because the price-to-performance ratio of earbuds are insanely good.
I would start with K64, Vido/Traceless and FAAEAL Iris Ancestors so you could start with some wide variety of signatures for those three, it should cost you less than 20USD for those.

Welcome to the earbud rabbithole!

 

[samandhi]

It is hard to compare both types of transducers head to head, essentially, it is an apples to oranges comparison between earbuds and IEMs, cause they both have their pros and cons.

For example, most earbuds will lose to IEMs in isolation and hence sub-bass. Perhaps also earbuds might lose out in micro-detailing, but earbuds beat most IEMs in soundstage. Think of earbuds as mini open backed headphones.

This is what I was also going to say. Earbuds might be the size of IEMs, but they compare more directly with full size, open back headphones. Though because the drivers are much smaller, they DO suffer from the same issue as open back headphones used to suffer, and that is getting large quantities of sub-bass.

There ARE a few that I have heard that, if I were to compare directly have more sub-bass than a set of neutral tuned over ears. That is pretty big for non-sealing tiny drivers. The technical achievements have come a very long way over the years.

As a for instance, I have a set of old Apple Classic (3rd gen) earbuds, and while they sound decent in the mids and highs, trying to EQ in any quantity of bass makes them distort quite a bit. But, something like the Rose Maria II and the Yinman 2.0 600 are able to be EQ'ed up to a level that you wouldn't think could be done with earbuds (obviously they don't sound "right" this way, but they can be made to be pretty bass-head styled if one so desired).

 

[boromcom]

Any recommendation for Blur series? Thank you in advance!

 

[davjac84]

Those are photos of exactly what I have, the original Yinman 600 with MMCX connectors from 5 years ago.

I would like those buds, too bad they not are available Fixed cable is a no no for sure, mostly because I want cable with mic.

 

[samandhi]

I would like those buds, too bad they not are available Fixed cable is a no no for sure, mostly because I want cable with mic.

You COULD always make your own...

 

[WoodyLuvr]

Any recommendation for Blur series? Thank you in advance!

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/blur-earbuds-lovers.884062/post-14357627

My last update post regarding currently available models:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/blur-earbuds-lovers.884062/post-16993230

 

[Ronion]

Tingo is kinda of V shaped, big soundstage and quite technical and on the brighter side. Easy to drive, but I didn't like the timbral accuracy on it.

Faaeal Rosemary is L shaped, dark, thicker note weight, very bassy and warm. It needs amplification due to the 150 ohm impedance. Not as detailed or technical as the Tingo, but Rosemary is very non fatiguing and smooth.


Do be aware that the hype over the Tingo was over the initial batches. After it was sold out, the manufacturers scrambled to meet demand and apparently the new batch of Tingos sound different than the original. The new batches use a different shell and I have some friends locally who have both types and report the new ones sound worse.

It makes me wonder what batch I have. Mine are very close to neutral by the measurements, but missing deep bass. I’ve only had them for a year or so, so I doubt they are original. Mine were not glued however, and I did adjust their tuning…. Though I don’t recall what I was adjusting for. Mine literally came without any tuning foams or papers installed.

 

[Sam L]

Tingo is kinda of V shaped, big soundstage and quite technical and on the brighter side. Easy to drive, but I didn't like the timbral accuracy on it.

Faaeal Rosemary is L shaped, dark, thicker note weight, very bassy and warm. It needs amplification due to the 150 ohm impedance. Not as detailed or technical as the Tingo, but Rosemary is very non fatiguing and smooth.


Do be aware that the hype over the Tingo was over the initial batches. After it was sold out, the manufacturers scrambled to meet demand and apparently the new batch of Tingos sound different than the original. The new batches use a different shell and I have some friends locally who have both types and report the new ones sound worse.

hmm.. didn't know that. Do you know around what time period they sold out of the initial runs? I'm pretty sure my tingo is an early one.

 

[vygas]

hmm.. didn't know that. Do you know around what time period they sold out of the initial runs? I'm pretty sure my tingo is an early one.

Easiest way to check is your cable, if it says TG-38S and has TinGo branding on the jack and splitter, you have the right one. You could also try open them up but I do not suggest that as the diaphragm can get stuck in the faceplate and rip the VC wires. So it's probably safer for you and your buds to just identify via cable.

 

[rprodrigues]

It makes me wonder what batch I have. Mine are very close to neutral by the measurements, but missing deep bass. I’ve only had them for a year or so, so I doubt they are original. Mine were not glued however, and I did adjust their tuning…. Though I don’t recall what I was adjusting for. Mine literally came without any tuning foams or papers installed.

Mine is neutral as well. I believe he wrote about Fengru's TC200, not TG38s. I own two pairs of TC200 from different batches. The one form the last batch is not good.

 

[thedjkhalid]

My personal vote would be for the Faaeal Rosemary; 150Ω but do realize it is of much higher impedance and it's drivers do scale well with just a little bit more power. What is your source?

My source is a Qudelix 5K, I've been using it (rosemary) and it has a very warm sound to me since I used to use a bell lbbs (but it has a lot of distortion now so I can't use it anymore).

I have been looking for something better that wouldn't die on me like the lbbs. Since I use the bluetooth quite a bit the battery gets drained quickly.

 

[thedjkhalid]

Tingo is kinda of V shaped, big soundstage and quite technical and on the brighter side. Easy to drive, but I didn't like the timbral accuracy on it.

Faaeal Rosemary is L shaped, dark, thicker note weight, very bassy and warm. It needs amplification due to the 150 ohm impedance. Not as detailed or technical as the Tingo, but Rosemary is very non fatiguing and smooth.


Do be aware that the hype over the Tingo was over the initial batches. After it was sold out, the manufacturers scrambled to meet demand and apparently the new batch of Tingos sound different than the original. The new batches use a different shell and I have some friends locally who have both types and report the new ones sound worse.

Thank you for your response!

I think I would like the tingo more, since I am using the rosemary currently (i prefer a signature like the bell lbbs) however if the new batches are rather lackluster I will probably look for another pair of buds.

 

[boromcom]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/blur-earbuds-lovers.884062/post-14357627

My last update post regarding currently available models:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/blur-earbuds-lovers.884062/post-16993230

Thx!

 

[Ronion]

I would like those buds, too bad they not are available Fixed cable is a no no for sure, mostly because I want cable with mic.

You can always add a mic with Sennheiser’s break out cable. Sound Professionals also makes one. Okay believe Drop.com carries Sennheiser one as a stock item.

Any recommendation for Blur series? Thank you in advance!

PK32

 

[boromcom]

You can always add a mic with Sennheiser’s break out cable. Sound Professionals also makes one. Okay believe Drop.com carries Sennheiser one as a stock item.

PK32

I think he has only 266 but let me ask him today.