I’d been wanting a hybrid IEM for ages, but I kept going back and forth: K3003, or the DUNU DN2000J? Some people said just get the K3003 and stop thinking about it. But the K3003 is way too fucking expensive. Others said the DN2000J matches the K3003 on technical ability — it just can’t command the K3003 price because it’s made in China. W at work, the train lover, has heard the K3003. He said it’s nothing special: the sound is too high, too floaty, too sharp, not a good buy — especially once he learned I listen to everything. “Honestly, for your taste, an Audio-Technica IM03 plus a Sennheiser IE80 is plenty. Don’t you already have the ER4P? Rotate those three and you’re covered.” But I still wanted a hybrid, just to experience one. At least something above the 100-yuan mark — below 100 yuan I’ve already got the Xiaomi hybrid. Thanks to a JD sale and 12 months of interest-free Baitiao, the dream came true.

Buying these earphones was an impulse purchase. I was helping my mother buy a Xiaomi Mi Band, and I figured I’d add some Xiaomi batteries to the order. My hand slipped, and I bought a pack of AAA batteries instead. I only noticed the mistake when the package arrived. Not that AAA batteries are useless to me. Thanks to that mistaken pack, the crappy TV in my room no longer needs me to hunt for buttons on the unit itself, because its remote’s batteries died long ago, and they’re AAA. So I thought about ordering the Xiaomi rainbow batteries again, this time AA. But batteries are so cheap that shipping is never free, and shipping alone costs more than a battery, which is a bad deal. I figured I’d add something to hit the free-shipping threshold, and that’s when I saw the Xiaomi 99 yuan hybrid earphones. I hadn’t looked into what the market thought of the Xiaomi 99 yuan hybrid. I’d only heard bits and pieces, and naturally none of it was good. “For that money, go eat a nice meal.” “It’s just garbage.” “I pulled them off after 30 seconds.” “No sound quality whatsoever.” “Boomy, can’t hear the vocals at all.” Anyone with even a passing knowledge of earphones would say the same. I was inclined to believe they were trash too, because at this price, unless it’s a specialist manufacturer, they’re all the same: boosted bass and nothing else. But these are hybrid drivers, and I’d never heard a hybrid before. And… I needed something to pad the order. The power banks were out of stock! So somehow I bought the Xiaomi 99 yuan hybrid. Or you could say I bought batteries and threw in a 99 yuan hybrid to hit the shipping threshold. So the question is, how do they actually perform? I hate keeping people in suspense—as the title says, “they’re not as bad as expected.”