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Entry level IEM earbuds recommendations?
So I've just been using basic earbuds my whole life, never felt like spending big bucks on good headphones. Recently though, I've been really interested in what I've been hearing about IEMs. Youtubers and forum users have been name dropping a few of them, such as Moondrop Chu/Chu II, Salnotes Zero, etc. So I looked them up, and was shocked to find how cheap they are. They're like $20, in the same price range as the crappy earbuds I buy anyways! These kind of headphones seem like a whole world I know nothing about, with pros and cons I don't fully understand, so what would be the best recommendation for a first set?
This is a bit of a warning that I'm not an active headphone enthusiast. There are others that are much much more informed than me, I know enough to make a good decision. Even so, IEMs are incredibly subjective and the debates/arguments to be had over "which is better" are endless.
And that's kinda the point. If it sounds good to you, it sounds good. The end.
First, some necessary information so you can understand what IEMs are! (I promise this is all worth it)
An in-ear monitor (IEM) is a specialised earphone — they were created to miniaturise the technology in monitors (large speakers in audio engineering that, more or less, reproduce sound as is rather than for subjectivity). They're professional-grade earphones unlike those that come with your phone (or, if you're old enough like me, your airline flight), made for those who need accurate sound reproduction— audio engineers, musicians, audiophiles, et cetera. They're especially handy for gigging musicians who wanna hear what's playing but don't want to go deaf. In that case, the live sound engineer at the venue would transmit a special mix to a wireless receiver the IEMs would connect to.
Every headphone has a driver, a tiny speaker that converts electrical signals into sound. Drivers are a type of transducer, a thing that converts energy into another form of energy; microphones are transducers, even your eardrums are transducers (they are the opposite of drivers, btw)! IEMs will have a select couple miniature drivers in them — these configurations collectively reproduce the signal; one driver alone wouldn't work, so a palmful are used to precisely represent the audible frequency spectrum as sound is divided into lower and higher chunks of frequency called (frequency) bands. These arrays are tuned in-factory to a specific flavour or specification — this is called a voicing. The exact measurement of frequencies an IEM (or any transducer in audio equipment) can reproduce is a frequency response. A voicing is NOT a frequency response, the latter is affected by the former, and you can further voice your headphones with equalisation (whether or not you should use EQ is personal preference, but it's not uncommon for audiophiles to embrace EQ).
All headphones use power — every audio jack sends electricity to your headphones. However, the technology in your IEMs may introduce something called impedance — the opp of the flow of electricity (current) measured in ohms. Impedance resists current, losing power in the process. Typically, headphone components that reproduce sound with better accuracy have a higher impedance like 250 or 300 ohms. Portable devices like laptops and phones don't have much power available, and what's available is usually inadequate to drive hi-Z (high impedance) headphones — thus, hi-Z headphones sound very quiet as current dictates volume. In necessary cases, you may need a headphone amplifier to take insufficient input and amplify it with enough voltage or current to power hi-Z headphones. Another thing to consider is sensitivity, how loud headphones get at a specific voltage (usually
xdB under 1 mW of power). Apparently, sensitivity is a good indicator of how much current flows to headphones, therefore meaning greater volume or sensitivity — it's a good idea to consider an IEMs impedance and sensitivity, and match that with the device you're using. 16 to 32 ohms are generally enough for any portable or dedicated device, and anything above 100 ohms (as in the Beyerdynamic article) would necessitate an amp. The power or impedance discrepancy between headphone and device may result in reduced dynamic range. However, as stated before, current dictates output and your ideal listening volume may vary. More often than not, you would like a discrete headphone amp but don't really need one..I think that should be enough for you to understand the world of IEMs and audiophilia!
It's a good rule of thumb to try things out before you buy. While it is highly unlikely there's a store near you that specialises in audio, there are online vendors like Headphones.com! They offer not 7, not 14, nor 30 days, but a WHOLE YEAR for you to try out headphones and send em back (more or less) for a full refund! Ofc, I will also tell you I have never bought anything from Headphones.com, so I say you should vet them thoroughly. There's no shame in just buying directly if you're feeling lucky, you'll just have a harder time recouping the cost.
If you're looking to start out cheap, I would look into KBEAR. I know DankPods cheekily regards them well, and they might have smth for you! They are a Chinese brand — part of the "Chi-fi" movement in the audiophile market (there are no words to express the animosity I have for the term) — which often results in competitive prices for great results (price-to-performance ratio). Anyway, their headphones are around $20-$30, but they have no website and all their stuff is through third parties and Amazon.
Moondrop is also a Chinese company, but they're well regarded as one of the best brands out there. They're infamous for the Blessing 2, the second generation of their Blessing IEMs which sell for ~$300. I have these, and I can tell you — they're known as the entry-level IEM for a reason. Costly but if you had to buy one, most will tell you these are it. They recently came out with the Blessing 3 which has a more improved voicing, for about $319.
For as wordy as I made this response, those two are the only definite leads I have! ofc Moondrop has much cheaper options like Chu and even Aria, but I recommend researching further! But fs, if I have to give you an entry-level recommendation, it will be the stereotypical "go with the Blessing 2 if you have the money".
Oh yeah, here's some post-post clarity!
This one's a doozy and p long so beware!
Another benefit of IEMs are that you can swap headphone cables! Cables are a common point of failure, so besides sustainability, interchangeability offers different connections! You'll likely hear about balanced vs unbalanced cables so I wanna just churn about audio engineering. Audio engineering 102 begin!
In audio engineering, unbalanced just means audio uses two things — a wire for signal and one for ground. Ground is hard to define, "a Swiss-army reference point in a circuit" comes close to describing it in this context. Anything can be unbalanced if only one wire is used to carry audio.
A TS cable is inherently unbalanced — the connector consists of a tip and sleeve (TS), two conductive surfaces separated by a black line for two conductors; wires. Thus, a TS cable is a two conductor cable — you'll often hear a TS cable be called many things in audio engineering. An instrument or guitar cable (provided the connectors are 1/4 inch or 6.35 mm), even an unbalanced cable. Unbalanced needs two conductors, and a TS cable only has two wires: Both will mean the same thing as both are inextricable. Consequentially, a TS cable can only carry a monophonic (one channel, or mono) signal, which is what many hardware instruments output. Of course, some antique devices are mono as well, and even hardware instruments can have two TS outputs for stereo!
Imagine the same two-wire cable, then add a third wire! The first wire passes audio, but now the second sends the same signal upside down! We reverse the polarity — the vertical position aka the electrical charge — of the signal. It's not the same as phase, the horizontal position aka the signal's position in time. Remember that sound is one big sine wave; a sine wave takes some time before it 'completes', then repeats itself — the time it takes to 'complete' is called a cycle, and phase is about shifting a signal within the period of that cycle.
The problem with unbalanced audio is over a long span of 30 ft or 9.15 metres, electromagnetic noise will interfere with signal integrity. It gets even worse, too. By the time the cable terminates, the audio will suffer some irreversible degradation in audio.
Now remember that three-wire cable I just talked about? Imagine 30 ft / 9.15 metres of that was used instead of a TS cable. Same electromagnetic noise hits it, but as soon as that cable terminates, the second wire that had the copied signal's polarity reversed now reverses the polarity back.... no noise, the signal is great!! What gives???
To illustrate, imagine two copies of a mono signal on top of each other — in this theoretical situation, both deal with transformations of the copy of the signal and both sum to the same output. If you shift either the polarity or phase of the copied signal, the summed output will change in volume and sound. This is called interference. If you've ever had the pleasure of duplicating audio in audio editing software and then blowing your eardrums out when you played it, congratulations! That's constructive interference; when you add two signals going in the same direction at the same time. The opposite, however, is what we're going for.
Back to our scenario: If you flip the polarity of the copied signal so it is negative, or shift the copy's phase 'halfway' over the original signal by 180 degrees (getting into trigonometry here), you'll find the summed output is either ginemenosaurously quiet or silent altogether. This is called destructive interference — both signals cancel out by being opposite to each other.
This is how balanced audio works; it involves two identical signals of opposite polarity + ground, and then switches the polarity of the negative copy. Because electromagnetic noise concurrently hits both signals, switching the polarity of the negative will also switch the polarity of the electromagnetic noise! Applying the concept of destructive and constructive interference, the electromagnetic noise virtually cancels itself out and the resulting signal is not only great but louder as a result!
By the way, the three-wire cable I was talking about exists! Also a good time to point out why conductor is also important terminology — a TS cable is really just two-wire cable using a two-wire connector (in this case, the TS phone connector). Wire means conductor because in electrical engineering, a conductor is anything that conducts electricity aka wire.
So what is this three-conductor balanced cable then? Well, it's usually two options! For devices that often need to connect to recording consoles (primarily, but not exclusively, microphones), this balanced wire is XLR! For stereo headphones, this is TRS cable! This cable has a tip, RING, and sleeve; three conductive surfaces for three conductors! One for left channel (tip), one for right channel (ring), and one for ground (sleeve)!
Wait, stereo? Is that balanced?? No. BUT ISN'T TRS BALANCED!! The answer is... YES!
And no. You see, TRS (and technically 3 pin XLR) does not give a shit about what audio is put in as long as you use the cable as intended. If you use TRS or 3 pin XLR with a mono signal, given you have the right tech, you can make it balanced. If you use TRS or 3 pin XLR with a stereo signal, it will be inherently unbalanced. This means you're almost guaranteed to have more experience with unbalanced audio than balanced if you use stereo headphones, since the industry standard is 3.5mm or 1/8 inch TRS.
If you hang around the audiophile space for a while, you'll catch wind about balanced cables. For that, I will defer to @r-tae who wrote a great corrective reply to the original draft of this post explaining balanced headphone cables and @zod000 who elaborates a bit on balanced headphone output.
But yeah, balanced cables are awesome and I've yet to try it... but considering that I'm gonna get a portable amp soon to replace my dying Samsung USB-C to 3.5mm dongle....
Anyway, IEMs are awesome and interchangeable cables are heaven. But some are pretty expensive, and there are tutorials to make your own! Either way
WOE! DEBT BE UPON YE!
Your explanation of balanced audio is talking about a completely different thing. Balanced headphone cables don't do the same thing as balanced microphone or guitar cables. You will not get any hum or noise reduction while using a balanced cable for headphones, and it doesn't matter anyway because your headphone cables are certainly not picking up anything. I don't know why this is persistently so poorly marketed.
Headphones drivers have two wires: active and return. In a pair of normal stereo headphones, a TRS connector is wired up something like (I forget which order R&L go normally): T–right active; R–left active; S–shared return. The TRRS cable you described is simply separating the shared return into a dedicated wire per driver. If your amp is wired for it, this could mean that your left and right drivers are completely isolated from each other. Maybe this improves the sound, maybe not. It's really just different, you should be suspicious of any company says this is definitely better.
There are other differences between balanced and unbalanced headphones cables, but they have nothing to do with reducing interference.
Generally, the only thing balanced amps get you is more (usually double) power and few headphones benefit from it IMO (my Hifiman HE-6 are on the short list). Supposedly it reduces crosstalk, which sounds reasonable, but headphones don't usually have much of a problem with that anyway.
Just woke up and saw this. I will definitely rewrite my post-post clarity to just talk about the science behind balanced cabling as an extra rant — looks like I was bought into snake marketing again! I could research more about balanced headphone cables, but this is predominantly about my picks for entry-level IEMs, what IEMs are and how they work. The rest is noise.
Thank you so much for telling me this! I'll let you know when I do so.
Of course it doesn't take away from your IEM talk at all, which was brilliant!
Just updated my original reply and credited you and zod. Your use of 'return' instead of ground is brilliant by the way.
I don't use IEMs anymore but if I'm in the market for an audio gear, I always check crinacle's website. Here is his IEM rankings. (You can sort by price.)
Dang I've had some KZs for a while now. Had no idea the shady stuff they had been up to. Was going to recommend them too. (Check bottom of the ranking for why).
That's why I bought them too!
Oh wow, same here. I have two sets of KZs that were pretty dang good for the price, had no idea about all that mess.
I have had two pairs...they do not hold up to any sort of stress whatsoever.
They sound good while they work.......which is maybe 3-6 months.
I've got two pairs as well that I've taken to three continents and that have dealt with desert dust and the occasional indirect fire that spend their time in the bottom of a go bag.
Then again, that could be part of the shadiness that KZ has been accused of. They might've just not glued yours together right.
Well, they don't hold up to lifting movements, riding a fixie, or sweating. 🤷♂️
Been with my KZ Zsn Pro for 3 years and going.
Ah. I don't use mine much, like a few hours each week when I'm in office. So no real stress applied. I'll look for another brand when these die in the future. Thanks!
I also fell into that cheap IEM youtube rabbit hole and ended up buying the Moondrop Chu. I would have been happy with them if I had paid double or triple the $20 I spent on them. I'm not a huge audiophile but I have found that I like a "flat", harman-curve-target tuning and the Chu really deliver. They don't even feel like cheap IEMs; the driver housing is metal and the tips they come with fit my ears well.
After the great experience with the Chu I also ended up buying a pair of the Moondrop Space Travel wireless IEMs for $25. I'm not as impressed with the sound quality one these but I expected that coming in. I bought them for running/biking which they're perfect for since I'm not anxious about them falling out and getting lost/broken. It's insane that they managed to add ANC, transparency, and touch controls for the price. If I have one complaint, however, it's that they're not very loud which has been an inconvenience listening to podcasts near road noise, even with ANC.
A second vote for the Moondrop Chus. They're incredible value for how good they sound, how amazing the build quality is, and how stupidly cheap they are. They legitimately feel like a product that would cost 5x what they're charging and I had no idea that earbuds could sound as good as the Chus do (I've never bought a pair of earbuds that cost more than $15, but these were just lightyears beyond anything I'd ever bought before for only $5 more than that.)
I've tried a bunch over the years and I really like these: Tennmak Pro. Sure, they are cheap as hell but they definitely sound above average, and they are very comfortable. For me they have a flat frequency response (this will depend on your ear canal shape because IEMs are very different from studio monitors).
I bought 4 different pairs during Black Friday sale and returned most of them. For context, I care almost only about comfort, with sound quality being irrelevant, barely care about ANC quality, I do want the buttons to be customizable but that's second to comfort.
Ones that failed "are they comfortable":
Ones I'm still trying:
Just a heads up that none of those are In Ear Monitors (IEMs), they're earbuds. The difference is fairly small but significant
I had issues with connection quality with my Linkbuds for the first couple of weeks but now they seem to be good enough that I can wander several rooms away from my phone without a problem. They used to drop out with my phone in my pocket. Perhaps a software update to either phone or headphones happened? I'm very pleased with sound quality and comfort though. I don't really use controls other than "play/pause" so that's less of an issue for me.
I have hd 650s + schiit stack and i bought chu's for my phone, they sound so good for so cheap it makes me borderline regret my desktop setup. The only problem is the filter clogs easily and it's a pain to clean or replace but it looks like the chu IIs fix that
I'm not much of an earbud enthusiast, but I am an audiophile and have experience with designing loudspeakers and some knowledge in psychoacoustics.
Cheap chi-fi like Moondrop is basically the way to go nowadays. Especially with wireless earbuds the prices for even good sounding ones can go incredibly low.
The reason is that frequency response is the single most important metric of earbuds/IEMs, and almost all bluetooth chips nowadays include basic digital signal processing that allows the manufacturer to EQ the frequency response, get rid of most aberrations and make the overall response more balanced and natural without having to do that by using more expensive drivers or construction. Because most in-ears have relatively low distortion, there is basically no downside to this.
Those that are able to do that can manufacture really good sounding earbuds really cheap. The downside is that bluetooth transfer is lossy. But in my experience almost all modern bluetooth earbuds sound good and the upside of EQ is much higher than the downside of bluetooth compression when compared with wired in-ears that cost even 3x the price.
Regarding wired IEMs, TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero:RED seem to be popular nowadays, with really good measurements. I have not heard them. One company that still consistently does its own thing at a high level of quality is Etymotic Research, I personally don't prefer them because I find them to be too dry, with subjectively less bass than what an actual studio monitor produces, but many people like them and they react well to adding bass using software EQ, if you're comfortable with doing that. More expensive, but you can't really go wrong with them either.
I use the TIN T2s because they're pretty well regarded for their price - you can order them on AliExpress for under $40. (The review that convinced me)
Really clear sound-stage. They're known for being very neutral (which taught me I'm a bit more of a bass-head than I thought), but respond very well to EQ. I spend longer than I'd like to admit fiddling around with PowerAmp while listening to music on the train, but it's kinda a lot of fun.
I liked the T2s went I had them but eventually sold them for 2 reasons. 1) the dual driver, metal shells while premium feeling are are heavy and didn't want to stay in my ears. They didn't fall out often, but it felt like they always slowly slipping out. 2) bass levels are too low for my taste.
I can personally vouch for the 7hz Salnotes Zero. Sound is pretty good. I initially found it a bit shouty but I think I was just accustomed to a slightly muffled sound. I initially found them a bit uncomfortable but I quickly got used to them after switching to the tallest eartips which are the tallest ones. Never tried any of the others but the Zeroes are pretty good overall.
I think parent commenter was talking about these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B571FWFK/
I'm not a big IEM fan, but I am a big headphone user and they make sense when out and about or traveling. My recommendations for affordable IEMs that sound good really good are:
Moondrop Chu
Kiwi Ears Cadenza
and if you catch a good sale Etymotic ER3SE or ER3XR (I got my ER3SE for $50)
the Etymotic are my favorites, the ER2SE or ER2XR are nearly as good and you may be able to find a sale on those as well.
Etymotics are very good in terms of sound quality but they do require a very deep insertion into the ear canal and not everyone finds that comfortable.
Agreed, though weirdly I find them to be one of the few IEMs or earbuds that I can wear for an extended length of time with discomfort.
There really are sooo many recommendations. I did a lot of research for myself and bought the Sennheiser IE200 on sale for ~$120. I have really enjoyed them over the last few months. They're much smaller and lighter than many IEMs I've seen. The profile is fairly "neutral" and I've had good luck EQing them. They're low impedance and are very easy to drive with a phone, though I mostly use my iPad as a media player and get great results there too.
It would be helpful if you told us what your budget is.
I like my 7Hz x Crinnacle Diokos They aren't $20 cheap, but at $99 they are still very inexpensive compared to other audiophile IEMs, especially those with planar magnetic drivers.
Not a deep deep audiophile but I am someone who appreciates their music and wants to experience it in the best way possible. I'm a big proponent of IEMs as audio quality is vastly superior to wireless options at this price point and not having to worry about charging. At the same time, the simplicity of IEMs means I'm more confident they can take the abuse of my workouts by either being tolerant to sweat or not getting thrown across the room when they fall out. My experience at this price point lends itself to a lot of Chinese manufacturers (Hifiman, Moondrop, CCA, MEE audio etc) aka Chi-Fi but there are other ones in the upper end of IEMs like Noble but I haven't explored that price point because at that point, I'm looking for better headphones/cans.
What I emphasize more than anything else is fit/seal. IEMs have passive noise cancellation aka noise is blocked out physically because the tips block sound from entering in your ear canal. It'll never be perfect in terms of reducing sound from the outside but if you're getting a lot of outside noise leaking in while listening to music, your seal is bad and you need to likely find tips that suit your ears. A good seal from tips that fit your ear will make or break your experience.
Here are the drawbacks I've found. First Chi-fi, to me, has inconsistent build quality. I've had Chi Fi IEMS last years and some last months. Sometimes it's the cable (many have replaceable cables which is great) but sometimes the entire housing cracks. YMMV is what I'm saying. At the same time, part of the reason why I like IEMs is the reduction in e-waste and I'm fairly confident in my belief that manufacturing aside, the handful of IEMs I have probably create less waste than something like airbuds. I may be wrong though.
As for recs, here's what I recommend trying with links to Linsoul when possible. It's a great place to get this stuff if you don't want to throw money at Amazon.
Tin Hifi T2 : really well regarded and I hope to give them a go one day.
CCA CRA : same as above
Blon BL-03 : had these for a long time, sound quality beat a lot of IEMs I had in the 100 range. That said, I've had a few fail so even though they sound great, I ended up not getting another pair.
Echobox X1 Finder (no purchasing link but ebay or drop may bring them back): These are my current workout IEMs. I do a decent amount of HIIT so something that's simple , easy to clean, and tolerant to sweat is huge. They're light and can take a beating. Sound quality isn't as good as blon-03 but they've lasted a while and I enjoy them.
Others have already mentioned In-Ear Fidelity's list and crinacle is well known in the community (maybe infamous? I can't remember). I have Moondrop KXXS as my higher end IEMs and they're fantastic but well outside your price range.
For information, and hopefully not pedantry, OP is specifically looking for something that is, in a sense, a "higher end," or at least physically distinct from an earbud. They sit in your ear, but IEMs are generally designed to have a resonant chamber, as opposed to earbuds which are basically driver -> head.
You offer sound advice, and I encourage you to keep the comment, but it's a bit outside of OP's intended scope I think.
I just looked it up, and those Panasonics are the go-to earbuds I was referring to when I said "basic earbuds" in my post! Those, and the Apple Earpods (not Airpods, the wired ones). I've found the Panasonics and the Earpods to be the best earbuds I've tried so far.
As knocklessmonster way saying, I'm specifically asking for IEM (in-ear monitor) style buds, which are designed differently from normal earbuds.
Beyond your budget at $50 new, but the TruthEar x Crinacle Zero is solid. I run Sony MDR 7506s for my desktop for gaming and music and used these for a month with no perceptible difference, they've got a great response across their entire range. These are a solid baseline.
Crinacle is a youtuber who covers a wide range of IEMs across ranges and his site is a great resource, already posted, but in your budget I'd be willing to vouch for his name on the [7hz x Crinacle Zero:2], which I plan to buy on my next paycheck. I don't think he'd put his name on something that sounded bad based on what I've seen. If you are in doubt just try to save a bit more and get the Truthears, tbh.
Honestly really disappointed those TruthEar x Crinacle Zeroes at $50 don't come with a mic, if I'm buying headphones at that price I'd definitely expect to get one... Also surprised to see how few (and low) the reviews are on Amazon for them.
Think of IEMs as closer to monitoring headphones, these are specifically not supposed to be multitaskers, but do one thing well: Deliver well-balanced sound. The mic cable is cheap, but I'd still need to buy another cable for it to work where I get the benefit from them on my computer.
Not as a defense of my suggestion but in general, I don't generally worry about speakers on my headphones, I either have a mic I can use on my laptop, or will buy an accessory (like Antlion's Modmic I use at home).