Sennheiser IE 200

Fantastic bang for buck (by adding a few things) – The Sennheiser IE 200 is a wired in-ear bud. It is categorised as an audiophile headphone by Sennheiser and it holds true to that description. For $179 (reduced from $239) it is a phenomenal high-fidelity performer for the price. The sound separation and clarity is really noticeable. I have used $1000 triple-driver moulded ear pieces for the past two years and these ear-buds, to my ears, are just as good.

Now.... here's the catch, I did cheat a little to improve the sound. Out of the box and plugged into your phone they are OK.... but if you *really* want to hear their capability you need to connect them to a decent digital to analog converter (DAC). The DAC plugs into the USB-C interface on your phone and there is a 3.5mm jack to connect the ear-buds.

I recommend using the IBASSO DC05 (the photos shows DC03 but DC05 is the current model), for around $80 it will totally make the sound pop through the ear buds.

The second improvement is to use a quality set of silicon ear-tip rather than the ones that comes with the buds. I used the Spinfit W1 for around $30 from Amazon.

The bass, mid-range and highs come through as if you are wearing over the ear headphones. So, by spending another $100 for the DAC and ear-tips you'll get a really great performing pair of ear buds.