Sony XBA-1ip blow those out of the water. You can get them refurbished for $24 on Amazon.

xiaomi pistons + desk / clip on mic. the pistons are like 20$ and have the quality of 80-90$ range earbuds

Are they alright refurbished? I just wanna be sure cause I hate to throw away money ya know

i probably wouldnt reuse the tips you get when you buy a refurbished pair but they should be fine

A couple to consider are:
-Soundmagic e10 or e30
-me electronics a161 or m6 pro
-astrotec am90 or am800
-vsonic vsd3s
-Sony Xba1

I've owned the m6 pro, am800, vsonic vsd1s and both soundmagics I recommended. You can't go wrong with any of them and im sure you can find tons about their sound signatures and whatever else you need to know.

Yes. I wrote this post while listening to them. Also the tips can just be washed in ethanol or boiling water...

Only issue is they use some gummy shit to attach them to a board to keep them steady. Goo gone is your friend. It's definitely your best bet for cheep in ears.

Just make sure to buy from a reputable seller on Amazon, there are a lot of fakes on there.

I'd recommend these: OSTRY KC06 or Brainwavz S1. Both really good quality for the price you're looking to pay. Unfortunately I think the price for them are pretty high on amazon if you don't have prime.

xiaomi is awesome.

I have bought this same pair of buds 3 times over in the past 6 years. Needless to say I love them. The sound quality is very good, you get great cancellation for in ear and the cable is 1/2 a meter longer than shitty apple buds. Plus a handy dandy carrying pouch.

I have a pair of symphonized RNG premiums and they are very nice, certainly on par with the xiaomis imo, I have owned both and the sound is a little more mellow on the symphonized and a but more responsive on the xiaomis, so depending in your genre, that might play into it.

apple earbuds and this clip on mic is what i've been using for tf2

So I've looked at the xiaomis a little bit and they are mighty cheap. That's not exactly an issue except that they are made in China so I'm a little worried about quality. I really wanna hear from each of you that have em about this cause it seems to vary a lot.

I also looked at the XBA-2s which are quite a bit more expensive than the xiaomis and the XBA-1s which Dave recommended but the general consensus is that they are worth the extra price. If anyone has these I'd also like some personal reviews or info whatever. Thanks!

Build quality is exellent, don't worry about that

What you should worry about is buying fakes, because there are tons of them out there

http://www.amazon.com/Xiaomi-Headphone-Headset-Earphones-Titanium/dp/B00W4JD61A/ref=sr_1_2?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1438487090&sr=1-2&keywords=xiaomi+pistons+3

Apparently the Ambay Trading seller is confirmed legit.

the build quality is amazing. it has textil wire, 4 different sized pads, decent microphone for mobile use and nicely responding buttons that give a clear feedback when you press them.
Ive been using the pistons for good 8-9 months now, on the pc and with my mobile and they still sound and look like on day 1. considering that i rolled over them with my chair once and that i left them in the washing machine 2 times, thats pretty neat.

you really need to watch out tho that you dont buy fake ones. i found mine over amazon, basically looked for ones that had a really detailed customer review that proved that they where the legit ones.

edit: im using the 2nd generation ones, dont know if my stated stuff applies to the gen 3 ones

Alright so after everybody recommending the xiaomis I'll buy them but...I have no clue which ones are real lol any help?

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=xiaomi+piston

See my post above

So I bought my pistons and they came in today! I was really excited to use them and it seems they aren't working well on my comp. It's not the buds problem themselves it's the computer. I have a busted main audio jack on my computer so that's not helpful.

What I've been using for my current headset is the logitech like usb thing with the microphone and audio jack which should work and does somewhat. With the buds plugged into that I can hear intrumentals for music, with no voices. In mumble voices are very very very quiet and don't sound great. There is also a lot of white noise.

Are there any drivers I should install? Uninstall? Or maybe something else I'm missing? Maybe alternatives to using an audio jack or something. Please help I'm tired of headset hair

since the pistons have a mic and remote, they don't use the normal audio jack. you might need an adapter to split the headphone and mic into separate jacks, then you should be able to use the headphone and mic inputs on your usb thing

something like this should work
http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-MUYHSFMM-Headset-Splitter-Adapter/dp/B0058DOWH6

Currently I'm using this which looks like a very similar thing and it works with my headset but not my pistons

http://i.imgur.com/Ctg60Nvh.jpg

your current headset splits the wire into audio and mic separately, while the pistons don't. the splitter i linked will split it so you can plug into those two jacks

I'm not sure if this is related but when I plug my Piston 3's into my MP3 player all the way I have the same issue, however if I pull it out just a notch (just try plugging it in slowly with your earbuds in so you can hear) there is a position where it works just fine. Worth a shot before you buy something.

Can confirm as well. I have a dual headphone/mic single audio jack on my laptop and the pistons work fine with that, but there is still the case of not plugging it in fully or just tinkering around by twisting or pulling it slightly to find the correct position that gives you the full audio. Idk if it's just the Pistons or my shitty laptop, but it's worth a try.

Alright Dango that's improvement kinda. When I put it in to a good place I can hear vocals and stuff but it's only coming out of the left ear :((

Alright nevermind I found a place where I can hear both sides you're actually the best dango if you want a reward or something I can toss a csgo item your way or something IDK thanks dudes

and one more small thing is I'm hearing some feedback (I think it sounds like that) from my keyboard and stuff idk if I can like disable the earbud mic? Currently I'm keeping my old headset around my neck for the mic but the feedback and stuff is sorta annoying. It's like everything I make noise with like keyboard sounds, tappings, mouse clicks and stuff are all amplified... help?

The reason it's not working unless you pull it out slightly is because you're plugging a TRRS jack(the ones with two rings on them) into a TRS(the ones of which the jacks have one ring on them) socket, which isn't going to ground one of the stereo connectors properly because the connectors on the jack are misaligned with the ones inside the socket. You could try pulling the jack out as far as you possibly can to just disable the microphone because the microphone is often located on the sleeve connector, but I believe the order sometimes changes by manufacturer.

It seems it's the logitech mic doing all the feedback is there anyway I can disable that? HELP!

get a soundcard like a xonar dg and plug your xioami into it