Gonna give these a go as I don't have any hybrids in my headphone collection and this is the cheapest way to try them out. Use the coupon to take 5% off and it should bring them down to $18.04USD, which is easily the best price I could see for them.
Enjoy
The greatest in ear headphones I have ever heard sound come out of. +1
Really….I bought 2 Xiaomi Piston 3s about 10 months ago since I knew I was careless with earphones and would break them within a matter of 3 months or less like I did with Monster DNA in-ear earphones ($100). I haven't even broken them in the 10 months I've had them and the second pair is just in the box…and now you're telling me there are new ones…Oh well, guess I'll have to buy them.
On topic, how good are they compared to the Piston 3s?
Big improvement in my opinion,
Hm, the cables on my piston 3's split after a couple of months around the earpiece. On the other hand, piston 2's are still going strong after 2 years!
I think, in terms of sound:
Hybrids > Piston 2 > Piston 3
In terms of cable quality:
Piston 3 > Piston 2 > Hybrids
(my Hybrids have bits of the plastic cable sheathe poking through the woven one… and it pinched quite terribly in one place so I had to cut to woven one there)
Hopefully it was just the first batches of these and everything is now fixed, if not then I guess I'll stick to my Piston 3s. Or maybe you just got a defective pair.
Entirely possible! I was thinking about getting another pair to try… this might be a good option.
Piston 3 cable is fine, but it's had the least use so far. Piston 2 cable likes to coil itself up now but it is the one I've used longest so far.
I have exactly the same problem with my hybrids cable, glued the kevlar material to stop it sliding down the plastic inner cable, hopefully that lasts long enough.
Good idea, I should probably try glue too.
Grabbed 2 pairs, thanks
If they're for yourself and you read my post you'd know not to make that mistake, they're really high quality if the piston 3s are an indication of quality.
thanks for the review, i was looking to get some piston 3's originally
one for the wife and one for myself :)
I received my pair from Geekbuying today in the mail from China Post and Australia post - I bought them on March 14 for anyone wondering how long it'll take to get to you.
When i first put them on I instantly felt like they were a lot clearer than the piston 3s. Secondly after listening to them for a while, the bass is noticeably punchier and much more present than in the piston 3s, which I prefer but others may prefer a more balanced sound signature which the piston 3s provide.
Really though, these sound better than most in-ears from JB…
How would you know how most in-ear headphones from JB sound like?
…and which in ears at JB sound better?
Cause I worked there for a year matey
He didn't ask how you knew, he asked which ones at JB are better.
Standard price.
They're banned from Ozb for a reason ;)
They're dodgy when it comes to shipping, you pay for expedited which should be DHL shipping and they go with AusPost Registered, which is like significantly cheaper.
Or just get TNT Express at Geekbuying which is $0-$5 on most products and around $10 full price.
@Clear: how long does TNT express take? for example, how long will the Redmi Note 3 Pro take to arrive at my door, that i purchased yesterday?
I bought an action camera from GearBest few days ago with expedited shipping. Now i read you comment and and check my order again…They used AusPost Registered :( Can i dispute to Paypal?
Check my Paypal and it showed that the shipping fee of the order was 0 (it should be 10$USD instead)
@Clear: Not sure where you got that price from. TNT is coming up at almost $14. If I add 2 then shipping becomes cheaper?
Not very trusting so far.
@mvanree: I was averaging. Weight/size of the product/package and your location factor into the postage. So on average a lot of larger products will be $0-$5 and most others will be $10+.
For my postcode I get $10.17 for 1 and $8.85 for 2.
@Clear: Changing the postcode hasnt' changed my shipping price. Tried different states and all stays the same
@billdre:
Hi billdre,
Thanks for feedback this issue and sorry for the inconvenince cause, could you please PM me your order number first? Once receive, I will check and solve for you.
Or they just won't send it.
Ordered some from gearbest about 2 months ago, still waiting…
I feel for you man, I'm impatient and hell, you're obviously better than me in terms of patience, by week 3 I would've been emailing support and arguing.
Well I've learned my lesson now, never buy from gearbest.
same altough its more like 7 months for me, still waiting though
I just ordered another pair from geekbuying, lets see which one gets here first.
@itsak: Well, after thinking they were never going to arrive, i just received them bang on 2 months. Looks like I'm going to have a spare set now after ordering from geekbuying just last night :)
Hi itsak,
I am very sorry to hear about this issue. Could you please PM me your order number? Please rest assure that I will check and solve for you.
Yeah I accidentally compared their AU price with Geekbuying US price. As Clear said though some people have had less than stellar experience with them. If you want to risk it for a dollar I won't stop you…
Already did. It's not much of a risk with PayPal involved.
A flashlight I bought from there came in 9 days - couldn't believe it. Another one hasn't shown up in 2 months, lol.
Their low prices are handy, but if you need something urgently, i would pay a little extra for the faster shipping method on any chinese online website.
I find them to be excellent value. Fun to listen to. Wide sound stage and bass very punchy however the mid clarity is lacking. Great for trance and dance music
Gearbest has them cheaper for AU$22.70
Love my Piston 3s, if these were fully iOS compatible (more than just play/pause) I'd upgrade them although I prefer balance than these bass heavy Hybrids
got some of these dual hybrids on the way.
read they were endorsed by the japanese hi-res audio society or something ridiculous like that. can't wait to hear em.
Realistically, how does it compare to the Sennheiser CX300II?
Obviously I don't have them yet, but I would think these are significantly better. I had some CX300 a while ago and thought they were terrible. Made of the lowest quality plastic fitted with mediocre (at best) dynamic driver. These have metal construction, dynamic driver and balanced armature with passive crossover, all the ingredients are there to make this a great headphone even without price consideration.
Ok. Ordered. I'll see how it compares soundwise
Perhaps this will help with your quality evaluation.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/786589/xiaomi-hybrid-iem-thread-pis…
I love the sound of Sennheiser CX300II and found these and the Piston 3's comparable at a fraction of the price :)
Honestly, these are such great value for money earphones. Replaced my $100+ earphones with these and very happy with the quality.
Hello, thinking of buying this. is this the best earphone out there for around $50? because $50 is my budget. thanks
Yep, buy 2 if shipping costs like $10.
I had the Piston 3's and they're pretty amazing for the price. You'll be extremely happy with these Hybrids, especially considering it's half your budget of $50.
Hard to say, but probably. It's hard to go wrong for this price.
thanks for the replies. Do u guys think this earphone is better than the original apple earphones?
Not sure if trolling or serious..
im serious.. beccause i thought that the genuine original apple eaphhones were pretty good
@Zfan111222: Earpods are actually reasonable headphones for the price, but I think in general people liked the Piston 2 more than the earpods and these are a significant upgrade from the piston 2.
@Zfan111222: You'll realise the difference between shit earphones and good earphones when you get these.
Wait what.!? Original apple buds are awful!
Any wireless recommendations ?
I recommend scissors or a good hard yank.
Scissors - yes, the latter not going to help.
Probably better to find headphones you like and pair them with a Bluetooth receiver.
I have Jabra Move Bluetooth headphones, love them. Best ones around according to the wirecutter. Great for the bus, blocks out noise. Got them for $90 or something from an aus shop on eBay
I have some Shure SE215's. Would this be a good replacement or basically a good pair for work?
How well do these stay in your ears while wearing a motorcycle helmet? The M9 Beats ear buds seem to be ok, I need something a little more snug.
I use the Piston 3s for bicycle riding which are fine but occasionally one blows out because of strong wind. If you're wearing a helmet these should remain there indefinitely especially since you get 3 sets of sizes
Motorcycle helmets are a completely different story. You really want something that fits snugly and doesn't stick out much or at all. You should wear them over ear as well.
I have used the MEElec M6's for a while as they have the stiffened wire for wearing over ear.
Honestly, I think the profile on these might be too wide to slip a helmet over.
The Piston 3s are very snug, they don't protrude out of my ears
This is very tempting but has anyone bought anything from geekbuying? How is their customer service? How long does it take for them to ship items to metropolitan areas?
Take a look at the store page here on Ozbargain. There are many positive deals.
I can usually help if you have any issues.
First there is processing time that takes 2-7 days. Free shipping typically takes 3 weeks for metro areas and express like TNT takes 3-5 days.
I had to get my money back from paypal recently for a set of piston2's I ordered from GB in November. They shipped them with a tracking number, but the parcel was held in Malaysian customs and GB weren't doing anything to get it out. After two months of back and forth with them telling me that they had to wait longer to 'investigate' I opened a paypal dispute and eventually got my money back.
As far as I can tell, they never even replied to the paypal dispute.
I'd probably still order through them again, but I'd only use paypal to do it.
Hi macrocephalic，
I am very sorry to hear about this situation.
Could you please PM me your order number or ticket number? Please rest assured that I will do our my to help you
Appreciate you trying to help, but it's ok, Paypal has already refunded the money, case closed.
I have since ordered another pair from somewhere else and received those yesterday.
@Clear: The order which didn't arrive was from Geekbuying. If I look up the tracking number from that order then it still shows as being in Malaysian customs.
@macrocephalic: Thanks. Sorry for all of the trouble. I'm trying to improve their customer service for Ozb.
Hi! I'm quite "low-tech" but how is this compared to Iphone's earphones? Thanks
much much better 10000x better.
Thanks OP, I've been meaning to get the piston 3s but glad I saw this. Just ordered with the 90c off (or whatever it is) but paid for TNT shipping because I'm both thrifty and impatient.
i bought 2 piston 3s from the last deal at like 17 each. still using the first one, the second one is in the box. best earphones ive owned, how much better are these? $24.50 hmmmm
Long shot but would anyone know how the Xiaomi's compare to the MEElectronics M-Duos here?
Im interested to know aswell if anyone can make the comparison?
I use the MEE M-Duos on a daily basis in public transport, and the Xiaomi Hybrids I got from Tinydeals arrived just yesterday. Without burn-in, the Hybrid sounded softer overall, but sweeter and more fun. M-Duos are sharper in highs and possibly mids but Hybrid has a great balanced bass. Hybrid's mids and highs are by no means bad at all, just very slightly less presence than M-Duos. Soundstage of Hybrid is a little less as well but good enough separation, just not wide. Only minor negatives I personally have for the Hybrids are the 3.5mm connector is straight instead of L-shaped, and the middle controller button can easily be mispressed with vol +/-. Last but not least, my favourite thing about the Hybrids in comparison to M-Duos, is the excellent comfort, for me at least. A lot more comfortable in the ear than the M-Duos but both have equally great isolation. I will be ordering a few more Hybrids as gifts / backups.
Great comparison. Thank you! Glad to hear the Hybrids are more comfy and provide just as good isolation.
Didn't need one.
Read the comments….felt I needed one.
same
Thanks. Ordered.
Wow so good price…such headphones, much wow!
On a serious note, I have the Piston 3 and Piston dazzle…and for the price, they're excellent. If I end up with a few broken/stolen/failed headphones, these will be my next.
Ew people steal used IEMs?
I have no idea tbh…all IEMs I've lost have been through either failure or forgetting where I kept the damn thing…
Ew people steal used IEMs?
New tips, cleaning wipes, or even alcohol hand sanitizer in pinch will make them fresh again.
I bought a set ages ago. Absolutely loved the sound quality and the comfort in my ears. They stay in when I'm at the gym. I'm no audiophile but I'm critical about good sound and have bought another two pairs last deal because I'd hate to ever be without these. I'm almost at the point where I'll stock up for gifts.
The inline controls work great on Android. I feel like a shill but I've been through the pain of spending more and getting less. I would easily pay a lot more for these. Even up to $80.
Get someeeeee!
I can definitely vouch for these. When I went on holidays in China, I managed to grab a pair of these when they first came out. I was a big fan of the Piston range, and I had 2 and 3s, and was using my 2s all the way up to buying this pair. The audio quality got a huge improvement over both 2 and 3.
Once again, you get the premium feeling braided cable, comes with a number of ear tips, like the rest of the range (although this time, there is no fancy packaging, just a white box. I imagine to squeeze this sort of hardware in still at 99RMB, they had to do some corner cutting!). Buds feel nice, but I replaced them with a pair of memory foam tips. Although the tips that come with the headphones are nothing to scoff at, the memory foam tips do create a better, more stable seal, giving the headphones an extra punch.
Overall, they're currently my favourite set of sounds. Microphonics is still sort of an issue with these, probably due to the braided cables, but as long as you wear them looped around your ears, they'll be fine. The only concern might be if you wear them looped, it's hard for people to hear you when you make a call with those headphones.
You won't regret getting some!
Which foam tips did you get, what size?
Thanks!
I got the Comply N-100, which oddly, costs almost the same as the headphones themselves. No regrets though, the combination is absolutely killer!
Link: http://www.complyfoam.com/products/n-100/
Although I've also used a pair of Sport 400 before, and they're all quite good. Up to your preferences and what you want to do with them, I suppose.
really hope these earphones live up to the comments that I'm reading! Cheers op, bought two one for my dad and myself :)
Grabbed a pair. Still have a set of II's for work and III's for home. Both going strong and both fantastic earphones for the price. Can't hurt to have a spare, right?
Ordered, thanks OP
The Hybrids are the successor to Piston III's so if you thought those were good… then these are better!