Chord & Major 01'16 Review: Electric Heaven Chord & Major is a relatively new Taiwanese company specializing in building premium earphones. However, they design their lineup differently from other companies. Instead of making several tiers of earphones according to driver quality and tuning them in whatever way fashion they want, Chord & Major takes a driver and tunes it to perform well in a specific music super-genre. Today, I have the pleasure of reviewing the C&M 01'16, their earphone designed for electric music.
You can find the official page for the 01'16
here. The Electric Tonal Earphone has an MSRP of $300.
Disclaimer: This review is based upon a sample unit provided to me by a manufacturer or distributor in exchange for my
honest opinion and un-edited words. I do not profit
in any way from the writing of the review. I would like to thank Chord & Major for sending me this review unit.
Preference and Bias: Before reading a review, it is worth mentioning that there is no way for a reviewer to objectively pass judgment on the enjoy-ability of a product: such a thing is inherently subjective. Therefore, I find it necessary for you to read and understand what I take a natural liking to and how that might affect my rating of a product.
My ideal sound signature would be an extended sub-bass with a leveled, but textured, bass. The mids should be slightly less pronounced than the treble, but still ahead of the bass. I prefer a more bright upper range.
Source: The 01'16 was powered like so:
PC optical out-> HifiMe SPDIF 9018 DAC 3.5mm out-> earphones
or
AP100 3.5mm out or Ap60 3.5mm out -> earphones
or
HIFIMAN Megamini 3.5mm out -> earphones
All music was served as MP3 @320Kbps or as FLAC.
Sound Signature
Initial Impressions:
I was expecting these earphones to very bassy, but they are surprisingly well controleld. The bass is fast, full, and tight, but isn’t demanding of attention or in your face. Treble resolution is good, as is detail retrieval. The mids are very clear, and are a focus of the sound signature. It’s an interesting take on electronic music tuning, one that I haven’t come across before.
I’ve adjusted my test songs to ones that are either part of an electronic genre or make heavy use of electronic elements within the song. Wouldn’t make much sense to use a genre these aren’t tuned for.
Treble: Songs used:
White Flag,
Midnight City,
Outlands
For a song built out of synthetic sounds, the treble of White Flag feels natural and effortless. In spite of the ultra-wide frequency response range the 01'16 boasts, I get absolutely no sense of sibilance at all. Ever.
Treble resolution and retrieval, even at the upper ends of the spectrum, are good. Balance between the different parts of the treble is also good. It is, however, placed behind the mids, making it a background-actor in many busy songs.
Chord & Major did a good job tuning the 01'16 to generate a good amount of instrumental separation and general audio transparency. Layering is good, but the treble can slip behind other elements of the song. Despite the change in approximate positioning, the treble remains clear and un-smudged; a testament to the great minds working at C&M.
Mids: Songs used:
Dragon Pirates,
No More Domination,
Neverland (ft. Ruth B) (Prod. Blulake)
The mids of the 01'16 are great. Clarity and tonality are fantastic, and texturing is great. Both male and female vocals are presented well, and feel full and bodied, but not colored.
The lower-mids blend well with their surrounding frequencies in Dragon Pirates and Neverland. Attack and decay, while not blisteringly fast, are above average in speed.
Uppermost is an artist who’s music really takes advantage of the tuning of the 01'16. Their song, No More Domination, showcases this well. Uppermost makes heavy use of the mid-range, sampling sounds from a large variety of sources, and the 01'16 handles them well while keeping everything nicely separated.
Bass: Songs used:
Lights (Bassnectar Remix),
Gold Dust,
Leave Me
Bass is placed respectfully in the mix. It’s careful to not cloud up any of the other frequency groups, but at the same time, wants to be known. Coming from a set of IEMs with a much higher level of mid and sub-bass, it took a while for me to acclimate to the tuning of the 01'16. However, after about three or four hours, I was able to appreciate the precision and tight bass the 01'16 offers. Even in Lights (Bassnectar Remix), a song which rely heavily on sub-bass rumble, sounded good on the 01'16. In fact, the reduced emphasis of the rumble allowed me appreciate the other aspects of the song.
The 01'16 has a good level of punchines to it, and Gold Dust takes advantage of that. I expected the song to struggle to produce an immersive quantity of bass on the 01'16, which was a preconception that was proven wrong. The 01'16 took on a very well textured presentation as soon as the song started. The midbass, while more emphasized than the sub-bass, naturally interacts with the music and sounds very well “connected”.
Leave Me, however, did have some struggles. Given the 01’16’s bass is on the dryer side, the song did sound a little too shallow.
Clarity: Songs used:
Throne,
First Person Shooter,
Stand Up
The 01'16 is quite clear and does not distort, even at very high (but still listenable) volumes. Even during very busy songs the 01'16 performed well. I did not notice too many lost details, with there being some exceptions in the treble during the chorus of Throne.
Sound Stage
The soundstage of the 01'16 is well sized for electronic music. The stage is generally fairly wide, with a shallow depth. This does, however, create a very immersive aural experience during bass drops and other very chaotic electronic music features.
Genre Specific Notes
It’s worth noting that the 01'16 is never advertised as bassy, tuned for dubstep, or an IEM for bassheads. All C&M said is that is tuned for
electronicgenres. That can be a little confusing given the diversity of electronic music as a whole. Here’s my opinion on which subsets of electronic music the 01'16 excels at playing:
- Progressive House
- French House
- Big Room EDM
- Metalstep
- Electronica
- Electronic Pop
I’m sure there are more sub-genres that I haven’t thought of or haven’t heard yet, so don’t take this list as gospel.
Packaging / Unboxing The Tonal Earphone series from Chord & Major is far and away the best package set of earphones I’ve come across to date. The package as a whole is compact, stylish, and protective. The inside of the box is divided up efficiently, and the cable of the IEM is coiled up such that it won’t get kinked or bent before the customer gets it. Each Tonal Earphone comes in a box made from a different material. The 01'16's box comes in the glossy piano-black flavor, made from what looks like a hard plastic. It feels very premium and is indicative of the high price tag.
Forgive the low color range of my camera. The boxes look much better in person.
Build
Construction Quality
The build of the 01'16 is fair. The stress relief on both the 3.5mm cable and driver housings could be beefed up a little bit.
Despite my misgivings regarding the stress relief, the cable is actually quite nice, and has an innate ability to dissipate mechanical stress. The woven/braided cloth sleeving does a good job protecting the internal cable while looking good. The chin slider on the cable does a good job warding off any stray microphonics, a welcomed addition given the nature of the cable’s construction material.
The driver housings are built from metal and a carbon-fiber material, which has a slight shimmer to it. It’s covered in a slight glossy layer giving the housings a minor visual depth. It’s an interesting effect. The back of the driver housing is built from a brass-colored metal, and has a little wing sticking out the back that the cable is threaded through. As for whether or not this is a structural or purely cosmetic feature, I do not know.
Comfort
The 01'16 is quite comfortable for me. The tips that come pre-installed on the 01'16 fit me well and seal out the sound of my keyboard reasonably well. Listeners with smaller ears may experience some discomfort due to the sudden cutaway from the nozzle to the body.
Accessories None of the Tonal Earphones from C&M come with a large number of accessories, but those that they do come with are high-quality. Inside the package you will find:
- 1 soft carrying pouch
- 1 cable winder
- 1 cleaning brush
- 1 6.3mm to 3.5mm jack (1/4 inch adapter)
- 2 extra sets of eartips
I really like the carrying pouch. It’s made from a soft synthetic cloth and closes using a push-button. While it’s no Pelican case, it will certainly keep the dirt, dust, and other sultry substances of day-to-day life out and off of your shiny new earphones.
However, I would like to see Chord & Major include a wider variety of eartips. When you compare the offerings of the $130 RHA MA750i to that of this $300 IEM, the disparity becomes quite apparent. At the very least, try and throw us some genuine Comply.
Summary The Chord & Major 01'16 Tonal Earphones set out to provide the listeners of electronic music a hand-tailored listening experience to suit the unique requirements of the relatively new super-genre, and it does so wonderfully. That’s good news for listeners who’s music library is comprised of mostly electronic songs. However, those of you with more diverse music collections may want to look at some other IEMs in this price range, or even the World Music Tonal Earphone from yours truly, Chord & Major.
