I think I might be tripping out here. I threw these in my bag as backups forever ago, and today I forgot my main pair. These don’t sound half bad through my FIIO BTR5. I think these came from Target like a decade ago, but I honestly don’t remember at this point. The tips are generic replacements from a 100 pack off Amazon.
I know “IEMs” like MDR-EX15LP and RP-HJE120 sound pretty nice and don’t measure anything ridiculous that can’t be fixed with EQ (both Bassy V). Can you describe the sound signature of the Polaroids?
The vocals are definitely the stand out feature, very clean and pleasant sounding. The stereo separation and overall soundstage is wide and lends itself really well to Live performances such as Hell Freezes Over by The Eagles. The high end is surprisingly good and the mids are really decent and definitely a step above many earbuds in this price point. The lows are definitely not super amazing but they do exist and they are not at all muddy and have a pretty tight representation here. The FIIO BTR5 is definitely doing a lot to help these little earbuds, but still definitely not anything I was expecting out of them. Pleasantly surprised is an understatement.
For anybody wondering, I think these are the Polaroid PEP14 series. I have just ordered the PEP14PNK on Amazon for like $9 New old stock, in order to sanity check with a new pair and see if mine are Unicorns or if this is just an accidentally fairly decent old line of ear buds.