Introduction:
Hippo Epic-Sparkle is a ‘special’ IEM, because for the first time I ventured out to give my opinions on an IEM in TE. My IEM collection has undergone massive changes between then and now. After several months, 3 proper 'reviews' and 2 “impressions†later, I am revisiting HES to write a review. I actually had the review almost ready until haraakiri sent his RE1 and postponed me informing TE about this "wonderful" IEM by a week
Photos:
From Left to Right (all muddy pictures only): IEM Views – 1 & 2, Driver housings up-close Views 1 & 2
Specifications:
External factors
Accessories & Packing: Accessories include 3 sizes of single flange in Blue and Red colors. I actually like the colored tips because it’s much easier to differentiate between Left and Right under not so well lit conditions. There’s also the hippo pouch, which I use for storing my earbuds. The packing is minimal as usual. See my earlier post for photos of the packing.
Build Quality: The H-ES comes with a cloth sleeved cable that has a special affection to the case it resides in. Even after you take it out, it refuses to change back shape and retains some memory character, making you work hard to untangle and straighten it out at times.
The driver housing is decent, even the strain relief is thicker. But the combination looks a bit odd – metal housing and a plastic strain relief. They don’t have the looks of Hippo Pearl/VB though. The concentric circles on the back of the housing and the sparkling dots on the side sure confused somebody. It’s a pity that the guy/machine happens to be the one to mark Left and Right channels, because they are inter-changed.
Fit: These are like every other IEM. So, I’ve no issues with the fit and comfort, except that they have a driver flex when inserting the IEMs into the ear. I love the lingo - If I write “puchhkk sound when you insert IEMâ€, it looks downright ugly, “driver flex†looks neat.
Microphonics: Cloth sleeved cables tend to be microphonic and this is no exception. But, if worn over the ears, the microphonics reduces considerably.
Isolation: Isolation is not very good. Without music, it’s easier to strike a conversation.
The Sound
Initial Impressions
I got these as a surprise free gift along with Alessandro MS1i from Jaben. Well! That’s what they thought, but customs officials made sure that they collect the price of HES as customs duty. Anyways, at that time, I thought these were more sibilant than Hippo VB. But, I’ve come to grudgingly accept sibilance in the mean time, because many of my favourite artists thought it was fun to pronounce as many S..ses as they want and leave it as part of the recording
. So, any IEM that doesn’t have a small dip between 7-10 Khz is likely to produce sibilance.
At the time of writing my “impressionsâ€, I thought these were “harsh†and “congested†at times. But, exactly “why†and “how†eluded me at that time. Fresh from reading reviews that said Hippo VB lost sibilance in 100-200 hours, I sincerely proceeded to burn these for 100 hours straight using uDAC and Zen V Plus alternatively. To this day, HES retains the notorious reputation of being the only IEM to be burned in outside of my ears.
Current Impressions
They share a quality each with DDM and DBA-02.
Ok, ok! I just wanted to write one positive line in my entire impression, that’s all. For those of you sleeping already, that should have woken you up. HE-S was in hibernation for months wrapped in it’s own cozy Chinese case for a long time. I came across a slightly positive review in head-fi and I jumped out of my seat….and fell down! I mean I tried listening after the burn-in period and found nothing remarkably interesting. May be my ears are up-to their old tricks again. May be I had a “giant killer†IEM in the closet and never cared. So, like a gold digger, I proceeded to test them for 3-4 days in a row along with another legendary IEM in EP-630.
For those of you writing reviews now or in the future, let me serve a cautionary note. When you are testing an IEM, you should note down your impressions a bit more elaborately. Otherwise, you’d end up in a similar situation as me. When I wanted to finally write the review, I opened my notes for the 3 day sessions and it read “Shit! Ouch! Oh God! Damn! What?†and a series of other 4 letter words (without the punctuation marks between them, which I added here for clarity). The whole note was about 100 characters long. What you are about to read is the expanded version. Don’t doubt me, a few 3 hr long movies have a script shorter than that – “Boy meets girl, loves, gets married after struggleâ€.
The Sound Stage is slightly below normal. EP-630 does not have a sound stage, but this one does; HES leads 1-0. Let’s get back to serious reviewing, shall we?
The first thing that strikes you when trying HES is the bass. It’s actually good in quantity and is rather clean sounding. I ran some frequency files and I can even hear 25Hz faintly. Alas! If only frequency graphs could give you an immersive experience! Testing Massive Attack’s “Tear Drop†is enough to tell you that bass here does not have much control - It’s partly bloated and partly farted. The low rumbles sound a bit “ballooned†/ loose. Anyways, you can’t blame me for not burning in. May be after 350 hours, it may settle down. If this was the only issue, I might have actually done that.
The thing it shares with the DBA-02? Sparkle in treble. Hence the name Hippo Epic “Sparkleâ€. There’s a bit of a sparkle alright. But the treble note here is thick and lacks the finesse. At times, the treble is harsh. Sibilance is present, but only if the recording has it.
It’s bass and treble dominant signature results in the slightly warmer mids being pushed down a bit. Mids are nothing exciting either as they lack details. The vocalist catches a slight cold. I’ll be charitable and call them “hazyâ€.
The aspect it shares with the DDM? The presentation is sort of “blendedâ€. That’s because it lacks in the separation department. Since most of my favourite music happens to be a bit complex and HES is simple, it chooses to do only a bit of separation and leaves the rest to my imagination. And to add to the woes, it’s dynamic range is compressed. For those who don’t know, dynamic range refers to how the quietest note sounds in relation to the loudest note. In the case of HES, the “background items†in the song will compete with the “foreground items†for attention. This is why I probably felt it was “congested†when playing “The Drapery Falls†(Opeth, “Blackwater Parkâ€) earlier in my N00b days. There’s a sort of a wavy background in the song, which becomes a slight bother than my other IEMs as the foreground is not grabbing your attention more.
Overall, I’d say the whole presentation is a bit muddy.
Tip rolling:
With the MEE M9 Balanced tips, typically bass is cut off, mids are pulled forward and treble remains almost as-is. With them, HES actually becomes quite a decent IEM as it takes care of one of the issues. It still retains the issues with Sound stage and treble thickness. But as mids come forward, the sound attains a bit of clarity and even separation feels relatively much better (due to the clarity). It still will not make it easier to follow each instrument like good IEMs do. These probably are the best tips to use with HES. Comfort wise too, they are good for me. HES can be used for non-attentive (only) background listening with these tips.
With the Hifiman Bi-flanges, the bass loses some of the flabbiness and gets tighter, but still retains the quantity. Mids get a bit recessed, so there’s a trade-off. Vocals still sound nasal and the muddiness is still present. Treble loses some of the sparkle and becomes recessed in the scheme of things. While this tip does take care of both sides of the spectrum, it does not do what M9 balanced tips do to the mids. This is the second best usable tip for HES.
Something that combines the mids & treble of M9 tips and the bass of Hifiman bi-flange would have made this a decent sounding and usable IEM for me, despite it’s numerous problems. I actually go by the rule “If it is broke, leave itâ€. So, I’m not searching for that wonderful tip in my collection.
Comparison to other IEMs
Source: Rockboxed Clip+, Volumes ranging from -24 to -16 depending on the song. More for M6, slightly less for HES and even less for EP630
IEMs: Hippo Epic Sparkle with Stock medium Tips, EP-630 with Stock medium tips, MEElectronics M6 with Stock bi-flanges
Massive Attack - "Tear Drop" (Mezzazine)
HES: Big bass quantity up front. It actually sounds like a decent IEM in the beginning. The "um hum hoom" sounds like a rumble with some IEMs, but a bit bloated here like someone blew it like a balloon. Lot of sibilance is observed, at times ear piercing. Due to the little sound stage, effects do not get a great amount of width or depth to play with. There is a slight bit of congestion when many things start happening.
EP630: “Great†bass quantity, I mean the bloat is killing me. It actually does the "um hum hoom" part better than HES. It even does the imaging - the effect traveling Left to right and then turning upwards and then traveling back very well. It's got a little circle for a sound stage, but it does not suck. It may present fewer details, but actually works fine for this song.
M6: Actually the bass quantity is less here. It's wider sound stage and depth helps in the presenting the “movement across the back of the head†better than the others. Sibilance is present, but I can also observe more things in the vocals. And finally, some separation too!
Result: M6 >> EP-630 > HES
Opeth - "Closure" (Damnation)
HES: This track does have sibilance and it shows through. It actually sounds very nice for the first 66 seconds where the song is slow and not many things are happening. Cymbals are thick sounding and feel slightly harsh at a few instances. When it begins to get a bit complex around 3:30, instruments get a little mixed in. I cannot concentrate on one instrument if I want to. Towards the end, the cymbals lose some details and also sound harsh as things get a bit busier.
EP630: It feels Claustrophobic - like Akerfeldt has no space to stand between the two guitars. Bass intrudes into the mids once drums get introduced. Cymbals sound nicer than HES - I mean very polite and with lesser details. The odd drum sound around 1:50 hits too hard. The dual vocals around 3:20 sound too close to each other. Towards the end, I felt that my head will explode if there were any more instruments in there.
M6: It feels very thin sounding coming from EP630. But there's a sound stage. The odd drum sound on the left around 1:50 has less impact here and is positioned deeply at the back. At least it does not bump my head around like the other two. Listening with M6 makes me feel as if I am listening to a new song compared to EP-630. The dual vocals around 3:20 are distinct here. Cymbals could feel a tad harsh at one or two instances. In the last 45 seconds of complex crescendo, I can easily point most instruments distinctly, though it gets a tad more complex here due to presence of more details.
Result: M6 >>> HES > EP630
Tool - "Vicarious" (10,000 Days)
HES: The mids feel a little drowned in this song. For casual listening, I didn’t find too many faults here except for a few: The vocals of Maynard James Keenan sounds like wrapped under a bed sheet, the lack of clarity and/or separation around 4:15 – 4:45 which kills one of my favourite drumming parts, drums sounding harsh around 5:40 and the loss of clarity from 6:50 towards the closing.
EP630: At the opening I observed how thick the guitars sounded. Drums coming in at 0:50 announce their arrival with a big bump. When everything happens so close to one another, you feel like trapped in a 4' x 4' room (with no doors) with the band. But, let me admit that I found EP-630 decent enough for this song. It’s an IEM with many faults, but until you know what you are missing, EP-630 is not so bad at all! And what you miss are actually the biggest and best portions of SQ, but just saying
M6: Again the opening sounds thin coming from EP630. This may not be my best sounding IEM, but in this comparison, it's leaps and bounds ahead. I can actually feel the complexity of the song here with all those details, separation and sound stage. The drumming around 4:40 following the "death rattle" and over "la la la" - nice! That's how I remember the song. The drums do sound a tad harsh around 5:40 here too.
Result: M6 >>> HES >= EP-630
Value for Money
The IEM retails for $45. Seriously? Pay $2 less, and you can get Hippo Pearl, which is much better even with the stock tips. For about the same price, you can get a MEElectronics M6, which has better separation, sound stage, speed and clarity. Leave aside the fact that MEEs sell for far less due to one form of discount or the other throughout the year. You can also get Brainwavz M2 for around the same (and M1 for lesser) price. While I am yet to hear them, I am sure they are much, much better than this. If left to myself, I’d price them around $20-25. Even there, I am a bit charitable.
Conclusion
HES are not bad; I mean definitely better than EP-630. With the M9 Balanced tips / HiFiMan bi-flanges, they even improve a notch.
Considering that I very much like Hippo VB and Hippo Pearl, HES feels like a driver tuning gone wrong. Not to mention the quality control aspect of marking Left and Right wrong.
By writing this review, I am ensuring two things
1) If I had to sell a few IEMs, this one will definitely be one of them. I am reducing any chances of getting a good selling price. If I had kept quiet, linked a slightly glowing review in my sale thread, I could have made a few more bucks.
2) Uncle Wilson would never, ever sell to me / give a free gift / consider giving a review sample. Not that I wish to, but you know, loaners and review samples equals no money spent out of pocket.
So, if you are going to buy from me in the very distant future, ignore and disregard this review.
Ranking in my list
These are the best IEM in the Tier called “Tier-WTFâ€. As much as I don’t like them, they sound better than EP-630 since they beat them in the sound stage department. In the future, they can move up in my ranking … if I can get something that sounds crappier compared to them.
Is it for ME?
Let’s write this in a Basic equation
If [You are buying from me] And [You won’t bargain to reduce my selling price] Then
Hippo Epic-Sparkle is a ‘special’ IEM, because for the first time I ventured out to give my opinions on an IEM in TE. My IEM collection has undergone massive changes between then and now. After several months, 3 proper 'reviews' and 2 “impressions†later, I am revisiting HES to write a review. I actually had the review almost ready until haraakiri sent his RE1 and postponed me informing TE about this "wonderful" IEM by a week
Photos:
From Left to Right (all muddy pictures only): IEM Views – 1 & 2, Driver housings up-close Views 1 & 2
Specifications:
- Driver Diameter: 10mm Dynamic
- Impedence: 16 Ohm
- Sensitivity: 96 [FONT="]±[/FONT] 4 db/ mw
- Frequency Response: 10 Hz to 20kHz
- Noise Isolation: 16dB
External factors
Accessories & Packing: Accessories include 3 sizes of single flange in Blue and Red colors. I actually like the colored tips because it’s much easier to differentiate between Left and Right under not so well lit conditions. There’s also the hippo pouch, which I use for storing my earbuds. The packing is minimal as usual. See my earlier post for photos of the packing.
Build Quality: The H-ES comes with a cloth sleeved cable that has a special affection to the case it resides in. Even after you take it out, it refuses to change back shape and retains some memory character, making you work hard to untangle and straighten it out at times.
The driver housing is decent, even the strain relief is thicker. But the combination looks a bit odd – metal housing and a plastic strain relief. They don’t have the looks of Hippo Pearl/VB though. The concentric circles on the back of the housing and the sparkling dots on the side sure confused somebody. It’s a pity that the guy/machine happens to be the one to mark Left and Right channels, because they are inter-changed.
Fit: These are like every other IEM. So, I’ve no issues with the fit and comfort, except that they have a driver flex when inserting the IEMs into the ear. I love the lingo - If I write “puchhkk sound when you insert IEMâ€, it looks downright ugly, “driver flex†looks neat.
Microphonics: Cloth sleeved cables tend to be microphonic and this is no exception. But, if worn over the ears, the microphonics reduces considerably.
Isolation: Isolation is not very good. Without music, it’s easier to strike a conversation.
The Sound
Initial Impressions
I got these as a surprise free gift along with Alessandro MS1i from Jaben. Well! That’s what they thought, but customs officials made sure that they collect the price of HES as customs duty. Anyways, at that time, I thought these were more sibilant than Hippo VB. But, I’ve come to grudgingly accept sibilance in the mean time, because many of my favourite artists thought it was fun to pronounce as many S..ses as they want and leave it as part of the recording
. So, any IEM that doesn’t have a small dip between 7-10 Khz is likely to produce sibilance. At the time of writing my “impressionsâ€, I thought these were “harsh†and “congested†at times. But, exactly “why†and “how†eluded me at that time. Fresh from reading reviews that said Hippo VB lost sibilance in 100-200 hours, I sincerely proceeded to burn these for 100 hours straight using uDAC and Zen V Plus alternatively. To this day, HES retains the notorious reputation of being the only IEM to be burned in outside of my ears.
Current Impressions
They share a quality each with DDM and DBA-02.
Ok, ok! I just wanted to write one positive line in my entire impression, that’s all. For those of you sleeping already, that should have woken you up. HE-S was in hibernation for months wrapped in it’s own cozy Chinese case for a long time. I came across a slightly positive review in head-fi and I jumped out of my seat….and fell down! I mean I tried listening after the burn-in period and found nothing remarkably interesting. May be my ears are up-to their old tricks again. May be I had a “giant killer†IEM in the closet and never cared. So, like a gold digger, I proceeded to test them for 3-4 days in a row along with another legendary IEM in EP-630.
For those of you writing reviews now or in the future, let me serve a cautionary note. When you are testing an IEM, you should note down your impressions a bit more elaborately. Otherwise, you’d end up in a similar situation as me. When I wanted to finally write the review, I opened my notes for the 3 day sessions and it read “Shit! Ouch! Oh God! Damn! What?†and a series of other 4 letter words (without the punctuation marks between them, which I added here for clarity). The whole note was about 100 characters long. What you are about to read is the expanded version. Don’t doubt me, a few 3 hr long movies have a script shorter than that – “Boy meets girl, loves, gets married after struggleâ€.
The Sound Stage is slightly below normal. EP-630 does not have a sound stage, but this one does; HES leads 1-0. Let’s get back to serious reviewing, shall we?
The first thing that strikes you when trying HES is the bass. It’s actually good in quantity and is rather clean sounding. I ran some frequency files and I can even hear 25Hz faintly. Alas! If only frequency graphs could give you an immersive experience! Testing Massive Attack’s “Tear Drop†is enough to tell you that bass here does not have much control - It’s partly bloated and partly farted. The low rumbles sound a bit “ballooned†/ loose. Anyways, you can’t blame me for not burning in. May be after 350 hours, it may settle down. If this was the only issue, I might have actually done that.
The thing it shares with the DBA-02? Sparkle in treble. Hence the name Hippo Epic “Sparkleâ€. There’s a bit of a sparkle alright. But the treble note here is thick and lacks the finesse. At times, the treble is harsh. Sibilance is present, but only if the recording has it.
It’s bass and treble dominant signature results in the slightly warmer mids being pushed down a bit. Mids are nothing exciting either as they lack details. The vocalist catches a slight cold. I’ll be charitable and call them “hazyâ€.
The aspect it shares with the DDM? The presentation is sort of “blendedâ€. That’s because it lacks in the separation department. Since most of my favourite music happens to be a bit complex and HES is simple, it chooses to do only a bit of separation and leaves the rest to my imagination. And to add to the woes, it’s dynamic range is compressed. For those who don’t know, dynamic range refers to how the quietest note sounds in relation to the loudest note. In the case of HES, the “background items†in the song will compete with the “foreground items†for attention. This is why I probably felt it was “congested†when playing “The Drapery Falls†(Opeth, “Blackwater Parkâ€) earlier in my N00b days. There’s a sort of a wavy background in the song, which becomes a slight bother than my other IEMs as the foreground is not grabbing your attention more.
Overall, I’d say the whole presentation is a bit muddy.
Tip rolling:
With the MEE M9 Balanced tips, typically bass is cut off, mids are pulled forward and treble remains almost as-is. With them, HES actually becomes quite a decent IEM as it takes care of one of the issues. It still retains the issues with Sound stage and treble thickness. But as mids come forward, the sound attains a bit of clarity and even separation feels relatively much better (due to the clarity). It still will not make it easier to follow each instrument like good IEMs do. These probably are the best tips to use with HES. Comfort wise too, they are good for me. HES can be used for non-attentive (only) background listening with these tips.
With the Hifiman Bi-flanges, the bass loses some of the flabbiness and gets tighter, but still retains the quantity. Mids get a bit recessed, so there’s a trade-off. Vocals still sound nasal and the muddiness is still present. Treble loses some of the sparkle and becomes recessed in the scheme of things. While this tip does take care of both sides of the spectrum, it does not do what M9 balanced tips do to the mids. This is the second best usable tip for HES.
Something that combines the mids & treble of M9 tips and the bass of Hifiman bi-flange would have made this a decent sounding and usable IEM for me, despite it’s numerous problems. I actually go by the rule “If it is broke, leave itâ€. So, I’m not searching for that wonderful tip in my collection.
Comparison to other IEMs
Source: Rockboxed Clip+, Volumes ranging from -24 to -16 depending on the song. More for M6, slightly less for HES and even less for EP630
IEMs: Hippo Epic Sparkle with Stock medium Tips, EP-630 with Stock medium tips, MEElectronics M6 with Stock bi-flanges
Massive Attack - "Tear Drop" (Mezzazine)
HES: Big bass quantity up front. It actually sounds like a decent IEM in the beginning. The "um hum hoom" sounds like a rumble with some IEMs, but a bit bloated here like someone blew it like a balloon. Lot of sibilance is observed, at times ear piercing. Due to the little sound stage, effects do not get a great amount of width or depth to play with. There is a slight bit of congestion when many things start happening.
EP630: “Great†bass quantity, I mean the bloat is killing me. It actually does the "um hum hoom" part better than HES. It even does the imaging - the effect traveling Left to right and then turning upwards and then traveling back very well. It's got a little circle for a sound stage, but it does not suck. It may present fewer details, but actually works fine for this song.
M6: Actually the bass quantity is less here. It's wider sound stage and depth helps in the presenting the “movement across the back of the head†better than the others. Sibilance is present, but I can also observe more things in the vocals. And finally, some separation too!
Result: M6 >> EP-630 > HES
Opeth - "Closure" (Damnation)
HES: This track does have sibilance and it shows through. It actually sounds very nice for the first 66 seconds where the song is slow and not many things are happening. Cymbals are thick sounding and feel slightly harsh at a few instances. When it begins to get a bit complex around 3:30, instruments get a little mixed in. I cannot concentrate on one instrument if I want to. Towards the end, the cymbals lose some details and also sound harsh as things get a bit busier.
EP630: It feels Claustrophobic - like Akerfeldt has no space to stand between the two guitars. Bass intrudes into the mids once drums get introduced. Cymbals sound nicer than HES - I mean very polite and with lesser details. The odd drum sound around 1:50 hits too hard. The dual vocals around 3:20 sound too close to each other. Towards the end, I felt that my head will explode if there were any more instruments in there.
M6: It feels very thin sounding coming from EP630. But there's a sound stage. The odd drum sound on the left around 1:50 has less impact here and is positioned deeply at the back. At least it does not bump my head around like the other two. Listening with M6 makes me feel as if I am listening to a new song compared to EP-630. The dual vocals around 3:20 are distinct here. Cymbals could feel a tad harsh at one or two instances. In the last 45 seconds of complex crescendo, I can easily point most instruments distinctly, though it gets a tad more complex here due to presence of more details.
Result: M6 >>> HES > EP630
Tool - "Vicarious" (10,000 Days)
HES: The mids feel a little drowned in this song. For casual listening, I didn’t find too many faults here except for a few: The vocals of Maynard James Keenan sounds like wrapped under a bed sheet, the lack of clarity and/or separation around 4:15 – 4:45 which kills one of my favourite drumming parts, drums sounding harsh around 5:40 and the loss of clarity from 6:50 towards the closing.
EP630: At the opening I observed how thick the guitars sounded. Drums coming in at 0:50 announce their arrival with a big bump. When everything happens so close to one another, you feel like trapped in a 4' x 4' room (with no doors) with the band. But, let me admit that I found EP-630 decent enough for this song. It’s an IEM with many faults, but until you know what you are missing, EP-630 is not so bad at all! And what you miss are actually the biggest and best portions of SQ, but just saying
M6: Again the opening sounds thin coming from EP630. This may not be my best sounding IEM, but in this comparison, it's leaps and bounds ahead. I can actually feel the complexity of the song here with all those details, separation and sound stage. The drumming around 4:40 following the "death rattle" and over "la la la" - nice! That's how I remember the song. The drums do sound a tad harsh around 5:40 here too.
Result: M6 >>> HES >= EP-630
Value for Money
The IEM retails for $45. Seriously? Pay $2 less, and you can get Hippo Pearl, which is much better even with the stock tips. For about the same price, you can get a MEElectronics M6, which has better separation, sound stage, speed and clarity. Leave aside the fact that MEEs sell for far less due to one form of discount or the other throughout the year. You can also get Brainwavz M2 for around the same (and M1 for lesser) price. While I am yet to hear them, I am sure they are much, much better than this. If left to myself, I’d price them around $20-25. Even there, I am a bit charitable.
Conclusion
HES are not bad; I mean definitely better than EP-630. With the M9 Balanced tips / HiFiMan bi-flanges, they even improve a notch.
Considering that I very much like Hippo VB and Hippo Pearl, HES feels like a driver tuning gone wrong. Not to mention the quality control aspect of marking Left and Right wrong.
By writing this review, I am ensuring two things
1) If I had to sell a few IEMs, this one will definitely be one of them. I am reducing any chances of getting a good selling price. If I had kept quiet, linked a slightly glowing review in my sale thread, I could have made a few more bucks.
2) Uncle Wilson would never, ever sell to me / give a free gift / consider giving a review sample. Not that I wish to, but you know, loaners and review samples equals no money spent out of pocket.
So, if you are going to buy from me in the very distant future, ignore and disregard this review
. Ranking in my list
These are the best IEM in the Tier called “Tier-WTFâ€. As much as I don’t like them, they sound better than EP-630 since they beat them in the sound stage department. In the future, they can move up in my ranking … if I can get something that sounds crappier compared to them.
Is it for ME?
Let’s write this in a Basic equation
If [You are buying from me] And [You won’t bargain to reduce my selling price] Then
A big Yes 
ElseIf [You are buying your first IEM and found this for $25 shipped and under] Then
A hesitant and muffled Yes :ashamed:
Else
No 
‘Plenty of better choices available in the price range
End If ‘Plenty of better choices available in the price range
