I just want to say I've used my Piston 3s for about 3 month. Overall the sound is better than the Piston 2 ... if you have the power to drive it. Eg on my Nexus 5 I have to have it cranked to ~%50 to get the same sound level as the Piston 2 at ~25%. The Piston 2 is more V shaped while the Piston 3 is more balanced.
A few weeks ago the stock medium tips ripped and I couldn't find any place that sold replacements that shipped to Canada.
I found these:
http://www.dx.com/p/t400-noise-reduction-memory-cotton-in-ear-earbud-covers-black-393318#.Vd3fu6RNGCg
I had the Piston 3 for about 3 months and overall it's better than the Piston 2.. if you have the power to drive it. On my Nexus 5 I have it at ~50% to get the same volume as the Piston 2 at ~25%.
The Piston 2 is more V shaped sound while the 3 is more balanced like a U? W?
So a few weeks ago the original medium tips ripped. I emailed Xaio Mi and because I'm in Canada there was nothing they could do for me.
I went to Deal Extreme and go SKU 393318 and it sounds fantastic. Way better isolation and comfort than stock. Comfort is another thing the P3 does wayyyyyy better than the P2. No more sharp edges.
I had the Piston 3 for about 3 months and overall it's better than the Piston 2.. if you have the power to drive it. On my Nexus 5 I have it at ~50% to get the same volume as the Piston 2 at ~25%.
The Piston 2 is more V shaped sound while the 3 is more balanced like a U? W?
So a few weeks ago the original medium tips ripped. I emailed Xaio Mi and because I'm in Canada there was nothing they could do for me.
I went to Deal Extreme and go SKU 393318 and it sounds fantastic. Way better isolation and comfort than stock. Comfort is another thing the P3 does wayyyyyy better than the P2. No more sharp edges.
Got my Piston 3 last week, bought it primarily for audio calls, so far seems nice for the price. Sound is similar to Brainwavz M4 minus Bass and little better than the apple earpods. I am comparing to the earpods as even though these are called IEM the fit with stock tips is more like earbud fit and keeps falling off for me.
Depending on your existing IEM collection you may find the sound quality to be good to crappy. Its not going to compete against any 100$ IEM but can give the 30$ range IEM some competition. Actually the Knowledge Zenith earphones are better value compared to these if you get them for 10$. If you like bass then this is definitely not your IEM.
Build quality is nice for 16$ and the microphone is good, the voice is loud and clear on other side, tested with Nexus 5. Finally I feel there is too much hype in the internet regarding these, its a good earphone for android users with audio control, there are much better IEM out there but maybe not at this price. Don't buy this expecting to replace your 50$ IEM.
Got my Piston 3 last week, bought it primarily for audio calls, so far seems nice for the price. Sound is similar to Brainwavz M4 minus Bass and little better than the apple earpods. I am comparing to the earpods as even though these are called IEM the fit with stock tips is more like earbud fit and keeps falling off for me.
Depending on your existing IEM collection you may find the sound quality to be good to crappy. Its not going to compete against any 100$ IEM but can give the 30$ range IEM some competition. Actually the Knowledge Zenith earphones are better value compared to these if you get them for 10$. If you like bass then this is definitely not your IEM.
Build quality is nice for 16$ and the microphone is good, the voice is loud and clear on other side, tested with Nexus 5. Finally I feel there is too much hype in the internet regarding these, its a good earphone for android users with audio control, there are much better IEM out there but maybe not at this price. Don't buy this expecting to replace your 50$ IEM.
Purchased the Piston 3s and have been listening for a day. I'm not a totally experienced IEM user and have never spent more than $100 USD on any of my IEM purchases. I have had the RE0s also the aJay 2s, a number of $25 IEMs but mostly full size headphones.
I was pleasantly surprised and will be getting a back-up pair tomorrow. The recommended burn in is 50 hours so I'm not even there yet. Supposedly the bass smooths out and gets a little more controlled? Obviously it's going to be hard to ask for smoothness and total refinement from a $25 IEM, still if they infact lush-out just a little I'm going to end up a pretty happy camper here!
The market may be filled with $25 IEMs, so I guess it's just finding ones you like. So far these sound just nice. They don't really do anything spectacular but they also do not do all that much wrong, except in the treble detail dept. The overall signature is what I like though. They have a detailed bass but not as much as some overly bass centric IEMs or modded headphones. The sound somehow reminds me of mid-level home theater equipment, with less bass. Just detailed and relatively fast. Nice soundstage and decent treble. I'm not passed my burn-in period and I'm glad to hear that the soundstage may get a little more wide. Surprised to hear folks talk about a recessed mid. I realize that if your offering the public a slight V shape signature away from close to flat, that in reaction, the mids become tuned back. In theory that makes complete sense to me. I actually have a number of headphones that I consider slightly V tuned. Still if you do a side by side test they seem to have a more detailed and forward mid centric signature than say the ATH-M50s. For what ever reason I'm in notice of a lot of mid energy and mid information being communicated? If it really does get better after burn in I may say I'm in love with this cheap girl?
The most amazing thing was they scaled. They actually sound better with better sound files and sound better out of better DACs, amps or DAPs. I don't think I have ever had a pair of IEMs for $25 that did that. So instead of just playing music, they are revealing some information regarding source and bit rate/kHz.
The build quality is actually nice. They seem to have a slightly better fit and finish than most $25 IEMs. Just a good feel, still time will tell, as it always does. I'm actually pretty rough on IEMs forgetting they are in my pocket and going to gym or putting stuff ontop of them. I consider myself a hard user of portable headphones and have damaged my share. I think the controls are in a strange place. Some people say you can learn them with time, still I will maybe not use them much.
What fascinates me the most is how they had a very definite character out of each device. They sounded one way out of an iPod Touch, another way out of a Samsung Tab, different and up-scale out of a JDS Labs c421. Still different again from an Schiit Asgard One. The changing sound quality makes a difference on what device your going to choose, but the message I get is these little $25 IEMs fit well, sit in the ears well, and may be more detailed than most I have tried?
Just got the Xiaomi Piston 3 for $25 USD. So far, I'm pretty impressed with the quality-to-price ratio.
You cannot compare this to the $200+ IEMs, it's just not in the same league. These are more like comparable to the $70 to $100 range IEMs.
Overall sound signature reminds me of the Sennheiser. The Piston 3 now has much smoother mids. Very nice tweak by Xiaomi.
Sub-bass is a bit strong, some punchy bass. I counter that by not inserting the tip too deep into the ear canal.
The treble is the problem with the Piston 3. The high is not extended well to give you the sparkle of music.
Other people have mentioned that the Piston 3 has narrow sound stage. This is true. And I wonder if it is because of the stereo leakage between the Left & Right channels. I've ran a left/right channel test tones, and there were noticeable leakages. This poor channel separation might be due to poor cable design (for example, non-balanced L/R common ground cable).
Nevertheless, this is a great earphones that sounds very musical. Much better sounding than any of the stock earphones from the smartphone manufacturers. A very good sounding (but 'budget') earphones to carry around. Doesn't hurt your $$ pocket if you ever lose it or damaged it.
Also I have to commend Xiaomi on the design. It is very comfortable to put on Piston 3 compare to many other IEMs. Piston 3 is so light, you'd barely feel that it's in your ears. A very comfortable set of earphones from Xiaomi.
What I would hope Xiaomi could improve on in the next revision of Piston (Piston 4 ??)...
1) extend the highs (learn from other IEMs, such as the B&W C5 series2)
2) ease up on the bass (especially the sub-base)
3) use balanced cable design to reduce the L&R cross talk (this should improve the sound stage)
I bought Piston 3 after my GR02 BE when i gave the GR02 to a friend.
I feel that the bass was more punchy and the treble was more clear and detailed in GR02 BE which I LOVED IT.
I red many reviews of Piston 3 and bought it mostly because of its microphone for my Galaxy S6 from GeekBuying.com.
After just 2 moths, the left earphone of the Piston 3 is damaged and it produces half volume compare to the right one.
I have to buy another earphone. Do you know any earphone with microphone and sound specs of GR02 BE?
or it's better to give another chance to Piston 3 and buy another one. maybe this one has problem from the beginning!?
Thanks
Ali
Edit: The P3's right earphone dead completely last week!
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