Spec me some In-Ears (£60)

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,712
Location
Kent
I'm after some decent In-Ears for travelling that will mostly be used with my android phone as well as my Ipad. Usage is fairly typical - movies, TV, Music (Rock, Blues mostly) and i'd like to keep the budget to around the £60 mark.

Thanks
 
Associate
Joined
22 Mar 2014
Posts
1,560
Location
Plymouth
I have Vsonic VSD3S. They are great for music etc. They are v-shaped iem so if you are sensitive to they might sound sibilant. However, this can be fixed with eq setting around 8k. I got mine at -2 to -3 depending on the song. They cost around 37 pounds the newest model VSONIC VSD3S NEW

Hope this helps. Also if you are going to buy them get them from lendmeurears as this is the only retailer certified by vsonic so if you buy from others you won't get the warranty from manufacturer.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2012
Posts
7,376
Location
Ankh Morpork
I've just ordered a couple of sub £50 IEMs....

Brainwavz B100 (£50) - single balanced armature driver which is receiving very good reviews and the only difference from the B150, which sells for £100, is a slight change of tuning.

Tennmak Pro (£20) - dual dynamic drivers with detachable cable.

They should arrive on Friday and hopefully I'll be able to compare to my single dynamic driver RHA MA750 (£80) and hybrid dynamic & balanced armature Fidue A73 (£99)
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,712
Location
Kent
Anyone have opinions on the following;

Sennheiser CX 3.00
Sennheiser CX 5.00 (A bit more at £70)
Sennheiser Momentum M2 IEi (Can be had for £65)
Audio-Technica ATH-ANC33iS
Sony MDR-EX650
Beyerdynamic Byron (I have DT770 Pros for my PC which I really like).
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2012
Posts
7,376
Location
Ankh Morpork
The Senns are all right but not outstanding.

The Fidue A65 is better than any of those you listed and only costs £40

Others worth looking at are the SoundMagic E80 (£65) and the VSonic VSD3S (£37 "ish") as long as you don't mind ordering from the far east.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2012
Posts
7,376
Location
Ankh Morpork
SoundMagic and VSonic were the first two budget IEMs to produce very good sound quality at a low price but there are many more now thanks to the explosion in cheap but very good IEMs from China.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2012
Posts
7,376
Location
Ankh Morpork
No chance to try the Tennmak Pros yet, I can't stop listening to music with these Brainwavz B100s, they are seriously good for £50.

The only negative is that they are all plastic and considering the small diameter nozzle they feel a little delicate while tip rolling. Once the tips are fitted they feel fine though and they are so light and ergonomic I can barely feel them in my ears, they are ridiculously comfortable. There is no remote with these, so if that is a deal breaker then no need to read any further.

They come with a nice zip up hard case and a decent selection of tips for this price point, providing two pairs each of small, medium and large silicon tips plus one pair of medium foamies. They also come with a cable clip and a velcro cable strap. The narrow nozzle diameter means they will need the same kind of tip size used by Westone and Shure, so availability won't be a problem.

Then there is the sound... :eek:

The sound signature is quite neutral, so no enhanced bass or treble, just a natural sound that has very good extension at both ends. The highs are very good, tons of detail and quite airy. Considering these are single balanced armature IEMs, the bass while not boosted, dig very, very low.
Then there is the sound stage and imaging and that forced a holy **** out of me during my initial listening. The sound stage is quite wide, definitely reaching outside of my head and it is not only relatively wide for an IEM but has good depth too. The crowning glory though is their imaging, which is better than any of my other IEMs by some margin and easily better than my full sized headphones (Senn HD650, AKG K702, Sony MDR-1A & MDR-100aap). I've been listening to songs I know well, such as Hotel California, Rikki Don't Loose That Number and although it's a major cliché, I really have been hearing details I've never heard before and that is entirely due to the incredibly accurate imaging and stellar separation. Silly things like hearing Steve Howe breathing while playing acoustic guitar on Mood For A Day.
I played Queen's "The Prophet Song" through my Fidue A73s, which are a very well respected £100 hybrid IEM with a dynamic driver and a balanced armature driver and the Brainwavz just completely blew them out of the water. Not only did the vocals sound more natural but during the "choir" section, where Freddie uses massive multi-tracking, through the Fidues the voices were arranged in more or less a straight line between my ears, whereas the Brainwavz arranged them around my head, making it very easy to pick out the individual voices.

Sorry about the wall of text but in short, these things are quite amazing and for sound quality I would put them above both the RHA MA750 and the Fidue A73 (which are seen as an upgrade to the VSD3S) - incredible value for £50.


I now want the B150 and the B200 too :D
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2012
Posts
7,376
Location
Ankh Morpork
Pretty good, they use balanced armature so unlike dynamics, they are sealed.

[Head-Fi Reviews]

One thing I noticed from reading is that a small number of people were not happy with the sound but this is most likely due to a poor seal caused by them pushing the tips down too far. When you change the tips, it can look like they are not all the way on but if you do it by feel it is much more obvious.
 
Associate
Joined
22 Mar 2014
Posts
1,560
Location
Plymouth
No chance to try the Tennmak Pros yet, I can't stop listening to music with these Brainwavz B100s, they are seriously good for £50.

The only negative is that they are all plastic and considering the small diameter nozzle they feel a little delicate while tip rolling. Once the tips are fitted they feel fine though and they are so light and ergonomic I can barely feel them in my ears, they are ridiculously comfortable. There is no remote with these, so if that is a deal breaker then no need to read any further.

They come with a nice zip up hard case and a decent selection of tips for this price point, providing two pairs each of small, medium and large silicon tips plus one pair of medium foamies. They also come with a cable clip and a velcro cable strap. The narrow nozzle diameter means they will need the same kind of tip size used by Westone and Shure, so availability won't be a problem.

Then there is the sound... :eek:

The sound signature is quite neutral, so no enhanced bass or treble, just a natural sound that has very good extension at both ends. The highs are very good, tons of detail and quite airy. Considering these are single balanced armature IEMs, the bass while not boosted, dig very, very low.
Then there is the sound stage and imaging and that forced a holy **** out of me during my initial listening. The sound stage is quite wide, definitely reaching outside of my head and it is not only relatively wide for an IEM but has good depth too. The crowning glory though is their imaging, which is better than any of my other IEMs by some margin and easily better than my full sized headphones (Senn HD650, AKG K702, Sony MDR-1A & MDR-100aap). I've been listening to songs I know well, such as Hotel California, Rikki Don't Loose That Number and although it's a major cliché, I really have been hearing details I've never heard before and that is entirely due to the incredibly accurate imaging and stellar separation. Silly things like hearing Steve Howe breathing while playing acoustic guitar on Mood For A Day.
I played Queen's "The Prophet Song" through my Fidue A73s, which are a very well respected £100 hybrid IEM with a dynamic driver and a balanced armature driver and the Brainwavz just completely blew them out of the water. Not only did the vocals sound more natural but during the "choir" section, where Freddie uses massive multi-tracking, through the Fidues the voices were arranged in more or less a straight line between my ears, whereas the Brainwavz arranged them around my head, making it very easy to pick out the individual voices.

Sorry about the wall of text but in short, these things are quite amazing and for sound quality I would put them above both the RHA MA750 and the Fidue A73 (which are seen as an upgrade to the VSD3S) - incredible value for £50.


I now want the B150 and the B200 too :D

Where can I buy they from? It sounds like you like them a lot. I still remember when you recommended me VSD3S from VSONIC and I loved them so hopefully it will be a nice upgrade.

EDIT

Also could you post a pic?>
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2012
Posts
7,376
Location
Ankh Morpork
£50 on the rain forest, pics are on there too.

I've used them for about 12 hours now and the shine hasn't worn off, still loving them. :)

* as with all things audio though, what I like may not be perfect for you, so trying them from the rain forest at least allows you to return them if you don't like them.

** They come with a 2 year warranty
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
22 Mar 2014
Posts
1,560
Location
Plymouth
I do understand sound is subjective. BUT all recommendations made on this form. First in building my first custom gaming PC to choosing peripherals was spot on. I loved my VSD3s but can't find them so I might as well pay extra 15 to try something that is potentially much better. I know they will be better than some beats so I will never regret buying them.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jul 2012
Posts
7,376
Location
Ankh Morpork
I finally got around to trying the Tennmak Pros and the difference in sound signature was very jarring. Compared with the Brainwavz they sounded bassy, muddy and inaccurate, not good at all but then I remembered how I felt when I first tried my HD650s after lots of use of my AKG K702s and the effect was exactly the same - the Hd650s sounded bassy, muddy and innacurate too. So I stuck with them and let my brain adjust to the new signature....

Holy crap, these are stupidly good for £20 :eek:

There is a definite mid bass boost but they also dig down into the sub-bass too, "Royals" and "400 Lux" by Lorde sound very good, the bass really has plenty of impact. They are not "airy" like the Brainwavz but that's to be expected from a dual dynamic driver IEM, they also don't have the crazy imaging of the B100s and the sound stage isn't as huge, although it's still pretty good.
Put some rock on though and BOOM! :D
"Dazed and Confused" by Led Zeppelin sounds superb, as does "Brand New Start" by Alter Bridge but for some reason "Stargazer" by Rainbow does not.
I really shouldn't be playing "Atlas Rise!" by Metallica at 8:20am (not been to bed yet) but my god it sounds good.

All of the tracks I played are good quality FLAC files (I went optical disk-less) so all I can surmise is that the Rainbow track was a less than stellar remaster (1999).

They seem pretty good for sibilance too, I just tried them with my go to sibilance generator - Ellie Goulding :D
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom