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Review on 🎧 iFi Ear Buddy: Enhance Your Audio Experience with the Ultimate Travel Kit for Headphones and IEMs - Including Accessories and Audio Attenuator Cable by Sandra Saksena

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Good product. I wish it had more levels.

Excellent product. I wish it had additional tiers, but I think it would be difficult to make it high quality and affordable. Basically it is an attenuator. Reduces volume for very sensitive headphones. I recently bought some high quality audiophile in-ear headphones which were very delicate. When I connected it to my smartphone, the sound was very loud. The obvious solution was to turn the volume down to about 1/10th, but this resulted in the music being close to the amp's noise floor. It seems that the phone keeps the amplifier's gain at a constant level as the digital signal decreases. This leads to a severe deterioration in the signal-to-noise ratio of the digital signal. Ideally you want the signal coming out of the DAC to be full range and the power amp to attenuate the signal, but it's expensive to implement. Well this is clearly the fault of a cheap amp, but perhaps a better solution in a smartphone product wouldn't be cost effective. I'm sure a dedicated headphone amp won't have this problem, but of course I won't be carrying one in my bag.

Pros
  • BUDDY FOR BUDS - Most pads are designed for in-ear or over-ear headphones, but Ear Buddy is great for in-ear headphones or in-ear monitors (IEMS). Ear Buddy is plug-n-play; Connect directly to an audio source such as a phone, tablet, laptop or computer, or place between the DAC and amplifier.
Cons
  • May cause injury