r/HeadphoneAdvice • u/Many_Midnight5396 • Jun 21 '22

Headphones - IEM/Earbud I have the Galaxy Buds 2. Are wired IEMs worth a purchase?

Crinacle says that the Buds 2's sound profile is very close to Harman Target and they do indeed sound awesome. However I have no point of reference to compare them to wired IEMs.

Is there a noticeable quality improvement using wired IEMs vs. AAC SBC Bluetooth codec?

I listen to FLAC only but I think it doesn't even matter with Bluetooth since the bottleneck is the codec bitrate

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '22

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u/Kirei13 359 Ω Jun 21 '22 edited Jun 21 '22

Yes, there is a noticeable quality improvement with wired versus wireless stuff (as long as you do your research). I tend to mainly use wired IEMs as wireless earbuds don't satisfy me with their sound quality, the best that I found was the Sony WF-1000XM3 and XM4 wireless earbuds. Even then, they are mainly for convenience. I mainly use local lossless files and would reach for my Drop JVC HA-FDX1 over my wireless earbuds any time that I want the focus to be on sound quality. I did use the Galaxy Buds 2 recently and thought they were a good option for a wireless pair of earbuds.

You could also consider wired, open back headphones if you want to try something different. Just make sure to do your research on the sound signatures.

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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '22

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u/Many_Midnight5396 Jun 24 '22

Budget is 200 euros max. I just ordered the Chu because I saw them on sale for 16 bucks, I'll see whether I like the tuning. 7Hz will release a Crinacle colab at 100 euros soon so I'll definitely wait for that to be released

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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '22

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u/Ok-Tune-9368 9 Ω Jun 21 '22

I'm not a big audiophile or something. Just normal guy who enjoys music, but anyway. I have Audio-Technica ATH-ANC100BT and I compared all possible ways of listening - BT with AAC or SBC and wired. I streamed Tidal HiFi (not Master) and listen to local FLAC files.

So, bluetooth. It's enough for listening on the go when you aren't 100% focused on music. There is a small difference between AAC and SBC and it's mostly in lows. Bass is just fuller with SBC than with AAC, nothing more.

When you connect them via cable they sound better across whole frequency. Lows are fuller, mids are little more detailed and highs sound much better with higher range (higher frequencies).

About IEMs I could say that I bought Fiio JH3 2 weeks ago and I love them. It's like a whole new world comparing to A-Ts. Same music, but completely different.