Recommendation Request: Wired Earbuds

[Soid]

I’m looking for some earbuds primarily to use with my Nintendo switch while I’m stuck bedridden after surgery. I’m not familiar with the headphone landscape, and I don’t want to just waste $15 on junk headphones an Amazon GJYTYGVFGH brand that I’ll be tossing in a year. At the same time, cause it’s for the switch, they don’t need to be amazing.

 

my criteria:

 

- reasonable sound quality (I find my Jabra 85h to be acceptable for comparison, but too large to use in bed)

- wired, cause Nintendo made a dumb design decision. Also, I haven’t loved my experience with wireless earbuds

- less than $150, but less is obviously better 

- comfortable in bed, but not needed for sleeping

- from reputable brand, known to last 3+ years

- open back or hear through mode so I can hear the wifey

 

your assistance is appreciated in doing my googling for me. I’m on (prescription) drugs and my judgement can’t be trusted

[BiotechBen]

2 minutes ago, Soid said:

wired, cause Nintendo made a dumb design decision. Also, I haven’t loved my experience with wireless earbuds

Maybe I'm missing something with having a switch lite, do wireless not working on regular Switch? Also, what bad experiences have you had on wireless (depending on what it is, it could help steer toward a better set of wired)

[Cocococo]

If you just need great sound and open-ness then Koss KSC-75 or Porta-Pro are going to be your best friends here, alternatively you could experiment with IEM's (the current IEM market is AMAZING for newcomers) the likes of Truthear Hola, Salnote Zero, Moondrop Chu2 are all sub $30 and crush almost every single wired earbud out there, there is also the Truthear Zero RED and Truthear Hexa. In the $150 usd market you might be able to find Salnote Dioko or 7hz Timeless (If you're lucky) i haven't heard much about the Truthear Nova but if Truthear's recent record of absolutely obliterating the competition in price vs performance is anything to go off it's gonna be worth picking up. 

 

Around the 150usd mark is where i'd suggest closed headphones (closed headphones below 100usd tend to suck, as do most closed backs in general) if you're going to be sitting up a lot/ getting one of those bed trays then why not go for a pair of open back wired headphones too? You can pick up Sennheiser HD560S refurbs for around 100usd and then get some Koss for laying down, no worries about hearing the world around you cause they're... open and sound substantially better than 99% of headsets and wireless headphone/ wireless earbuds

[Soid]

2 hours ago, BiotechBen said:

Maybe I'm missing something with having a switch lite, do wireless not working on regular Switch? Also, what bad experiences have you had on wireless (depending on what it is, it could help steer toward a better set of wired)

They do not have bluetooth. Or at least mine doesn't. So either you have to have a little conversion dongle or use wired headphones.

 

Edit1: Or, uhhhh... on other examination, it does. I'm not sure where I got that, and maybe I've just been dumb for 3 years. Not sure why I thought that???? Eitherway, wireless earbuds are overpriced, and aren't great, and I lose them, so, yeah.

 

Edit2: On 3rd examination, I thought that because it used to be true that bluetooth audio was not supported on switch, but apparently was fixed with software in 2022, but I haven't used mine since then lol. 

[Soid]

1 hour ago, Cocococo said:

If you just need great sound and open-ness then Koss KSC-75 or Porta-Pro are going to be your best friends here, alternatively you could experiment with IEM's (the current IEM market is AMAZING for newcomers) the likes of Truthear Hola, Salnote Zero, Moondrop Chu2 are all sub $30 and crush almost every single wired earbud out there, there is also the Truthear Zero RED and Truthear Hexa. In the $150 usd market you might be able to find Salnote Dioko or 7hz Timeless (If you're lucky) i haven't heard much about the Truthear Nova but if Truthear's recent record of absolutely obliterating the competition in price vs performance is anything to go off it's gonna be worth picking up. 

 

Around the 150usd mark is where i'd suggest closed headphones (closed headphones below 100usd tend to suck, as do most closed backs in general) if you're going to be sitting up a lot/ getting one of those bed trays then why not go for a pair of open back wired headphones too? You can pick up Sennheiser HD560S refurbs for around 100usd and then get some Koss for laying down, no worries about hearing the world around you cause they're... open and sound substantially better than 99% of headsets and wireless headphone/ wireless earbuds

Thank you, for the recommendations.  I went with the Sanote Dioko, mostly because I recall a fairly positive review of them on LTT, and my original first choice (the zero reds) went up 3 days in shipping time right before I purchased. AAAh, the reasons I decide to spend more money. 

 

I imagine they're approaching (or exceeding) my use case's ability to benefit from their quality, but because of my aforementioned impaired judgement, I went ahead and splurged a little. Here's hoping I don't lose em!

[Cocococo]

44 minutes ago, Soid said:

Thank you, for the recommendations.  I went with the Sanote Dioko, mostly because I recall a fairly positive review of them on LTT, and my original first choice (the zero reds) went up 3 days in shipping time right before I purchased. AAAh, the reasons I decide to spend more money. 

 

I imagine they're approaching (or exceeding) my use case's ability to benefit from their quality, but because of my aforementioned impaired judgement, I went ahead and splurged a little. Here's hoping I don't lose em!

If they don't fit your ears properly return them, IEM fit is so personal that it's tricky to recommend the really unique stuff (like Etymotic ear hole violating stuff) but if Dioko don't fit then i'd go for the Truthear Nova, all the graphs i've seen look REALLY good