RHA T20i: Stainless Steel High Fidelity DualCoil Noise Isolating In-Ear Headphones with Remote & Microphone, Black

First amazon review here, so obligatory life story thrown into the mix. I listen to music between 5-10 hours a day and was looking for superb sound quality for the office (Spotify on PC) and commute (Spotify on S9+) after destroying my Samsung IG955 AKGs which I always thought were pretty good.My brother is a classical music analyst and said "No question, get the RHA T20s". Of course I didn't listen thinking that, as the older brother, I could do better. I was concerned about the durabliity of RHA cables which get a very bad rep and brother had destroyed his twice in 3 years. Although RHA's 3 year warranty replaced his, this was a concern for me.So I ordered a pair of Bose QC35 II, which I'd kinda always wanted. Burn in debates aside, I was impressed by the noise cancelling but shocked by the lack of depth, instrument separation and clarity which I expected to be significantly better than my AKGs. They just weren't. Really disappointing at £250. Not convinced that headphones fit my lifestyle either...So I did tons of research into wired earphones and was tied between iBasso IT01 and Shure SE215, supposedly excellent entry level IEMs at £100. I bought the SE215s. They were totally lacking treble at first. After continuous playing for a few days that improved but the mids are washed out by the "amazing bass", which I found to be lacking both punch and depth. They are muddy.So I finally ordered the RHAs... I played Unfinished Symphany and then Long After You're Gone through the SE215s, swapped them out for the RHAs, took a deep breath and pressed play on Unfinished Symphany. Well... wow. I was just blown away... tears in my eyes and then a proper fit of giggles. Without question they are in a totally different league to Bose and Shure. To my ears, the way they play Long After You're Gone is perfection. In Triangle Walks the whips/cracks feel like firecrackers going off next to me on the desk.Good points:The clarity of treble, mids and bass far exceeds QC35 and SE215.Ditto for the bass power the punchyness.Ditto for the separation - you actually hear instruments placed around you.With foam tips from the box they on a par or better than the Shures for passive noise cancellation. (Shure come with these as standard and they get touted about as being great noise cancellers)The cables are a different build/material to the older T20's and they seem far more sturdy.The microphone and controls are exceptionally well built and feel great.Cable is long so they're ideal for computer listening.Bad points:While the microphone and pause/play/next works on my Samsung, there's no volume control option for Androids yet.So, bro was right. No question, get the RHA T20/T20i

This is the first time I have purchased in-ear headphones in this sort of price range, having typically spent around the £40 mark. I am someone who enjoys a wide variety of music, from bass heavy stuff (DnB, Reggae, Dub, Techno) right across through Hip Hop, Grime, Disco, Funk and Soul, Classic/Psychedelic Rock, Classical... you get the picture.The first time I put these on I was at work, and I decided to just try the earbuds that were supplied that most closely matched what I'd used before. The first few tracks I put on had me grinning from ear to ear - the sound clarity on these is phenomenal, picking out details I had only heard on very high end speaker systems. At higher volumes, the bass weight is incredible for the size of these things - it took me straight back to hearing some of those tracks out clubbing on big sound systems. Big thumbs up from me.It turns out, the ear buds I chose were my closest fit of the set. I tried a few others, but none fit as well as the first ones I tried. However, I still had issues with them occasionally slipping out. I found that using the form-able ear hooks quite tightly wrapped around the top of my ear fixes this problem completely, particularly when matched with using the clothing clip on the wire.Now, here is the most amazing thing about them: I could tell they were very well built, with steel casing and a protector for the cable at the jack end... but I managed to somehow put them through a clothes wash. Then through a tumble drier. I realised with horror what I had done, and feared for the worst - but no, they sound absolutely identical to before, and now smell fresh too. :)Would highly recommend these, particularly nice to support a smaller independent UK based company too! Keep it up RHA, I'll be back for more in the future, I'm sure.

The sound quality of these in-ear buds is the best I have had for my price point.The noise cancellation was exception, much to the annoyance of my wife, and the frequency response of the bass-through-tweeter range served the needs I have with the music I listen to: plenty of progrock, a bit of drum 'n' bass and plenty of classical.The flip side is that since the quality is so good I have found myself spending hours with the buds in and then finding a dull ache in the ears afterwards.... but then I guess you get that with many in-ear buds.Just wondering if the speaker flanges could be softer to not present discomfort with prolonged use.Anyway the sound quality was more than enough for my eclectic tastes in music.