These $33 In-Ear Monitors Sound Way Better Than Apple’s Wired Earbuds
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On a recent bus trip, one of myAirPods Profell out of my ear after I dozed off and managed to roll several rows behind me. I spent about ten minutes panicking and looking for my missing bud — and stressing about the $250 I’d have to spend to replace the set — but thankfully I managed to find it and get on with my listening.
This wasn’t the first time I’ve nearly lost an earbud. So I started looking at alternatives, and I’m not the only one: Wired earbuds areback in style. I wanted something with better sound quality than Apple’s wiredEarPods, but I also didn’t want a pair so expensive that I’d worry about losing them every time I left the house. I bought a pair of $33 in-ear monitors,Linsoul’s Kiwi Ears Cadenza— which I first heard about from my audiophile dad — coupled with a3.5mm audio-to-USB-C converter.
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In-ear monitors — also known as IEMs — aren’t identical to your typical earbuds. They’re often used by musicians and mixing engineers due to their more precise, detailed sound and open soundstage. Those professional-grade models are usually pretty expensive (on the high end, there are models you can have molded to fit your ear), but even cheap pairs can sound quite good. With typical earbuds in this price range, things often sound compressed and lack the details you get with the Linsouls. These have bright highs, lush mids, and boomy but not overpowering lows. Everything comes through with impressive clarity, especially for earbuds this cheap.
While traditional earbuds sit on the outer part of your ear and don’t always create a true seal, IEMs like the Linsouls are designed to rest inside the front part of the ear canal. As a result, you hear less external noise and it’s easier to pick up on details. Everything sounds more focused and intimate than with any similarly priced earbuds I’ve tried. They may lack the precision of more expensive IEMs, but I’m not a professional musician. I’m perfectly content with being pleasantly surprised when I can hear the strike of every cymbal in tracks like Pearl Jam’s “Alive” as clearly as the vocals and guitar riffs.
Beyond great sound, the Linsouls give me the peace of mind that I can’t have with wireless earbuds. They might fall out of my ear from time to time if I move my head around too much, but I’ll never lose them. If one earbud does fall out, it’ll simply dangle until I grab it and set it back into place.
They also feel better than other wired earbuds I’ve tried in this price range. The actual earpieces are made of a premium-feeling plastic that’s durable and has a few purple accents that add some charm. The cable, meanwhile, is braided rather than simply being covered by a silicone tube, which provides more protection.
That said, the Linsouls aren’t perfect. While traditional earbuds usually have a small footprint and are easy to put in your ears, these IEMs are somewhat bulky and require you to hook the cables behind your ear, rather than simply hanging down below the ear pieces. They also lack a microphone, so you’ll have to switch to another pair of buds for conversations or recording voice notes. But for listening to music, for $33, they’re hard to beat.
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