The Ultra Cheap IEM Thread

Just as an FYI, over the last couple of years Xiaomi has become one of the most sold phones in Europe (and yes, they seem to add their own OS over the top of Android, called MIUI, and it is a PITA. I know 'cos I have 4 of them!!)

I have a set of these that I ended up using only for indoor cycling, which I very rarely do :smiley:

I havenā€™t tried these and I canā€™t seem to find them on Amazon!

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I knew there was a reason I liked the Schiit Loki with these. Dialed back the mid just a tiny tetch and the high a tad more. Sounded pretty good. For $17 cause I went with the mic.

And it comes in PURPLE.

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What would the best IEM be for under 30$? I see a lot of recommendations for the T2 and ZSN. Rn thereā€™s a drop for the t2ā€™s for 35 on md so I was wondering if I should get those.

I havenā€™t tried the T2s, but I think youā€™d be happy with a pair of green ZSNs.

The box says cyan.

Should I get any cheap tips or wires to help with the sound of these?

Wires no. Tips, maybe. Iā€™ve thought about ordering some spinfits, but the medium tips on the KZ ZSN fit pretty well.

For silicone tips, I recommend spinfits for everyone. Final Audio E tips are really nice too but harder to find. I also recommend newbee foam tips ā€“ they are super cheap on amazon.

Those two or three tips end up always being what I use on my IEMs after trying out dozens upon dozens each time I get a new IEM (which is like every week right now).

I also really like the Audeze Groovy tips that come with iSine headphones, but they have a wide bore size that do not fit the majority of IEMs.

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+1 on the newbee tips, they are decent and the price is great!

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I see what youā€™re cyan. (Iā€™ll show myself out)

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My ZSNs are cyan, but my CCA-C10s are PURPLE (and the C10s are better than the ZSNs and KZ AS10s IMO).

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My unique Melody ME1 ciem shell is purple and they are also approved. I donā€™t recommend it as a budget iem though.

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A double take on the NiceHCK N3 piezoelectric earphones.

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Some nice reviews JĆ¼rgen. You write very well.

Brutal und Ehrlich! Wir brauchen mehr davon.

Na also! Wir kƶnnen auch anders. Speaking of brutal, you may in particular check out the Koel review. We were so brutally honest [also referred to as ā€œunbiasedā€] and requested Brainwavz to take it back for their own reproduction of our analyses. Yes, right, we donā€™t collect ā€œfree samples*ā€, we try to get rid of them. We are controversial and outrageous by being normal and credible. We are not the extension of a companyā€™s marketing department.

And I found another review after the fact that it is even more honest, and so enjoyable that I squeaked of pleasure reading it ā€“ nobody touches this guy:

As to the broad body of N3 reviews: most of them try to give the manufacturer the ā€œok, bad try, we wait for the next iterationā€ ONLY without any further criticism. Thatā€™s people who feed from freebies. Considering how this earphone has been advertised, and considering that people paid $60 for a totally useless chainsaw (which is bordering on fraud) the manufacturer/seller deserves way more criticism. Consumers have to be warned of their threat of loss, thatā€™s why independent testing is done. If Sennheiser did that, theyā€™d be in for a class action suit.

We just did our job in both cases.

*ā€œsampleā€ is a euphemism as it refers to a part of the whole, it tries to make the ā€œpreyā€ smaller than it is in order to increase the reviewerā€™s credibility. I only handle complete review units.

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I received a review sample of an IEM recently, that I literally asked the vendor is this broken? It sounded so bad that I think they actually messed up the cross-overs of the mids. I still have it but I dont know what to do with it. I feel like the IEM is actually broken as I talked with HawaiiBadBoy about it and his unit measures differently than mine using a similar rig, so Iā€™m pretty sure my set was defective.

BTW - I like that Loomis is also writing on your site. Thatā€™s really cool. I havenā€™t been tracking the head-fi threads on IEMs lately (mostly spending time on the amp/dacs and over-ears threads lately), but nice to see you two collaborating!

Back to topic, I did get the TRN V30 a couple weeks back, but been so busy with new job/commute that I havenā€™t found time to really write much about it. Itā€™s $20 and while pretty detailed for itā€™s price, it still falls behind the ZSN for me. Itā€™s a little too harsh and bright, even for me. It also feels rather cheap and has a similar look to the KZ AS10/AS6/ZS10 which I donā€™t really like, but also using cheaper materials.

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Obviously itā€™s your time and you should use it how you please, but it would be cool to see a quick review. I suspect QC is an issue with many of these products and getting impressions on a broken sample from someone with good listening experience might help educate consumers on how to spot their own defective purchases.

Also, if a companyā€™s QC is so bad that they send out broken units to reviewers, I want to know who that company is.

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Yea, it was the PMV Crescent, which isnā€™t exactly cheap either. Itā€™s a $400, 8-BA (Knowles) IEM. I have another PMV ear bud that I bought and it actually sound quite good. I may do an impressions thing and just note that I think itā€™s defective. I talked to the person who sent it to me, but it kind of fell off the radar.

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Iā€™ve often wondered about QC with crossovers on these mega multiple driver IEMs. If I had more time and money it would be fun to buy a bunch of the cheaper multidriver units and look for frequency and phase response variations. Based on just the channel variations Iā€™ve seen in the few units I own I suspect that the variability is likely quite high.

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