Ask Lemmy

Sony's XM4s were the best

May I recommended you join the wired headphone club? The perks are: infinite battery life (even after years of use) and they're crazy cheap. I got my jbl 305c for 20€ a year ago (just random ones I picked). They've lasted me perfectly every day, no paring or battery issues. The only issue would be that noise canceling doesn't exist. Just saying, consider the other side. The grass is greener here.

I also used to be a pretty enthusiastic Skullcandy user, but agree that in recent years they've pretty much downgraded to the reliability level of the cheapest no-name garbage you'd find at a gas station counter hanging between the cardboard air fresheners and unregulated sex pills.

A few days ago i saved a post from someone who recommended In Ear Monitors with a Bluetooth Adaptor as the ideal solution. I can't find my saved post, but they even recommended specific brands.

The theory is that you get more bang for your buck because in ear monitors are a more competitive market? I wish i knew more

I've been buying ones similar to these:

https://a.co/d/0eNQETKh

They are all basically the same, and are probably built in the same factory. They keep upgrading them, so my current pair are unavailable, but I'd probably buy these to replace them. The sound quality for music is okay, but I have another pair with much better bass response for music, but these have a much better phone in them. They also have earhooks, which is great when you are physically active.

And they're cheap, under $30.

If you want good ear buds for MUSIC, these are great. Amazing bass response. No ear hook though.

If budget is constantly an issue, maybe try some wired iems that will last longer than wireless. I can easily recommend the tangzu wan'er 2 (3.5mm, not 4.4mm) as you get a quality mass produced cable, great eartips that hold up against sweat, and they are tuned better for vocals which translates well in audiobooks and podcasts. I'm not an all out audiophile but I dabble. That would cost about $25usd + shipping and then you can get a jcally type c dac for cheap. If you're on an iphone, you can just get a lightning to 3.5mm dongle instead of the jcally or other dac. You can obviously still go wireless if you'd like.

If you don't care about taking calls, Tozo have decent sound for cheap.

I just repurchased a pair of Altec Lansing Nanobuds 3.0. They're only $17 a pair rn, so I bought a pair for me and then a pair for my husband.

I had bought my original pair years ago while at an airport after I'd realized I left my normal pair at home. Only reason I'm replacing them, is because my holder fell out of my hoodie pocket while bicycling on Friday. They still worked just fine after 3 years of regular use.

Unfortunately, they do not have the over ear clip that you'd prefer though.

Anker soundcore. They run in the $30-99 range, have all sorts of types that include buds, over the ear, etc. Some models have decent ANC. They also support being paired to 2 devices at once, which is really nice if you use your earbuds with more than one device. Lots of high end models still weirdly dont support dual connections like these $60 earbuds.

I use the sport x20 model mostly because I hate "stick in" earbuds. The ANC on them is solid for the train or general commuting, but isn't up there with brands like Bose/Sony. Good enough for an office environment in my experience, but not "full" silence.

Seconded for Soundcore. I rock the Space A40 and they're a great daily. Good price range and a neutral soundstage. Decent separation for the price, for sure. Get the app for a little hearing test and it'll EQ to suit you... Which you can then adjust to your actual preference.

BT shocks openrun they're conduction so you'd need ear plugs but tbf outside noise doesn't really affect them. You could pop ear plugs in.

Linsoul zero 2's are the best budget earphone I've brought not Bluetooth though.

Take a look at Scarbir's website he has a really extensive list of earbuds, often the more lesser known and cheaper bang for the buck brands.

Bose

I actually keep coming back to Sony earbuds, because they seem to be the only brand that still makes the earbuds controlled by buttons instead of capacitive touch. Had the Sony WF-C500 for a couple years and they still work perfectly fine, but I recently bought a pair of WF-C510 because I wanted multi-connection Bluetooth (so that I can use my PC, tablet and phone audio without fiddling around and re-pairing all the time). They were like 35 bucks.

Oddly, JLab Go Air Pops are $10 on sale and extremely decent.

My all time favorite was Jabra Elite 7 Active (or something like that), but sadly they went out of production.

These days I use Sennheisser Momentum TW4, and they're pretty great. I just miss the fact that my Jabra pair was waterproof.

Fairphone have some that are repairable and have replaceable batteries. I haven't tried them, so can't couch for sound

Cheap shitty ones , you wont care about loosing.

The best I've ever had is soundcore x20. They can take a beating, comfortable with adjustable hooks, have sound that's enough to get you in the range between goregrind and dub, and have a decent anc, and usb-c charging port . The only downside is that battery is weakish.

Earfun make some pretty good budget earbuds. Great value.

Missing the tile tracking feature which was honestly fire. Idk how sweat resistant

EarFun Airpro4 Plus

You can usually get some late-model Soundcores in that range, and I've always found the ones with 4.6 stars or higher to be solid. Their ANC isn't fantastic, and for music they aren't great, but they're my go-tos because I'm a podcast guy and the battery life is pretty good for the price. The Soundcore Life earbuds are the ones I might avoid, but Soundcore Liberty and Soundcore P##i series have been "fine" across the board.

try soundcore.. it's owned by amazon so you may not want to. i have a pair of the space a40 and they are comfortable and have ANC.. they make a number of different styles and then have different price points in each style