Budget

The Kinera BD005 Pro is a beautiful jack of all trades, sporting a rather coherent warmish V shaped tuning that is safe for the upper frequencies (compared to the usual CHIFI tuning). Other than looks, it scores above average points in most areas, but doesn’t have a particular department that it truly excels at to stand out in the ultra cut throat budget CHIFI market segment.

I tried real hard to give these a fair shake given my bias when I cringed at cryo treatment, but overlooking this I am hard pressed to see a good angle.

This latest iteration clearly improves upon the competent-but-chilly original Tin Hifi T2 by adding some subbass presence and the deemphasizing the upper mids, which gives the Tin Hifi 2 Plus some warmth and a bit less of a clinical presentation…

The KBEAR Lark earphone is yet another well-tuned sub-$30 offering with good technicalities and a neutral to slightly warm tonality that works right out of the box.

The Cat Ear Mia may have some limited appeal to a narrow band of users (treble –averse bassheads?), but the <$15 KZ ZS3, not to mention innumerable TFZ, Tennmak, etc., hit the same target much more effective.