Best Chinese earphones under 20 dollar/euros — Top budget IEM's
Please stop shopping for low cost earphones in American or European stores. Whether you just want to have great sounding earphones, or are on a hunt to find the best price quality ratio: China is where to look. These are the best earphones from China under 20 dollar/ euros.
In the past year, I’ve tested and reviewed almost 30 different sets of highly affordable earphones and earbuds from China. The overall value for money you get, is incredible. However: there are still many differences in sound quality between sets. After hours and even days of intensive listening to every earphone, I will now describe my favourite earphones and give other recommendations also well worth considering. These are my top picks best earphones on a budget.
Why buy earphones from China?
- Amazing price/ quality ratio
- Incredible sound for little to no money
- Always come with extra tips to fit your ear
- Always equipped with a mic and play/ pause/ skip button in the cord
- No postal costs when ordering via GearBest or AliExpress!
What are the risks buying from China?
- It’s worth the wait, but shipping time takes up to three weeks
- Some countries may add an import fee over your contents if the value is over 22 euros/ 25 dollars. Try to stay below that price
- There’s still loads of crap being sold in China. You won’t find it in this list though :-)
Best earphones under 5 euros/ dollar: UiiSii HM7
The UiiSii HM7 is extremely affordable and comes incredibly recommended. The earphone produces a warm and full sound, which seems somewhat inspired by the SoundMagic E10. You may not know the E10, but it was WhatHifi.com’s years long award winner under 50 pounds. The UiiSii HM7 however, costs just under 5 pounds. And… it’s even better.
The sound is warm and easy to enjoy for hours and hours. It’s smooth but doesn’t soothe out music. The bass is always warm and present, without ever becoming too invasive for your ears. More incredibly, the HM7 offers more detail than the SoundMagic — the sound is roomier and instruments are easier to position and define from each other. The bass, midtones and higher tones are all well balanced and represented — although the bass can also be incredibly punchy in dance and hiphop tracks. An easy listener you will fall in love with — for a mere 5 euros, dollar or pound. Hearing is believing.
Best earphones under 10 dollar/ euros: KZ ATE
The KZ ATE was one of the first sets to even convince the most die-hard audiophiles you can get amazing audio quality from China. After two years, it still comes heavily recommended. Wether you throw modern electronic music, classic, jazz, or dance music to them: the ATE gives every kind of music a fun factor. The bass may not be the deepest, but it’s thrillingly upbeat. This is one incredibly rhythmic set.
Where the KZ ATE really shines for this amount of money, is their spaciousness. Play Hotel California from The Eagles, and you hear guitars next to each other and the drums behind you. And then… enter the baseline. Or try Stranger in Moscow and you can actually hear Michael Jackson drive the beat with his mouth. The KZ ATE, unlike to many earphones in this budget price range, never has an annoying booming base or piercing high sounds. They are equipped with a lovely amount of detail due to their roominess and sound amazing in every genre. Take a moment to get used to the wire over your ears and then never stop listening.
Best earphones under 20 dollar/ euros: KZ ZSR
So, the earphones listed above are incredible — mais Mon Dieu, the KZ ZSR really is next level. SUCH an incredible amount of detail! SUCH a tremendous placing of instruments. SUCH an insane amount of space in the sound. The music really is everywhere around you. It’s as if that one vague friend from a colleague with his 4000 euros sound installation tells you: ‘Yeah sure, try it, sit right there in the middle. I’ll crank up the volume.’
I’m not kidding. Pulling on bass snares. Sputter in trumpets. Every separate hit on a drum kit. You literally hear every little detail on the KZ ZSR. Play The Thrill is Gone from B.B. King and Tracy Chapman and you're in the middle of the recording. Coldplay's Spies was never this intense. Whichever genre you listen; the bass is tight, energetic and always pleasantly present. The mid and high tones deliver an incredible amount of detail on top of that. It’s as if every frequency has it’s own punch. So much spaciousness, so much power! The best earphones under 20 euros or dollar you can get.
One more thing: you can even plug a separate KZ Bluetooth-cable in the earpieces so make it a Bluetooth set… can you imagine why I love these so much?
Footnote
There are more and more great budget earphones from China. IEM’s (In Ear Monitors) I also really like, but didn’t make this list are: 1More Piston, Beevo EM920, DZAT DF-10, KZ ZS5, QKZ DM1, Rock Zircon and VJJB K4S. They didn’t end up in this list because they, in comparison to the winners, lack in a wide soundstage. I love being surrounded by music — having the feeling I’m right in the middle of a recording. You’ll be blown away how they sound… especially for this amount of money.
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Disclaimer: affiliate links
I put an insane amount of hours in testing and comparing these earpones. I hope to make searching for great Chinese earphones a little bit easier for you.
Planning to buy one of the earphones? Please consider doing it via my buying links. These are affiliate links from AliExpress, GearBest or Amazon, from which I’ll gain a little percentage of the price. I only put links on products I truly recommend. Buying a product via such a link won’t cost you extra, yet it will support me a bit in my research on affordable audio. ❤
I’d also love to hear from you what you’ve chosen. Please share in the comments!
