Listening Notes on Dive Expert's Knockoff Earphones

Bought the Qian 25, Qian 39, and Qian 49 out of curiosity… they arrived today.

Nice packaging, they actually came in tin boxes. Genuinely thoughtful.

Went through all three roughly, so here are my impressions. I’m a bit of a tin ear who still wants decent sound quality—the really fine details are lost on me.

Qian 25 is basically a steal. For 25 yuan, bass and highs and female vocals all more or less crush anything else at that price. I mean, most 25-yuan earphones still distort, right? This one is about on par with the Sennheiser MX500 I first bought back in the day.

Qian 39 sounds brighter, maybe too little bass. On some ACG electronic tracks—like the OP of Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, for instance—it gets a little harsh. But “Everytime you kiss me,” the insert song from Pandora Hearts, comes off nicely on these. Left me a bit mesmerized, honestly.

Qian 49 sounds muffled. Checked the seller’s description afterward and apparently it’s tuned for bass. On ACG uptempo female vocals it does beat the Qian 39 by a fair margin, especially since the bass actually has some bounce now. But the Qian 49 kind of cheats on detail resolution? Like on Skillet’s “Comatose,” the drum hits and breathing details feel deliberately amplified. On the TF10 you have to listen closely to catch those sounds, whereas the Qian 49 just shoves them in your face. Kind of jarring.

If your demands aren’t high, the Qian 25 is all you need—great value. The other two just boost the highs and lows respectively, nothing more.