Impressions: Edifier H293P

So, I broke my sleep earphones again.

My sleep earphones basically serve two purposes: plugging into the Surface Pro, and plugging into other tablets to listen to voice tracks. At first I used Earpods, then Princess talked me into buying an Audio-Technica CX550. Then I lost that pair, and after some searching I found out the strongest sleep earphones are the K314p. A year after I got them I learned they’d actually gone up in price, which scared me into putting them up on a shelf. To have a replacement I bought a bunch of Diving Expert models, but the quality was honestly terrible, so I had to pick up Beyerdynamic’s new DP100, which broke soon after too. Then I bought M&G’s K314P reissue, and as you’d expect, the cable snapped before long.

So out of sheer desperation I bought this Edifier H293P Killer Earphone, 99 yuan. You can probably understand my helplessness by now.

My requirements for sleep earphones are simple:

• Nothing with heavy bass. I use them for Galgame and voice tracks, I don’t want boom-boom-thump.
• Comfortable to wear. This should be the basic requirement for sleep earphones.
• Durable. This one matters a lot, since I’ve broken every pair before.

So how does the Edifier H293P Killer Earphone perform?

To sum it up: apart from a bit of an issue with fit, I’m happy with everything else.

As a 99-yuan earphone, the Edifier H293P Killer Earphone rarely leans toward bass… no, actually, I think it has no fucking bass at all, and puts the emphasis on the mids and highs instead. The tuning is heavily skewed toward the upper mids, but it feels just about right — I mean, the highs don’t reach the point of screeching, and vocals come through very clearly.

Man, for someone who plays Galgame and listens to voice tracks, this is more than satisfying. Can’t be more satisfied.

On fit: since these are in-ear, they’re obviously worse than earbuds as sleep earphones when your head presses against the pillow. But it’s not that bad. Only a few particular angles of side pressure affect the sound; most of the time it’s OK. Still, being in-ear, it gets affected to some degree, so I can’t quite call it comfortable.

As for durability, I’m a bit torn. On one hand, the flat noodle cable does add some durability. On the other hand, the build quality of the housing itself isn’t great — one-piece plastic that looks fragile. I’ve been using these for a while now, but whether they’ll last is still something to watch.

By the way, the Killer Earphone has an inline remote and works with most phones. If you don’t care much about sound quality and just hate boom-boom-thump, this is a good buy — at least the sound is transparent, and casual music listening is fine.

As for me, I don’t know how long it’ll survive. At least voice tracks sound good on it. Yeah.