Well, war games 2025 is already over. I would love to say it was all fun, but it wasn’t for me. With ever test and every back and forth came a lot of wasted time and enjoyment that I could have been into music and other things. Sure it’s exciting to see the latest and greatest but after a while it becomes a job more than enjoyment. I never wanted to turn this into a job. It was always just a way for me to share my thoughts and actions about tech. That’s where I want to remain. I don’t ever want to feel I have to get something or have to write a review on it just because it’s new or hyped up. There is just somethings that I won’t buy regardless of people’s hype about it. And finally after years of earphones I think that I have reached that point that it’s now not fun because it became more about the testing than enjoyment. Don’t get me wrong, sure it’s good to finally know what is and what isn’t. I think a lot people have those questions about tech like Earphones and IEM’s and so I hope I helped by sharing my walk.
I think personally, the biggest take away from all the earphones and back and forth was that nothing can ever be truly the best for everyone. Nor can you determine this, person to person. We have Android phones for a great many brands. We have Apple phones with different versions. And we have older OS’s still being used today. Along with this, each of these phones have different Digital processing, along with each earphone having different Dac and Imps. And if that wasn’t enough to muddy the water, each of our ears are tuned differently, shaped different for different fits, and have different levels of hearing loss along with our own preference in genre of music. So you see, it is literally impossible to prove one earphone is better than another to another person and yet all you see of people arguing over this even though all confess that this hobby is subjective. It makes just as much sense for human to try and breath in water and process it like a fish even though we have no gills. Why are trying to argue over something that can’t be done?
My choice in earphones can’t be universal to every person in the world. All I can do is list why it’s important to me. It will never result in a universal acceptance of the earphone that I believe is the best. Even my own EQ may be rejected by a great many people but again my EQ is based on my ears, seal, and listening frequency sensitivity. Even if you agree that one earphone is better, you will never hear the earphone the exact way someone else does and therefore it will never be on the same page universally with everyone. So this is my greatest lesson to all of this.
If there was a 2nd lesson it would just simply be to stop believing that cost equals better products. They don’t! I ended up at my price cut off mark suggestion to all people at $299 with the AZ100 and yet when I did break the rules and bought outside of this price range, none of those product ever proved their $-to-performance ratio. And the biggest thing was that every single one of those products did less and had less features than lower cost products when according to their price it should have been the opposite. So don’t ever spend more than $299 on a Bluetooth device. They will never perform up to their cost difference.
Lastly, EQ is your friend. Don’t let people convince you that a 2-5% difference is worth buying yet another product. In 90% of the cases, EQ could make up for any perceived difference. So don’t chase the 5%er’s. In my opinion, good is good enough. Reliability and Trust was the bigger differences for me in my testing of products. The sound with the top 5 earphones was so small. It truly came down to having product that I could depend on for battery life, operations, comfort, and functions because their sound quality were all great and within reach of each. Just don’t compromise these things for hype and brand name loyalty. The brands should earn your trust and loyalty, not be given it blindly.
Tech-N-Things 