Klipsch T5M Wired
£70
This Award makes four consecutive Best Buy gongs in this category for the company. Three years ago it was the R6i IIS that hit the top spot, then in 2019 the T5M Wired took over. And in 2021, these are still the most comfortable, detailed and dynamic in-ear headphones we’ve heard at this price.
We find the Klipsch earpieces aren’t too bulky, nor too fiddly to get in place. Each one houses a 5mm dynamic driver and features a 5.6mm nozzle, on to which you can pop Klipsch’s oval earbuds. The silicone used to make the tips is soft and offers not only comfort but also a great seal, which helps with noise isolation.
Beneath the left earpiece are an in-line mic and one-button control. There’s no room for a volume control on this model, but the upside is compatibility with a wide range of smartphones.
Although Klipsch hasn’t positioned the T5MS as a sports headphone, it’s worth noting that these buds are IPX4 certified, meaning they’re both sweatand water-resistant.
With Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy, these Klipsch buds waste no time powering through the intro with solid, powerful and punchy bass notes. The T5MS deliver each one of those notes with precise, sharply defined edges and you soon hear the buds have a fine sense of agility too. The vocal bleeds into the track with a good sense of space around it, as does the track’s background ‘clicking’. There’s a maturity here that can be quite rare in earbuds at this price point, while they display an excellent sense of timing.
Klipsch has made vast strides on the in-ears that come bundled with our smartphone, and proved that such improvements needn’t require a devastating raid on our bank account.