I picked up pair of Beats Fit Pro and love them. They are a little bit heavier than Apple Airpods, but with the wings they stay in better. No more having to try to pick them off the floor in an airplane. And since they don’t wrap around your ear they don’t get caught up in masks/glasses.
@bblood Sony’s LinkBuds may be a solution that could work for you - They’re far from the noise isolation that you get with silicone tips in an ear canal, but the unique and open design can be far more comfortable, and practical in some instances where you may want to be able to hear your surroundings to some degree.
@bblood I am reasonably sure that a sadist invented earbuds. The term “ear buds” has morphed such that most people use the term to include both ear buds and in-ear headphones. While I can’t tolerate “ear buds” for more than a half minute or so, I can use “in-ear headphones” in a pinch when proper over/on ear headphones are not available.
But the truth is that the quality of audio will be wholly worlds apart if you upgrade just a bit, and can deal with wires; 80/20 rule applies in that most decent DAC/Amp stacks and decent headphones that can be built out for maybe $200-ish will be incredible by comparison, and there are still gains to be had for the improvements beyond that, though far less for the cost. A great example are the folks in California with Schiit (pronounced just like you’d joke), from whom you can get a great gaming DAC, or an audiophile Modi/Magni stack for that sub-$200 price.
I like my Shures from (gosh, really?) around a decade ago. There are a lot of threads on KVR, Gearslutz, reddit, and Head-Fi discussing which new models outperform what overpriced ones, but you’re dumping a lot of money on the best performer to get a very small amount of improvement over the average. If you are using streaming audio of any kind (or at least, not exclusively Tidal Master, or better quality from your server, or some other basically-FLAC/WAV option), you absolutely will not be able to take advantage of the quality difference. Get something that stays in or on your ears comfortably and that you can stand listening to for two days’ worth of your standard listening shift. Beyond that, get whatever is cheap and you can stand to be seen with.
Earbuds are not compatible with hearing aids, so none of the above. I prefer over the ear headphones anyway.
My Signia hearing aids are bluetooth and work quite well as earbuds with my phone. I tested them on other things and they worked well enough, though I’ve not used them on anything but the phone after testing.
My hearing sucks so badly that “good” and “crap” earbubs/headphones are about the same for me. (Protip: be very careful with antibiotics like cipro, which is what severely damaged my hearing and give me tinnitus over 12 years ago.)
@baqui63 I’m sorry about your hearing loss and thank you for sharing your story. I’m very suspicious of drug companies and their products lately. Not sure how that came about.
@baqui63@tweezak Back around 2014, the FDA ussued a warning to relegate the entire fluoroquinolone group to last-resort status because of serious permanent side effects, and yet some doctors and hospitals still use them as their first-line choice. Merck still glosses over the risks in its drug manual.
@baqui63 In my heart I truly believe the round I did with Cipro was responsible for a meniscal tear in my right knee within a few months of taking it. My lateral meniscus didn’t just tear. It was obliterated by simply getting out from the driver’s side of my Camaro. Completely irrepairable, and unfortunately you kinda need that sucker to aid in knee stability and to keep the joint from tearing itself up.
Coming up on the 6 month mark for a total knee replacement.
I’ve bought and returned a number of earbuds over the years, in addition to a collection of ones I’ve kept. Overall, I think I have been the happiest with Bose for music and Apple Airpod Pro for conference calls at work, as well as phone calls in general. AKG was the pits. The problem I’ve had with rechargeable Bose products is that the batteries tend to die too soon and they no longer hold a charge. Not a good thing to happen to a product that’s kind of pricey.
For me, earbuds aren’t for quality listening, so it doesn’t really matter as long as they work.
If I want to listen to music for quality, I use headphones.
I like to pick out the different instruments in orchestrations, and you just can’t do that with earbuds.
If you want to try that, listen to the secondary horns in the Hogan’s Heroes theme. Pretty cool!
AKG/Samsung - just because they are the only brand I know of that has the chirp thing that helps me find them when I lose them… which is fairly regularly. Also, colors so they stand out when they fall out of my ear and land in the weeds.
I’ve been satisfied with my House of Marley wired earbuds I got many years ago. Still use them on plane trips and they helped drown out the incessant droning from my narcissistic partner’s (now ex) rambling.
@robjm weird…I, a person who hates earbuds in general, am absolutely in love with my Pixel buds.
i’ve had 'em all
Corded USB-C
OG pixel buds (with a cord between the buds)
on my Second Set of the Pixelbuds 2 (first took a trip through the washer and dryer)
and I got a Free Pair of the A-Series with my pixel 6 (gave them to my nephew)
they’ve all fit and sound fantastic.
My Pixelbuds 2 even did a good job as earplugs at a concert that I was within 15 ft of the stage.
I really like Sony ones, but now I’ve lost the last pieces of my last set so I’m on to my backup set of Echo Buds. They’re ok, but they die so much faster
Aiwa buds - have had them for several years now. Sound great, sync well, long-lasting battery life and the charging case stays in a small pouch on my backpack for travel to exotic places!!!
Lil Nas X, Jaden & Willow Smith aside, these things are pretty good. They custom mold to your ears when you get them and I’ve yet to have one fall out. The companion app has some issues but they sound like earbuds should. https://custom.ultimateears.com/products/ue-fits?variant=32895095210041
Earin makes really nice earbuds. They’re small and ambidextrous, and they’re the original true wireless earbud company. I’ve had their M-2 and A-3 earbuds, and they’re both super solid.
Sennheiser
The last cheap one I bought on Meh that actually worked.
Samsung
I’ve never used any of those brands of earbuds before…
Beats me!
@Kyeh
/giphy rim shot
@somf69
@Kyeh
@rtjhnstn
I thought I’d get a “TWH S”!
Q tips
Actually, the Voza earbuds I bought from the April Fools Mehrathon sound really good. Glad I bought them.
@Rueki same hear, my snobby kid said they sound great
I third this!
Plus, the cords don’t get all jangkled (totally a word).
@Rueki I agree! I am very impressed with the sound and build quality, especially at $2 a pair!
My main criterium is that it stay in my ear for more than 5 seconds while sitting still. I now have a pair from Audio-Technica that does that!
I love my Jabra ear buds.
Sony.
I picked up pair of Beats Fit Pro and love them. They are a little bit heavier than Apple Airpods, but with the wings they stay in better. No more having to try to pick them off the floor in an airplane. And since they don’t wrap around your ear they don’t get caught up in masks/glasses.
Mpow had been pretty awesome for me.
VAN GOGH! MANGO! TANGO! AWESOME!
None. None are the best.
I have no idea how people spend all day with these things shoved in their ears… sooo painful.
Ear buds hurt my ears
@bblood Sony’s LinkBuds may be a solution that could work for you - They’re far from the noise isolation that you get with silicone tips in an ear canal, but the unique and open design can be far more comfortable, and practical in some instances where you may want to be able to hear your surroundings to some degree.
@bblood I am reasonably sure that a sadist invented earbuds. The term “ear buds” has morphed such that most people use the term to include both ear buds and in-ear headphones. While I can’t tolerate “ear buds” for more than a half minute or so, I can use “in-ear headphones” in a pinch when proper over/on ear headphones are not available.
Maxima.
the ones that fit my budget(cheap)
If they must be wireless earbuds, then Sony…
But the truth is that the quality of audio will be wholly worlds apart if you upgrade just a bit, and can deal with wires; 80/20 rule applies in that most decent DAC/Amp stacks and decent headphones that can be built out for maybe $200-ish will be incredible by comparison, and there are still gains to be had for the improvements beyond that, though far less for the cost. A great example are the folks in California with Schiit (pronounced just like you’d joke), from whom you can get a great gaming DAC, or an audiophile Modi/Magni stack for that sub-$200 price.
Skull candy
@Gamblam I’ve tried many other brands, the Skullcandy just sounds ‘right’ to me.
@Gamblam Yep. Decent quality, dirt cheap, and they still make wired ones.
I like my Shures from (gosh, really?) around a decade ago. There are a lot of threads on KVR, Gearslutz, reddit, and Head-Fi discussing which new models outperform what overpriced ones, but you’re dumping a lot of money on the best performer to get a very small amount of improvement over the average. If you are using streaming audio of any kind (or at least, not exclusively Tidal Master, or better quality from your server, or some other basically-FLAC/WAV option), you absolutely will not be able to take advantage of the quality difference. Get something that stays in or on your ears comfortably and that you can stand listening to for two days’ worth of your standard listening shift. Beyond that, get whatever is cheap and you can stand to be seen with.
Earbuds are not compatible with hearing aids, so none of the above. I prefer over the ear headphones anyway.
My Signia hearing aids are bluetooth and work quite well as earbuds with my phone. I tested them on other things and they worked well enough, though I’ve not used them on anything but the phone after testing.
My hearing sucks so badly that “good” and “crap” earbubs/headphones are about the same for me. (Protip: be very careful with antibiotics like cipro, which is what severely damaged my hearing and give me tinnitus over 12 years ago.)
@baqui63 I’m sorry about your hearing loss and thank you for sharing your story. I’m very suspicious of drug companies and their products lately. Not sure how that came about.
@baqui63 @tweezak Back around 2014, the FDA ussued a warning to relegate the entire fluoroquinolone group to last-resort status because of serious permanent side effects, and yet some doctors and hospitals still use them as their first-line choice. Merck still glosses over the risks in its drug manual.
@baqui63 In my heart I truly believe the round I did with Cipro was responsible for a meniscal tear in my right knee within a few months of taking it. My lateral meniscus didn’t just tear. It was obliterated by simply getting out from the driver’s side of my Camaro. Completely irrepairable, and unfortunately you kinda need that sucker to aid in knee stability and to keep the joint from tearing itself up.
Coming up on the 6 month mark for a total knee replacement.
I’ve bought and returned a number of earbuds over the years, in addition to a collection of ones I’ve kept. Overall, I think I have been the happiest with Bose for music and Apple Airpod Pro for conference calls at work, as well as phone calls in general. AKG was the pits. The problem I’ve had with rechargeable Bose products is that the batteries tend to die too soon and they no longer hold a charge. Not a good thing to happen to a product that’s kind of pricey.
The one that makes good quality headphones that go OUTSIDE my ears.
@PooltoyWolf Can’t believe it took this long for someone to say headphones! Totally agree.
@PooltoyWolf 100% agree. I have yet to find buds that I can tolerate, and I am no longer willing to try.
@werehatrack @callow I’m glad I’m among good company!
For me, earbuds aren’t for quality listening, so it doesn’t really matter as long as they work.
If I want to listen to music for quality, I use headphones.
I like to pick out the different instruments in orchestrations, and you just can’t do that with earbuds.
If you want to try that, listen to the secondary horns in the Hogan’s Heroes theme. Pretty cool!
The dollar-ish ones from Dollar Tree so that when the bunny snaps the wires with its teeth, you just reach into the nightstand and grab another pair.
AKG/Samsung - just because they are the only brand I know of that has the chirp thing that helps me find them when I lose them… which is fairly regularly. Also, colors so they stand out when they fall out of my ear and land in the weeds.
Sennheiser /web https://en-us.sennheiser.com/cx-true-wireless
I’ve been satisfied with my House of Marley wired earbuds I got many years ago. Still use them on plane trips and they helped drown out the incessant droning from my narcissistic partner’s (now ex) rambling.
I don’t know what the best are. But my god, are my Pixel Buds bad.
@robjm weird…I, a person who hates earbuds in general, am absolutely in love with my Pixel buds.
i’ve had 'em all
Corded USB-C
OG pixel buds (with a cord between the buds)
on my Second Set of the Pixelbuds 2 (first took a trip through the washer and dryer)
and I got a Free Pair of the A-Series with my pixel 6 (gave them to my nephew)
they’ve all fit and sound fantastic.
My Pixelbuds 2 even did a good job as earplugs at a concert that I was within 15 ft of the stage.
Enacfire E60 have been excellent for several years… But are finally dying so…
The kind that fit in my ear without pain and falling out.
@Star2236 For me, there are none that fit this specification. I’ve tried. I’m not going to try again. Not even with someone else’s money.
@Star2236 @werehatrack Same. I’ve yet to find any type of buds that are comfortable for extended listening (> 20 min) and stay in my ears.
@macromeh @werehatrack
I had one pair (can’t for the life of me remember what they were) but I left them in the hospital and that was that.
I really like Sony ones, but now I’ve lost the last pieces of my last set so I’m on to my backup set of Echo Buds. They’re ok, but they die so much faster
Bang & Olufsen. Not cheap, but great sound.
The free ones they used to hand out on airlines.
As far as wireless: JAM Live Free. 6 hours of runtime, with 9 charges worth of battery capacity in the case.
I run QCY-T1 because they are small and reliable. I also use Skullcandy evo which have great sound and extra features.
Aiwa buds - have had them for several years now. Sound great, sync well, long-lasting battery life and the charging case stays in a small pouch on my backpack for travel to exotic places!!!
OnePlus Buds Z
UE FITS
Lil Nas X, Jaden & Willow Smith aside, these things are pretty good. They custom mold to your ears when you get them and I’ve yet to have one fall out. The companion app has some issues but they sound like earbuds should.
https://custom.ultimateears.com/products/ue-fits?variant=32895095210041
Earin makes really nice earbuds. They’re small and ambidextrous, and they’re the original true wireless earbud company. I’ve had their M-2 and A-3 earbuds, and they’re both super solid.
Headphones are better.
I think that JBL makes a heckuva good set of earbuds