In the glory days of technology in the 1990s and 2000s, you couldn’t go for cheap technology (or, as I often called it then, “cheap techy tat”). Themed MP3 players, personalized USB drives, horrible airline headphones, cheesy accessories you’d stick on your iPod; all of this covered the walls of supermarkets, post offices and convenience stores. Not so much, anymore.
It seems that cheap technology is much harder to find now; our growing technological expectations (techspectations?) combined with the advent of Temu and AliExpress have taught us the dangers of e-waste. But has all this concern about landfill taken away a special kind of novelty that the best cheap headphones don’t replace?
German retail chain Aldi, however, did not take note of the memo. As my editor revealed to me, nestled between plastic cheese and battery-farmed chicken, the brand sometimes offers honest headphones. But not in all stores, and with vague reliability: while Aldi’s website mentions wireless in-ear headphones, the photo taken by my aforementioned editor at Aldi instead revealed sports headphones.
So, does Aldi actually sell headphones or not? And what kind? And are they good? Plus, dare I ask, will they recall that nostalgic yesterday of electronic waste and toxic-smelling plastic? To find out, I hopped on a bus (and another, and another, my hunt took a while) to pick up a pair of Aldi headphones.
Looking for Aldi buds
Aldi: ten years ago, a brand synonymous with cheap prices and exotic and international specialties. These days, it’s a chain I associate with random food, varied availability, and a truly dystopian shopping experience (every store I visited required a receipt to exit, with no exits for non-purchasing browsers, and not even attendants nearby to let them out. What a world we live in, when you literally can’t leave a store without paying for something. Shame on you, Aldi).
That’s right, I visited several Aldi stores near me to find the headphones, as well as several Lidls as well. These two budget supermarkets are known for their central garage sale aisles, where you can buy virtually anything under the sun, but it actually took me a lot of searching to find a supermarket that actually had such an aisle.
Maybe it’s because I live in zone 2 of London and ended up traveling for hours, hopping between different stores, before finding one with a random tech aisle (and thankfully being able to get a receipt to let me out! I’m free!).
Wonderfully, the Aldi that ultimately delivered had a veritable cornucopia (Aldi Colliers Wood, for anyone living in South London). Not only did it offer the sports headphones in question, but it also had smart security cameras and solar-powered speakers. What finds! I would have chosen the latter, if it weren’t for my concern about the amount of toxic chemicals, two cheap technologies that could leak into my apartment (and the fact that my audio editor TechRadar only asked me to test the headphones…)
A brutal unpacking
These headphones are of course not called “Aldi Earbuds”. These are actually the Balco wireless sports headphones; no, I had never heard of Balco, and a brief search only revealed a sports doping scandal in the 2000s. Further research showed that Balco is a product import company, with sports headphones likely being sold as something entirely different in their country of origin, China.
The buds were clearly imported into the UK for Aldi, a fact revealed by the massive barcode on the back.
The box has to be the flimsiest piece of gadget packaging I’ve ever received; I accidentally tore it in half while trying to open it. But it’s completely recyclable, including the innards and USB-C cable casing, so no harm (and no stinky plastic in my apartment). That’s right, a USB-C cable is included, as well as two alternative pairs of ear tips in different sizes – I really wasn’t expecting that at this price, and it’s a nice touch.
The case is quite big, but not too much for sports fans. It feels a little flimsy, but has a four-LED charging indicator that wins my approval.
Enough dancing on the subject, what about the buds? These are your standard hook-on sports headphones, with an in-ear tip and a thin bundle of plastic that wraps around your ears. It’s pretty simple, with no branding or superfluous features, but I like the Violet Quartz color (which, as far as I know, is the only color option).
They integrate very well and, surprisingly, offer touch controls. That’s right, touch controls on £11.99 headphones, which was a pleasant surprise (if you’ve started a drinking game every time I write “surprising” or “unexpected”, stop now for your own health). And while the inclusion of built-in extras and touch controls should have prepared me for the big shift, I was still caught off guard.
And Betty when you call me, you can call me Al(di)
I’m shocked to write this: Aldi headphones don’t sound bad. They sound just as good as $100 headphones I’ve tested in the past, and better than some other budget headphones I’ve reviewed.
What I like about the buds is that they are definitely warm, but without relying too much on the bass. It’s present, but so are the mids, which are more apparent than in the vast majority of bass-heavy or V-shaped headphones I’ve tried. There’s also a solid soundstage.
There is path more details than I expected. Listen Down As I write this, I can clearly hear the repeated shaker, the reverb of Colin Hay’s vocals, the secondary rhythm guitar in the chorus. Too many headphones these days (especially workout headphones) focus on punchy bass that blows out everything else.
I’m not going to pretend that the buds are ringing Perfectand they won’t be confused with the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 in a blind listening test. Rather, it’s that they avoid the common pitfalls of many commercial headphones. They sound a little tinny at times, other times muddy, but for non-audiophile listeners I’d say they’d do just fine. As hail or muddy as you imagine, based on your own use of cheap technology in the past, reduce it by about 50%: it’s nowhere near as low as you’d expect.
Did Aldi secretly use Bose to adjust its headphones? I can’t imagine it: it’s a sign of the times. We are in the second half of the 2020s; Budget technology has caught up with high-end products to the point where it works pretty well. A $10 pair of headphones on Amazon will seem OK, just as a $100 smartphone or $20 smartwatch will work just fine.
This is why brands now sell their technology by feature set: a single driver can only be so good, and now with budget brands reaching the same ceiling as high-end ones, we can enjoy decent sound for less. When even JLab sells ANC headphones for less than $40, you know we’re in the glory days of budget-friendly technology.
Lasts a long time
You’ve just read hundreds of words complimenting the Aldi heads, but the more I used them, the more I discovered an increasing number of rough edges.
Most notable was the build quality: a visible join mark, which you can see in the image above, shows the factory creation of the heads. A crack appears if you bend the hook, and I don’t see them surviving a sharp bend.
This continues with the case, which feels a bit cheap. It’s made of hollow plastic, won’t stay open if you don’t hold it, and requires some fiddling to ensure the heads are inserted correctly. I’m curious to see how long the affair will last. The biggest problem I’ve had with other headphones is when the charging connector, which allows the headphones to receive power while in the case, stops working properly – the Aldi headphones feel perfect for breaking this way.
Other issues also emerged: These aren’t headphones you should be answering a call with either. I received one during an errand and the caller told me he could barely understand what I was saying; I actually had to disconnect the earphones to continue the call. I then tested the microphone myself and it is so bad you would think the signal was bouncing around the moon.
At times during my testing, I was also hit with periods of poor Bluetooth connectivity. This didn’t happen often, but about once a day I would have a period where my song would stop and start again.
I used these headphones for about two weeks before covering them; In my experience, cheap technologies have shortcomings in the long run. So as strong as Aldi’s sport buds seem now, a few months could bring them to their knees in a way that other buds would survive. But then again, it’s not guaranteed: a few years ago I bought some £20 sports headphones on Amazon, and they’ve lasted me ever since.
If you’re a big exercise fan, I still recommend purchasing from our list of the best running headphones; they have diverse feature sets, rugged designs, and sometimes unique audio features, all of which will make them perfect for daily gym sessions or ultramarathon training.
But what if you just want a few friends while you do 5K, or to accompany you on weekly parkruns? Honestly, I think this will do just fine… as long as you can stomach a trip to your local Aldi, and maybe a few more if your local doesn’t sell them.
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