So last week, I bought a pair of in-ear monitors (IEMs), specifically the KBEAR KS2s. I play a lot of VRChat and one of the things I do quite often is go to various clubs, usually a venue where various DJs perform a variety of genres (usually depending on the club). I'll go into more detail another time, but basically I wanted a new audio solution for clubbing. Previously I'd been connecting my airpods to my headset and using that, but the problem there is that they have a battery life and will die fairly quickly, especially since it's an older 2nd-generation pair. I'd get about 45 minutes to 1 hour of use before they needed charging again, especially for the left bud which had a worse battery than the right one. I'd also occasionally get connection issues, like the buds would desync with each other and make the music sound weird, or they'd just drop connection randomly, but these issues were always fixed with a quick disconnect and reconnect. Overall I liked my airpods and my only real annoyance was the battery life. My headset (an ancient Quest 1 connected to my PC via Virtual Desktop) had its own built-in audio solution, which worked well for basic conversations but left a lot to be desired when it came to richer sound quality, bass, etc. Good for socializing, subpar for clubbing.

A friend of mine had suggested the KS2s to me before, but I decided against it since I've never been a fan of silicone tips on earbuds. I feel like they've always resulted in an uneven sound, it'll be louder in one ear than the other, and changing tip sizes didn't really help. I'd like to state outright that I don't care for Apple tech- it's more locked-down and proprietary than I'd like, terrible for gaming, focuses too much on form over function (those MacBooks that only had USB-C ports on them come to mind), and are usually priced higher than they have any reason to be. $1500 monitor stands and $1000 wheels, and of course the new and "improved" iPhone that usually only has moderate improvements over the previous model. That said, I've never had much issue using their tech- it's reliable and well-suited to the productivity tasks it's meant for. And more to the point, I love Apple's earbuds design- no pesky silicone tips. I used to have a wired 3.5mm set of Apple buds that sounded decent and were reliable, but I was actually uninterested in getting airpods until I tried some ripoff Walmart buds (also Apple style) But given that I really was sick of my airpods dying and that the KS2s were only $20, I gave them a try. And after using them, I could see myself going back to wired headphones, at least for primary useage.

IEMs are really interesting cause they have really good sound quality for the price, provided there's a sufficient seal between the tips and your ear canal (in other words, no gaps, no sound or air is escaping). My friend recommended I put the smallest size tips on, and that really helped. The IEMs wrap around your ear when you put them on, and that really helps with stability- the tips sit moreso on top of your ear canals than shoved directly inside. They're 3.5mm, although they did have a USB-C variant available, and while that might be an issue for some, it isn't for me.

(Side tangent: my new phone)

I recently replaced my trusty LG V60 smartphone due to poor battery life and a fidgety charge port. Before that, it was the nicest smartphone I've ever owned- everything I could ever want it to do for $700. Top-of-the-line Snapdragon 865 processor for emulation, 3.5mm headphone and MicroSD card slots, and it even came with a case that added a second display, which was very fun to mess with for a while until I discovered that the dual-screen case was the reason for the charge port being finicky. First the phone stopped working with the case, then it became hard to charge the phone without positioning the cable in a very specific way and using very specific chargers. Wireless charging worked for a while, then it just didn't. So I needed a new phone, and unfortunately for me LG had recently left the smartphone business. This was crushing for me, as LG was my favorite phone brand and had everything I wanted in a phone.

So I looked around for a replacement, and I was very picky. Samsung is just as bad as Apple in my opinion, it's just "the yearly slab" at this point, no headphone jack or MicroSD, and this year's new featureset was all AI-related, which I just did not care for. The folding phones are very cool, but I still question their durability, as I would for pretty much any phone with moving parts. It really limits how durable of a case you can get, too, and considering my clumsy ass that's a definite downside. Eventually I settled on a Motorola phone, specifically the Moto G Stylus. Technically it's a downgrade from my V60 in terms of processing power, but it's still good enough for everything I want it to do, even emulation. It has a MicroSD card slot and headphone jack, which even though I wasn't using wired headphones at the time, was something I still wanted. One of my favorite things about phones with headphone jacks is they'll usually come with an FM radio app, and Motorola's is the best yet. You still need to plug in headphones to serve as an antenna, but you can then play the audio through the phone speaker or even Bluetooth instead of the 3.5mm jack, and it even supports recording radio, which falls into the "cool thing I'll probably never use" category. Speaking of features like that, it's got a stylus, which is neat, but I haven't used it much after the initial "new phone" excitement wore off. It's not as precise as the stylus on, like, a Samsung Note or something, no pressure sensing or remote functionality, it's kinda just a really tiny capacitive ball on a stylus tip. It still works pretty well, though, and is great for Bejeweled and DS emulation. And most importantly, it was only $250 unlocked, which in terms of value for money is excellent. I've really liked it so far, cause even if it isn't a flagship, it does everything I want it to well enough. It's still annoying that MicroSD and 3.5mm are niche features now, and one I'd argue is less of a "no one was using it" situation and more of a "everyone just accepted it after the industry forced it on them" scenario.

(Side tangent over)

So my phone has a headphone jack, good for it.

While the DAC (digital-analog converter) on the Motorola isn't as nice as what the V60 had, it still sounds pretty good, although with the KS2s I have noticed background hiss when playing audio, similar to when you play a vinyl record and hear those first few seconds of silence before the music starts. This isn't exclusive to the phone, I've noticed it in pretty much everything I've plugged the KS2s into, including my PC and Quest 1. The noise is easily ignorable once there's music playing, but it's definitely still there, and I theorize that it'd disappear if the buds were plugged into a better DAC.

I've been taking the KS2s with me to college the past couple days, just listening to music. The cable only sometimes gets in the way, probably just cause I'm used to it not being there, but man the sound quality's worth it. The airpods sounded good, but the KS2s sound excellent, and in a different way. They're more balanced than the airpods, the bass is there but a little less. I don't claim to know sound quality, but IEMs are, like, what musicians will wear on stage, it's part of why they're called "monitors", they're like a screen for your ears. It's also been just so nice to use these with my Quest, I have a 3D printed top strap to replace the original one that broke off, and I'll just wrap the excess cable around that. It's so nice just hearing the music in good quality without worrying about if they're gonna die soon. I've even been debating getting a second pair of KS2s so I can keep one attached to my Quest and carry the other one with me.

But last Sunday I had to make that decision sooner than I anticipated, because my airpods died. (And of course it happened while I was at work, but thankfully I only had an hour left in my shift.) The case went completely dead, non-responsive, no light or charge no matter how long I left it plugged in. The buds themselves still worked, but without a case to charge them (and considering I don't think any earbuds company offers replacement individual buds or cases, especially not Apple), they were effectively also toast. Thankfully I now had the KS2s to serve as a stand-in, especially since the only other wired buds I have are an old set of Apple buds that are way past their prime, very uneven sounding, lack of bass, etc.

Now while I've been talking about switching from the airpods back to wired buds, I don't want to do that while I'm at work. It's just super nice to be able to leave my phone in the back while I'm doing whatever, leave one bud in its case while using the other, and swapping them once they die. So I'd like to at least have a set for while I'm at work. Airpods themselves are automatically disqualified- While the new Airpods 4 looked really enticing, with a USB-C case and silicone-free noise cancellation, they were still kinda expensive and I heard the noise cancelling wasn't very good anyway. Not to mention I have an Android phone, and while Airpods do work with non-Apple tech, they don't tend to work well. For example, I can't check the battery percentage, use a voice assistant, really anything other than the basic "tap to play/pause". I don't feel confident that non-Apple devices would even be able to enable the noise cancelling at all. I want something quality that will work properly with my Android phone this time. Plus, my silicone tips realization with the KS2s meant that I could now consider buds that used tips, otherwise known as "pretty much all of them".

A few days prior, a friend's friend pulled out his earbuds while I was at a weekly D&D session with them. (Yes I play D&D, I'm terrible at it.) He had a set of Nothing Ear(a) buds, a very stylish-looking set of transparent buds in a bright yellow case with a clear lid. In terms of aesthetic, this resonates very well with me as someone hopelessly obsessed with 90s/2000s aesthetic (especially compared to modern minimalism, which I should definitely rant about sometime.) On Amazon they were currently $80, which isn't unreasonable, my Airpods were about $100 on sale and lasted me several years. The Nothings had a much better battery life, active noise cancelling, USB-C, adjustable gestures and sound profiles, and were roughly the same size as the airpods. I wanted something that'd disappear into a pocket like the airpods did, not take up too much space, and besides, imagine that I did go back to Bluetooth buds, I'd want them to be a nice set, wouldn't I?

Yeah, I basically almost impulse bought them over their looks. They weren't trendy, but they looked cool. At least to me. And I'm sure I would've been very happy with them, but my friends suggested I look at a cheaper set, which I did. I almost bought the Moondrop Space Travel buds which were recommended to me by a friend, cause they had excellent sound quality for the price and its "NASA-punk" style reminded me a bit too much of the Avali lore guide aesthetic, like I'm 100% convinced a furry designed these.

But I decided to go for a different set that offered a bit more value for money- ironically a set also from Nothing (technically their budget line CMF), the CMF Buds. (insert talking about them here when I recieve them.)