When I was in western China (Xinjiang) I scouted around more than my fair share of electronics markets. In one of Urumqi's main markets I was looking halfheartedly when these caught my eye.

I mean, look at the box: Sony E888s for a mere RMB14 (that's two Canadian dollars)! Could this be true? The box is clearly marked Sony E888, so why wouldn't I get anything other than REAL Sony E888s???? The price was right, so I bought 'em and ran home to test them out.

Well! Sony has truly outdone themselves with this new style of E888: new multi-directional drivers allow you to use EITHER the gaskets OR the conventional earpiece - both play the music at the same time, so you can even use the gasket in one ear and the earpiece for the other! The wires are coated in plastic for a durability never before seen in Sony buds (you can see the word SONY on one of the buds in one of the pictures). Ball-bearings on the cord allow you to adjust the wires for you comfort. AWESOME!

And as for sound quality....words can't even express how they compare to the EX90s! And all this for only $2! (you won't find this price anywhere outside China) If you can buy them NOW NOW NOW!

peace
WaywardTraveller

I don't want to be harsh, but are you sure those are real? The e888's were never redesigned, I know there is a newer one based on the e888, but it has a different model number. And those look like the typical earbuds you get with the MP3 players from China... the same wire and chrome part gives it away. But hey if it sounds great, then that is all that matters.

Those are *not* the E888SP's by a country mile. They appear to be more like the EX90's. Maybe they are designed to be sold as fake 888's to the unsuspecting public. Whatever floats your boat, they'll probably fall apart after a few days of use if they are Chinese-made junk.

They do look pretty fake indeed. But if he says they sound good, why not. See how long they last.

For a measely $2, if you get a month of good listening, it's worth it.

I wonder if we will ever see a genuine 888 replacement - perhaps the EX90's were meant to be that, but they are completely different types of Fonotopia phones. From my experiences, the erstwhile 888's still sound better than the new EX90's do.

Sorry guys....guess I didn't make it clear enough that it's a big joke.

lol...these buds ARE crap (unfortunately, there's no coiled-brown-pile emoticon to illustrate how they really DO compare to the EX90s ). I'd guess the frequency response at somewhere around 20K-22K!

Phones like these are, however, perfect for learning German (as I am currently doing on MD), simple non-critical listening (spoken-word) and anything else where I just need to listen to information. I wanted to post the pics, though, as an example of the utter crap you can get in China (and in case you need contradiction, it's the same country where you can pick up $10 LIP-4WMs!)

peace
WaywardTraveller

lol, on the contrary, China has YUIN who remarkably makes the best earbuds in the world. The YUIN PK1, you need to try those someday. =D Audio Technica comes second I guess with their ATH-CM7Ti.

That may be true, but when you actually consider the cheap garbage-quality ratio (and look in the vast majority of electronics markets and stores in the country) I'm still convinced you'd find YUIN the stark exception.

However, I've never heard of the brand before.....is there a website?

peace
WaywardTraveller

I'm not sure if they have a website or not. But If you look over at head-fi, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to fill you in about them. =)

Edit: here it is... http://www.head-direct.com/index.php?optio...detail&id=1