Artti R2

Thanks to Concept Kart and gadgetgod for organising the tour of the Artti iems. Below is the review of the Artti R2.
All views of the iem are my own and have no incentives of any sort for the same.

Artti is a relatively new brand to hit the market with a set of iems that have gathered positive reviews quickly.

Build and fit

The R2 is a fairly small iem that dissappears into the ears fairly easily. The shell is resin based with a nice tesseract like faceplate in brown.

The R2 comes with a 2pin detachable cable and the the cable is a nice sturdy brown cable, but I dislike the L shaped taper.
The review unit came with a 3.5mm SE termination. The nozzles are fairly short and slightly above average in diameter, and did give me a fair bit of tip rolling
to get a semi decent fit. I wish the nozzles were a bit longer, and help get a deeper insert. This could be an overall dampener as the fit could be a bit of a compromise for people.

The driver is a beryllium DD. Wow, a BE diaphragm driver at this budget price is definitely welcome! Without going into the controversies in the annals of BE driver history (kbear believe et al),
the driver at this price is definitely an option to try atleast.

Sound impressions

While the iems drive alright at low volumes, I "believe" this will scale better with more power.

The sound is quite balanced, and quite reminiscent of the other BE iems that i mentioned earlier. Warmish neutral is how I would put it.

It is not a basshead or treblehead iem. The tuning is fairly neutral with very good detail retrieval and imaging. If I had a deeper fit with longer nozzles, I believe this iem has very good potential. Maybe a V2 will sort it out.

Bass - 3/5 - I was unable to get a deep fit and hence the bass was light overall. I think the bass body will definitely be helped with a longer nozzle.

Mids - 4/5 - Excellent textures and upfront presentation the vocals. Both male and female vocals are well represented

Treble - 4/5 - The treble speed is very good as expected from a BE based drivers. The iems are very nuanced on the treble end, without getting too bright.

Imaging - Above average imaging provides a very nicely done instrument presentation. Precise presentation of vocals and instruments are a highlight

Conclusions

The R2 is so full of potential, if only the nozzles were extended a little bit more. So close!

Specs:
Driver Configuration: 10mm Beryllium-plated Composite Diaphragm
Cable Material: 4-Core 92 Strands * 0.06mm Silver-Plated Copper Hybrid Wire
Impedance: 32Ω±1% (@1kHz)
Distortion: ≤1.5% (@1kHz)
Sensitivity: 106dB/mW (@1kHz)

Tonality wise it takes one for me; a very mild V-shape even leans towards the neutral side with a hint of warmth into the mix; the bass gives an organic feel to the male vocals while female vocals are not left behind. the mids are not that recessed like in some other set so they can feel a little emphasized in some cases. What makes this quite good for acoustic music is the feeling of having real strings in your ears while not breaking the bank. It’s worth his spot for me in the competitive market that is the single DD market. With the EPZ’s Simgot etc…

Bass is nice and punchy, the decay is okay, not the fastest. Sub bass and mid bass both have a good texture going for them feels organic, not forced. The driver is in control of the bass department. Some companies make the trait of less bass for more upper/treble; they are in harmony here.

Mids: get some warmth from the end of the bass self that makes this IEM slightly warm but it is quite minimal in my ears but there is some hem but just enough to help not to overpower. the real mids didn’t get a scoop out there and stayed nice and linear. For me it means that they are nice and clean, no funny business is going on all the way nice and flat upon you go into the upper mids where they got a pinna of 8db which is on the safe side. Maybe borderline boring for some people. The pinna peak is somewhere at 4k, quite a late peak but is a safe approach to the upper mids. It didn’t feel female voices where pushed back or husky sounding to me even instruments were well defined.

Treble: is again quite safely done there is detail in your music. are you gonna hear every single micro detail no but can you expect this for the price? it just starts to roll off around the 5k region. Cuz the problem for me is the 6k cuz my native language is Dutch and S sounds are very very sharp in some sets even my EA1000 hits them sometimes. But here again it didn’t find that it just rolls off at the right time. yes some under us wanted a bit more but that depends on your music library as well.

Soundstage is average wat is quite okay for an IEM at this price not to fault there. Layering well it's one driver that is in control, no funny business going on here to be honest. They did a really good job tuning a single DD. The Technicalities I said before are good for the price. They're not here to WAUW you from your chair here to do a job and that gives a feel good moment when you put them in your ears. If that is on your commute to work or even home.

But all said and done I can recommend these. I’m a bit unsure to be honest. I got them late and there are already 2 pairs of R3’s on the road for me. I probably have to see and wait cuz for the good of us the market is really competitive. what makes us a good selection of good Single DD to choose from that fit your music library better. That’s why I'm mixed about these, just the timing and the others on the market. They can’t fit everybody’s library. I see this one not fitting to someone that listens to a lot of classical or orchestra music then you need one with a higher top end.