ok. i was only hoping for decent/acceptable travel earbuds, with just middle of the road sound.i was and am, pleasantly surprised. the sound is rich, actual bass, and a nice range from low to mid to highsnow, i have tinnitus fairly bad ( ringing in the ears ) so mid and highs, are hard for me to hear.these come across nicely in these buds, without sounding " hollow" or pushed.pairing to your devices--- i think your device will be the issue, not the buds.i paired this to my older apple ipod very easily. my newer Samsung tablet, not so much. i DID get them paired, but, had to keep scanning, plopping the buds back into their charger box, then scanning, until i finally got it to pair up with bluetooth in my tablet.ive only done it on those two devices, but, both are worlds apart in manufacturers, so i expect pairing to my phone ( yet another different manufacturer ) to be fairly easy.i havent tested on water resistance, but, really have no plans on trying to 'test" their limits, outside of maybe sweating.overall, these seem to be 5 star across the boardand at THIS Price range, thats exceptional.