Seeking Advice on Earphone Purchase <$20

[lawbadman]

Hello all,

Im looking for a great/well balanced sounding earphones for $20 or less.
I have the Betron BS10 and a AKG Samsung OEM. None of these are very good.
The Betron is dark and has no sub bass.
The AKG has too much top end, recessed mids and little bass.

Im in need of something with a more full sound. At this price point I dont expect phenomenal, but at least enjoyable...

I welcome your suggestions.



Thanks,

Lawrence

 

[baskingshark]

Hello all,

Im looking for a great/well balanced sounding earphones for $20 or less.
I have the Betron BS10 and a AKG Samsung OEM. None of these are very good.
The Betron is dark and has no sub bass.
The AKG has too much top end, recessed mids and little bass.

Im in need of something with a more full sound. At this price point I dont expect phenomenal, but at least enjoyable...

I welcome your suggestions.



Thanks,

Lawrence

Hi friend, I have a few suggestions for u:
1) **** - just find it on aliexpress, sells ~ 16 USD. Triple driver hybrid, quite neutral, with great subbass extension and non fatiguing highs. Good instrument separation, clarity, soundstage, details for the price. Mids slightly recessed but not overly. It would benefit from an amp, but can be drivable via smartphone (reason being the piezo drivers handling the treble frequencies need quite a bit of juice to shine). My only small beef with the **** is that acoustic instruments (eg brass, woodwind, strings) sound a bit artificial in timbre on it, but I can't fault much at it's price point. If u don't listen to mainly jazz/classical/bigband genres, it is not too apparent.

2) Sony MH755 - sub $10 USD. Tuned to harman curve with great bass and great timbre/tonality. It has a short non detachable cable, so it is advisable to get a cable extension or some even do MMCX mods/recabling. There are lots of fakes out there, so do check out the dedicated Sony budget thread for links on reputable sellers and how to tell which is fake (yes I know it is 10 bucks, but some folks still wanna fake it LOL). The isolation and cable microphonics are quite bad, but I can't fault much since it is so cheap.

3) BLON BL-03 - $28 USD, single DD IEM, but can be gotten cheaper during sales - there's a big aliexpress sale coming on 11/11. The current latest hypetrain IEM in the chinese brands thread here on headfi. A more refined version of the Sony MH755.
Tuned harmanish, but has one of the best tonality/timbre of the 30+ IEMs I have owned or heard so far. It won't beat some more expensive sets in the details/clarity/instrument separation but it does great at most areas. Do note that most headfiers have an issue with the stock tips +/- stock cables, so it is advisable to get some spare tips on standby for better fit (check the blon headfi forum for more details on longer nozzle tips or spacer mods). Some headfiers say it can compete with more expensive single DD IEMs like the Moondrop KXXS and Tanchjim Oxygen at a fraction of the price.

Hope u find what u are looking for!