(ps: this review was published in october 2019 but it seem either it disappearr or i just publish it on my website)
TONALITY: 8.5/10
TECHNICALITIES: 9/10
CONSTRUCTION: 9.5/10
DESIGN: 8.5/10
ACCESSORIES: 9/10
VALUE: 10/10
AUDIOSENSE T800 is the flagship multi balanced armature uiem from the wonderfull T serie of AS chinese company that include single BA T180, Dual BA’S T260 and triple BA’s T300. All T serie earphones use original Knowles balanced armatures. If you have ever listen to the T180, you know how refined and wide dynamic range sound a single Knowles BA can achieve.
Now, let’s imagine you put 8 of them and carefully tuned them in a big resin housing : this is what you get with T800, and well, it’s sincerly mind blowing.
Now, let’s say this high end implementation, wich can be comparable with top high end iem, sell at the price of budget mid-fi iem : this is what you get with T800 too, an affordable 300$ price that worth the investment even from poor audiophile like me that count every pennies he got in its pocket.
I have try and own multiple high end earphones, from 300$ to 2000$, none of them give me this immediate wow effect, and if they does like the Campfire Polaris, my ears get tired of the tricks and finally discover annoying imperfection in frequencies peaks, timbre or treble. Not so with the T800, wich in fact just continuously impress my ears by the supreme dynamic it have as well as revealing, lively and rich sound.
When they don’t impress me, either its due to bad recording, bad source pairing or bad eartips fitting, wich in my opinion underline the only slittle drawback : fit issue due to big bulbous housing. We will talk more about this later in this review because its a complex subject, this fitting issue will sure not occur to everybody as well.
So, let me begin by saying i wait a long time before receiving this earphones, my expectation became even bigger than T800 housing, i was expecting never seen audio value and to my sincere surprise it surpass this because I was still thinking some tuning issue will occur with so much drivers in there, but nope, not harsh peaks, no distortion, no congestion, just a whole immense cohesive sound experience with the lush Knowles timbre.
I mean, did anybody ever been surrounded by 8 pairs of speakers? Here, its more like 8 pairs of small satellites speakers all place perfectly around your head, and they have rich warm timbre and naturally extended treble. And they fit in the smallest pocket.
I suggest you to buy the Audiosense T800 directly from the company official Aliexpress store HERE
DISCLAIMER : Unlike lot of reviews sample I receive, for the Audiosense I throw some money….a big 30$,okay, its 10 times less expensive but this is to say I choose Audiosense and approach them myself, this review is not some random earphones fall from desperate chinese company or seller, its rational choice. As well this contact approach permit me to deal 100$ discount for 10 lucky audiophile, and believe me : they are happy consumers as well. All this to say, i’m fully independant to share my toughs as Audiosense already know. And as always with sub-500$ audio gear, my obsession about price value will be extremely sincere here.
INFO & SPECS:
- Brand Name: AUDIOSENSE
- Control Button: No
- Active Noise-Cancellation: No
- Style: In-Ear
- Wireless Type: None
- Connectors: 3.5mm
- Communication: Wired
- Vocalism Principle: Balanced Armature
- Volume Control: No
- Frequency Response Range: 10-22000Hz
- Function: Monitor Headphone
- Function: for Video Game
- Function: For Mobile Phone
- Function: For iPod
- Function: HiFi Headphone
- Sensitivity: 90dB
- Is wireless: No
- Plug Type: L Bending
- Codecs: None
- Support Memory Card: No
- With Microphone: No
- Model Number: T800
- Resistance: 9Ω
- Waterproof: No
- Line Length: 1.25m
- Support APP: No
- Silicon tips Diameter: 4.0mm-4.3mm
- Foam tips Diameter: 4.3mm-4.9mm
3D Printing/ Skin-Friendly resin shell/ 8 Knowles BA per ear/ 8-Way/ Trible Tube system/ Custom Pannel/MMCX detachable cable The T800’s with Knowles (SWFK+HODVTEC+4 customized complex balanced armature )=8BA deliver smooth, translucent and more sonic details.
ACCESSORIES, CONSTRUCTION & DESIGN :
UNBOXING is more likely to be the one of a pelican-like carrying case stock with all the T800 goodies wich include 2 excellent cable, one being a 4cores SPC mmcx braided cable and the other one being an high end OCC 8 cores cable. The protective case is of great quality and have enough space to fit more than just the T800 and its 2 cables. Accessories include a cleaning brush and generous amount of silicone eartips and memory foams eartips (that I don’t use). All in all, you get premium accessories that even higher priced earphones do not care to include, especially in term of case and cable quality.
CONSTRUCTION is again very impressive and on par with highest expectation one could have for a 300$ earphones pair. Housing is exquisitly crated, using 3D print technologie as well as special bio-adaptative resin material that is extremely smooth and well polish. You can see all drivers in the body easily, wich is candy for they eyes, as well, the back have a carbon fibre plate embended in resin that change aspect with light reflect. On this plate you have the AS logo on the left and Audiosense one the right, both made of metal lettering wich again proof high level to details in construction. The mmcx female connector is perfectly fitted in housing without free space and give very tigh and secure connection, at its left side you have a small venting hole.
The choice of cable isn’t let to hasard too, and explain why Audiosense change the 8cores silver plated one for a 8cores OCC full copper, after multiple testing, they find the OCC to work better by giving more natural timbre and more controled treble than the silver plated one.
DESIGN is well thinked with an organic and custom like shape, enough long nozzle and well, a very chunky body as we can expect with a 8 balanced armature uiem. Sure, the housing is big with its near 2cm long x 1 to 1.5cm thick body, but only people with small ears will find this problematic. The most important thing is to find the right eartips that make a good secure seal and permit the sound to expand freely. This isn’t as simple as it look, unlike most earphones that you tend to push deeper, the T800 do not really need the same type of fitting that will affect bass performance with other iem because the bass came from balanced armature.
I play with alot of eartips, wide bore one being the best I find, but if i push it too deep the soundstage became narrow and treble more fowards, wich affect spacious imaging. Eartips included have too small hole and affect badly the sound too, memory foam tame the bass. KZ starline are good but put nozzle end too far from ear, wich make the sound little darker. I really suggest you to find by yourself the eartips that will take full advantage of T800 incredible sound potential.
ISOLATION is excellent, deeper you push the nozzle, more it will block outside noise. T800 is one of the more intense passive noise isolation iem I have. As well, if their nise leakage, only a cat or a bat will find it annoying.
DRIVEABILITY is at the same time super easy and super complicate in the sens these have very low impendance AND sensitivity. Some audio source with too high impendance will create hissing or distortion or affect negatively the sound balance, my phone do this as well as my Tempotec V1A. I’m not sure to understand exactly what aspect of audio source affect balanced armature drivers performance, but the best sinergy I have is with my Ibasso DX90 that sound crystal clear and have 0.1 impendance and 118 signal-to-noise ratio. So here it is more about clarity of signal with low distortion and black background noise floor possible. T800 are flagship audiophile earphones that need audiophile gear to shine, it need reference DAP or DAC-AMP to be driven perfectly.
SOUND:
OVERALL SOUND IMPRESSIONS wasn’t the type of soundsignature one could imagine coming from 8 balanced armature, nope, it isn’t razor sharp analytical sounding, its extremely revealing but in a natural acoustic cohesion that have thick instrument timbre, very weighty bass, organic transient response and extremely accurate imaging that never sound artificial or forced and will impress as much the serious critical listener than the passive one waiting for specific frequencies range pushed foward. In fact everything is gently pushed fowards with the T800, but all in separate way only this numbers of good quality BA’s can offer, this sens of frequencies response tend to highlight singularity of every isntruments and sounds palying togheter, avoiding them to mix up in a messed way but avoiding too making them sound artificial as we can find with some multi BA’s that choose a too bright tonality.
Now, when you will listen to complex music with lot of instrument, like a violin concerto with harpsichord far in the back, at first you will be impress by how clear orchestra sound, but this fascination will expend when you will be able to extract every violonist from the crownd and concentrate to its playing and the timbre of its instruments. Every instrument is treat with same effortless presence, wich make the T800 very neutral in its approach, okay, perhaps your afraid it will sound boring? Don’t be afraid cause the bass is very thumping and full sounding as well! In fact, I adore listening to IDM with these too, the bass is beefy and fast, mid bass is more muscular than sub bass but lower end dig as deep as most dynamic iem too. Most admit I never tough balanced armature can dig that much bass, wich make me question about what I read about Knowles BA 50hz limit.
Yes, the Audiosense T800 surpass the high promise of its serious price range and can compete with way highly priced earphones, they offer an incredibly well articulate sound, with rich tonalities, natural timbre, fast weighty attack and a sens of layering from high end audio league.
SOUNDSTAGE is out of your head, holographic, with a spherical sens of tallness, widness and deepnest. Spaciality is really well done and more similar to great full-size closed-back headphones than earphones.
IMAGING is utterly fascinating due to it’s multi-layered clarity that offer pristine accuracy to instrument separation. Whatever the numbers of instruments playing togheter, they will still keep their individual space with good distance from each other. Only bass can gently warm lower mid instrument, wich give even more sens of naturalness to whole imaging cohesion. What is very enjoyable to me is the fact the instrument separation neither feel clinical or overly analytical, as their no drop in frequencies range instrument sound balanced all togheter and not just emphased to deliver highs micro details often found with iem trying to mimic a sens of sharp imaging.
BASS is positively oversized for a balanced armature based iem, its thick, weighty, have authoritative slam and fast thumping energic presentation that add a fun side to overall balanced and neutral presentation that will follow with mid range and highs. Its the bassiest full BA’s iem I own, without being immaturely tuned for basshead. Lower end extend well but do not have a particularly textured timbre to help separation with mid bass, wich make it mix togheter and gain in body and slam weight but not in transparency and tonal accuracy. Mid bass is more emphased than sub bass and overshadow it a little, I would have prefer a more linear bass response so when kick and bass line play togheter it have same level of clear separation than mids and highs. Still, thick mix of lower and mid bass only occur with specific music, like electronic using lot of digital instrument, when its acoustic instrument the kick will have good separation with bass line that will be in background, clean of any 100hz thickness.
MID RANGE is a vast revealing one with the T800 as every note of every instrument in this range sound full,rich, weighty and naturaly textured without ever struggling to gain presence. Timbre is impressively thick from lower to high mids wich give as much liveliness to male or female vocals than piano or violin. This is how we know we are into a well tuned multi drivers acoustic territory when a cohesion of rich diverse musicality mix togheter naturally and make you immerse into a complex tonals and timbre balance. Yes, mid range is as much lush than vivid. With most earphones, it feel like there only one spotligh over a specific frequencies range, especially the one that will enlight the vocal, with T800 its like having multiple spotlight that let nothing in the dark, so you can enjoy any instrument with the same amount of timbre fullness and tonal accuracy wich is phenomenal for concerto, symphonies, complex jazz, rock, folk music. In fact T800 can deal with any music style and deliver a full presentation of any instruments. Nothing feel forced in mid range, yet everything have lively presence. You will neither find sibilance or grainy overemphased texture in this range, its quite smooth in fact even if weighty and fulld bodied.
TREBLE is on line with all rest of spectrum, and I can even say it tame a little with long burn in time I give because at first the percussions was more fowards and less well balanced than right now (no joke and no brain burn in). Again, we have revealing highs and important amount of microdetails, but they stay at the back when they need too and will sound ultra crisp and well define when the music highlight them. The attack-decay is fast and will render good realist resonance when the classical guitar is played in a hall, not in a miced studio, here it will be mroe about texture. The T800 deliver the recording as it is, it only had extra sens of spaciality, weight and clarity, as well, again, high range timbre is very rich, never dry or metallic wich give harpsichord a less light and resonant approach wich destabilize me at fisrt until I discover I hear more accurately counterpoint motifs of bach compositions. In other words, T800 is barely analytical, but as it do not have a clinical or cold approach to its extremely revealing sound rendering, the musical cohesion, smooth timbre and lack of harsh peaks make you forget about how revaling they really are.
SUB BASS : 8/10
MID BASS : 8.5/10
MID RANGE : 9/10
TREBLE : 9/10
TIMBRE : 9/10
ATTACK-DECAY : 9/10
IMAGING : 9/10
SOUNDSTAGE : 9/10
RANDOM TRACKS TESTING :
HILARY HAHN ‘’J.S. Bach: Partita for Violin Solo No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002 ‘’
Transient response is phenomenal with the T800, wich every hit of bows show whatever the range or speed its played. Violin sound full, and have realist controled resonance after each strokes. Timbre isn’t too grainy, bright or textured, we do not hear microscopic details of it, but it feel vaster and more alive. Sound projection is inject with soul and sens of spacial presence that breath air instead of stoling it. It’s hard to explain, but I feel solo instrument test is important with a multi drivers to know how well its tuned and the T800 show perfect cohesion; smooth, thick, buttery, refined cohesion wich tend towards musicality enjoyment over analytical colouration. With the T800, silence is full of air and instrument note breathe this air to fullfill every note with sens of tactile weight and space.
AGNES OBEL ‘’The curse’’
The minimal instrumental appear with authority in clean vast black background, every plucking note of cello and violin are ultra clean, accurate with tigh weighty attack-decay and subtle realist texture. When the violin stroke line begin, its transparent and extremely well layered, take the front seat as it should and have an appealing fullness in timbre. When Agnes Obel voice appear, while it struggle all your attention, it do not feel too fowarded unlike some iem that make instrumental sound very far in the background here everything mix as if we where in the studio with signers and musician. Voice is well centered, fully transparent and thick in timbre, no tonal disbalance, slightly organic and extremely clear. When cello line play, it have lot of body to it, but not in a sloppy too bassy way as it could happen with inferior iem. When everything play togheter, piano, violin, cello and voice, the level of accuracy is mystifying because ever instrument keep their weight and fullness without mixing in a too opaque way that will affect imaging. Yes, listening to Agnes Obel with T800 is surely a superior musical extase than going to her concert. Mesmerizing.
AUTORYNO ‘’Greifswald’’
Again, what an enjoyable and rewarding listen! This isn’t easy rock music to deal with and the T800 take it to a next level of excitment. It can deal accurately with whatever type of electric guitar timbre you throw at it. Snar, guitar and bass line are full of attack and weight, with percussion staying in the background and never sounding false or splashy. Solo guitar line are superb, not too abrasive they aren’t sound shouty or overly agressive, again, they do not feel to pushed fowards and stay in line with reste of instrument. Bass line are very thick and weighty and stole a little place to the drum with their more opaque presence, but this make it for a very exciting and lively listen. I mean, we wanna heard the bass line perfectly and T800 deliver just that. Percussions take right and left side of audio spectrum, giving a sens of spacial accuracy. Speed of BA’s drivers is fully exploit here, and extremely impressive as we can hear when complex mix of texture, percussions, bass and plucked electric guitar note play togheter with intense bravado. Sure, some would like electric guitar to have more teeth and brightness, but this would make the listen very agressive, what T800 succed is to offer extremely muscular and lively musicality without making it sound too harsh or peaky. Incredibly enjoyable listen.
COMPARAISONS :
VS FINAL AUDIO B2 (300$) :
Now, well, even if I feel its an unfair fight both of this iem are priced the same, so, hum, yeah, the T800 score 8 Knowles BA’s in its chunky body and yes, it’s an unfair fight even if I sincerly think the B2 have the best single BA I ever heard. Anyway, the T800 are less comfortable and you struggle more to find a good fit too, wich is of first importance to be rewarded by its incredible sound. In other hand, the 8cores cable included is of better quality than the basic one included with the B2. I’m not sure the T800 will have as long durability than B2 too, one thing sure, it will be way more complex to repair!
Well, the sound, I mean, T800 are my favorite sub-1000$ iem right now so what do you expect? SOUNDSTAGE is more out of your head, with an holographic spaciality that surround you while the B2 feel very intimate and average wide compared to this giant spherical soundstage of T800. IMAGING is razor sharp with T800, its really like being in the middle of 8.1 surround system and there way more space between instruments than B2, with T800 every instrument have their own space and singularity, while with the B2 they can feel compressed togheter and lacking air.
BASS is thicker, weightier, have good slam and chunky body, its faster and tigher but have less transparence than dryier B2 wich have softer attack and less good separation in low end. MID RANGE is just a hint brighter wich give better attack-decay and more definition as well as way better imaging than more relaxed B2 that have smoother timbre that make it less agressive and perhaps a little more natural in timbre and balance. TREBLE is more energic and fowarded with the T800, so you have plenty more micro details especially in upper range, highs are more sparkly with better definition than more laid back B2 wich sound more neutral than W shaped T800. All in all, as said, it was an unfair fight and the T800 sure sound more spectacular, vivid and lively than more laid back , intimate and natural sounding B2.
VS FINAL AUDIO B3 (500$) :
Now, well, this new budget flagship earphones have 8 Knowles Balanced armature in its big resin shell, is it a fair fight against 2 BA’s of the Final Audio B3? Priced at 500$, B3 is neat twice the price of T800, but tuning work is sure from another level and let’s see why in this comparaison.
Firstly, T800 even with 4 times more BA’s is easier to drive than the B3, but this make him more prompt from background hissing with bad pairing audio source, in another hand, the B3 benifit from powerfull source to open its overall sound.
In term of construction, both are mindblowing and well, quite different, resin housing have the advantage of not becaming cold in winter, while the stailess steel housing of B3 have the advantage of being way smaller and comfortable as well as practical for futur repair if needed because of 2 part screwed housing concept. The T800 will not fit every ears, this is an unfortunate fact, while the B3 will fit even the smaller ones.
SOUNDSTAGE is wider with the B3, but the T800 is taller in deeper even if less out of your head and airy.
IMAGING of both is quite incredible, and even if B3 win in term of cohesion and realism it is less analytical and sharp in instrument separation than the T800. In real life, the soundwave mix togheter on the stage, but if every instrument have their own spaekrs, we have something more revealing and fowards, like the T800.
BASS have more slam and weight with T800, its more fowards too, but loose in timbre as well as definition being sometime boomy in lower end where B3 is more accurate. B3 is smoother in attack, notably less coloured in sub region, wich make it way more neutral in low end than muscular and fun oriented T800. In some sens, B3 sound like a well balanced slightly bright single dynamic driver compared to super muscular bass Knowles Bas used for T800. For acoustic music, B3 bass is more appropriate, while T800 is delicious with well produced electronic and Pop.
MID RANGE is again very foward and clear with the T800, but it have more a balanced armature than B3 and lack a bit of thickness in timbre, here I seriously find the B3 from another league even if the vocal do not feel as singular and appart from rest of sound spectrum as T800. Male or Female vocal soud full, natural and textured, they have more body than T800 wich feel dry and slightly harsher in upper mids. T800 is more capricious about vocal, more their will be instrument, more the mid range transient response will be affected to some degree. Cohesion is perhaps warmer and less vivid with B3, but tonality and timbre is better. For example, piano note have more well rounded not and sound right compared to more artificial sounding one of T800.
TREBLE is more peaky with the T800, wich sure extract more micro details but have less balanced highs wich can sometime make the percussions being too fowarded and stole the whole show, again, sometime this is very pleasant and spectacular but the softer and more natural treble of B3 will never create ear fatigue like the T800. Final Audio tuner are genius about treble, they do not want to over emphasis any region and in fact the treble help more the mid range richness and accuracy than upper highs, wich are rarely fowarded (with the exception of F serie). Even if more analytical than E5000, they sound quite laid back in treble compared to T800. While attack is softer in upper range, decay is longer and I think its due to housing space being fullfill by BA’s with T800.
VS VSONIC VS9 (300$) :
Here, let’s see how a great single 11mm dynamic driver from Vsonic can compete against 8 great balanced armature. The result might be surprising cause VS9 sound incredibly revealing and balanced.
Now, for construction, I give the hand to T800 with is invincible resin body, but in term of comfort the VS9 is smaller and fit perfectly my ears, wich isn’tthe case with big chunky T800.
SOUNDSTAGE is slightly wider with the VS9 but lack the holographic spaciality of T800 as well as its deepnest and tallnest. IMAGING is more precise and dynamic with the T800, instrument separation have more space between them. BASS is weightier and more chunky-thicker with the T800, while the VS9 have better control and more balanced lower end with better transparency but less thumping impact, i think T800 bass is more boomier as well. MID RANGE is more detailed and richer with the T800 but have more recessed vocal especially when big bass occur, wich do not happen with the VS9 that have some upper mids emphasis that can sometime create near audible sibilance but tend to make femal vocal lusher than T800, still, mid range is more rich in layers with T800 wich make him more revealing with multiple instrument playing at same time, compared to the VS9 that willmix them togheter, T800 willkeep them all alive in their singularities. TREBLE is more extended with T800, giving more highs sparkle, more micro details, clearer percussions that can sometime can feel to fowards whileVS9 have a touch more natural cohesion but darker treble comapred to vivid T800.
All in all, this was rather a fair fight, both advantage and disadvantage of dynamic vs BA being shown, still, the VS9 sound less spectacular and immersive than T800.
VS UFOEAR UFO-112 (360$) :
The UFO is a 1DD+2BA’s hybrid from a new chinese company that is quite audacious with their sci-fi design but as well with their no so affordable price. Construction is quite underwhelming for this price range, just a full plastic housing one would expect from a 50$ iem. The cable is a nice 8cores SPC, really similar to the one included with the BQEYZ Spring1, but that cannot compete with top notch construction of T800 that have high quality resin body as well as a nice 8cores OCC cable. Again, no surprise, the fit is more natural with UFO and will not encounter perfect sealing research as I have with T800 to get the most out if it.
Now, for the SOUND, well, let’s say the UFO is K.O in every aspect. SOUNDSTAGE is more intimate, less wide but about same deepnest. IMAGING is more about upper range and lack precision and definition in mid range compared to extremely accurate T800. BASS is thinner in lower end with UFO, have less body in mid bass but fowards punch, T800 is thicker, fuller sounding but less textured and dryish. MID RANGE is more recessed with UFO as well as brighter, thinner and more artificial sounding than more present, wider, lusher and more bodied mids from T800, vocal lack body with the UFO wich make them lifeless compared to superb T800 that show what it can do when big bass do not occur. TREBLE is more coloured and peaky with the UFO, wich do noit mean it dig more microdetails, just that highs have more decay wich can benifit classical guitar but only in solo if you want it to sound right, otherwise it sound unbalanced opposite to full treble coverage of T800.
All in all, UFO is overpriced while T800 is underpriced.
CONCLUSION :
Writing this review was hard, because every time I begin to listen to Audiosense T800 I just let myself go into music and forget about taking notes of sound observation. I just non-stop selfishely enjoy the sound of T800 everyday since about 2 months, and these are the only iem in years that make me rediscover my whole music collection. I say to myself : don’t be too hysterical with this review, stay cold blooded, try to find some negative aspect as well. Now I regret not praising them with hysteric happyness because this is how I feel : sincerly blown away and admirative toward the spectacular sound delivered by T800.
Audiosense create nothing less than a revolutionary budget multi-BA’s flagship earphones with the T800. Why I say it’s budget at 300$? Because for once we can say an iem can really surpass lot of sub-1000$ earphones and even pricier one. The T800 is END GAME high end earphones and surely represent the best investment for any budget audiophile right there, the sound benifit return is exceptional. As any high end earphones, they are a little capricious about how to drive them properly, but the fact they are easy to drive is a big plus as well. Most of all, unlike lot of other TOTL iem, the T800 can deal beautifully with any music style, the only concern to have is the quality of recording, because T800 potential is fully exploit with pristine mastering.
If like me you search for years and years to find the greatest value earphones ever made and feel lot of time underwhelmed by sub-500$ iem sound value investment, the Audiosense T800 is a miracle come true and worth every pennies invested. Audiosense have rightly tuned 8 knowles balanced armatures to offer an immense sound experience that do not let in shadow the energy of bass, mids and highs and deliver a dense and accurate imaging with full natural timbre, sharp layerings, fast attack and crisp treble.
The T800 is a game changer in Chi-Fi world and we aren’t finish to heard about Audiosense company.
EDIT: 2 years later, I still listen daily to the T800 and think they are among the most underatted and underhyped chifi IEM of all time. It's not about reference tuning here, but a fun near basshead one, rightly done beefy W shape, with incredible technicalities for this type of signature. At 300$, nothing can touch the T800 for what it give. As well, it's still the only one IEM using 8 knowles BA per side under 500$ price tag I think.
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