Audio guru ljokerl reviewed these IEMS and gave 6.9 out of 10 for sound quality, so I wouldn't expect something crazy when I put them on, rather just nice sound.
Giorgijoker admits they arent to his taste but they also eq very well, and are among, if not the most comfortable iem out there, specially for laying down or wearing a helmet/etc...
they are far from the best but, at 30, that would bump his value rating to a 10 i bet... 8.5 at the normal price you find htem for at amazon and the like.
give me an extra foot on the cord, metal shells and the option for a headset version i would gladly pay 20bucks more for that set... mass drop exclusive perhaps?
i have much more expensive sets like my hf5's, but these beat them in comfort, not in overall sound, but they are less fatiguing and never harsh even with poor mastering/encoding... very forgiving... part of why i love them for audio books...some of the cassette rips are horrific for the tape noise....
Giorgithey are like a budget hf5 in some ways, the hf5 isnt the friend of bad masters, bad encodes, etc, its very very revealing, the pl50 is alot more forgiving and never harsh, it fills a very good place in my lineup since, i can even listen to old cassette tape encodes of audio books done very poorly without wanting to dig my eardrumbs out with a white hot coke spoon.
they beat the hf5's in comfort for sure.
with the pl50, the stock tips are meh to crap, for most people, but once thats sorted and you find tips that work for your ears, and eq them a bit, you really can get a good sound out of them, you wont get brain rattling bass but what you will get is alot of detail in the bass you do get vs any dynamic i have had in this price range..
the hf5's, if you dig around a bit, can be had on sale cheaper then the massdrop price by a bit, if you want something cheaper, the mc series are also considered to be quite good bang/buck entry into etymotics, the kids are even good if you got an amp(300ohm to prevent kids from harming their ears...but alot of adults on head-fi really like them as work/every day carry iem's)
one nice thing about etymotic is, you can trade in out of warr iem's for sizeable discounts on any set of iem's they make, when this set of hf5's dies, im going to get er4's to replace them via the upgrade program :)
UnaSalusVictusI'm more interested in budget iems, so I'd consider buying PL50 rather than etymotic iems, which are higher priced. Also, I mostly into listening EDM and kinda stuff, so depth of low end is quite important to me, but if there's at least quick punch in the bass, it's still good enough. I enjoyed both depth and punch of the bass on Xiaomi Piston 2 a lot. Currently I'm using JVC HA-FXT90, which is also not bad, but I need a replacement, cause it won't stay in ears, also it's losing signal in one of the ears.
Anyway, thanks for the detailed review! Appreciated :)