That would depend a lot on the TWS adapter too. Aren’t the fiio ones one of the better ones that are actually TWS? Those are pretty pricey to my knowledge too.

Regardless, you know what apple is. You know you’re paying their ridiculous R&D costs and getting some weird features you’ll never use. You’ve heard it all but Apple stuff just does the job that’s their whole marketing. Sometimes it does it’s job pretty well and that’s fine.

I don’t even know if I’d agree on the KZs, plenty of great iems out there that might wipe the floor with APPs but that’s purely sound wise.

You gotta remember in the bluetooth space, they’re just as much tech as they are traditional headphones. Tons of compromises made, but they’re also a lot more complicated. Also remember you aren’t getting a transparency mode, a pocketable case, a low profile bud, good battery life, ANC, spatial audio, multi device pairing, etc.

It really depends on the use case. APPs pricing has had tons of promos even as their flagship TWS bud, they’re a compelling purchase at the $175~ CAD pricepoint but they’re not for everyone. If you just want a good pair of TWS, the option you mentioned is a cool way to have some repairability and potentially great sound but do you think most people want to be messing around with that? I like audio and even I wouldn’t.

I truthfully don’t need anything amazing on the go. The APPs are just fine and the convenience features make it a good purchase.