I’m just going to post some of the measurements I’ve been taking recently of some budget TWS IEMs. There will be an upcoming comparison video, but I figured this is the best place to post the data for now.
For the target, this is my own personal preference target - not what I think is 'neutral’ (with apologies to Sean Olive). It’s what I like, and in general, it’s loosely based on the tuning of the Thieaudio Clairvoyance.
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Earfun Free Pro Oluv Edition (ANC) ($70):
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Moondrop Sparks ($90):
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Powerbeats ($110):
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Powerbeats Pro ($150 - $250):
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Aukey T21 ($30):
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Soundcore Life P2 ($40):
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Soundcore Liberty Air 2 ($80):
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Tozo T10 ($30-$50):
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Raycon R25 ($80):
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Tozo T6 (wtf is this???) ($36 - $60):
I’ll be adding more to this list, but for the moment, the two clear winners in my opinion are the Moondrop Sparks, and the Earfun Free Pro Oluv Edition. Neither are perfect, with some question marks still surrounding the balance between upper mids and treble. The Sparks handles that better, but is still a bit too shouty for me there (not unlike the typical Moondrop tuning), while the Earfun lacks the lower and mid-treble to balance out the upper midrange, yielding a more forgiving tuning generally, but still ends up being a bit congested sounding at times. Additionally, the Sparks has noticeably better technical performance than everything else on this list. It’s still not on the level of the Starfield/Aria/KXXs etc., but not far behind - while the rest compromise more significantly for TWS convenience.
In third place, surprisingly it’s the Powerbeats. Its limited mostly by just being overall a bit congested sounding due to some minor imbalances - but really it’s not that bad for the price. The only other consideration here is that it’s not strictly a TWS, because it has a cable that goes between the units (behind the neck).
The other two TWS IEMs are truly some of the most horrendous sounding products that are capable of producing sound that I’ve ever heard. The Soundcore Liberty Air 2 wouldn’t be so bad if not for the stabbing sibilance peak, and being marred by some of the worst grain I’ve come across ever, but its saving grace is that the Tozo is so much worse at everything else.