Then get the $6 one, it’s evaluated well as a $16 product. Your $20 limit is arbitrary and doesn’t reflect the budget market
Disclaimer : I received this review unit for free > from KZ, thank you very much.
Price: 16 usd
The guy probably pressed the 1 accidentally, he also received it for free, so there is a conflict of interest.
You can just find other reviewer if you like, I picked head fi because it’s easier, non AliExpress selling price is ~$16, so it’s around that price if you’re not asian I guess. Also try considering that brand markup exists and the actual manufacturing is cheap for most brands.
Edit 1: ~20 on amazon
No thanks:
Naturally this blew up within our small community, with KZ (more specifically, a representative by the name of Tyvan Lam) rushing in with a long, rather poorly thought-out response. Pitchforks were raised and the heads of KZ were demanded, and I myself had announced a complete boycott of their products and a blacklist from all future reviews.
Yikes.
Find user reviews then, making good product and being scummy is not mutually exclusive.
And I’m not hung up on that exact model, I can always find other cheap models that fulfill the exact same point if that’s what you prefer
They’re literally paying reviewers to write good reviews about their products. And all the reviewers that you linked got the products for free, or maybe even got paid, who knows?
How do I know which “user review” is real and which is not? And how do I know that they actually bought the product?
So you want me to find other (non-kz) models?
No, because, like I said, reviewers take the price into account. Then you said that some "reviewers’ evaluated these IEMs as good even for $16, which got debunked because they might have gotten paid and they definitely got them for free. I also doubt that they’re experts…
Yeah and your recommendation is evaluated at your IEM price point, what’s the point?
If it’s good it’s good
Here’s a sub*-$10 one TRN MT1 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org
You don’t even need to be an expert to enjoy a product smh
I had these ones and got them for $5. If you like V-shape tuning and you only have $5, then it’s not a bad option. The technical performance is still awful, obviously.
You’re finally getting my point
You don’t need a technical marvel, a 5$ IEM can fulfill someone’s need/want.
I would say the same for a good value $50 phone if one only has $50. That doesn’t mean I would ever recommend it.
You know what?
They’re not e-waste if you live in a country where $1 is a lot. It’s better to have bad earphones, than having no earphones.
I feel like (correct me if I’m wrong) what you’re trying to say is that the sweet spot for an IEM starts at $20. Personally, I would probably agree with that.
However, where we differ is what we think about those under $20. You think that they’re buying e-waste whilst I think that it’s fine if it fulfills their need. This is especially because we are talking about audio, where taste is very subjective, if a $5 IEM fulfills their need far better than a $20 one then what’s the issue with it?
As a thought exercise, let’s say there’s another you, call it Lukas 2. He thinks that IEMs under $50 is junk, how are you going to answer that with your $20 IEM when he’ll just dismiss it as
I changed my mind, they’re not e-waste if a guy who couldn’t get access to earphones because he couldn’t afford them now can get access to them because those earphones cost $1.
Can someone get rid of these two posts above? @team
Honestly it’s not really bad resoning. Right now the general consenus among reviewers in the audiophile industry seems to be the Zero2 are the budget king. Anything less expensive than their price isn’t usually a reputable brand, and the value for your money between like a $5 pair of dirty buds to a $16-$20ish pair of moondrops or 7hz is just SO worth the extra $10/$15 that you’re better off getting the more quality product. The only time to consider the $5 or less stuff is when you have no money at all ajd even then is that then an expense to justify.
It all depends on your needs and wants. For some people, a $50 flip phone could be good. Maybe not for us privacy and security nerds. It all depends on your needs.
A phone that doesn’t provide any way to have secure and private communications can be good? I don’t agree.
For you and me it isn’t, but for someone who just needs to call others occasionally, it works fine. Our preferences aren’t objective reality.
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