Earbuds -- cheap earbuds all the same?

The Secret Scam of Cheap Earbuds



An interesting article on the cheap earbuds of today. I had no idea most "cheapies" are manufatured in an a la carte way.

Anyway I'm glad, after reading the article, that I went with my UE IEM's.

 

It's the same thing with a lot of electronic stuff. You see those China branded mouse that looks and feels exactly the same as a razer? - They might've came from the same factory.

 

This is explains why my two pair of Skullcandy earbuds we're the worst pieces of technology I've ever owned in my life.

 

Same here, or hear I should say. Compared to my Ultimate Ears metrofi's my older skullcandy and ipod earbuds are significantly worse in quality, and i am no audiophile.

It was an interesting article though in the fact that if someone is planning to purchase sub $75 earbuds, they might as well buy the cheapest, as they are almost the same driver/bud as the rest.

 

Check out head-fi forums for plenty of great sub $100 earphone recommendations, this article is pretty misleading and only accounts for a couple crappy brands like skullcandy.

 

Welcome to today's world of OEM/ODM industries.

There are companies who still make their own, and price their wares only marginally higher than the blandly generic junk from coby/skullcandy. Examples include etymotic and ultimate ears, among many others.

 

UE / Etymotic / Shure et al don't make their own drivers, putting them in the same bracket actually as most.

Where they don't make the drivers, the 'established makes' are really a semi-guarantee that they've actually done their own research into how these things are tuned as opposed to just fishing option numbers from a menu presented by the ODM.

The state of Chinese ODM's is quite amusing (for anyone not involved): I have a friend who started manufacture in China of an in-demand device, only to find that his own factory was selling them to other distribution partners behind his back - and there's nothing he can do about it.

 

You're right that those companies don't, but how the drivers are implemented sure as hell makes a big difference. I wish that they'd publish which Knowles balanced armatures they use at least. Even with that information though, it'd be hard to guess how a headphone sounds based on their parts, similar to how DACs that share D/A chips can still sound so different.

I'd done a bit of research to build my own custom IEMs, but it quickly got too thorny for even my tastes.

China? The new Wild West.

 

I believe 90% of all earbuds or IEMS or what they are called use the same electronics and drivers, made by 1-3 companies, its probably onle the exterior plastic that is different, but if you think about it, the plastic is what shapes the cavity, and it has tremendous impact of the sound quality, give the same drivers to Shure or Westone as the cheap chinese brands or Skullcandy and the sound will not be the same.

Westone and Shure have the best design, their buds go over the ear and behind your back, and this makes them a thousand times better than the rest for that reason alone, most buds are disposable anyway so don´t spend too much, the cables break renedering them useless, unrepairable. I would never ever spend more than $200 on something that I know will break within 2 years. Preferably half that amount.

shure is very knowledgeable in miniature electronics like microphones and vinyl carts, Westone practically invented the whole IEM concept so those are safe bets, the rest are not.

Buying cheap very often means you get a subpar product.

"The poor man pays twice" as the saying goes.

 

Yeah, I went there and they seem to be extremely helpful.

 

If I'm not wrong, westone is actually made in US, as what my westone um2 box writes, unlike most other brands, even high end brands that has a made in china wording. Would this include the drivers used as well or only the assembly part? hmm...