RikudouGoku's Database (IEMs/Earbuds/Headphones Ranking list)

When we are using buds with our ears, we do not get a seal.

But using this adapter does mean there is a seal, so yes that will affect (boost) the bass a lot (and its why you dont see any bass roll-off in my graphs).

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The flatter the curve, the better, like full speakers right ? IEM FR notions like pinna gain and compensations are irrelevant here I presume ?

Throw everything you know about iem graphs away when you are looking at these bud graphs lol.

And the only thing you can tell is by A/Bing buds. The graphs by themselves are pretty much useless.

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Nonetheless I am pretty sure at some point Android 18 will get her reference curve too :wink:
Something close to LBBS ?

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Closest looking one. Its crap though…

Food for thought Indeed.

2022-02-01:
Smabat Svara:

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Impressions:
Bass: Probably the best bass from a bud in this price range, very good extension has actual rumble and is elevated with both mid and sub-bass, but fast/tight and very well textured.

Mids: male vocals are recessed and lacks a lot of warmth, female vocals are extremely shouty and sharp, tonality is just decent but timbre is very unnatural.

Treble: airy, very elevated and peaky, timbre is very unnatural.

Overall: It is pretty much unlistenable due to the super shouty mids and peaky treble. Bass is great though but timbre is very unnatural overall, technicalities are good that’s no surprise with this kind of tonality.

Rank: D+

NiceHCK EB2S:

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Impressions:
Bass: Slightly elevated, mid-bass, there is some sub-bass but it is pretty rolled-off like usual buds. Not as fast/tight as some more neutral buds, but not too slow/loose either, texture is decent.

Mids: Male vocals are pretty good in terms of the tonality and timbre, but it is a bit unclean. Female vocals lack some brightness and aren’t very clean but has decent timbre. Both male and female vocals aren’t forward nor recessed.

Treble: Non-fatiguing, smooth and warm, not a lot of air though.

Overall: the tonality is pretty decent and is good if you want a relaxing and non-fatiguing bud with good timbre. The technicalities aren’t that good (for this price) though and overall, the EB2S isn’t anything special and not worth the price to me.

(Its different (warmer and a bit more bass) from the discontinued ME80, but is less technical and IMO inferior to it.)

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Rank: B+

Oh and for those that celebrate CNY, happy new year.

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“Gong hei fat choy”

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Is there audible difference between hiegi empty inside foams and full that makes me decide whether I would prefer one to another?

I am thinking of buying LBBS as home pair as Qian39 sometimes lacks the technicality for critical listening, but I am afraid about comfort. Does the conical shape of LBBS make it sticking out far from the ear making laying on side of the head painful with this headset on in your opinion if qian is very comfortable for that purpose?

@PopinTeddy have you received your pair of Qians yet?

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@Morphitsu is also waiting for his pair of Qian39 I believe?

I actually don’t have the donut hiegi’s. But donut vs regular full foams do have a big difference in sound, donut foam is less warm, think of it as a hybrid between the full foam and naked bud sound.

The LBBS is a pretty small bud and you shouldn’t have too much problem sleeping with it. But the qian39 is the more comfortable shell and much better to use for sleeping.

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Damn me, bought both variants of tips + LBBS. Just realized that price on shopee is like 60% of what is on AliExpress, so I paid 40$ in total for buds and foams, totally in line with life motto that purchases under 50$ does not need to be well-thought through :slight_smile:

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Yeah I’ve already received my Qian39, it’s pretty neat as an open back, for work mode. But they keep slipping out of my ears so I’ve got some Hiegi doughnut foams incoming. It also made me realize that Qian39 is my first and last bud; there’s no reason to get buds when IEMs sound a whole lot better than them with great fit.

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That is an interesting take, but I agree that fit in sense of bud being secure in ear is the big problem.

On the other hand I myself realised that earbuds sound very different to IEMs and I would rather explore this world than try to find some holy grail in IEMs (where I suppose I would need to spend close to 1k $ to hear the huge improvement over either Tea, S12 and coming Olina).
And come on, it was 8$ set - it cannot have the technicalities of your MEST :smiley: It probably still sounds better than most 15$ IEMs if not 30$ IEMs (there would be outlaws like CRA of course), don’t you think?

The small weekend personal problem with IEMs I have is all that I tried in order Pinnacle P2 → WF-1000XM3 → ZEX → Mele ->T800 → Tea → S12 sound incrementaly better/kind of different, but there was never huge leap up in direct improvement or sideways in the way making my music sound very different (I was trying to justify purchase of 4th set like Softear Volume for 1,5h of daily music listening in total). And with earbuds this side leap is easily achievable :slight_smile:

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oh, earbud value shits on iems IMO.

(and lets not bring DIY buds into it as that is embarrassingly bad for iems lol.)

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Speaking of DIY/custom/boutique - have you tried any other blur earbuds (like 266r) other than ones in your ranking list?
There is one offer on 300ohm aps 266r on head fi for 120 EUR, but it looks like bud made of those shells for 3$ on AliExpress… And 300ohm earbud with no measurements?

Someone is gifting me 2 blurs, so I will hear more sooner or later (CNY holiday atm).

DIY buds are super cheap, most drivers costs between 5-20 usd.

Here are some i made.



Will probably start selling my own diy buds soon.

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Will you do comparison FR measurements in your new rig for your sets?

Can you tune those buds a lot if you use the OEM shell and OEM driver? Adding filters, holes etc?

Not sure tbh, the bud graphs are very much a meme. But I think about it later.

My plan is to buy a lot of different drivers, to try them out and see which ones have the most potential, then work more on tuning those.

There are a lot of ways to tune buds and honestly the possibilities feel endless, so I have to start from a solid ground before I do anything more complicated.

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Hahaha I’m not comparing Qian to those sets! Qian has ridiculous resolving power for $8 fricking dollars… I’d wish I could love it more, but it’s just the fit that needs fixing. I’m pretty sure I’ll be using it a lot more once I get the pads, but I just don’t see the urge to get LBBS or any other buds in the future. Qian is perfect in it’s own purpose in my usage :blush:

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The qian39 uses a very small shell, MX500 buds should work better for you.

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