I’m wanting to get some lower Mid prices earbuds.

[Max Arwood]

How do you pick some earbuds  with descent latency? How about Soft silicone ear fittings?  Does Bluetooth have ASIO drivers? What are some of the better brands? List your favorite in any of these categories  

$24

$50

$100-$120

$200

 

Thanks for any help!

Max

[bats brew]

200 would be the lowest i'd go

[bats brew]

maybe these

 

https://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Research-ER3SE-Edition-Earphone/dp/B07665KVD1/ref=as_li_ss_tl?dchild=1&keywords=ER3SE&qid=1590058439&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=andrew000a-20&linkId=023055290e86bea0f00513c8068ccdc1&language=en_US

 

[OutrageProductions]

As someone who has mostly used Ultimate Ears $900 IEM's among lesser units, I highly recommend these.

Edited October 23, 2023 by OutrageProductions

[Max Arwood]

I was thinking about wireless. Do wireless earbuds have good and bad drivers?  Are most Bluetooth drivers the same?

[OutrageProductions]

6 hours ago, Max Arwood said:

I was thinking about wireless. Do wireless earbuds have good and bad drivers?  Are most Bluetooth drivers the same?

I would recommend avoiding wireless/BT devices in the playback chain... too many points of failure, unacceptable latency, and generally mediocre quality, IMHO.

[Max Arwood]

I was concerned about latency. Is their one that has good drivers or are the drivers actually the Bluetooth t device. 

[John Vere]

You definitely can’t use Bluetooth due to very high latency. But the Wireless frequency bands as used with mikes and guitars have no noticeable latency.  

I played in a band that bought a cheap wireless system from Musicians Friend. It was pretty bad sound quality and the buds that came with it were terrible.
I bought the cheapest set of Shure buds for a little over $100 and hardwired into the mixer. I still use them and they are just fine. 
You are way better off in the lower price points to use a hardwired set up. 
A good wireless system will be over $600. A hardwired system is dirt cheap to build. 

If you sing or play keyboards/ drums you are not going to be moving away from your station. 
Use a headphone extension cables and terminate it just behind your mike and wrap Velcro around it leaving about 2’  dangling.  
If I need to leave my station I just unplug. 
My son experimented with ear buds from Amazon and found a set for $50 that sound really good. What is most important is comfort. Out of a dozen pair I can only use my Shures and the ones he bought.  The rest either fall out or are uncomfortable.  Even with changes to the silicone buds. 
 

He also bought a headphones amp to convert the Aux outs of his x18 to Headphone.

If you are the only person the headphones jack on the mixer can often be used. 
I was using my Voice Live pedal which has my vocal and guitar already connected. I only use one in ear. 
I now have a Zoom L8 so I can have 4 customized headphone mixes. 

I’ll say one huge advantage to using in ears is not just to sing in pitch but there’s no stage latency so your timing is super tight. 

Edited October 25, 2023 by John Vere

[Max Arwood]

I’m looking for a different way to listen. I see some big studio guys with earbuds.  I want to do some listening that way. Bass is way fuller and different on earbuds. I want to move out of the studio too. I have an old EV guitar wireless I could put on the boards headphone out(if I can get the gain low enough- I think I have some transformers somewhere???).  I can put the receiver and hardwired buds elsewhere. I think I’ll try using it this way  and see how the quality is. Thanks for this idea! I’ll let you know if/how well this works lol! Oh yea and I didn’t have to buy anything!

[John Vere]

You can use Bluetooth for that because you are not performing so latency doesn't matter.  

My Computer has Bluetooth and possibly so does yours. Bluetooth won't work with Cakewalk I have to export the mix and play it in Media Player.  Then I use both a small Bluetooth speaker or my Bluetooth headphones. 

There's also a cool  free app called Sonobus. It is both an app for Cell phones/ computers and a VST plug in.    https://sonobus.net/    

You put it on your master bus in Cakewalk and it sends the audio over your network to anywhere in the world. You can listen in the studio to what your mix sounds like on a cell phone or play your latest mix to a client or band mate. You have to  mess with the settings a little  bit to improve the audio quality but for me in my house it works great. . It's yet another tool to use for proofing mixes in the real world. Possibly 90% or the world listens to music now on their cell phones.  And you could use the built in speakers, ear buds or Bluetooth  with your cell phone. 

I still prefer to upload to a music sites like Sound Click but Sonobus is for real time mixing in Cakewalk. 

 The Big studio people proof mixes on different playback systems for good reasons. Ear buds is just one of many. 

The Guitar wireless is probably only mono so not ideal. 

Proofing your Mix Video -   https://youtu.be/eHpO4rolwiU

 

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by John Vere

[Max Arwood]

Thanks, John, I was thinking about something like this. I was going to try FarPlay. Have you tried it?

[Max Arwood]

John thanks for the Sonobus idea. I downloaded Sonobus. It did not work out of the box so to speak. It needs ports open or something like that to communicate. It would be great if I can get it working. 

[Max Arwood]

Hey John, I just wanted to drop back in on this thread. The reason is that I just want to thank you for putting the link to Sonobus in this thread. Once I finally got that thing set up it works really really well. Thanks to you, I can now listen to, and mix in any room in the house. Or should I say, any room in any house in any state in any country. I pair Sonobus with RVNC. They work great together!

[John Vere]

Ya I mention it when I get a chance because it’s free so no harm in trying.
I had to watch a video to get it working but have no clue which one that was, but yes it’s a strange duck. Good news is once you get it working it’s very easy to use. 
Try different streaming settings if your getting glitches.