[Tisch]

Well, I will add somewhat different opinion - to me, they sound bad. And again, I guess they are OK in "around 10$ department", but... upper bass/lower mids are too loud, and FR goes downhill from there. Compared them with Superlux HD669, which sound pretty OK for the money. I really don't expect linearity in such cheap headphones, but I do expect a bit better sound, cleaner vocals and hihats, not booming bass. They have a good point - they are pretty loud, and considering FR, they will be great for audio books.
I had to apply slight S curve to get more decent sound, starting at zero for bas, lowering low mids and mids, and raising upper mids and highs, not by much, 2-3 dB range up-down... but still no highats.
 
Now, I do have very small ears, and I used smallest tip, but however I position them in my ears, I couldn't get decent highs - would different tips be better for hihats? Any recommendations?

 

[Aerione]

Don't mean to ninja a thread, but why has no one posted anything regarding the other model in this series, namely the ES20?
I'm shocked to make a search and not see a trace regarding its existence on this forum.

 

[ashkuma]

Can someone Please compare ES18 with Xiaomi Piston 2.0 or 2.1 . in terms of noise isolation and durability.

 

[mebaali]

  Can someone Please compare ES18 with Xiaomi Piston 2.0 or 2.1 . in terms of noise isolation and durability.

I have been using ES18 for the past 2 years and Pistons 2.1 for the nearly a month. Both are pretty average when it comes to Isolation (I am using my old PL30's Medium sized tips on ES18 and it is giving me slightly better Isolation when compared against Pistons with their factory tips).  From durability point of view, my ES18 housing has come apart at least 2 times in the last year. Both the times, I have used Feviquick to seal off the broken housing. It's working perfectly fine till date. From the looks of it, Pistons does seems to have better housing as well as cable (kevlar cord against rubbery cord of ES18) and I expect it to last longer.
 
(BTW, I am using ES18 strictly as my sleep time earphones. Hence the rough handling and its housing coming apart)