RHA T10i

About a year back RHA unveiled what would be their flagship earphone the T10/ T10i, with a retail price of about $189-199. The overall design and the material that went in manufacturing these earphones certainly made headlines in the audio world. (Injection molded stainless steel housing)
A year later RHA has released a successor to the T10 in the form of the T20 as their latest flagship, both of which I reviewed in the following link (both in video and written form) below
 
Lets see how the T10 fairs after the hype and the attention has settled down.
Disclaimer: As with every review, price is always in consideration when rating and commenting about the gear I am reviewing. Also, I want to thank @ThickT for lending me his personal pair of RHA T10i for this review and the following subsequent comparisons.
 
Below is my Full video review over on youtube of the T10i and my T20 review for reference. (i have also included my comparison video of the T20 vs T10i as well). Enjoy!
 


 

 
 
 
 
Accessories:
The T10s come with an abundance of accessories, and for good reason considering, it’s a premium product commanding almost a $300 price tag.  It comes with:
3 interchangeable filters (bass- black, reference-silver, treble-gold)
A Metal Platelet  to display the above mentioned filters
6 sets of single flange (of the hybrid variety, in various sizes)
2 sets of biflanges (2 sizes)
2 sets of foam tips
An elegant metal frame to hold the included eartips
A large zipper carrying case (to store the earphones and all the eartips)
A clothing clip
An Exceptionally Long standing 3 year warranty.
 
Summing up, theres not much more you can really ask for in terms of accessories, the T10s have certainly impressed me with the amount of goodies it comes with.
Overall: 10/10
 

 
Build Quality:
The T10i is absolutely rock solid, the earpiece housing is made of injected molded stainless steel, and they feel like very sturdy, like it can survive the full brunt of a hammer strike.  Continuing to impress is the cables, now I’ve experienced these cables before in my review of the Brainwavz R3, where I claimed that I would be able to play a game of tug of war with my friends and walk away listening to my R3s on my way home, I feel the exact same way with the T10is! The T10is have a cable that is almost rope-like, and its very thick with a heavy duty rubber sheathing that resistance towards tangling. However, there are a few downsides to this robust cable 1) the extra weight it carries can easily be felt when moving around 2) the cable is unusually long (I’m not tall by any means, 5’7 but the y split sits just slightly under my belly button), which in addition with the weight of the cable is very noticeable when especially when doing intensive activities, without the use of the cable cinch.
Overall: 10/10
 

 
 


 

 

 
 
 
Comfort:
Despite the plentiful use of premium steel and various other metals used, the T10is are quite comfortable. The housing has a very organic and rounded, stubby earpiece that may not work for everyone but in my ears they slip in perfectly. The added weight of the earpieces caused no irritation from the housing on my outer and inner ear. Overall, nicely done on RHA in terms of ergonomics.
*note I would have preferred the nozzle being angled 45- 60 degrees to help improve the comfort and relieve some pressure from the outer ear.
Overall: 8/10
 
 


 
 
Isolation:
I would say they are slightly above average. They are a vented design, however, so if your seeking complete silence, look elsewhere. Otherwise, I think the T10 will work well for a large majority of the population.
Overall: 7.5/10
 

 


 
 
 
Sound Quality:
This is the quick skinny on the overall sound signature of the T10i (combining my findings on all the filters).  The T10i, was intended for the newer generation listening to electronic, dubstep, hip hop and various other contemporary bassy music.  It doesn’t try to be subtle in the least, with a very substantial and aggressive bass boost.
 
After listening to the T10i for an extended period of time, I think I would change my ranking scale slightly.  I would give the edge to the Treble filters, due to the extra extension and it’s ability to wring out just a bit more detail. However, as stated back in my first impression video, the treble can be a bit much (which wouldn’t make the T10i as my recommendation for a “sit down and listen for hours on end” kind of earphone.  I personally feel that most head-fiers, would probably prefer the reference filter, a bit more due to “slightly less brash” treble.
 
The following review is based on my findings with the treble filter, I will include my thoughts on the other filters in the following section.
 
Bass: Let’s get this out of the way, the T10i is a very bassy earphone. This is true no matter what filters you equip them with. I would say, if you’re a basshead with a large budget, the T10i should be on your short list of earphones to try.
For me however, I found the bass too much. It has a substantial in the midbass hump, which makes the T10i somewhat bloated, in conjunction with the slower nature of the bass, would make the basshead say “Dat bass”. The extension in the bass is largely shadowed by the very large midbass hump, but I was able to hear it reach low as well.  For me, I felt the bass was somewhat poorly intergrated, and just felt like they turned up the bass dial a bit more then they should have.
 
Midrange: The midrange is quite recessed, and takes quite a nose dive, especially in the upper midrange, which causes a sort of veiling for causing females to lose their presence and body, making rather thin sounding and unnatural sounding.  Also, the midbass hump did bleed into the lower mids, causing some blurring to male vocals to help give way for more bass impact and thickness.
 
Treble: With the treble filters, obviously this part of the sound is definitely dialed up a notch (+3db precisely, where in the frequency response, RHA did not indicate). To my ears I feel like the treble filters bumped up somewhere between the lower to mid treble. This emphasizes the sort of “metallic” texture of the T10i, which can definitely make an “electronic mixes” more energetic. However, I felt that this treble boost is poorly implemented as it made the dip in the upper midrange even more apparent. Due to the overall proportion of the bass, midrange, and treble, this made the T10s somewhat brash or fatiguing (I would image this would apply to a lot of people as I have a slightly higher tolerance to sibilance than others).
(*Remember this is with the treble filter)). The treble appears to roll off quite quickly shortly after, making the T10 still somewhat dark sounding and rather congested.
 
Soundstage and Separation- I would say average, it has solid width, lacking in depth but separation is very impressive, despite the bass boost.
 
Reference Filter- While I rated the reference filters slightly behind the Treble, I believe, the reference filter would have the widest appeal at least as far as head-fiers are considered. The tonality is more natural, dialing back the treble to making female a bit less peaky, making the overall sound smoother but not as “overly” smooth as the bass filter.
 
Bass Filter- I found the bass filter to be my least favorite, because I felt while the bass satisfied my “inner basshead” and then some. I found the treble to even rolled off.  The overall sound signature is quite dark, making it more congested sounding, which made string instruments lack the realism or “bite” you get from cymbals.  On a positive note, the bass filter help mask the thinner treble that’s more apparent with the other filters.
Overall: 5/10
 

 

 
 
In conclusion, I feel the T10i was really a “hit and miss” for the most part. They are certainly on the right track in terms of build, comfort, isolation and accessories.
However in terms of the tuning, I think the T10i missed the mark here.  However, I think the T10i was a stepping stone to the what become of its successor the T20,
(I had also reviewed RHA T20, which was just recently released, here is the link to the T20 review (both video and written)
 
Last notes:
I personally couldn’t see myself using the T10i on a daily basis, and I would be hesitant to pay the full retail for them.  I think if you’re a basshead, a possible better and more afforable alternative is the JVC FXD80, and Brainwavz S5.  For an idea of the sound signature, at a cheaper budget, you can try the RHA MA600i, which takes on a similar sort of extreme V shape signature.
 
Overall Rating: 40.5/50=81%

Bought a pair of these this last week from an eBay seller - new in box, several available, for USD $175 with no tax and free shipping. Not bad!
 
My M-100s were in for repair (needed some screws replaced). I was temporarily using my old HDJ-1500s, but was appalled at how bad the sound stage was, and wanted something similar to the sound of my M-100s was, preferably more portable. So I settles on the T10is, which my first pair of high-end IEMs. The sound is awesome for their size, although in some songs the mid come across a bit too strongly. If you want an in-depth look over of the sound quality, I suggest reading one of the other reviews who are much more qualified than I am to judge. However, coming from my M-100s, with the bass filters on I was really pleased with how similar they sounded.
 
Four days into having these, I took them out of my pocket from the drive to work to find that the headphone plug was broken in half at about a 45 degree angle, at the halfway point with the barrel exposed. I have since been able to bend them back into about a 10 degree angle or so, and they still sound fine. But now I have to worry about these breaking off in the jacks of my devices, and I can't keep them in my pocket anymore if the plug will break completely - thus negating the purpose of being a more portable quality set for me.
 
Furthermore, RHA refuses to help with the problem since it wasn't purchased through an authorized retailer. I work for a company that makes a lot of devices, and when something like this happens we'd want to do everything we could to both help the user and then figure out what went wrong so we could improve the design for our future products. Disappointed with how they dropped the ball on this one.
 
So, left with two broken pairs of headphones at the end of the week. One which will be fixed, one which I'll probably be stuck slapping an extender on the already very long plug for the rest of its life. If you're thinking of picking up a pair of these, be very careful with the plug!