Hi folks. I have a younger brother who is going through chemotherapy over this and coming months and I'd like to help him up his game in terms of enjoying music. I have a limited budget for this as I'm helping in lots of other financial ways, but my thought was to get him a Fiio BTR3 bluetooth headphone amp and a decent entry pair of IEMs. (he can work on better source music from Tidal or 16 bit FLAC files from CDs etc. on his own).
What comes to mind as a pair of entry level but comfortable IEMs in the $50-100 US realm?
Thanks all.
It's $9 over your price range (and occasionally is available on drop.com for less), but the TFZ No.3 is an excellent IEM that requires little power to drive them. One of the best in that price range, imho. There are some other reasonable TFZ IEMs for around $50-100, but their tunings might not be what you're looking for.
Some folks are really taken with the Blon BL-03, but all the reviews point out how crappy the supplied cable is, so an aftermarket cable will add some $$ to the total cost. I'm not a huge fan of BA or hybrids, but the FiiO FH1 is another solid choice for $75 and comes with a nice set of accessories.
Hi folks. I have a younger brother who is going through chemotherapy over this and coming months and I'd like to help him up his game in terms of enjoying music. I have a limited budget for this as I'm helping in lots of other financial ways, but my thought was to get him a Fiio BTR3 bluetooth headphone amp and a decent entry pair of IEMs. (he can work on better source music from Tidal or 16 bit FLAC files from CDs etc. on his own).
What comes to mind as a pair of entry level but comfortable IEMs in the $50-100 US realm?
Thanks all.
What music genres does your brother listen to and do u know what sound signature does he prefer?
I've been using IEMs for the past 15 years for stage monitoring and music listening and I can honestly say the CHIFI IEMs have caught up to the western budget to midfi IEMs in the past 2 years. If u are not brand conscious there are good CHIFI IEMs that excel at price to performance ratio. IMHO $50 - 100 USD can get u some great sound nowadays, so your budget is more than adequate.
For a great entry CHIFI IEM, I would recommend the KZ ZS10 Pro - retails about $35 USD. I've seen it cheaper at sales and there's a big sale on 11/11 coming up. KZ ZS10 Pro is a good allrounder for most genres, good details, clarity and instrument separation. It can hit about 80% of sound quality (subjectively) of my westone 3 which costs 10 times more. The KZ ZSX is a successor to this model and has better timbre and slight improvements, and is a few bucks more (though I haven't heard the successor).
As with what @PopZeus said above, I do have both the BLON BL-03 and TFZ No. 3. TFZ No. 3 is a basshead IEM, so if your brother likes bass forward music, it is a good choice, I've seen it on sales at $85 USD before. People who want something more netural may not like the bass though.
The BLON BL-03 is the latest hypetrain cheap CHIFI IEM on headfi and retails ~ $28 USD. It excels at timbre and tonality and is excellent for genres like classical, acoustic, jazz. Not the best option for electronic/EDM music. It is good for the price, but the supplied eartips and cables are not optimal, so u may need to spend a bit of money to get aftermarket tips and cables to improve the sound.
All the best and hope u find what u are looking for!
Thanks. Both replies were helpful. Ordered him a Fiio BTR3 and a pair of the KZ ZS10 Pro IEMs in blue. Also stepped up to a Tidal Family Plan with Hi-Res and shared it with him.
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