Ear Buddy
Ear Buddy

Ear Buddy

Just add volume.

Remove headphone hiss with Ear Buddy from iFi audio
Love your music but hate annoying hisses, pops and sudden bursts of noise in your earphones that rock you for all the wrong reasons?

The Ear Buddy is the answer.

Never miss a beat.

The Ear Buddy is a simple adapter that fits between any headphone and audio device with a 3.5mm output, and filters out background hiss and bursts of noise that damage your ears.

The Ear Buddy makes music clearer and allows you to crank up the volume to the max without painful consequences.

Never miss a guitar solo again.

All around the world.

The Ear Buddy is adaptable to any device, including:

  • Smartphones
  • Portable audio devices
  • Computers
  • In-flight systems

And with special earplugs, airplane adapter and travel pouch, you can travel the globe with crisp, clean, uninterrupted audio.

Home or abroad…if you love music, you’ll never leave home without it.

Too much power heading into your headphones causes irritating noise, hiss and buzz.

Our solution is to ‘attenuate’ or adjust the signal that cuts out the hiss and puts the enjoyment back into listening.


Turn up the digital volume to restore lost resolution and improve sound quality.

Normal listening levels usually result in a loss of 2-Bits of resolution but increasing the digital volume and using the Ear Buddy to attenuate the volume level, brings these Bits back.

Support

Specifications
  • High-Gain (-16dB) sensitivity adjustment
  • 6N copper matrix wiring
  • Gold-plated printed circuit board with audiophile components (eg MELF resistors)
  • Gold-plated 3.5mm male/female connectors
  • Input Impedance: > 16 Ohm
  • Output Impedance: < 2.7 Ohms
  • Amplifier Loading: ~18 Ohm
  • Conditions: 16R headphone/iem connected < 1R Amplifier output impedance
  • Compatible Headphone impedance: 16 Ohm to 600 Ohm rated impedance
  • 12.5 Ohm minimum impedance
  • Weight: 6.0 g
  • Total Length: 116mm
  • Warranty period: 12 months
Manuals
User manual

Tech notes:

Reviews

IFI AUDIO EAR BUDDY AND IEMATCH HEADPHONE ATTENUATION ADAPTERS

High sensitivity headphones are great because they don’t require a lot power to drive them but the downside to sensitive headphones is that they tend to produce audible background hiss that transfers into the audio you’re playing. How much hiss you get depends on the audio source the headphone is connected to (i.e. smartphone, digital audio player, single-ended triode amplifier, etc).

One way to solve the background hissing (or humming) you get with high sensitivity headphones is by increasing their output impedance, which works great with single driver IEMs but not so good with IEMs that have multiple balanced armature (BA) drivers because each driver has different impedance so, if the output impedance of the audio source is higher than zero, you can get a change in frequency response (i.e. lower bass response).

The easier way to solve background hiss and imprecise control of volume is with an attenuator like Ear Buddy and iEMatch, which are audio attenuators that reduce the output of a headphone amplifier to minimize channel imbalances at low volume and background hiss…

Gadget Explained

(Click name to read original review)
More reviews…
More reviews…

Simple. Effective. Just works.

Not much to write really. It just works. Makes everything quieter, which means it makes any hiss and noise quieter. As long as your device gets loud enough it’s fantastic.

Amazon

(Click name to read original review)

Sounds transparent, which is great!

I wanted to add some attenuation to my low-impedance headphones, and this seems to have done the trick! I don’t know about some of the dubious-sounding claims in the description, but it sounds transparent to me on some mid-low range headphones, and that’s really all I could ask.

$20 is about the price of some high-quality components, and it feels well-built, so I’d say the value is good, without the incredible markup common to audiophile gear. It’s nice to be able to use the full volume range on my phone and PC, that’s for sure. Easily recommended.

 

Amazon

(Click name to read original review)

The product works as advertised.

The Earbuddy is very well made and it is very simple to use. The functionality is perfect.

 

Amazon

(Click name to read original review)

Good buy

Was skeptical at first but wow! It actually does make a difference in sound quality. Though it’s pretty minor so $20 might be worth it to some but not all.

Amazon

(Click name to read original review)

Overview of iFi Audio accessories and filters – does filtering matter?

This article was born in my head a long time ago, mainly due to repeated questions from time to time, whether I had contact with filtering devices like iSilencer, Jitterbug etc. But since I run my humble blog, I’ve probably got used to most people to a few maxims, which I am guided in total not only in the field of audio equipment, but generally in life…

AUDIOFANATYK

(Click name to read original review)
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Compare

iEMatch EarBuddy iEMatch2.5
Primary use Sensitive headphones ($150>) Sensitive headphones (<$150) Digital Audio Players
3.5mm Balanced Yes – –
3.5mm Single-Ended Yes Yes
2.5mm Balanced – – Yes
Ultra (-24dB) / High (-12dB) Sensitivity Yes – Yes
High(-16dB) Sensitivity – Yes –
6N silver / copper matrix wiring Yes – Yes
6N copper matrix wiring – Yes –
FINAL 6063-T5 aluminium-magnesium alloy
shell		 Yes – Yes
Input impedance >16 Ohm >16 Ohm >16 Ohm
Output impedance < 2.5 Ohms (High-Sensitivity)

< 1 Ohms (Ultra-Sensitivity)

 < 2.7 Ohms (High-Sensitivity) < 2.5 Ohms (High-Sensitivity)

< 1 Ohms (Ultra-Sensitivity)
Compatibity 16 Ohm to 600 Ohm rated impedance
12.5 Ohm minimum impedance		 16 Ohm to 600 Ohm rated impedance
12.5 Ohm minimum impedance		 16 Ohm to 600 Ohm rated impedance
12.5 Ohm minimum impedance
Weight 12.2g 6.0g 12.2g
Total length 116mm 116mm 116mm
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