[rdr123]

Hello everyone, I'm looking to buy a portable player and a pair of earbuds in a budget of around 100euros ($120?), so far I've been looking around the forum and the best player suited for my needs (listening while biking, jogging etc.) would be Fiio M3, however, I'm not convinced the SQ would be better than that of my smartphone which I hate carrying around, especially while running, it's a Lenovo Vibe Shot, so probably nothing great on its audio quality. Any recommendations are welcome, I would go a bit over the budget if there's something that convinces me, the other player I've been checking out is Sony NWZ-A15, not sure if SQ is much better than the Fiio's, judging from reviews only.

Concerning the earbuds, I've been considering the Sennheiser's CX-300 II Precision and the Soundmagic e10, though the latter is a bit more expensive, in this field I have almost no experience, I just want something better than my phone's earbuds, which judging from my complete newbie taste, they're pretty good, would be awesome if I could control volume with these.

To note so far I've been using a Phillips Gogear Spark, the little thing lasted me 6 years until I cracked its screen with a SONY MDR-ZX310B.

Looking forward to your opinions.

 

[loneshoe]

I can recommend a few of the Brainwavz IEMs such as the Delta and Jive, both have amazing sound quality for their price. If you want to spend a little more I've heard good things about some of the Ostry IEMs. I'm also looking at picking up the M3, let me know how it works out for you if you buy it!

 

[rdr123]

Oh man I saw your reply so late, I'll come back soon with some info on the m3.

 

[loneshoe]

Alright, sweet!

 

[rdr123]

Bought the m3 with the Sennheiser's, it's a really nice pair, both fit nice in the pouch the earbuds came with.

The player is tiny, has a great battery, lasts me a week while using it a couple of hours a day, plays about everything I can throw at it. I'm not an audiophile so can't give good input on the sound quality, but it's definitely better than my phone, Phillips gogear spark and some older Sony walkmans I've owned. I'm using it while outdoors mostly so I wanted something portable with good capacity, it provides exactly that. These are the pros.

There are some cons though, the UI doesn't bother me except for the fact that when I go "back" from the "now playing" it takes me to the root, other than that the UI is just fine, plays through folders etc. But you need to do some tinkering on it (I use drivesort and mp3tag for that, ordering folders alphabetically and getting the right covers for the files) another big minus is the absence of accessible volume buttons, maybe not that bad, depends on your habits.

Ultimately I'm very pleased with it, it does exactly what I bought it for and absolutely nothing more than that.