The best earphones i've ever had

Rod


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Let me make it clear from the start that I am not affiliated with Pioneer in any way. Okay, having gotten that out of the way I want to say that my Christmas present to myself this year was a new set of "in-ear" earphones. For a long time my wife and I had been looking to replace a pair of wired earphones we bought for her in Japan a few years ago which fell victim to a kitten who decided the cable was fair game for teething pains.

Since then we have alternately returned to the original Apple ear pods, tried various other brands and even tried a Bluetooth pair but all with disappointing results.
My wife had several non negotiable prerequisites which made selection, especially online, difficult.
1.They needed to be wired, that is, not Bluetooth because that would mean remembering to charge them.
2.They needed to have a Lightening Bolt connector. Non of these unsupported adapters or extra cables.
3.They needed to be comfortable to lie down and listen to in bed.
4.They needed to have reasonable sound quality.
5.They needed to be around AU$100.00 or less.
6.Although not essential she would prefer that they have noise cancelling.

After a lot of ongoing research I decided on the Pioneer Rayz Plus. When they arrived and we downloaded the Rayz app from the App store and I tried them I realized I had been cheating myself for years and promptly ordered another pair for myself.
Honestly they make the Apple earpods and every other set of in-ear earphones I have owned (with the exception of a pair which became unsupported with the introduction of iOS 9) sound flat and tinny.

These earphones fulfill all of the above conditions with the exception of price, they were AU$115.00 including shipping from Pioneer (the only place I could get them).

The app although not essential enables a bunch of features and built in preferences like automatically stopping when they are removed from your ears and resuming when you put them back in, plus a basic equalizer with custom settings and selectable functions for Pioneer's additional fourth button. Not to mention the noise cancelling settings which are dependent on how well the pods fit in your ears. To ensure a good fit they come with 9 sets of tips and a function on the app to help you find the best fit.

Lastly the Plus model comes with a little terminal on the cable just after the Lightning connector plug that you can plug in a Lightening charger cable, meaning you can charge your iPhone while listening to the earphones.

Pioneer Rayz
 

Slydude

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Thanks for that info Rod. I'll have to check those out to see if the fit works for me. I've probably spent that much on three or four pair of earbuds in the last 18 months or so at $20 - $40 US per pair. Not to mention money spent trying to find headphones I like. In the last 3 - 4 years I've tried to avoid spending hundreds on headphones because I don't wear them very often. I'd try the newer Apple ones but just can't convince myself that they're worth the money without knowing in advance how they fit.

One pair that I kinda liked were wired (which sucked because I wanted wireless) .he "leatherette" cover on the earpieces started to crack after a shorter time than I expected. I've currently got three different wireless headphones. One pair has stopped working well as a wired set. The other two are working but not have their limitations.
 
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Good and useful information, Rod. Many thanks.
 
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Pioneer has always been pretty consistent in making good AV gear. I didn't know they were making earphones now... truthfully I haven't even heard much of them outside of car audio these days. But I have no doubt these were well worth it. This reminds me to take a look at what else they have.
 

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