throzen0303
100+ Head-Fier
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Here comes my review of the newest offerings from Radius – The Radius Wn2
The latest generation of Dual-Diaphragm Matrix IEM
*****Thanks for Dimitri at MusicaAcoustics Japan shipping these to be asap after my payment,
even with the tragic earthquake happened in Japan recently. Bless Japan.
*****(He is currently offering a discount rate @$249USD(MSRP$298USD), get yours asap.)
Specs:
· Engine type: Dynamic driver
· Driver Unit: 15mm/7mm (DUAL DRIVER/CCAW)
· Sensitivity: 107 dB/mW
· Frequency Response: 10Hz-20000Hz
· Maximum Input: 20mW
· Impedance 24 Ω (ohm)
· Weight(w/o cable): 7.3g
· Cable Material* Nylon
· Plug: 3.5mm Stereo mini Plug Gold Plated
· Cable Length: 120cm (Y style)
Terms:
IEM – In-Ear Monitor
BA – Balanced armature driver
Dynamic – Dynamic(Moving coil) dirver
Packaging . Accessories
The packaging of the W2(TWF21) is simply one of the best out on the market, that’s what you would expect with Japanese design, the outer package seduced me to rip it open once I opened the shipping box. The accessories inside are fairly standard, an artificial leather clamshell case, pretty heavy wrap around mount inside, the usually sizes of tips, cleaning cloth, they are all there. What interests me is, they threw in a straight with L-Plug(male to male) converter in there, for someone who might be convenient to certain application.
Design . Build Quality
The W2 featured a Straight down cable, which the cable is wrapped with nylon for greater durability. I tried to wear these around my ears, it didn’t work as well as I expected, so to me, these are straight down wearing only IEMs. The build quality is there, but I think a bit more sturdiness is needed, when I put them into my ears, I can hear the housing have a tiny bit noise, which is from the small gap between the driver housing and the cable housing when I slightly twist them to fit into my ears. The nylon wrapped cable will have quite generate quite a bit of moving noise.
Fit . Comfort . Isolation
Radius had redesigned the DDM so people who suffered from fit and comfort issue from the original will have a better fit. I never tried the original, with the W2, they fit me perfectly with great comfort (I use the standard size that came with the W2, and with TF10, I use the small size).
The housing fits perfectly into my outer ear, like a demo custom design. Even I have successfully fitted the W2 into my ear canal with no problem, the isolation with not that great. The reason being the W2 uses TWO dynamic driver(15mm and 7mm), which the 15mm alone moves a lot of air and now with the 7mm driver added, they will have to use a vented design to ensure the driver is at its full potential, at normal volume, I will be able to hear other people chatting beside me, not too much with the music on, but a lot of ambient noise with music off, like a semi-open headpho
SQ . Sound Quality
Before I ordered for the W2, I did a lot of research, and I came down to the W2 website, I am Chinese, I was born in Canada and went back to Hong Kong when I was small and educated there for 11years, and I am currently living in Canada, I can read Chinese perfectly, but not Japanese, I went to Radius’s W2 website, I can read the kanji(Chinese words), they talked about live performance reproduction, 3D sound, tight bass, realism, energetic sound and so on. Furthermore, quote “Carefully tuned balance. Modest lows and clearer highs (compared to HP-TWF11x).” I never tried the original DDM, but these are one of the clearer dynamic based IEM out there, since the common “problem” with dynamic is the mids to treble are usually muffled, the W2 still can’t cut the mustard of the energetic treble and crispness from a BA based IEM, but it has improved over the once I heard before.
The soundstage of the W2 feels spacious and airy, maybe due to its vented design like a pair of open back headphones. Like how they described it on the promotion website, live reproduction and a fairly wide soundstage, but don’t expect them to perform like a well set up pair of speakers, nor expect them to feel like the performer are standing right in front of you. These characteristics are nowhere to be found in the W2.
However, the bass of the Radius W2, like most dynamic based IEM are excellent, nice and tight, a slight bit too much in terms of quantity for my taste, for those Monster lovers out there, these are great for your taste if you want IEM with rich and well controlled bass, but not overwhelming like some of the monster product.
The mids of the W2 are silky, fluid and warm. I would like it to be slightly more forward, in my opinion, but the W2 is not at all recessed, I just like a bit more forwardness mids in the genre of music that I listen to. This is one of the most detailed dynamic based IEM I have ever heard. The details are there but it’s not presented in the same way BA based IEMs are. They are just sitting in the back, also the W2 is fairly transparent for this type of IEMs, but not as most transparent as the BA based IEMs I have heard. The treble of the W2 is also well presented, smooth and fairly detailed making them very pleasant to listen to for hours. The treble gets slightly too warm up there, a bit rolled off the top becoming a dimmer sound. It would be really nice if the engineer at Radius would tune the W2’s tweeter with more extension, since the treble now is not enough, I would like my IEMs to feel like they have a limitless extension. Which is a bit of a disappointment for what I expected from a dual driver monitor and the price. I was expecting effortless extension treble with this speaker-like design.
.Conclusion.
From the long waiting time from the launch until the W2 arrived at my house, I kept asking myself, will the extra $150 from the original DDM be justified? I will certainly never be able to tell, since I never tried the original. The things I know about the W2 are: part from the treble darkness, this is one of my top choices for dynamic IEM, and also for a day to day or long listening time, since the W2 are redesigned to bring people a more comfortable fit which I do now, it’s been 2hours now since I started the review, I have had them on since then, no fatigue what so ever on my ears, weighting in at 7. 3grams, you can use them for hours of listening or recording without taking them off, but a resting period is recommended to ensure no damage are done to your ear. I am doing this to test out the comfort. For $298(Dimitri kindly provided a discount rate for active head-fi er @$249USD) this could be the best bet for dynamic based in-ear monitor if you are looking for something with a nice and tight bass, silky smooth and fluid mids, and decently presented treble pairing up with wide and airy soundstage, and under $300, look no further than the W2 if you don’t mind the slightly dim treble.
Have always found that this radius earphones look extremely classy and gorgeous. 
