Which ones are your favourite?
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At this moment, for sure BVGP W01. For bass + treble taming still Final E but A07 coming in clutch as well.
And of course, if something needs vocal power or easy fit/seal, with a neutral signature, cp100.
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Noice. Iām a fan of Kbear07/AET07, Final E, and Yanyin stock tips (thick stem, medium-ish bore, good fit for my ears). Still need to try the W01!
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I love W01. They remind me of an wide bore RDM, but cheaper and with better stage and a tad less lower treble.
Gonna leave this here in case someone is interested. I should order more.
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Yeah itās sitting in my cart! Snail mail options though haha. With the current restrictions in China, would it arrive before Christmas?? 
I have AZLA SednaEarfitLight, XELASTIC, CP145, CP100, AET08, etc, and they are largely gathering dust lol. Handy to have around when new IEMs arrive, but eventually I think Iāll trade / give them away.
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Great, thanks - not tried these so have ordered a selection to try out (bonus that theyāre not stupidly expensive) 
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If you buy more than 8 bucks, the combined delivery kicks in and arrives faster. Thatās what I usually do! 
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Yeah, they are great and very affordable. Were brought to my attention by @igor0203 , that sent me some
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W01 is excellent. I need a better place to order from but they are nice.
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Looking forward to hearing your takes on the CRA+. Iāve also heard a lot about the Reecho OVA SG-01s as a strong contender for the under $50 price bracket. Anyone hereās tried it yet?
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Also KutuzovGambit, who I trust and exchange conversations with every now and then:
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Thank you both for the reviews! Looks to be a solid offering for the price. Iām convinced I want to try it now.
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I saw a few reviews on headfi and I was immediately interested. Iāll definitely wait for some more reviews, but if someone like HBB reviews it and gives it top marks, Iāll be pulling the trigger.
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Haha I see that Penon had sent KutuzovGambit the review unit poor @nymz for not having good interactions with them
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Budget series - Intro
As of today, Iām starting my own series of IEMs below 50 dollars or just slightly above it, and let me straight explain you why:
- Current state
The current sub-50 market is a dogās race for that sweet market quota. Actually itās pretty easy to understand the why - whoever rules in that bracket, itās bound to sell thousands of IEMs, that even when the price and margin are this low, the profit level is absurd. Most sub-50 will cost pennies to produce in scale and then just throw a cheap box/cable/tips and add a markup.
Business side along, this translates into one thing and one thing at all: competition. And why is competition important? Well, competition converts into an excess of offers, leaving more freedom and options to the buyers. In that regard, thatās a win.
Today is also the right time as sound quality under 50 bucks has sky rocketed over the sun in the last few months with so much good stuff coming out and putting past offers, way above this price range, to a shame.
- The trade-offs
Not all will be flowers and sunny days. It comes out with the price.
The most evident will be trade-offs: you are trading off sound quality for a lower price. No matter what anyone tells you, even me, you will be losing sound quality over good but also more expensive offers. Donāt get me wrong, you donāt need expensive stuff and diminishing returns are pretty real. But regarding sub 50 dollars, itās still a compromise zone.
Another evident trade-off would be Quality Control. You will have QC problems in every bracket, but the lower, the usual worse. If you read the paragraph above where I talk about cheap production and margins, itās easy to understand why:
To the customer, QC is a must. To the supplier, QC is a cost.
At the end of the day, once you already paid and used a, letās say, 20 dollar IEM, you probably wonāt ask for a refund as you have to send your item to the factory and that would cost you more, while the manufacturer already cashed out on your twenty.
Again, what you expect and what you get wonāt be the same things in this bracket.
Another thing to keep in mind would be build quality: if you expect your sub-50 to be well built, youāre dead wrong.
Yes, there are exceptions, like Tripowin Mele that is built like a tank, but the general rule will be using hard plastic, with bad soldering jobs or bad connectors, that you could probably just smash it with your own fingers if you are strong enough.
- The benchmarks
For this, I will have 3 benchmarkers, for a reason:
- [20$] Moondrop Chu - Tips: Final E - best all-rounder sub-50 and one of the cheapest. Grab one right now, ask questions later. Great tuning, average techs. Build quality is good, if you ignore the terrible and non-replaceable cable. Comes with Spring tips;
- [15$] CCA CRA - Tips: Final E - Stock tuning has major flaws like the 4.7k energy, but the techs are good, bass is good and responds very well to EQ (which I like), fixing its problems and turning it into a power house. Build quality is bad, as you can probably smash it with your own hands if you are strong enough;
- [50$] Tripowin Mele - Tips: Spinfit CP100 - The more (mid) bassy solution for those that prefer more warm/musical options. Its darker treble makes it shine with volume cranking and suits best for those that fall into the Rock/RnB/HipHop libraries.To me, the budget beast for this type of tuning, and Iām not the only one saying that (even Crin agrees lol). Techs are average. Build quality is excellent and comes with an okay cable, very usable.
As for sources, I donāt own many cheap ones, and thatās the purpose of this test. I will use Qudelix 5k, USB plugged, as I figured this would be the maximum people would use with IEMs around this price bracket.
- Why am I doing this?
To be honest, I need a set in stone starting point. Itās very hard for me to go from a 1k IEM to a 30usd one without being visceral to it. I feel more comfortable way above this bracket and sure, I can get a take in 5 mins, but I need people to know what my preferences are at this moment, and those are the three above. This will also help me with my time management.
Every IEM that comes out, I test it and knock one of the above, it gets into the pedestal. Easy as that.
My goal, as always, is to help people. To some people 50 bucks is lunch money, to others itās the max they can produce after months of savings. Never underestimate someone based on their collection - music is the only thing that matters, IEMs are just the way to reach them.
In another full disclosure statement, reviewers get a lot of stuff sent. Itās our job to deal with it asap. Do I like reviewing 10 budget IEMs instead of using the best ones I own? Of course not, but thatās how we grow, how we evolve. If thatās what it takes to reach a certain point and help people on the way, so be it.
To all the manufacturers, game is on.
As always, with love,
nymz
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The Tea 2 has grown on me. Ended up making the cut of my current sixteen IEMs down to five. Finding Iām really gravitating toward them on my country playlists. Got up two hours before the kids today to enjoy the pleasure of some fresh roasted coffee and a nice cup of the Tea. Love the early hours of the morning just sitting on the porch before the sun rises with a cup of coffee and some music.
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I wake up 1 hour ealier than I needed to, every single day, just so I can enjoy some peace and music, while I also deal with audio e-mails, news, discords etc. Love that time of the day.
Tea2 is a beast. Itās highly regarded by me for a reason, but I tend to not over-sell because:
- Bias
- 350 usd
But itās punching up there.
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