Samsung Electronics EO-IA500 3.5mm Earphone, Black - EO-IA500BBEGUS

WARNING — READ THIS FIRST: Before anything else, it is important to note that at this extremely low price point, quality control is likely the main limiting factor. Some users report channel imbalance, which can severely compromise the listening experience. However, under ideal conditions, meaning a properly balanced unit and a good seal with quality ear-tips, there is no reason that these should fail to perform as described below. If you aren't blown away, you likely received a unit with bad QC, have a poor seal, or are using low-quality source material. Okay, on with my review... Some context: It's been about a month now, and since I'm currently unemployed, I obviously have A LOT of free time to listen. I knew nothing about this product before stumbling onto a YouTube video titled "The Best IEMs In The World Are Just $8," claiming that these were the best IEMs available (quite a statement, I know). I didn't know about the reviewer’s supposed reputation (and honestly, I still don't) so I was completely unbiased in that regard. I just heard him out, thought he seemed sincere, and decided to take the $10 gamble. It was totally happenstance, but I can tell you he is not even slightly exaggerating. I literally have barely been able to keep them out of my ears. I cannot stop obsessively listening to music. I have owned Sennheiser HD598 headphones for 15 years and 1MORE Quad Driver IEMs for about 5 years, both of which cost me almost twenty times more (although I recognize that neither are elite level). In comparison, they are practically junk. I haven't even used a parametric EQ yet (just a desktop graphic EQ to approximate the EQ guidelines), and even plugged straight into my iPod, they sound unbelievable. I can still barely believe this is happening out of a $10 earbud. It feels like a gift from the universe. I haven't done anything to measure them, but I must have received a perfect unit. I can't think of a single thing I would change about them. The Sound: The clarity is something that I cannot even imagine being better. The bass is punchy, deep, and well-defined without muddiness. The highs are heavenly. It feels like jumping out of Pac-Man straight into a high-end virtual reality video game. Everything sounds literally real. It no longer sounds like I'm listening to an audio track. Each isolated instrument sounds like its own entity occupying it's own location in space. I can almost feel the texture of the strings of a violin as the bow is moving across it due to the micro-details that are now audible. It seriously sounds like a live violin, as if I'm in the room with my ear next to it. I cannot even begin to fully express how other-worldly these sound. The transients are practically instantaneous. It literally sounds "real." I just don't know how else to say it other than to state that plainly. My experience: This has elevated my enjoyment of music tenfold. I have been spending hours going through my entire catalog, exploring YouTube rabbit holes of classic albums, and even revisiting played-out radio hits that I used to dismiss as background noise, and I'm finding them incredibly fascinating now. Incredibly fascinating. It’s honestly been life-changing. As I'm going back and listening to songs I've known my whole life and realizing they sound nothing like what I remember, it feels almost existential. I have to question my own perception of reality. I know I'm not the only one. I've read many reviews and anecdotes from people who are having similar experiences as me, so I know it's not just a fluke and I'm not hallucinating. The sound quality is WAY too extreme to be placebo. Here's a comment I found on the aforementioned YouTube video: "@joel-dorne So I just did a shootout between these and a bunch of $500+ IEM's all EQed to the same target. I'd maybe go as far as saying this is the best IEM I've ever heard. I honestly thought you was trolling. The speed of the driver and the transients is insane. The amount of detail is on another level. You hear reverb tails perfectly. It's not just a bit better than other IEM's it's a lot. Even the bass it's so tight and punchy and real. It makes all other IEM's seem masked and blurred." I've read plenty of others describing similar experiences. From what I've experienced, what he's saying makes perfect sense to me. A note on acclimation: One caveat I will add is on fit and acclimation. You need ear tips that are comfortable but seated deep enough to form a proper seal for good bass. I do not recommend the stock tips. Also, while I liked them immediately, it wasn't until about an hour of listening that my ears fully acclimated and I realized how incredible they truly were. So if they do not sound profound within 30 seconds, give them time. Over this month of listening, my perception of the sound has gone from "wow, these sound really, really good," to "OH MY GOD, MY MIND IS F'ING BLOWN." Your brain might go through a sort of calibration process of getting accustomed to the new auditory information these reveal, and you get "better" at listening and perceiving the incredible resolution jump these can provide, allowing you to more easily perceive the 3-dimensionality. Conclusion: I am not an "audiophile" in the sense of being someone who spends thousands of dollars on audio gear as a hobby, but I am a serious music-lover and musician who has spent years listening to high-information music at a deeply critical level, and I would be completely satisfied if music never sounds better than this. Yes, it sounds absolutely crazy, but these earbuds are genuinely godlike to me. Anyone doubting has to suspend their disbelief and realize that price is not always directly correlated to performance. I'm very excited to see what last little bit of improvement I can squeeze out of these with parametric EQ once I get the Qudelix 5k, but like I said, they are already so mind-blowing to me as it is. I hope some will appreciate my review. I've never made a review to this extent for any product in my life (never felt so compelled to), so I hope I did alright. This review applies only to the specific product listed here. I cannot vouch for any other variation or source. I imagine that in the months and years to come, we'll be seeing more and more reviews detailing similar experiences. Thanks for reading. Also, thanks to Sharur on YouTube for his video titled “The Best IEMs in the World Are Just $8.” I was fortunate enough to stumble upon it and was intrigued. I took the ten dollar gamble and won far bigger than I ever could have imagined.

To start I don't know these should have 5 star. The reason is that they all seem to have varying channel imbalance. This can really hurt the sound and throw it off. These are actual Samsungs though. I have ability to measure and you won't know what you get. If someone has the ability to balance the channels I can very highly recommend these. I did that using REW to measure with Dayton imm6 mic. Then I used the free APO equalizer with the peace skin which I already had. I tweaked the tune a little a and lowered the mid to upper bass a little and lifted the low end some. A small mid-range boost also. I chose to ballance the left bud to how the right one is as it was much higher overall in bass and in parts of the treble. I had another IEM graph to compare to which helped. Otherwise I left the upper mid-range and treble alone. After it was balanced and tuned I transferred the number to precise volume app for Android. It has PEQ EQ with ability to EQ separate channels. I just punched in the numbers I got from the computer. Now after all that, these sound incredible. Probably the best sounding soundstage I have heard and my best IEM is Kiwi ears ke4 which go for 200. I think these honestly beat them in that department. The tone of the drivers is spot on. The smoothness is unreal for the 8 bucks I payed here. There is no harshness at all. The treble sounds real and fantastic and very smooth. Great extension and it's sounds very nice smooth. Bass is also excellent and has solid punch and great deep sounding bass. These have a lot of potential for someone that can tweak and check the balance. Bad reviews are likely not getting a deal, or they have badly imbalanced channels most likely which can really kill the bass. Because if it's off a lot that will throw it off a quite a bit. The imaging and the bass not having that synergy if one is way lower than the other. It's unfortunate because these deserve better. All 3 pairs I got were off. 2 of them pretty badly. I got spares because I like them that much after fixing them. So my 5 stars is based on tweaking the tune a little and balancing the channels. These believe it or not might be my favorite. Are they the best? I don't know it probably doesn't get that much better honestly, but there is something real likable with the sound these produce. So that is the caveat I guess. These blow everything else in its price range out easily. They sound much better than my old Shure se215 for some comparison. I don't know if it's the smoothness or if the resolution is a bit lower than ke4.....but it doesn't seem to matter because they just sound great. I think it's the smoothness, it has a rounded sound and perfect tone instead of an edgyness. I've never seen a coaxial driver setup in an earphone. Might not exist anywhere else. Supposedly a 11mm dynamic driver and an 8mm also. Can't say if they have a crossover or how they are working exactly. For the price that would be hard to believe but I don't know. It seems to work well. 19mm total of driver. At first I didn't think these would create a seal when first putting them in. It felt weird being so open feeling and nothing plugging your ears up. They just rest on your ears and the tips slide in a little. The tip sizing is one size down compared to whats normal. Meaning the large is a medium and medium is small and small is tiny. But this seems to work because of how they go in your ears. Medium worked for me which is the same size as a normal small. Others may need to experiment with tips like spin fit to get a seal. Its own medium work for me and they are nice rubbery feel. So easy to put in and take out. You don't feel plugged up and everything sounds more natural because it's not plugging your ears deep and the shell isn't blocking your whole ear. Might be adding to it's fantastic soundstage. It is vented and air can go from the nozzle out the vent as I could feel air coming out when lightly blowing on the nozzle. No driver flex at all and they are very light and comfortable. I'm really impressed honestly. The channel balance issues is too bad, maybe that's why they are cheap. Someone that thinks these are no good either have bad chanel balance or don't know what they are talking about. Because I'm comparing them to 200 dollar multi driver IEM and and content using these. But I'd still expect better from a Samsung product even if its an old earphone. Its weird they still exist as I think these used to come with their phones but they said akg instead of Samsung. I guess they continued to make them after 3.5 jacks started dying and put Samsung on the cover (thanks apple) By the way no dac has sounded better than my 3.5 Jack on my budget Android Motorola. None have measured any different in frequency response either. Everything sounded the same and I tried a few. Your 3.5 Jack if you have one likely doesn't suk like audiophiles very much imply. Nor is anyone missing out on hi res music. CD quality is already higher quality than anyone can percieive. I spent hours testing all this stuff. The cable is a basic rubber cable. It has some microphonics to it. I tried swapping sides and wearing them over the ear to get the angle right and they fit pretty good like that. But then you're left and right channel would be reversed unless you have a way to switch the channels with software. So then I tried to wear them over the ear without swapping sides and it works but would just look goofy as it is in a weird angle. So it's doable without swapping sides for me at least. Wearing them over your ear cuts much of the microphonics noise and adds some security if you pull on the cable. It's surprisingly comfortable wearing them like that too. Although the regular way works for me. So with the caveat to consider I recommend these. They have the potential to be the incredibly good. People saying bass is not great is because of channel imballance. Once fixed the bass sounds very good and competes just fine with a dual 10mm driver IEM for bass alone(ke4)

Not an audiophile, just an amateur listener who’s spent a lot of time listening to music over the years. With budget audio, I usually expect obvious compromises, so I’ll start by mentioning that my unit had very minimal channel imbalance, nothing that affected actual listening. That said, these caught me off guard. For context, I’ve owned Tin T2s, Sennheiser Drop HD 5XX, and a fairly large Chi-Fi collection over the years, mostly earbuds in the $5–$40 range. Most of those ended up getting tossed because they were either fatiguing, poorly tuned, or just didn’t hold up over time. Compared to all of that, these feel like they’re operating on a completely different level than their price would suggest. The bass is tight, punchy, and well-controlled. The midrange sounds clean and natural, and the highs are detailed and smooth without harshness. Nothing feels masked or artificially boosted. I’m not great with audiophile vocabulary, but the overall presentation feels balanced and coherent in a way I don’t usually hear at this price. Will look into Spinfit w1's though. Fit is extremely important. These really benefit from deep insertion, how Sharur describes in his video. You want a proper seal without pressure, not a shallow earbud-style fit. Once seated correctly, highs improve significantly. I’m not claiming these will be perfect for everyone, and unit variation or fit could absolutely change the experience. But with this pair, my ears, and a good seal, the performance-to-price ratio is honestly kind of absurd. I went in expecting “pretty good for cheap” and ended up with something that’s been genuinely enjoyable and surprising to listen to.

It works fine , sound clear , no issues so far. It worth the price

Excelente sonido, se nota la resistencia en lo grueso del cable y no se enreda para nada, debido al modelo un poco más grande de los habituales, puede en ocasiones desacomodarse de la oreja al correr.

Ótimo produto. Graves, médios e agudos, muito bons. É o melhor fone intra-auricular que já tive com uma excelente resposta no grave (profundo)

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