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
I havenāt tried these and I canāt seem to find them on Amazon!
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 $17 cause I went with the mic.
What would the best IEM be for under 30$? I see a lot of recommendations for the T2 and ZSN. Rn thereās a drop for the t2ās for 35 on md so I was wondering if I should get those.
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.
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 āunbiasedā] and requested Brainwavz to take it back for their own reproduction of our analyses. Yes, right, we donāt collect āfree 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 companyās 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 āok, bad try, we wait for the next iterationā ONLY without any further criticism. Thatās 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, thatās why independent testing is done. If Sennheiser did that, theyād be in for a class action suit.
We just did our job in both cases.
*āsampleā is a euphemism as it refers to a part of the whole, it tries to make the āpreyā smaller than it is in order to increase the reviewerās credibility. I only handle complete review units.
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 Iām pretty sure my set was defective.
BTW - I like that Loomis is also writing on your site. Thatās really cool. I havenāt 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 havenāt found time to really write much about it. Itās $20 and while pretty detailed for itās price, it still falls behind the ZSN for me. Itās 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 donāt really like, but also using cheaper materials.
Obviously itās 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 companyās QC is so bad that they send out broken units to reviewers, I want to know who that company is.
Yea, it was the PMV Crescent, which isnāt exactly cheap either. Itās 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 itās defective. I talked to the person who sent it to me, but it kind of fell off the radar.
Iāve 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 Iāve seen in the few units I own I suspect that the variability is likely quite high.