Rediscovering the joys of a pocket MP3-player also led me back to in-ear bud-phones. In the early 2000's I went through a series of these from: Sony, Philips, Shure, Creative, Sennheiser, etc. It was a cheap way of varying my audio-hobby and a lot of fun. But through the years I appear to have lost, had-stolen, lent-out/given away or thrown out almost all of the useable earbuds in house and am left with a (good) Sony that does not work with the new player and a set from Creative that are reasonable but a bit dull-sounding.
Amazon has the sneaky habit of, when you buy something, throwing related product at you with the hope that you will take the bait. This also occurred after the Hifi Walker H2 purchase and their A1 earphones were promptly pushed forward to grab my attention.
Reading the related reviews, digging around for more info and being seduced by the very-reasonable price of under €35, I hit the 'buy' button and have been giving these a good listen over the weekend.
Earbud design has obviously come a long way since I last bought any, about 15 years ago. The A1 buds are compact, fit snugly in the ear and feel solid with their rugged aluminium housing. Supplied with various-sized tips and a nice leather(?) carry-bag they look more expensive than they are. Care has also been taken to make a reinforced joint where the (fixed) cable enters the earpiece. And a wire-mounted mic/volume controller is included for smartphone use.
Soundwise, these earphones immediately impress, they claim a frequency response of 10Hz-70KHz and the bass does go very deep, but not in an overblown way. Treble is extremely detailed and could get a bit sharp if you're not careful. Mids are somewhat recessed - however that can always be fixed with the application of a bit of EQ in the player.
The H2 does have a pleasant, rounded sonic character and matches excellently with the A1 buds. Soundstage is wide, detail enough to be very satisfactory and plenty of authoritative weight and punch in the delivery. I have paid far more in the past for earbuds that are far less enjoyable than these. There are also mods online for the A1 buds that apparently boost them into esoteric territory, don't know if I'll bother.
As usual with Chifi, where a lot of brands are copycat, box-stuffer designs putting cheap components in flashy casings, the exception is sometimes a manufacturer that does strive to give solid quality at an affordable price. Hifi Walker show that the dedicated pocket DAP and quality earbuds don't have to cost the earth and can get your music out and about in an audiophile-friendly way.
