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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1614 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 25, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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What's the best bang for your buck (in terms of QOL) purchase you've ever made? The cheaper the better.

I'd say in-ear earphones with solid ANC are up there. I'm sitting outside the arrivals section of a busy international airport, and I felt mildly annoyed by the honking and general noise with earphones on and ANC engaged. Then I took them off to check and was practically deafened. Yup, they're cutting down 90% of the cacophony.

I own a pair of Galaxy Buds 3 Pros, purchased at about £130. I think they sound great, the ANC isn't quite as good as the Airpods I bought my brother on his birthday, but it's clearly a cut above my older Buds 2 Pro (Plus?). I happen to prefer the sound quality, and unless you've got an iPhone, they're about the best you can get on an Android device that isn't rooted and running Libre Pods. In fact, good ANC tends to improve sound quality overall in my experience, as it preserves bass by changing the acoustic impedance.

(The default Android kernel has a buggy, non-compliant Bluetooth stack. Until Google upstreams a patch, you need the root to get actual standards compliance and the ability to make use of all the Airpods' features.)

What's the best bang for your buck (in terms of QOL) purchase you've ever made? The cheaper the better.

IDK about best of all time, but my best recent lifestyle upgrade was a Bio-Bidet BB-1000.

I own a pair of Galaxy Buds 3 Pros, purchased at about £130. I think they sound great, the ANC isn't quite as good as the Airpods I bought my brother on his birthday, but it's clearly a cut above my older Buds 2 Pro (Plus?).

For whatever reason, the Galaxy Buds 3 Pros actually weren't quite up to the Galaxy Buds 2 Pros in terms of ANC. They were pretty widely knocked in for worse ANC at low frequency levels compared to the Buds 2 Pro, which was something that kept me from upgrading to them.

A "shiatsu" massage pillow I paid 20$ for. I hurt my back in a coughing fit during Covid and couldn't even sit up in bed without sharp pain for a few weeks. A single session with the pillow unpinched something and fixed 90% of the problem.

Even though it was $5k, I'm tempted to say my cooling tempurpedic mattress. That thing is amazing.

Best bang for my buck purchase I've ever made: a house.

Rents around my area have more than doubled since I bought it.

Best cheap bange for my buck: a Victorinox fibrox bread knife.

Not sure if it's the absolute best but it sure is bang for buck: A good led headlamp bought directly from the Chinese specialist manufacturer. Much better quality than almost anything sold in Western stores for a much cheaper price (I paid 50e because I wanted fancy red light mode and high CRI but you can get good ones for just 30e). I hadn't realized just how useful it would be for everything from tinkering with small things to reading tiny text to trying to see the notes in the low contrast sheet music my guitar teacher had given me and how much more pleasant a good one is to use.

A good bed. That's gotta be up there. Even though it's a high cost:high reward thing.

Can't think of anything exciting that's both inexpensive and fantastic right now.

it's a high cost:high reward thing

It doesn't even have to be that high cost.

When I bought mine I was lucky that a local magazine (well regarded for their comparative tests) had done a large comparative review just a year or two earlier. The top two were fancy high end beds costing 5000e or more. The third winner was the highest end model Ikea sold (for around 1000e back then). No points for guessing which one I bought and have been happy with since.

I got mine for around 1000 too. Which is perfectly reasonable for a bed, but a lot higher than the price of what OP brought up.

Wide, convex rear-view mirrors for a car

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