Tag Archives: In-Ear

Brainwavz B200 review: The best earphones under £100

UPDATE: Since writing my review, the B200 have dropped in price, to £95 and now have a removable cable – incredible!

I’ve known Brainwavz for their affordable earphones and headphones – when I saw the company was offering the £150 Brainwavz B200 earphones I was immediately intrigued. This is the most expensive item on the product list, and with dual balanced armature drivers found within it, I was curious to see if the earphones were good value for money or if they’d drown under its competitors.

The B200’s can be found for £150 on Amazon UK and $170 on Amazon USA at the time of writing, they are in fact cheaper – at £95 and $120 respectively. I’ll be reviewing them at their original price.

Its competitors include the Westone W20 at £215 ($300 in the US), the Dunu DN-2000J for £230 ($300 in the US), the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 at £85 ($70 in the US), the DUNU Titan 1 at £90 ($80 in the US) and finally the 1MORE Triple Driver at £100 ($95 in the US).

Pros: Fantastic sound quality, comfortable, value, lightweight design
Cons: Cable can get easily tangled, no soft carrying pouch, no removable cable or in-line mic

Packaging & Accessories: 8/10
Build Quality: 9/10
Design & Look: 10/10
Microphonics (higher ratings means lower cable noise): 10/10
Isolation: 8.5/10
Comfort: 10/10
Sound Quality: 9/10
Value: 10/10 – based on £150 price tag
My final Rating: 9.5/10

Review Date: September 2017
Review Price: £150

Here’s my video review of the earphones:

Let’s get into this written review!

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SoundMAGIC E10BT review: The budget E10 earphones go Bluetooth

SoundMAGIC are back at it again with the E10s. But, this time, the company takes one of the best budget earphones and adds Bluetooth, creating the E10BT. Using the E10’s as my throw-away earphones, I was intrigued to see how the E10BT would compare in both value and sound quality.

At £70 the E10BTs ($55 in the US) aren’t as affordable as their non-Bluetooth variants, the £30 E10 (non-mic) ($42 in the US) and the £40 E10C (mic) ($50 in the US). At the time of writing, the E10BT is only available in black. If you’re looking for a Bluetooth earphone that offers good sound quality at an affordable price, the J&L-102 (£23) ($22 in the US), SoundPEATS Q21 (£20) and Sumvision Pysc Espirit (£17) all provide sensational value for money and offer fantastic sound.

Pros: Accessories, build quality, highs, battery life
Cons: Price and value, recessed mids, sub-bass extension, battery design

Packaging & Accessories: 8/10
Build Quality: 9/10
Design & Look: 8.5/10
Microphonics (higher ratings means lower cable noise): 9/10
Isolation: 8/10
Comfort: 8.5/10
Sound Quality: 7.5/10
Value: 7/10 – based on £70 price tag
My final Rating: 7.5/10

Review Date: April 2017
Review Price: £70

Here’s my video review of the earphones:

Read on for an in-depth review of the E10BT earphones.

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DUNU Titan 5 Review – A fantastically built earphone that improves on the DUNU Titan 1

Pros: Overall sound quality, accessories, design, comfort, price
Cons: Isolation, sound leakage, bass orientated sound signature

Packaging & Accessories: 9.5/10
Build Quality: 10/10
Design & Look: 10/10
Microphonics (higher ratings means lower cable noise): 8.5/10
Isolation: 7.5/10
Comfort: 9/10
Audio Quality: 9/10
Value: 10/10
My final Rating: 10/10

Purchase Date: March 2016
Purchase Price: £100

DUNU Titan 5 - Design

First of all I would like to thank DUNU for sending me the Titan 5 for review. After having reviewed their younger brothers the DUNU Titan 1 and also having heard the extremely impressive DUNU DN-2000, I was very intrigued to hear the DUNU Titan 5. As a note the Titan 1 and DN-2000 in their respective price points (and above) are one of my most recommended earphones. Due to the pure bang for buck you get for them, there’s barely many better earphones that these two, so I wanted to see if the Titan 5 would dethrone the Titan 1 or even give the DN-2000 a run for their money!

The Titan 5 can be purchased from AmazonUK for around £100 and AmazonUSA for $135.

Here’s my video review of the Titan 5:

Now let’s get to the written review!

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Pump Audio V2 Earphones Review – A sweet tangerine both in terms of looks and sound

Pros: Overall sound quality, overall build quality, flat-cable design
Cons: Microphonics, straight 3.5mm jack, no cable cinch, driver flex

Packaging & Accessories: 9.5/10
Build Quality: 9/10
Design & Look: 8/10
Microphonics (higher ratings means lower cable noise): 8/10
Isolation: 8/10
Comfort: 8.5/10
Sound Quality: 8/10
Value: 9.5/10
My final Rating: 9/10

Review Date: February 2016
Review Price: £69

Pump Audio V2 Earphones - Looks

First of all I would like to thank Pump Audio for reaching out to send me their latest earphones, the Pump Audio V2 Earphones. They can be found for £69 on AmazonUK and at $99 on AmazonUSA, alternatively you can buy them directly from Pump Audio’s site.

When I first saw these crop up in my inbox, I was extremely sceptical about them, mainly because I hadn’t heard of the brand before and that these earphones looked like yet another earphone that put design over sound, with its bright orange colour scheme (in fairness orange is one of my favourite colours).

I was therefore interested to hear how it would compare to the FIDUE A65 which can be found for around £50, or even against other earphones like the cheaper SoundMAGIC E10s that can now be found for around £30 and even the more expensive DUNU Titan 1 that can be found for £90, all presented an interesting battleground for the Pump Audio V2 Earphones.

Here’s my video review of the earphones:

Let’s get on with this written review!

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Review of the P.EAR.S SH-2 CIEM – A truly fantastic earphone!

Pros: Overall sound quality, looks and design, microphonics, comfort, isolation
Cons: Fit and location of P.EAR.S for refitting (if you live outside of Switzerland), accessories

Packaging & Accessories: 5/10
Build Quality: 9/10
Design & Look: 10/10
Microphonics (higher ratings means lower cable noise): 10/10
Isolation: 10/10
Comfort: 9/10
Sound Quality: 9/10 (rating is separate from universal earphones)
Value: 8.5/10
My final Rating: 9/10

Review Date: December 2015
Review Price: [CHF 550 / £370] +80 CHF for Swiss walnut finish = CHF 630 / £425 (not including in-ear impressions)

It should be noted that the company ‘harschacoustic‘ was renamed to ‘P.EAR.S‘ – the review has been updated to reflect that, as the product (The SH-2) has remained the same!

harschacoustic SH-2 - Looks

First of all, I would like to thank Samuel from P.EAR.S for sending me the SH-2 for review.
P.EAR.S was created and founded by Samuel Harsch, also known as the co-inventor of vital audio characteristics of the  Audéo PFE series. To this day, the best universal earphones I’ve owned and reviewed is the Phonak Audéo PFE 232, a set of MSRP £400 universal earphones, which only housed two Balanced Armature drivers, but had such an amazing crossover that the two drivers in the PFE 232’s compete with 4-6 driver BA drivers found in other earphones.

Therefore, when I saw Samuel created his own earphone, I was excited to see if I could review it – as I wondered if he improved/added to the PFE 232s sound and created it into a CIEM of his own.

Before getting into the review, I would like to state that this is my first CIEM review, I have previously reviewed/heard a lot of earphones (in excess of 100 different earphones), but never ventured into the CIEM world, as I’ve previously had problems with fit. For example with the 1964-SLV Universal IEM Custom Sleeves, the Custom Art custom tips and even tried going to a professional audiologist in London as an attempt to get a good fit for custom sleeves for the PFE 232s. No matter who I tried or how many times I tried redoing the impressions they didn’t work – and I always had the impressions done by a professional audiologist.
I was therefore going to give up trying until I saw the SH-2s, where I thought to myself – I have to give this one more go and if it fails, then I’ll give up for good on CIEMs.
I was lucky enough to get good impressions at my local Specsavers for only £29 – which I was sceptical about. I will expand on this in the comfort section.

More information on the SH-2s, including specs can be found on P.EAR.S’s website!

To complement the written review, here’s my video review of the earphones:

Let’s get into this written review!

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