KZ - EDC PRO

People still recommending the crin red as a beginner iem is crazy. The crin Red is overrated, overhyped and with some many options in the market is definitely overpriced, the only useful thing of the entire package is the white tips. As someone said in a comment below, if you want to try an iem just buy the KZ EDC PRO it's like 5 dollars in Aliexpress and the kbear 08 eartips works well with it, at least for me.

Under $10 the best is the KZ EDC PRO (edx pro is another iem), use it with Kbear 08 eartips. In Aliexpress (sometimes using coins) you can get for $8-15 the ND planet, KZ Castor Pro/OG, KZ Libra Balanced/Hi res/X, KZ Saga balanced/bass, KZ ZVX pro, all of them have good reviews and comments. The Kbear 07 and 08 eartips are good for them.

Have: *Using a dac btw *Chu 2 and Kefine Klean are prone to sound damp/loss due to moisture getting trapped in the metal housing. If it happens let it air out or put silica gel next to it. -Kz edc pro(cheapest option; sounds better than my salnotes zero & chu 2 tho unreliable qc) -Salnotes zero(great budget option; clean layered sounds and a bit bassy, plastic housing not really bothersome quite reliable tbh, stock cable sucks tho, my running/jogging iem) -Moondrop chu 2(clean layered sound and neutral tuning, my preferred choice; metal housing, great stock cable, my travel iem) -Kefine Klean(a bit better sounding than every iem i have, best build quality, metal housing, great stock cable, my gaming iem) Currently eyeing: Kinera Celest Simgot ew300

yep finally got it after many people recommend it, bought it for gaming and the metallic sounds from guns in PUBG became unbearable... can't return it, but good thing it's cheap and autoeq exist. eq to harman target and it's my beater sets until it's broken in gaming.

KZ EDC PRO IEM Wired Earphone,... https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0DHSFHZZ1?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share ( these are the basic ones for 1k but if your budget is good then pick some good one but KZ is a good company.

Really? I don't game with mine, feels like the bass is overwhelming in CS2.

Edc pro. Great budget balanced iem.

Nope. Those concerns are overblown just because of incidents from a couple of years ago. The edc pro is consistently good with no known defects. I've owned several dozen kz iems and even gave away 6 KZ Dawns (like edc pro but with lots of bass) to my teammates at work, and all of them work fine.

Castors are a good choice too. Castor Harman is good; gave it to my gf. Castor bass is a bit muddy, but not too muddy like kbear rosefinch; I use that personally. I personally love the edc pro more because it's smoother with just the right amount of bass, but the Harman is a bit thin for me. But I just re-read your genre of choice. I saw you like J-Pop. If that's the case, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Tangzu Waner (the original ones that came in black, white, jade, and blue colors; not the studio version or the waner 2). Tangzu waner is specialized for making vocals, specifically female vocals, pop. Wan'er is known to make Stay With Me and Plastic Love sound good. Great with YOASOBI too.

Yeah at this point they are outclassed even by KZs own edc and edx lines. They are still ok at their price points. But they are no longer the top budget, iems like they were 5 years ago. If you don't have an aliexpress account at this point, you can snag a edc or edx for 2 bucks thanks to the welcome deal

No aliexpress screws you at this point. Otherwise you would get the kz edc pro or the edx pro.

G1 has to be my most disappointing buy of the year. Treble is just awful. Plenty of iems with better positional audio that sound much better. I would steer clear. If looking for a V shaped sound the KZ EDC pro is better, still a fun V shaped sound but overall better tuned, and if you want a step up from the G1, but like the metal build and small form factor, the Kefine Klean is a great option.

\-KZ EDC Pro is THE bang for buck pair of IEMs. Period. I wouldn't say they're the best in the sub $20.00 category (not by a long shot), but you can get a sub $20.00 pair AND the KZ EDC Pro, usually for the same $20.00 if you use discounts. You can have them as a spare pair of IEMs for Every Day Carrying (EDC) and leave your better, more expensive IEMs at home. \-The best KZ planar by far are the PRX, and they're around $30.00 (or less) on AliExpress. They're harder to drive than the ARTTI T10 Pro or the Sgor Luna, and the included accessories suck (except for the ear tips, they're quite good for my ears), but they're easy to recommend if you can get them at a(n even better) discount and have a better spare KZ-QDC cable around. https://preview.redd.it/4z7dggtk58df1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=45eaf3a592ad7051b936bbe578e22cc9bffd5dae

If you need good noise isolation you should try Etymotics. But get them from Amazon or somewhere in case you need to return, because the deep fit can be problematic depending on your ear canal shape (I found them painful). The ER2XR is slightly above your budget at around $100 IIRC, but it's worth a look. That's their entry level one with more bass (ER2SE is the same but with flat bass). Ignore driver count. That's mostly a marketing tactic by KZ, but their IEMs tend to be a bit shit and they have a pretty sketchy track record with various things (fake drivers, paid-for reviews, etc). Some of their models are supposedly good for the price, but it's hard to recommend them except for complete beginner level stuff to just try out an IEM for under $10. Spending any more than that with KZ is taking a bit of a gamble. That said if you want to just get one that's really cheap to try out, the KZ EDC Pro is usually under $5 and it's actually not bad. It's a balanced, mild v-shape tuning that leans towards a bit bassier. It won't give you the same levels of sound isolation as Etymotics, but it will give you a good idea of what to expect from most typical IEMs, as most of them have about the same levels of noise isolation. It's only Etymotics and some of the other pro-oriented ones (that I have no experience with) which have much higher attenuation specs than typical audiophile IEMs. Pretty much all KZs have slightly grainy treble, which would make them unsuitable for production work, but if you're talking about live mixing then it shouldn't matter much. I don't DJ, but from friends who do, I believe a v-shape signature is what they prefer, so they can track the bass and percussion more easily for beat-matching.

Not really in order, as different tunings: * Moondrop Chu 2 - mild v-shape, great IEM * QKZ HBB - warm/bassy, great IEM * Blon BL03 - fun v-shape (but the fit is terrible) Bright neutral has a few options - I prefer the original Chu but the crappy fixed cable lets it down. The 7Hz Zero is a bit better in that regard, but I don't think it sounds quite as good. Arguably it's better to pay the extra for the Moondrop LAN for this signature because it's the best one until you go up significantly, but OTOH it's also kind of overpriced for what it is (I think it's around $40 normally, but it's basically just a Chu 2 with less bass). The 7Hz Zero 2 is OK as well but I personally find it a bit of an overly safe middle ground between other, better IEMs. Like the QKZ HBB, if you want warm but don't want to go quite that warm. It's probably the one that's the closest competitor to the Wan'er, as a better all-rounder. Although I find the Wan'er has a stand-out feature in its vocals while being weaker elsewhere, but the Zero 2 doesn't have a single stand-out thing it does better than anything else. It could maybe get the award for the okayest $20 IEM, as it doesn't do anything bad, but nothing stands out as particularly good either. You also have things like the KZ EDC Pro as probably the best beginner IEM, for around $5. It's very close to the Chu 2 but a bit bassier and slightly less refined in the treble. Probably more comfortable than the Chu 2 and less prone to condensation issues. The KZ Castor Bass, around $15, is good for a really hard-hitting bass tuning, although it's not an all-rounder and the tuning is a bit grainy.

The Audio Technicas are more of a bright-leaning v-shape. The Red is a warm/bassy neutral. The Red has huge nozzles so isn't a particularly safe choice for a first IEM, it can cause a lot of people discomfort or pain, because the nozzles are so big, unless you happen to have above-average sized ear canals. I would recommend starting even cheaper and get the KZ EDC Pro as a first IEM, because you can find it for about $5. It's a mild v-shape tuning so it's not so far away from neutral that it's going to be missing too much anywhere, and it's not overly boring either. It's small and should fit most people's ears without any problems. Once you've spent a while with something like that, you'll have a much better idea whether to stick with that, spend more money on a different IEM, or buy a pair of over-ears. And while you can get a fairly good IEM for $5, you cannot get a good over-hear headphone for that price. Over-ears are a whole different thing to IEMs. Some people hate having their ears covered (and it causes more issues with heat, especially in summer). OTOH, some people hate having something in their ear canal. It's best to figure out which type of person you are, or alternate between them both at different times to minimise fatigue.

OK, but it's not uncommon for people to have issues with the shell size on the Zero / Zero 2 and its pointy edges. And it's 4x the price of the EDC Pro. That's why I recommend the EDC Pro for someone just starting out who doesn't know much about what they're looking for. If it turns out to not be for you, you're only down $5 not $20. And that's very unlikely to happen for comfort reasons. There are very few IEMs out there that are as small and ergonomic as it, irrespective of price. Plus the sound quality of the EDC Pro is at least competitive with all the other sub-$20 recommendations including the Zero 2. Which one is best is largely a matter of preference, but nobody knows their preference until they've tried at least one IEM.

As a first IEM, the KZ EDC Pro. Because it's only $5, it's tuned pretty competently and it's more comfortable than than 95% of IEMs, especially for anyone with small ears. People going around recommending things like the Zero Red as a first IEM really annoy me, because for a significant number of people it's just going to hurt their ears and put them off IEMs forever. It doesn't matter how well it's tuned.

All of them are decent for a first IEM, but it depends on your preferences. The problem is, if you haven't had an IEM before, you won't know what your preferences are. You need to start somewhere, so my recommendation is to buy the cheapest thing that's good and focus on comfort first. That's why I recommend one that's not on your list: the KZ EDC Pro. It's got a good all-rounder tuning (a slightly warmer version of the Chu 2) without any of the harsh peaks KZ often have issues with. But also, it's only $7. It's got one of the smallest, most ergonomic shells and smallest nozzles on any IEM. So there much less risk that you run into comfort issues with your first IEM and can focus on listening for a month or two and deciding what you do or don't like about the sound. The main downside of the EDC Pro is that the stock cable isn't great. But you can listen to it for a week or two and if you decide it's going to be your only IEM for a while, just buy an upgrade cable. KBear have a lot of good options that will fit it and the 3.5mm versions can usually be found on sale around $5 (look for 8-core, 16-core, ST12, ST16 - I have the KBear Chord on mine, which is very nice but it's usually a bit more expensive). Otherwise if you're going to upgrade to something else, you'll at least know what you want from a slightly more expensive IEM, and you've got a backup that only cost $7. The other one worth considering using the same logic is the Gate, but the main advantage of the Gate is that it comes with a pretty nice cable that you might want to steal and use on a future IEM. Personally I think the EDC Pro is tuned a bit better than the Gate, but for a first IEM you probably wouldn't notice. The stock tips with the Gate are slightly better as well (Whizzer SS20), but they aren't expensive, and KZ Starlines aren't bad tips either. The price difference is probably more than the cost of the tips + a decent cable anyway. However you can usually find the Gate on Amazon, which gives you 30 days no-questions returns.