Sony, a brand which needs no introduction at all in the first place since even a child knows the brand. It’s the brand headquartered in Japan producing a wide range of electronic gadgets which we can’t number since they are numerous in quantity. From a small memory card, camera, music players to the high end television, household items and the infamous PLAYSTATION!

The WF-1000XM3 is their 2 year old product launched worldwide but got released in India after a year since that’s what Sony does every time ☺. This Is their previous flagship Truly Wireless Earbuds featuring a lot of features and now the XM4 has been launched and yet to release in india. In this review let’s see whether this 2 year old flagship still retains its value in this current time.


SPECIFICATIONS:

DRIVER UNIT – 6 mm, dome type (CCAW Voice coil)

DSEE HX – Yes

FREQUENCY RESPONSE – 20 Hz–20,000 Hz (44.1 kHz Sampling)

NFC – Yes (Case)

BATTERY LIFE (CONTINUOUS MUSIC PLAYBACK TIME – Max. 6 hrs (NC ON)/Max. 8 hrs (NC OFF)

BATTERY LIFE(CONTINUOUS COMMUNICATION TIME) – Max. 4 hrs (NC ON)/Max. 4.5 hrs (NC OFF)

BATTERY LIFE (WAITING TIME) – Max. 9 hrs (NC ON)/Max. 15 hrs (NC OFF)

BLUETOOTH® VERSION – Bluetooth Specification Version 5.0

EFFECTIVE RANGE – Line of sight approx. 10 m (30 ft)

FREQUENCY RANGE – 2.4 GHz band (2.4000 GHz–2.4835 GHz)

PROFILE – A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, HSP

SUPPORTED AUDIO FORMAT(S) – SBC, AAC

Noise Cancelling – Yes

Auto Play/Pause: Has the proximity sensors to automatically play or pause the song and works on both the android and Apple devices.

Connectivity: One gripe I have with the connectivity is that the earbuds don’t get connected to the smartphone when the lid is opened where you need to take any one of the buds out to establish the connection which is kind of a let down for me.

The other good thing with it is that after taking any of the buds out of the case the connection gets established very faster hence this nullifies that con.

DESIGN AND FIT:​

The design of the XM3 looks industrious and professional to me. Ofcourse the size of the earbuds are pretty big but they look completely different from the other products in the market which created that unique factor. The whole construction is made of plastic which all the tws in the market utilise the same thing but in hands they don’t feel cheap at all. They feel premium in hand and looks. The Sony branding is done on the faceplate along with a vent for the Mic to ensure the effective noise cancellation. The earbuds are matt finished hence scratches are very minimal to occur. The nozzle area has a bulge on the top end consisting of the driver which also gives good grip in the fit. The grill is covered by the sponge and they do have the ear tip lock seal for secure placement. The touch sensor is pretty big hence can be easily accessed and has a disadvantage too since its very big while adjusting the earbuds the accidental touches may occur.

The build of the case is the same plastic but feels premium in the hands. The hinge is ofcourse metallic hence the durability will be good. The hinge closes and opens smoothly and no problem in opening the lid using one hand. The lid and the case have dual tone contrast colours where the case is rubberised finish in black and the lid is shiny matt gold finished with branding in gold lettered.

The led indicator is situated in a nice position and looks futuristic where it is neatly embedded in between the lid and the body of the case. The earbuds too have the led lights and they will blink only when the earbuds are not in ears and while in the case which is nice since this will attract the viewers while wearing it in your ears.

At the bottom of the case there is the Type C port for charging the earbuds and there is no wireless charging coil on the back of the case. The case won’t stand upright which is a con for me.

FIT:​

Fit wise I have no complaints with the XM3. Even though they are bulky and pretty big they didn’t cause any discomfort while wearing it even for more than 2-3 hours which shows the ergonomics of the earbuds. Sony claims that they have designed it using the tri support system where the earbuds have contact with the natural ergonomic shape of the ear hence the comfort will not be an issue. But if you have pretty small ears then this might cause you discomfort. I have used this in the gym and even after intense deadlifts the earbuds securely stayed in my ears. Due to its size of course they sometimes dangle in your ears but they never come out of your ear which is more than enough for me.

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SOUND:​

The sound signature of the XM3 is pretty much balanced in all the three frequency ranges which is quite interesting to see from the sony audio gears. I had a bad experience with the Sony in my previous purchase with the XB55 wired earphones where the bass is too excessive and the other frequencies are completely out of focus which made me to never buy any sony audio gears. After a long time I reconsidered it and bought the 2 year old model from Sony to see what the actual sound was and when I plugged them into my ears the rest of the moments were filled with AWW!!!!!! IT’S FANTASTIC!. In this review let’s dive into the sound section of the XM3 in detail.

SOUND EQUALISATION:​

This review is done using the stock equaliser setting to get the idea of the sound out of the box. You can change the sound to your liking via the app. My settings are the ANC turned on with the CLEAR BASS to +7.

NOTE: The XM3 has no background hiss issue thankfully which is present in lot on TWS in this budget range and even above the price point. The background hiss is one of the most annoying issues that ruins my listening experience which is thankfully not present in the XM3! This just shows the quality of DSP the brand uses.

BASS:​

The Bass in this XM3 is just marvellous! The out of the box sound signature is pretty balanced and the bass is never overpowering the mid section. They sounded like a wired iem with nice impact and resolution. The separation and texture are above average for a TWS and even they are pretty much comparable to the wired high end iems. The sub bass and the mid bass are well controlled and sounded very tight. No bleed of the mid bass into the mid section which is very nice to hear.

There is an option called the CLEAR BASS which is the ultimate game changer here. It’s a slider where you can adjust the level of bass you need which is quite interesting where adjusting them really makes a difference. They don’t sound like the usual EQ’ed bass boost instead they just sound pretty clear even after sliding to max and looks like a hardware based bass boost which we see in the High end DAC AMPS. I kept it at +5 which is a sweet spot of bass for me by providing me with enough rumble in the low end with a nice mid bass body overall.

Both the sub bass and the mid bass impact are delivered beautifully and it’s very addictive to hear. The resolution is great with above average texture and separation. The bass has that nice 3D effect by providing nice rumble and width to the overall track. In conclusion the bass in the XM3 is just Fantastic. I got addicted to this bass over any wired iem i have ever tried.

Tracks Used:

1. Madness – Muse

The sub bass presence is felt evidently here, at the start of the track the low end kicks in very deep with nice texture and separation from the mid and sub bass. The vocals the proceeds which sounds very nice without any scooping out due to that excessive bass which i liked the most in this TWS. The bass never overshadowed the Mid section which I liked a lot. The low end drops along with the sub bass rumble sounded very sweet without any distortion.

1. The Demon Dance – Julian Winding

Those sub bass drops literally just hit your eardrums deeper and rattles your entire skull! Excellent control with nice separation from the drums and the low beats. The piano notes are heard very well with nice separation

1. SHED MY SKIN – WITHIN TEMPTATION

At the start of the track you can feel the expansive soundstage where the bass just resonates in your eardrums which is quite satisfying to hear. The drums and the electric guitar are separated very well. The imaging is spot on and sounds very precise. The vocal sounds at a sweet spot; it’s neither forward or laid back. The soundstage is very evident here where it has such a nice expansive stage with 3 dimensional imaging. Mesmerised with its ability of bass reproduction. At 2:39 the depth of the soundstage is awesome, the instruments just go and hit deeper creating that nice depth effect.

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MID SECTION:​

The Mid section is done beautifully here with nice clarity and the full bodied vocals. I’m a fan of full bodied vocals rather than the thin sounding one. The vocals are very nice getting that warmth from the mid bass and neatly separated out from the rest of the frequencies. The taylor swift voice is very sweet to hear and both the male and female vocal sounds very nice. No graininess is observed in the vocal section. The drums sound impactful yet maintain that texture and preciseness. The guitar and piano tones sounds as natural as possible

The tonality of the XM3 is pretty realistic with slight warmth and the timbre has no issues and sounds natural. The guitar strings sound beautiful. The background instruments are clearly heard without the need of raising the volume. The full bodied vocals along with some warmth gave me that engaging and forward mid section and that’s a full 10/10 from my side.

Tracks Used:

1. Point Of No Return – Expose

In this track the drums sound clean and tight while the piano notes in the background are playing. The vocals sound centered and has a nice distance between the instruments and the vocalists. The piano notes are natural and the drums sound realistic and nice. The electric guitar at 2:35 sounds very realistic with natural tonality overall.

1. Long Long Time – Linds Ronstadt

The acoustic guitar sounds very natural and realistic. The vocal is nicely centered while the violin in the background sounding sweetly and the acoustics on the left sounding beautifully. This track is very nice to listen to on XM3. This track just made me realise how versatile the XM3 is, whatever the genre you throw at it!

1. HOSPITAL(LIVE VERSION) – Jonathan Richman

The acoustic guitar accompanied with the vocals is very sweet to listen to and it’s just a perfect track to relax with the XM3. This thing just sounds amazing in all genres.

TREBLE:​

The treble has enough sparkle and if you want more just choose the bright preset in the EQ which just makes the highs even more crispier and nice. In the stock settings the highs are really good and in my opinion they don’t have any harshness or sibilant issues in the upper end. They sound very clean and it’s not ear piercing. The treble is smoothly done yet maintaining that airiness in the upper end. The female vocals especially sound very nice with no graininess. Those full bodied vocals along with the sparkly treble sounded very nice giving life to the track.

The cymbal strike is very natural and very smooth yet detailed to hear. Even at higher volumes the highs are not very disturbing to my ears and myself restricted to 60 percent volume which is more than enough to hear since the headroom for the volume is more than adequate.

Tracks Used:

1. Love Story – Taylor Swift

This track has varied high pitched instruments but the XM3 handled this very well providing nice detailed separation and airiness. The cymbal strikes are very natural with a good amount of air presence in between the instruments. The electric guitar strings are harsh and the overall track is very pleasing to hear.

1. Dreams – Fleetwood Mac

The cymbal crashes here in this track are very pleasing to hear and nothing harsh at all. I loved the way that XM3 sounds, which is very versatile and furnished. The vocal sounds full bodied and the accompanied sparkly treble with null harshness is a treat to hear for longer periods of time.

1. Suffer – The Smashing Pumpkins

The guitar strings and the cymbal strikes are very nice and harsh. They sound nice and smooth and make this even a better pair for relaxing sessions. The thumpy low end along with the sparkly yet harshness highs are the perfect pair for the relaxing sessions.

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TECHNICALITIES:​

When it comes to technicalities I usually don’t have any high expectations with the Truly Wireless Earbuds since there are limitations in the Bluetooth. But surprisingly this product has above average technicalities which is very nice to see in a wireless product range. The DSEE HX helped a lot in bringing out the best from the XM3 mainly in terms of technicalities.

SOUNDSTAGE: The soundstage is pretty impressive here where they have enough width with above average height and depth. The soundstage gets even improved when some app changes are done . After turning on the ambient mode to +1 and the voice focus mode the soundstage got improved a lot by providing some open back headphone kind of experience.

1. HANS ZIMMER LIVE IN PRAGUE

There are several tracks in the live album but everything depicts the expansive soundstage. The audience clapping in the background while the instruments playing at varied distances clearly depicts the soundstage size. In all the dimensions the XM3 is expansive and sounds very spacious.

1. Global Gear (Instrumental) – Punya Srinivas

Her vocal in front while the instruments in the background are depicted vey well and has excellent separation between each instrument. The air in between the instrument is very good in quantity thus providing that nice and wide spacious soundstage.

IMAGING: The imaging is pretty impressive here. The surprising fact is that most bass heavy earphones tend to have a hazy imaging due to the masking of other frequencies by the bass. The instruments can be easily pointed out even in busy tracks. The transition between the channels is pretty smooth and nice.

1. Murphy’s Law – Recondite

The piano notes just move nicely from one channel to the other smoothly at 3:00. The whole track depicts the imaging quality. This track is mastered very well producing a wide variety of sounds with exceptional imaging capability and the XM3 perfectly executed this track.

TOUCH CONTROLS:​

The touch controls can be altered to your taste through the app. You can keep one set of controls for each earbud. For example it comes with playback controls for right and ANC controls for left earbuds as a default. You can change to your liking by adding the volume controls too but you need to compromise on any of the other two controls mentioned above.

One other thing that I noticed in the touch sensor area is that the sensing takes around 3 seconds to react which looks weird but sony intentionally did this to make the operator sure about the taps he did.

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ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION:​

The ANC is the prime feature in the XM3 and it’s the one Sony advertised very much. The noise cancelling technology in the WF-1000XM3 is the most advanced ever in truly wireless headphones, with our HD Noise Cancelling Processor QN1e. So you can lose yourself completely in your music.

The ANC is pretty good in this XM3 cancelling out most of the low frequency noises but when it comes to the mid and high pitched noises they are still not upto the level of Airpods Pro. The ANC is the feature that I don’t use frequently since they are not of use when you are listening to music at moderate volume since the earbuds and the volume itself will block out most of the noises. The advanced ANC chip in the XM3 does its job well and I am quite impressed with it.

AMBIENT MODE: Now this is the feature that I use frequently since they help in a lot of situations for example while taking phone calls and talking to people while listening to music. The ambient mode has 20 levels of control and you can slide level by level to attain greater precision. Surprisingly the ambient mode helped in opening up the soundstage and the bass resolution along with the voice focus feature turned on. The Voice Focus is the other feature where even after turning on the Ambient Mode this additional mode will allow only the voices to be heard and the rest of the unwanted noises are blocked out.

QUICK ATTENTION: This is one of the prime features I used most. Tap and hold on to the left earbud to activate this mode and this works instantly. They just activate the ambient mode and lower your song volume hence you can have conversation without taking out the earbuds or pausing the music.

ADAPTIVE SOUND: This is another unique feature in the XM3 where the app utilises your location and your movements and based on that it analyses your patterns to optimally activate the ANC and ambient mode at certain situations. I mostly turned it off since it continuously tracks my locations which of course will drain the battery a lot.

CALL QUALITY:​

The call quality in the XM3 is pretty good in the indoor environment but this thing changes in the outdoor surroundings. In the indoors the receiver can hear me clearly without any disturbance and sounds very natural. Tin the xm3 however makes your tone very warm hence if you already have a bold tone then this might even make it warmer. The connection quality is good too and I did not experience any call drop outs during my calling session.

In the outdoors the XM3 struggles to cancel out the external noises. It picks up a lot of external noises and amplifies to the receiver though the voice is also picked up very well. Mostly i won’t recommend taking calls via the XM3 outdoors and using your smartphone itself.

Sony claims that they have used an array of mic systems creating a tripod effect but in reality they are OK but nothing extraordinary in the calling department.

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BATTERY:​

The brand claims that it will last 6 hours with ANC turned on and 8 hours with ANC turned off and in my experience this lasted to true with a half to 1 hour shortage in ANC mode and the same to ANC mode off which is pretty impressive.

The charging is supported by the TYPE C hence no more cable fuss searching for the Micro USB. The earbuds charge very fast in the case where placing them for 10 minutes will provide you 90 minutes of listening.

With ANC turned On you will be getting 24 hours usage with the case and 32 hours with the case if ANC is turned off

Charging the case with Type C cable will take upto 1.5hrs to charge fully and unfortunately there is no wireless charging support which I never use in the first place since they will heat up the gadgets very sooner and degrade the battery of it.

The idle battery drain of the case when it is not in use is very minimal and due to this i charge my xm3 only once a week even after using 2-3 hours everyday which is very impressive comparing the other brands because most of the brands fail in this.

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APP FUNCTIONALITY:​

The Sony app is one of the best furnished and functional apps I have ever used in my opinion. The full controls of the earbuds are present in it and it’s very intuitive to use. The custom eq band is very useful to change the sound signature. The clear bass works marvelously and the control for ambient mode levels are freaking insane. The earbuds are updated via the app and also displays the battery stats of the earbuds and the case.

The one gripe I have with the battery stats is that they don’t show the real time value whereas they have some fixed value like 5, 30, 70, 100 ( in the multiples of 5) . These are the values they will display and cant display the accurate real time time stats.

CONNECTIVITY:​

The connectivity is pretty strong and i have used it with only iPhone hence the mileage may vary to your android usage. The connection is very stable even after going beyond the recommended limit range and even with several wall blockages there are no interruptions in the connection which is really better than the other brands like the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro.

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VERDICT:​

WF 1000XM3, a two year old audio product from Sony is still very much relevant in this current period purely because of its exceptional sound quality even after the release of their successor XM4. The sound is pretty balanced out of the box and can be tuned to your liking with its companion sony app which is one of the best highly customisable apps in my opinion. The CLEAR BASS slider just works magically by boosting the low end evidently without masking the mids and highs. The DSEE HX does its job by nealty upscaling the lossy file to give a nice audio experience. The overall sound signature may not be a DF neutral or pure audiophile grade but as an overall package the XM3 sounds way better than many wired iem at its price point especially in tonality. The overall sound signature is pretty fatigue free and very much enjoyable. For unmatched pure sound quality this is the DARTH WADER of TWS!

Hilidac or Audirect are the chinese audio manufacturers producing a wide range of DAC AMP and they haven’t been releasing any products for some time and now they awake and released the Atom 2 single ended 3.mm DAC with MQA decoding, DSD native and 32 bit768kHz. In this review lets see is this new product relevant in today’s market with a lot of budget options already prevailing.


DISCLAIMER:

This unit has been provided to me as a part of a review cricle organised by HiFiGo. I thank the team for organising this circle and giving this nice opportunity to test out the audio gears. I have not been influenced by any means to manipulate this review and hence the views are completely mine and it may vary to your observations since the source and preference changes from user to user.

SPECIFICATIONS:​

>Premium ES9281AC DAC Chip.

>Full MQA decoding.

>PCM up to 32-Bit/768kHz decoding.

>DSD512 decoding.

>Premium Crystal Oscillator.

>Compact and lightweight.

>Multi-color LED notification.

>THD+N: 0.0004%.

>Frequency response: 20Hz-40kHz.

>SNR: 118dB.

>Output type: 3.5mm single-ended.

>Output power: ≥30mW(16Ω), ≥62mW(32Ω), ≥7mW(600Ω)

Specifications Credits: HiFigo

DESIGN AND BUILD:​

The design of the Atom 2 is pretty minimalistic and simple. In other words i love the design language of the Atom 2 , they did it neatly and precisely. The build is made of steel and looks very premium in the hand and has some nice weight. The weight seems to be around 18 gms and gave that premium weight factor to the overall build. There are two versions available namely the Type C and the Lightning one for apple users.

The branding is done nicely in the bottom portion with a red background and the type c connector on the top portion. The led is situated in the below portion and lights up very brighter when the room lights are switched off which is quite disturbing. The 3.5mm jack is situated on the side of the DAC and is easily accessible when the DAC is connected.

The USB A connector is also encased in the aluminium casing which looked quite sturdier. There is also a USB A to Type C cable which I haven’t received since I got this as a review unit from my review circle.

SOUND: ​

This Atom 2 doesn’t support the Windows 7 and lower version which is pretty disappointing which just made me test out this DAC only via my iPhone.

The Atom 2 has only the single unbalanced output

The overall sound output is very clean and smooth. The low end is present evidently even though they have the ESS Sabre DAC which has that typical ESS sound signature which is pretty neutral to bright. The power output is however on the lower side where they are quite efficient for high sensitive iem but for power demanding headphones or the planar earphones like the Tin P2.

The noise floor of the Atom 2 is pretty neat and I have tried all the iem and have noticed no hiss in the background which is pretty nice.

LOW END:​

The low end is the surprising factor here. They have nice bodied bass and impactful bass in the atom 2. The overall low is nicely textured, resolved and has nice separation. If you are having any nice warm sounding pair of iem then this will be a nice treat to you, where the bass separation and the texture got improved a lot

The sub bass is very nice here. It’s tight, punchy and has a nice rumble. The mid bass has a nice overall body and weight to the tone. Overall I loved the low end performance here despite the use of ESS dac since they are very balanced to neutral bright.

MID SECTION:​

The Mid Section is the other sweet aspect here. The midrange is neither too forward or laid back, it just hits the right spot for me. The instruments have nice air and separation. Both the lower and upper mids are balanced pretty well and no harshness or sibilance is seen.

The mid range seems slightly on the thin side which also adds that clarity and detail in the mid section but I would have loved some more warmth and weight in the vocals. The female vocals especially need some weight eg: Taylor Swift Vocals. The clean power can be felt here in the midrange producing a lot of details and separation. Despite having the thin vocals especially female i like the midrange here due to that clean and nice separation.

TREBLE:​

The treble is the compromised part here. They sound pretty smooth and harsh. They have nice separation and air in between the instruments but the extension in the upper end is what is lacking. They extend average and also it depends on the capacity of the iem too. Overall the extension is average but the separation and the liveliness is presented well here. If you like more extended treble then this might disappoint you but when it comes to clean, fatigue free, smooth treble yet maintaining nice separation and air then this can be your best bet to get.

SOUNDSTAGE AND IMAGING:​

Since the bass is nice and impactful the soundstage headroom is very nice and wide. The sweet sub bass in this Atom 2 helped a lot in this expansive soundstage creating a nice overall headroom. The good amount of air and separation in between the instruments does a great job in creating that nice wide soundstage.

The Imaging is pretty nice here where you can easily point out the instruments and the vocals even in the busy tracks. The precise positioning of the instruments can be done very well here due to those nice thin notes in the midrange which eventually helped in the clean sound output in the midrange.

The overall separation and the resolution is pretty nice here which created that nice sense of big soundstage and precise instruments positioning.

POWER:​

The power is the next compromising factor here since this has very nominal power output at 32 ohms.

>30mW – 16 ohms

>62mW – 32 ohms

>7mW – 600 ohms

The power output is pretty average and hence if you are using this to drive some power hungry cans or even some earphones then this might not suffice you. Even while using the in-ear monitors with nominal sensitivity I need to keep the volume at 60 percent to hear in a normal environment which makes you raise the volume in the noisier surroundings.

One other advantage of this Atom 2 is that they don’t draw power from the source if the earphones are not connected, which is a pretty nice implementation to see.

NOTE:​

MQA: This Atom 2 supports the final fold of MQA but i haven’t tested it out since i still can’t find a big difference between the FLAC and MQA

APP: The Atom 2 uses the UAPP support to utilise the high bit rate file playback and Apple users can enjoy the direct clean output.

LIGHT INDICATOR:

The device has a light indicator to show the playback rate. The following are the indications:

Red: 44.1/48kHz PCM

Blue: 88kHz – 384 kHz PCM

Green: 705 – 768kHz PCM

Yellow: DoP

White: DSD Native

Magenta: MQA

VERDICT:​

Atom 2, the latest dongle DAC option from the Audirect brand is a pretty nice and recommendable one. The Atom 2 has one of the clean and smooth sounding dac available in the market yet without compromising on the other technicalities. The DAC itself is made robust and neat. The design of the Atom 2 is very nice and functional where they don’t dangle, instead they look fixed and neatly attached to the device’s port. The power draw is minimal and heating is very much negligible in my testing. The bass response and the soundstage is what I liked a lot in this despite the use of the ESS dac and that sub bass tightness is nicely done here. Overall I liked this product a lot and if you want some clean, warm and smooth sounding dac with minimal and functional looking then this is the DAC you need.

Kinera is the chinese audio manufacturing company which is highly praised for its beautifully crafted in-ear monitors with exceptional sound quality. Their previous products are the IDUN, SEED, ODIN and the Flagship Iem NANNA. The latest product in the Kinera In ear monitor lineup is the NORN which is equipped with 4BA + 1 Dynamic Driver Hybrid HiFi Audiophile In-ear Earphone where the dynamic driver is Titanium-plated dome PU composite high poly fiber diaphragm. In this review lets see in detail about the Kinera Norn.


DISCLAIMER:

This unit has been provided to me as a part of a review circle organised by the Hifigo Team in exchange for the honest reviews on the earphone. I have not been influenced by any means to manipulate the review and these opinions are completely mine and subjective. The views on this product may differ based on the source and gears you use to test this product.

CONTENTS:​

Since this is a review unit I received only the case, earpiece and the final audio eartips, hence the complete details of the packaging are not mentioned in this review.

DESIGN AND FIT:​

The design of the Kinera Norn is absolutely gorgeous. The faceplate looks very eye-catching and stunning. The pink colored theme looks very nice with the glossy finish in the faceplate that looks like a gem. The overall size is very compact and lightweight. The faceplates are hand painted thus providing that premium feel while touching it. They fit very well into the ear canal and even if you have small ears this doesn’t cause any problem in the fit. The Black coloured stripes running across the pink band in the top and bottom looks absolutely gorgeous. The Kinera Norn branding is done on the faceplate in the golden letters in the Game Of Thrones style which looks classic and attractive. A single pressure vent is given on the side of the earpiece.

The fit is very nice where the isolation is very good while isolating a good amount of external noises. The cable looks very sturdy and premium to touch. The cable is an imported 26 AWG coaxial wire used as the conductor with PVC outer insulation. It consists of 8 wires of 192 strands of silver-plated copper alloy in spiral weaving. The cable has universal 0.78mm 2-pin connectors and a balanced 2.5mm termination plug. They have also included the 2.5MM to 3.5mm adapter cable to utilise the unbalanced termination to directly play via the smartphone.

SOUND:​

The overall sound signature of the Kinera Norn is slightly V shaped. My previous encounter with the Kinera was the BD005 Pro and it pretty much disappointed me. It has a boomy bass with the recessed midrange with sparkless treble. Since this Norn being an expensive one from the brand I’m having a big hope on this product. Let’s see whether this earphone really lives up to my expectations in this review.

MY SOUND PREFERENCE: A slight V shaped with more sub bass emphasis, engaging and forward vocals with sparkly,energetic and airy treble.

SOURCE: The Norn is pretty easy to drive so no need for Amps to amplify the sound. The sound is pretty fine straight out of the mobile jack. But to get the most out of the Norn I have used an external dac amp.

iPhone – Audirect Atom 2 USB Dac

The Norn gets easily loud enough and I can’t go beyond 50 percent volume on my iPhone which is pretty nice considering it is an expensive set with 32 ohms.

BASS:​

Fantastic……Marvellous…..Delicious!!!! The bass in this earphone is pretty sweet to listen to. The sub bass and the mid bass coherency is pretty nice and linear. The sub bass is well separated from the mid bass without any bleed into the Mid section. The bass overall has nice clarity and resolution. The separation and the texture in the low end is impeccable. This is one of the best low end experiences I had in this audiophile journey. This Norn has the same low end performance like that of the Ikko OH10 and even better than that with added texture and separation.

The sub bass is very delicious here. I’m a bigger sub bass fan than the mid bass. The sub bass gives that sweet rumble in the low end. The rumble is well controlled and textured in the Norn.

1. Black Gold – Hans Zimmer

From the start of the track you can feel the thump in the bass. They are felt very clearly in the Norn which literally tickles your ears! At 1:01 the sub bass digs deeper and deeper which just makes your ears tickled. The piano notes and the violin are separated very well in this track.

I have heard this track a lot of time but hearing through this earphone gave me a new experience giving me a lot of background details. At 4:45 the low end is very sweet to hear with the background instruments nicely layered while the low end drop beats sound very sweet.

1. BIGFOOT – MALFNKTION

I go to the bass track to test out the control and speed. The low end is very impactful and has very good control. The vocal in the background is nicely heard while still maintaining the impact of the low end drops. They just bangs your ear canal with the nice thumpy effect.

The bass is very tight and under control with good speed. Behind the low end drops there is the sound of the soft drum which is heard very clearly without any muffle.

1. BLOT! – RUMINATE

At 1:50 several instruments are played and they just move smoothly from one channel to the other while maintaining the low end under control with good speed and clarity. The texture of the bass is excellent and the overall resolution and the separation is extravaganza!

Overall the bass is very satisfactory with excellent resolution, separation, texture, control and speed. I loved the low end in this earphone. Nice transition from the sub bass to the mid bass without any mid bass bleed. The mid bass sounds clean and precise. The sub bass is elevated than the mid bass which gives that nice rumble and clarity in the mid section. 10/10 for the bass department in the Kinera Norn. Fantastic Job Kinera!

MID SECTION:​

The mid section sounds nice and forward with beautiful male and female vocals. The tonality is extremely addictive and natural. The timbre is realistic and non metallic or anemic presence is observed. The piano notes and the guitar strings strike very naturally and energetically. The mid section is very energetic and engaging. In most of the V shaped earphones the Mid section feels lifeless and soulless but this one is an exception in this case! The mid section has nice air and space in between the instruments giving the life and soul to the track.

The addictive natural tonality combined with the forward midrange, energetic and engaging instruments make this pair a very delicious to listen and a great recommendable pair in my list

1. The Gift Of Music – Dream Theatre, The Answer – Dream Theatre

The guitar strikes very naturally and the drum hits precise and tight. No loose hits of the drums are observed. The vocals sound very natural with a natural and realistic tone. The acoustic guitar sounds very nice and beautiful. At 1:40 the violin sounds very well separated and layered very well.

1. Santeria – Sublime

The guitar sounds precisely in the right channel and the vocals in the center. At 0:35 the guitar strings shift to the left channel too and sounds very nice and natural. The drums in the background are precise and tight along with the nice piano notes in the background. The Norn just provides nice energetic and engaging listening sessions with this track.

TREBLE:​

The treble section in this earphone is sublime. Since this is being a slight v shaped the highs are very crisp and clear. They have an enormous presence of air in between the instruments and nothing feels congested. The high extension is done very well and nothing causes the harshness here. During my listening I haven’t experienced any kind of sibilant.

The resolution and the detail retrieval in the high end are above average and very pleasing to listen for longer periods of time. The fatigue factor is not an issue here since it’s more or less completely absent here even though it has a lot of treble energy. The treble just hits the sweet spot of mine and definitely it’s one of my most satisfying iem in the upper end section. The cymbal strikes naturally with precise strike and placement.

1. The Last Of The Real Ones – Fall Out Boy

The electric guitars and the drums in the background are depicted well while the vocal is nicely centered with no harshness while listening even when the vocal becomes very loud. This track is a very busy track yet Norn was able to separate them well and the background instruments sound very nice. At 2:27 when the background vocal starts which appears like screaming but the Norn made them very beautiful to listen with nice dynamics and smoothness.

1. Dreams – Fleetwood Mac

My go to track for testing out the cymbal strike where it strikes very naturally with good hit and speed. Very pleasant to hear and very much easily audible without the need of raising the volume.

1. Happy – Pharrell Williams

This is another track to test out the cymbals and the Norn just did it excellently. Absolutely can’t find any harshness with this unit and it is very pleasing to hear for longer periods of time which is very nice to see. The overall separation from the background and the main vocal is impeccable.

1. Sacrilege – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

The electric guitar strings sound without any harshness and the high notes of the piano sound very nice with nice smoothness. Even the vocals sounded very textured and no graininess was seen. The drum hits and the background instruments are portrayed very well even with a lot of complex things going on this track.

TECHNICALITIES:​

SOUNDSTAGE: The soundstage is very good considering the height and teh width. The depth is average but the width is very nice giving a lot of room for the placements of the instruments. The height is very nice too thus providing the OST tracks a massive soundstage effect.

1. What Are You Going To Do When You Are Not Saving The World – Hans Zimmer

Wow!!! First this track should be included in the bass section since thus has a nice sub bass rumble and the Norn clearly gave me that satisfaction additionally it also portrayed a nice sense of tallness and width in the overall track. Very impressive work by Norn.

1. Le Mans 66 – Marco Beltrami

The cymbals on the right side and the bass guitar on the left side are portrayed very well thus providing a nice sense of width in the soundstage aspect. The tallness in the track is observed evidently. The depth is however not as big but the overall listening experience is very nice. At 2:05 the silence starts and you can observe the width and the tallness evidently here.

IMAGING: The imaging is pretty impressive in this Norn. The instruments nicely sweep from one channel to the other smoothly and the transitions are very nice and smooth. The instruments can be easily pointed out even in the busy track with a lot of things going on in the track.

1. I Want You Back – Jackson 5

The drums on the right side and the cymbals and the acoustic guitar left side at the start of the track are depicted very nicely. later the side gets switched very smoothly with excellent transition change. The instruments are nicely moved in between the channels.

The macro details and the dynamics are very impressive in the Kinera Norn without compromising the Micro Details too which is very impressive to see in the Norn.

VERDICT:​

Norn, the latest offering from the Kinera is very impressive and a top recommendation from my side. The sound is very dynamic with a lot of energy and an engaging factor. The thing that lacked in the Ikko Oh10 is fulfilled by the Norn by bringing the Mid section forward and giving them the soul by making them engaging and energetic. The low end is very impressive with excellent sub bass rumble and the mids bass here sounds pretty clean. The treble has nice energy without reaching that fatigue limit. Overall I’m very impressed by the sound of the Norn. From the build, design, cable, sound etc this thing just ticks all the boxes that i need. Technicalities wise they are very good too considering the width and the tallness it possesses in the soundstage department with excellent imaging capability.

This pink beauty might make you think it is a calm queen but this thing is definitely an energetic monster! 5/5 from my side and i absolutely loved this pair, indeed it’s an absolute pink DYNAMITE!

Thieaudio is a widely known Chinese audio manufacturer producing a lot of high end audio gears and their known products are the Voyager and Monarch. In order to capture the mid tier market they decided to launch the legacy 3 which is a hybrid earphone consisting of 1 Dynamic Driver and 2 Balanced armatures which are custom made in the house of Thieaudio. While i was testing this pair Thieaudio also launched another mid tier pair named Legacy 2 and yeah i’m late to this party! In this review lets see whether they nailed it in the Mid tier category too as they did it in the Top tier.

SPECIFICATIONS:​

Crossover: 3-way crossover

Driver Type: Hybrid – 2BA + proprietary 10mm Nano-Membrane dynamic diaphragm driver

Noise Cancellation: 26dB

Sensitivity: 108 dB at 1 kHz

Impedance: 8.6-9.5 Ohm at 1 kHz

IEM Connector: Recessed 0.78 mm 2-Pin

Cable Plug: 3.5 mm Unbalanced

Cable Length: 1.2 m

Cable Material: Custom 7N 8-core OCC copper cable

CONTENTS:​

Brown faux-leather case

3 pairs of black silicone ear tips (S, M, L)

SIM card ejector tool (the same as packaged with a cell phone)

Black 2-pin cable

Legacy 3 IEMs

DESIGN AND FIT:​

The design of the earpieces are done very nice. The clockwork design is very nice and gives that premium and retro look. The blue colour works well with the golden coloured clockwork design. The connectors are however QDC types which are kind of proprietary and finding a good aftermarket cable is very difficult. The resin shell is completely lightweight and very small in size. They fit very well in the ears and provides fatigue free listening. The shell is completely transparent and shows the internals outside. I’m a big fan of transparent designs and this extra added transparent blue added an additional benefit of non fading since the white transparent gets faded very easily.

The shape is semi custom shell shaped hence the fit is excellent. The nozzle length is of good length but it doesn’t have any lip hence the tips seating sometimes will tend to be loose if you use any aftermarket eartips. On the side of both the earpieces there are the2 hardware EQ switches which are used to change the sound signature but frankly i can’t tell the difference after changing them.

The cable is very nice and has a good supple texture and feel. The outer layer of the iwre seems slightly sticky but overall it looks nice. It’s a custom 7n 8-Core 0CC Copper cable and might benefit from SPC cable but I haven’t tried that.

The case is very good to touch. Even though they are made of faux leather they are made really well with magnetic locking. The case is very slim in profile and very easy to carry. The case is very compact and the storage space is tailored made for legacy 3 and fits snugly.

The legacy 3 also comes in different variants of designs like Mystique, Chinese White and Blue AW11. The clockwork is the base variant and cheaper variant available in the market. You can get a custom designed faceplate too which is a very interesting move by the brand to attract the customers. With additional money you can get your own custom shaped shell by sending them the in-ear impression to get the best fit out of the legacy 3.

SOUND:​

The sound signature of the Legacy 3 leans towards warm and dark sounding with relaxed treble. The sound signature will be quite pleasing to everyone due to its relaxing sound signature but it’s really not my cup of tea. In this review let me tell you why it’s definitely not worth the hype and of course this is very subjective and you should try it, assess yourself and take this review with a grain of salt.

SOURCE: The legacy 3 is quite easy to drive and gets insanely loud even with medium volume in the iPhone.

iPhone – Zorloo Ztella MQA Dac

Even though the legacy 3 has tuning switches I didn’t find any noticeable difference in those switches. Whatever I did the sound was the same to me but overall I found the sound to be nice when all the switches are turned down hence this review is fully based on this mode.

LOW END:

The low end of the legacy 3 is nicely elevated to my taste. The mid bass is nice and thick with good quantity. The bass texture is nice and the overall resolution is nice too. The separation in the low end is quite good.

The sub bass is however not as impactful as i have heard from other high end earphones especially IKKO Oh10, but very good for the price. The sub bass rumble can be felt but it’s definitely not very strong for my taste. They have nice and subtle rumbles which are tight and controlled. The bass texture and the control is really impressive in this earphone.

The mid bass elevation is very sweet and nice giving body and warmth to the overall sound. The mid bass punch is tighter and gives nice satisfaction to all the low end lovers.

Overall the bass is great with nice texture, separation, resolution and mid bass thump. The sub bass is however could have been extended a little bit more to satisfy the bass heads but still the rumble is quite evident. The speed of the bass is nice and the decay is faster too hence that clarity and the control in the low end is impressive and thus doesn’t bleed into the mids.

Tracks Used:

1. Bad Guy – Billie Eilish
2. Shed My Skin – Within Temptation & Annisokay
3. Na Mask Aram – Treble Puns

MIDS:

The vocals really stand out in this earphone. Both the male and the female vocals have nice texture and body. They sound fuller due to that nice mid bass boost but the tone is very warmer and not natural. The instruments however are pushed back a bit and the small nuances are very difficult to hear. The guitar strikes quite naturally but is very realistic. The BA does the job here by making it more PLASTIC!

The tonality is off and it’s not natural and realistic to me. The timbre is not natural and has the BA timbre tendency. The conherency between the DD and the BA is quite not good here. The drum hits are thumpy but artificial to hear.

The mids have a nice engaging factor and nice vocal presentation too but the off tonality and timbre picks away my mood to listen to this earphone! And that warm toned vocals are not my pick

Tracks Used:

1. Cool Struttin – Tsuyoshi Yamamoto
2. The Blowers Daughter – Damien Rice
3. Whistle – Florida

TREBLE:

If you are here expecting this earphone to have a nice sparkly treble, great extension and shimmer on the top end, sorry you are disappointed!. The treble is really average and at this price this is not acceptable. The air is completely lacking and the separation is average. The sparkle is lacking in the top end and the roll off can be felt evidently.

The cymbal crashes are however natural and realistic. They sound nice but still the sense of air and space is very restricted and feels very intimate. The treble lacks energy and shimmer. This just made the earphone free of sibilance and harshness and that’s quite a positive point. This is a nice pair of casual and relaxing listening sessions.

Tracks Used:

1. Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
2. Hymn For The Weekend – ColdPlay

In the track YOU BELONG WITH ME by Taylor Swift this earphone purely disappointed me. The electric guitar in the background just sounded very blunt and lackluster.

TECHNICALITIES:​

Soundstage: The soundstage is very intimate. I’m a soundstage seeker! This sounds very closed and intimate for my liking. The depth is very small and lacks sense of air which just makes the height also less. The width is however good. It’s disappointing to see that a pricey earphone lacks a soundstage!

Imaging: The imaging is AVERAGE and sometimes appears hazy in busy tracks. The instruments can be easily pinpointed. The sweep of the instruments is not the best but still very good for the price.

That plasticky timbre and the warm timbre definitely made my listening not enjoyable. The separation is average and the detail retrieval is very mediocre. Especially due to that dull treble and the sparkless high end they sound very much non engaging.

VERDICT:

The Legacy 3 from Thieaudio is an earphone which was launched way before and a lot of hype has been created by youtubers. This hype made me purchase this year and filled with all those hypes before giving it a listen. But in the end it disappointed me. Maybe it might be a pick for you but as per my preference this is definitely not my pick

The mid bass is elevated and punchy but the sub bass roll off is evident for me. The mid section have off tonality and have the BA timbre which is not good for this price. The treble is weird in this! No airiness, separation, extension or the sparkle. They just sound non engaging and dull. The soundstage is very intimate and imaging is hazy in busy tracks

Overall this is definitely not my pick for this price. This can be a pleasing choice for people who like warm and dark sound but the hype created for this earphone is non justifiable based on my experience with this earphone.

Moondrop is a chinese earphone manufacturer with a wide variety of earphones retailing in the market. They are one of the richest chinese audio manufacturers and have produced some acclaimed earphones like the KXXS, Starfield, Blessing 2 etc. To acquire the sub 100 usd market they released the Aria with the price tag of 79 USD. Let’s see whether the aria stands up to the sound of the highly praised Starfield in this review.

SPECIFICATIONS:​

Driver Unit: LCP liquid crystal diaphragm-10mm diameter double cavity magnetic.

Diaphragm Dynamic unit.

Headphone Socket: 0.78pin.

Impedance: 32 ohms.

Sensitivity: 122dB/Vrms (@1kHz)

Frequency response: 5Hz-36000 Hz.

DISCLAIMER:​

This unit is not purchased by me and it’s been provided to me as a part of Hifigo review circle and thank the Hifigo team for giving me this opportunity to test the aria out and provide my views on them. The statements I have made here are completely my point of view and nobody has influenced me to write up the review. The views may change from person to person since the Audio is completely subjective and also depends on the source and gears we use.

DESIGN AND FIT:​

The design language of the Moondrop is always neat and minimalistic, no eye catchy faceplates or weird shapes, it’s just straight to the point. The full color of the earphones are black themed which is matt black! I love this matt black since they don’t attract fingerprints and sweat. The faceplate has gold stripes which gives that rich feel to the earpieces also providing subtle appearance. The faceplate and the body are seamlessly attached and no creaks are observed which indicates the Quality Control of thE Moondrop team.


There are two pressure vents near the nozzle area and the nozzle is of average length. The nozzle has no lip hence if you are using some aftermarket eartips they might not get a tight fit with the Aria but still the width of the nozzle is pretty wide and they can hold the eartips in place. The filters on the nozzle can be replaced too since they provided a set of replaceable ear filters.

They are connected to the cable via the 2 pin 0.78mm connectors which are recessed and thus prevents the breakage of the cable pins. The cable is average in quality, they are cloth braided hence the durability is very nice but the tangle issues are very much there. Since they are not smooth to touch and have that sticky feel they get tangled very easily. The splitter is made of a sturdy shell with Moondrop branding on it. They are terminated at 3.5mm with a L shaped jack.

The fit is average in my opinion even though they are pretty much light weight. The shells are not that ergonomically shaped to cover all the parts of your ear thus the isolation is pretty average to me. They still were able to absorb a big amount of external noises in your ears even with very tight seals. The shell of the Aria doesn’t settle in my concha instead they just slightly dangle and hey everyone’s ears are different hence this might vary for you.

The carry case is very good where it’s different from generic circular carry cases which have smooth texture attracting a lot of sweat and fingerprints. Instead this is rough textured thus prevents scratches with gold lettered Moondrop branding over it. The gold colored zipper made the case look even premium.

SOUND:​

The overall sound signature of the Aria is towards balanced sound. It has tuned to attain the Harman Curve and actually i’m not a big fan of Harman Curve since it has emphasized upper mids. But thankfully the Aria doesn’t have that upper mid emphasis. They have a nice balanced sound with non fatiguing sound overall with smooth treble. Even then this is not my preferred choice in this price range. Let’s discuss in detail about that in this review by going in depth discussing each frequency performance.

SOURCE:​

The aria is quite easily driveable since it has 122dB od sensitivity with 32Ohm impedance. I have used my iPhone XR with Zorloo Ztella MQA Dongle.

BASS:​

The bass is elevated overall which i like it more but the implementation is not my liking. The sub bass is average and those rumbles still lack the attack and slam. Since the bass decay is faster the rumble cant be felt evidently. Of course for balanced listeners this might be a pro for them but if you are a basshead then forget this set.

The mid bass is more warm to my taste. Sometimes the more warmth causes the vocals to be sounding muffled and the instruments get lost in the mid bass excess. The excess mid bass warmth makes the sound very intimate and lacks the lively feeling.


The sub bass is extended well and has that small subtle rumble but can’t be felt evidently. They just come whenever the track calls for it. The slam is not very strong here. It sounds dull and boring.

The texture is average and the separation and resolution in the low end is not up to the mark. I had some higher expectations in the bass department but till now this doesn’t satisfy me in the low end.

Overall if you are a balanced sound seeker then this will be a great pick for you but still the texture and resolution is pretty average for the price. If you are a basshead then please forget this earphone since even though they have a good quantity of bass still i find the quality to be inferior. When the busy and complex bassy tracks hit then this one struggles in the separation and resolution in the low end.

Tracks Used:

1. The Demon Dance – Julian Winding
2. Teardrop – Massive Attack
3. Positive Shadow Negative Light – Behind the Shadow Drops

MID SECTION:​

The mid section is brought forward here which is a welcoming factor. The vocals are placed well in the centre with the instruments in the background layered very well. They have nice tonality overall with no timbre issues, if not one of the best tonally great earphones for the price. The timbre is natural and the guitar strikes are pretty natural with delicious piano tones. The drums sound very natural and clean. No robotic or anemic sounds of the instruments.

The issue I found in this earphone is that there is no engaging factor or the WOW factor which separates it from the other earphone in this price segment. They lack energy and sparkle in the mid section. The vocal sounds very natural but there is no engagement and sparkle in the voice. They are tuned to appeal to the smooth and non fatiguing vocal likers hence this might be a great pick if you belong to that category.

Overall the midsection is very smooth, natural tonality and timbre with no harshness in the voice. The layering is done well with instruments in the background. The separation and detail retrieval are very much average and nothing to brag about.

Tracks Used:

1. Barbados – Ame Domnerus
2. The Blowers Daughter – Damien Rice
3. ME! – Taylor Swift

TREBLE:​

The treble has a very non fatiguing nature, You can’t find any harshness even if you are very much sensitive to it. There are no weird peaks observed and overall they are very smoothed out. They don’t have air in the upper end and sound very dull and bland. They don’t have the sparkle and energy in the upper end hence feels lifeless and very boring. The cymbal strikes natural and smooth with natural tonality.

The only positive thing I can see here is the non fatiguing nature. It surely lacks in the detail retrieval, resolution and sparkle in the upper end.

Tracks Used:

1. Counting Stars – One Republic
2. Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
3. Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac

TECHNICALITIES:​

SOUNDSTAGE: The soundstage is pretty good in terms of width but in the depth and height they are pretty average. The depth is lacking pretty much hence feels very shallow and intimate. The width however gives enough room for instrument placement and air in between the instruments.

IMAGING: The imaging is pretty good and can easily pinpoint the instruments where they are placed. They nicely sweep from left to the right with nice transitions between the channels.

The detail retrieval is not up to the mark. Since they lack air the lively feeling is lost and cant be able to bring out the subtle instruments sounds hence the detail seems very much lacking.

Tracks Used:

1. Sultans Of Swing – Dire Straits
2. Roundabout – Yes

VERDICT:​

Aria, the latest budget offering from the Moondrop is one of the best in terms of sound quality that you can get for the price. They have a nice build with CNC machined aluminium with subtle design language in the faceplate. The sound is very relaxing and non fatiguing with a warm and balanced sound signature. They tuned this in-ear monitor to attain the Harman Target curve which follows the 2021 version. The soundstage is average and the technicalities wise I’m not impressed with this, the separation is average and the sub bass impact is not up to the mark but if you are not a bass addict then this can sound very beautiful to you. The mid sections are not as forward as the starfield where this is being kind of laid back lacking the air in between the instruments thus not providing the lively feeling. The treble is very smooth and has less extension, the detail retrieval is very good for the price.

If you prefer very relaxed sound signature with warm mid section and subtle rumble then this is your best bet! This thing is made exclusively for people who loves the non fatiguing sound with nice warmth in the vocals with good bass response. Overall this is a definite pick for relaxed addicts.

The Tanya is the new and only budget offering from the Tanchjim based out of Shenzhen,China which is widely known for its high end in-ear monitors like the Hana, Oxygen etc. To continue its legacy and bring that premium sound to the budget range the Tanya has been released into the market for the price of Rs.1600 or 22 USD is crazy impressive considering the brands previous propositions. In this review let’s see how Tanya performs and see whether Tanchjim nailed it even in the budget segment too!

DISCLAIMER:​

This unit is provided to me as a part of review circle organised by the HIFIGO and the statements that i have made here is solely mine and nobody influenced me to manipulate this review. This review is completely subjective since the sound output differs based on your source and setup you have. I would also like to thank the HIFIGO team for organizing this review circle.

SPECIFICATIONS:​

>Bullet-shaped small, lightweight design.

>Durable Titanium-Alloy rear cavities.

>Aviation-grade aluminum alloy shells.

>High-quality cable with In-Line Mic option.

>Impedance: 16 ohms.

>Frequency response range: 20Hz-42kHz.

>Sensitivity: 112dB@1kHz.

>THD+N: <0.3%.

>Litz oxygen-free copper wire with 3.5mm termination plug.

PACKAGING AND ACCESSORIES:​

The Packaging is very professional and simplistic. The sandal coloured slip on box with the tanya image over it. Below the slip on cover there is another box with branding over it. After removing that top cover you are welcomed with the earphones itself neatly in a foam pad and the wires are neatly tucked below the pad. On the left side there is a small box for accessories. Below the earphones the documentations are provided and the additional filters are also given which is very generous by the Tanchjim. The eartips selections are nice and 3 different pairs are given for users choice.

A nic velvet pouch carry case is also included in the box and does the job by protecting the tanya from getting scratched and keeping it pristine. The accessories the Tanchjim included for this price are mind blowing and crazy! A big thumbs up to the brand to provide this kind of packaging and accessories at this price range.

DESIGN AND FIT:​

The design of the Tanya is very nice and bullet shaped. The branding is done on the side of the earpieces and the back of the earphone has a pseudo vent which gives a nice sense of design language to the earphone. The material used is aluminum and the nozzle is of average length. The nozzle has a lip to make the tip secure and the cable is non detachable which is a slight let down.

The cable is however very nice in quality and has a smooth texture to it. There is an inline mic for taking calls which just works and nothing impressive to talk about.

The fit is nice and the isolation is average since this covers only your ear canal. The tips selection makes a big impact on the fit hence choose the right tip to get the best out of it.

SOUND:​

The overall sound signature of the Tanya is very interesting where I am not able to decide during my initial listening sessions. After some serious listening I found it to be warm with a touch of fun and nice vocal timbre with dark background. In simple words i would put it as the warm and smooth sound signature and precisely its Harman Tuned. Let’s dive into the review explaining each frequency.

SOURCE: Tanya is slightly power hungry hence some good source is required to get the best out of the earphone

iPhone – Zorloo Ztella MQA Dongle

BASS:​

The bass in the tanya is more focussed towards the mid bass. The sub bass gets rolled off at 50Hz and the rumble is felt very subtle. The mid bass however is nicely tuned and gives nice body and warmth to the overall track. The bass has a nice texture considering the price. The mid bass is however slightly elevated to my taste but since it gives nice warmth to the mid section it’s growing on to me more and more now. Sometimes the elevated mid bass makes the track slightly bloated but for the price I have nothing to complain about.

The sub bass is however not great in my opinion. They rolled off at a very early point and especially me listening to OST’s ,i need that skull rattling rumble which is slightly lacking in the Tanya. Overall the depth and texture of the bass is really very nice and is above average for the price. The thump in the bass region also makes you tap the feet during your listening sessions. The resolution is above average and the detail retrieval and separation in the tanya is good. However in busier tracks the tanya struggles in the low end to get that nice separation. The bass is average in speed and decay which is very much acceptable for the price. The bass sometimes gets loose when the tracks get busier but still they are tight enough for most of the other genres.

Overall the bass has a nice texture, mid bass boost, timbre with above average separation. The sub bass could have been extended a little bit but still they provide me enough rumble in the low end.

Tracks Used:

1. Why Do We Fall – Hans Zimmer
2. Royals – Lorde
3. Bigfoot – MALFNKTION

MIDS:​

The mid section is slightly recessed but not overly done but the interesting thing is the tonal balance that they have done here. They sound very natural and the timbre are very realistic. The acoustic guitars are very pleasing to listen. They strike naturally but the instruments in the background are drowned in the mid bass. They are very difficult to perceive by your ears at medium volume and to hear that I need to crank up the volume. The mid bass however gave nice body and warmth to the mid section

The vocals sound very pleasant. No harshness or sibilance which is very good for longer listening periods. The timbre and tonality is EXCELLENT and this is my favourite set if you need these two things to be exceptional and this thing is really becoming one of my favourites. Another good thing is the elevated mid bass never bleeds into the mids which is a very nice thing to see in this price range since most of them do this.

Tracks Used:

1. The Blowers Daughter – Damien Rice
2. CannonBall – Damien Rice
3. The Lakes – Tylor Swift

TREBLE:​

The treble has the sweet roll off point in the Tanya. Due to this no more fatiguing listening, no harshness or sibilances. But the tradeoff here is the detail retrieval. This can’t be used for critical listening but for casual and fun listening this one is such a great pair to have in your collection. The high end lacks the air and the extension for bright listening.

The cymbal strikes are very natural and very smooth to listen to. The high hats are very smooth and even though they lack the sparkle and air in the high end they are still able to give you a nice listening experience with its overall smooth, warm and engaging vocals.

The treble has average separation and air in between the instruments. The details retrieval is however very much average and it’s not the strongest aspect of this earphone. The high end extension and the sparkle can’t be observed here and the micro details are the least appreciating factor of this earphone. But overall for fun and casual listening this one is my recommended pair of earphones to anybody anyday!

Tracks Used:

1. Move Your Body – Sia
2. Obsession – Animotion
3. Forever – CHVRCHES

TECHNICALITIES:​

Soundstage:​

The soundstage is surprisingly above average for the price. At this price point this is the only one having an above average soundstage based on my listening. The width and depth are exceptional for the price and the height is average. There is a good sense of air and a nice sense of space between the instruments.

Imaging:​

The imaging is also above average for the price. The precise placements of instruments and the listener can easily pinpoint the instruments. The instruments nicely sweep from the left to the right smoothly and no stutters are observed.

Tracks Used:

1. Sometimes – Jack Back
2. Haari – Anhad+Tanner
3. Global Gear Instrumental – Punya Srinivas
4. Letter – Yosi Horikawa

The remaining technicalities like the detail retrieval, instrument separation, layering are very much average and acceptable for the price. The layering seems very much hazy and the separation is average too.

VERDICT:​

The Tanya, a budget offering from the Tanchjim is a vey much welcoming one for sure. Has one of the best tonal and timbre in this price segment with nice and punchy bass, engaging vocals and smooth,relaxed treble. The sound signature is very pleasing and can be instantly liked by anyone. The sound slowly grows on to you and you will start to appreciate the value this earphone is offering for the price.

Overall this is my go to recommendation if anyone is searching for inoffensive warm and smooth sound in the budget range. Tanchjiim really did a great job with the TANYA and very glad to say that this is my new BUDGET GEM !

PROS AND CONS:​

Pros:​

1. Inoffensive Warm and Smooth Sound
2. Sweet treble roll off
3. Nice bass texture with mid bass boost
4. Above average Soundstage and Imaging
5. Packaging and Accessories
6. Price and Insane Value for Money

Cons:​

1. Non detachable Cable
2. Detail Retrieval

Moondrop is a known chinese earphone manufacturing brand which is known for producing a wide range of earphones ranging from budget to high end category. The most hyped earphones are the Starfield which also lived upto the hype created by the reviewers. Moondrop also has a great history of creating high end good sounding earphones like the KXXS, Blessing 2 and the Blessing 2 Dusk.


After their several launches and success of their high end wired earphones they also wanted to occupy the TWS market which is getting very hot nowadays in the market. As an introductory product moondrop have launched the Sparks TWS into the market marketing as they have the Beryllium coated drivers which is quite interesting in this price range for a TWS. In this review let’s see whether the Sparks stand up to the specifications claimed by the Moondrop.

SPECIFICATIONS:
Driver: 6mm Dynamic Driver
Diaphragm: Beryllium coated Dome + PU Suspension Ring
Housing Material: ABS Plastic
Bluetooth: V5.2
Audio Transmission: apTX Adaptive, apTX, ABC, AAC
Battery Capacity: Earphone – 50Mah, Charging Box – 700 Mah
This TWS uses the Virtual Diffuse Sound Field Technology which delivers the home signature sound of the Moondrop but it can be changed to your liking if you don’t prefer that style. It has TWS + hence you can now switch instantly to another device without disconnection from the previous one.

CONTENTS:​

1. A charging case with earbuds
2. Documentation
3. A pair of foam tips with 3 different pairs of silicone eartips
4. USB C cable

The box is very nice in feel and has anime pictures over it. The box is slip-on type and inside the box there is the TWS and the case is embedded in the foam tray. Below those foam trays there is the documentation which contains the warranty card and other user manuals.

DESIGN AND FIT:​

The design of the case is very minimalistic and neat. The case comes in a purple colour which is again Matt finished hence no more prone to scratches. The case feels very nice and velvety to touch. The lid has a metal hinge hence it will last long for sure. The lid closes and opens very silently and does not provide that satisfying click that we experience in the Airpods. The lid can be opened in a single hand. The outer casing is made of transparent plastic hence the charging lights glow very nicely. The branding is done on the top of the lid. On the back of the case there is the charging port and thankfully it’s a type C!

The Buds are designed very nice but the ergonomics are average. When the buds are inserted in the ear canal the buds don’t sit properly in the conca of the ear instead they just hang in there. The silicone tips alone helps in the fit and the body is completely out of the ear which might lead to frequent fall of the earbuds during your gym sessions and heavy workouts. For casual listening they are comfortable to wear. The isolation is very much average due to that fit issue. The touchpads are designed nicely with some sparkly pattern and have a vent for the microphone.

TOUCH CONTROLS:​

The Sparks touch control system is made very practical where the single tap gesture is not allowed since you may activate an unwanted gesture while adjusting the earbuds hence they are not available. Only double clicks and the triple clicks are available

APP SUPPORT:​

The sparks has the app functionality but the caveat is that it’s available for android as of now. Through the app the touch controls can be altered and the Full band equalizer system is present through which you can alter the sound signature based on your liking. Through the app you can update the firmware of the Sparks . The app also displays at what codec are the earphones connected and the sampling rate of the earphone itself.

BATTERY LIFE:​

The claimed battery life by the brand is 7 hours from 100 – 0 and based on my listening I was able to attain 6-6.5 hours which is pretty comparable and decent enough. The case however got another 4-5 complete cycles of charge claiming another 35 hours of usage. The earbuds get charged completely within 30 mins after being placed in the case and the case needs more than a hour to get completely charged.

CALL QUALITY:​

The call quality is good in the indoor environment and in the outdoors the mic picks up a lot of external noises. However I always prefer taking calls via smartphone instead of TWS hence it’s not a deal breaker for me but yeah this TWS is mainly designed for MUSIC!

SOUND:​

The 6mm Beryllium coated driver really does the magic here. The overall sound signature of the Sparks is very refined and clean. It’s a slight W shaped sound signature to my listening and really packs some punch being a TWS. I didn’t have high expectations initially when I opened the box but after listening to my first track this thing just made me think that TWS are ataaning that wirels level for sound quality in terms of general listening. Let’s dive deep into the performance of each frequency.

LOW END:​

The low end is very satisfactory in the Sparks. They have a nice punch and attack in the low end. It’s not as refined and slams like wired high end earphones but it’s very nice and above average for a TWS. The quantity of the bass is very nice and the mid bass is slightly more emphasized than the sub bass.
The sub bass has good extension and the rumble is very nice. They don’t go very low but that rumble can be heard evidently in bass heavy tracks. However in some tracks where the bass nuances are too little to observe then this will not be able to pick that up. Based on my experience with some TWS this one really excels for its price and even better than its competitors. The sub bass lacks the slam and weight, less resolved but overall the sub bass is very satisfactory and that nitpicking con may be that the wired high end earphones spoiled me!
The mid bass is elevated nicely and better than the sub bass presence. The mid bass however slightly bleeds into the mid section and causes slight congestion but overall the mid bass is tuned well. They have nice separation and texture which gives a nice rounded feel to the listener. The mid bass slightly feels thin hence lacks the body.
The bass however lacks the body due to that thin mid bass. The sub bass nicel digs deeper with sufficient rumble whenever it’s required.
TRACKS USED:

1. COSMICA – SUBLAB AND AZALEH
2. MEADOWS – MENUAL
3. LOW – FLORIDA

MID RANGE:​

The id range recessed when compared to the low end. The instruments are pushed back very much and need very keen listening to hear the nuances in the mid range. The male vocals are recessed slightly than the female vocals
The male vocals have a nice resolving nature and the texture of the male vocals are very good. The female vocals are presented much forward when compared to the male vocals hence listening to Taylor Swift is a bliss. The instruments sound very tiny and need to raise up the volume to listen clearly which of course is not advisable considering the ear health.
The guitar strikes naturally and very well but the issue is with piano notes. They sound very tiny and very distant hence the detail retrieval is average in the Sparks. The lower mids are slightly recessed and the upper mids are elevated hence some harshness can be experienced. The recessed lower mids lead to the thin body to the overall sound hence for Hip Hop and Pop tracks this sounds very thin and lacking body overall.
The timbre and tonality is very nice for a TWS. They sound very natural and as expected since this being a single DD earphone.
TRACKS USED:

1. SANTERIA – SUBLIME
2. SUFFER – THE SMASHING PUMPKINS
3. ROOFTOP DANCING – SYLVAN ESSO

TREBLE:​

The treble has average extension but it would have been better if there is a slight more sparkle in the top end. The highs are airy enough to provide a sense of good instrument separation. The highs have good resolution and thankfully no sibilance or harshness have been noticed during my listening. The energy is slightly lacking in the upper end but overall as a TWS this sounds really nice.
The cymbals strike naturally and sound very pleasant to the ears. The high pitched female vocals are portrayed very well with no harshness. The cymbal strikes could have used a bit more brightness to get that overall clarity but even with this tuning they sound very smooth yet detailed enough for a pair of TWS.

TECHNICALITIES:​

SOUNDSTAGE: The staging of this earphone is very nice and above average in overall width, height and depth. They have a good sense of air in between the instruments and due to that nice sub bass the soundstage of this even got elevated a bit.
IMAGING: The imaging is average at its best. The instruments are placed fairly precisely and well separated. The overall imaging is however slightly hazy due to the slight mid bass bleed. In very simpler tracks the imaging is very nice and when the track gets busier then it becomes hazy
TRACKS USED:

1. GLOBAL GEAR – PUNYA SRINIVAS
2. HIDEAWAY – JACOB COLLIER

VERDICT:​

The Sparks, a latest and the only offering as a TWS from the very known brand Moondrop is a blind choice as per my experience with it. They sound very clean, warm, detailed enough and airy to give you a great listening experience. For the price of 90USD this sounds really nice and punches even way above the price. They may not give you a detailed audiophile listening but for a semi casual and instead of going from mainstream brands this one definitely sounds way nicer compared to its competitors. Even Though they don’t have high end functionalities like the ANC, Transparency, Wireless Charging etc they were able to deliver one of the best sound out of all the TWS I have ever tried in this budget range.
The TWS market in the chifi is not very popular when compared to in ear monitor market yet moondrop came up with this gem and they did it really well with exceptional sound being a TWS. If you want a fun yet balanced sound then this might be your pick and you will appreciate that indeed this is a true sparkle of a TWS!

Hidizs is a well known chinese brand in the earphone market producing a wide range of audio gears ranging from in ear monitors to DAC AMP. Now their latest offering in the budget DAC AMP is their H2 Bluetooth receiver and DAC AMP which boasts some serious specifications considering the price it is offered. For the price of 50USD the specifications seem very interesting and also seems to be a very promising product. In this review let’s see whether this H2 erewally stands up to the specifications and is it really worth the money you spend.


DISCLAIMER:

This unit has been given to me as a part of the review circle and hence this review is completely based on my opinion towards them and I have not been influenced to manipulate this review in any means. This opinion is subjective and it may vary to you and these impressions are based on my current setups and sources

SPECIFICATIONS:​

Bluetooth Chip: Qualcomm CSR8675

Amp Chip: MAX 97220

Bluetooth Codecs: UAT, APTX-HD, APTX-LL, LDAC, AAC, SBS, CVC

NFC support and USB DAC functionality via Type C

Microphone for Handsfree Calling

3.5mm stereo Port

Battery Capacity: 160Mah

Battery Life: 7 hrs

Charging Time: 1.5 hrs

App Support: Hiby Blue App

Output Power: 8mW

SNR: 92Db

PACKAGE CONTENTS:​

1. A Type C Cable
2. Back Clip
3. User Manual
4. Warranty Card
5. Type C to Type C Cable

DESIGN:​

The design is very compact and portable. Instead of using the plastic they have used the resin material which will improve the durability of the product. It’s a one piece German Makrolon Resin Housing and available in two colours namely Black and White.

The front side is very glossy and seems very scratch prone with a NFC logo on it. At the back side there is the branding .On the left side there are volume rockers and on the right side there is a power button used also as a pairing button. There is a status indicator on the same side indicating the charging status, power status and the sample rate decoding status.

At the top side there is the microphone and a 3.5mm single ended headphone jack. In the bottom side there is the USB Type C slot for charging the device and using the receiver as a DAC AMP in wired mode. The whole product can be protected from damages by wearing a clip provided in the box which has a nice sleek profile.

FUNCTIONALITY:​

LED DECODING STATUS:

Green Light: 44.1KHz – 48KHz

Baby Blue Light: 88.2KHz – 192KHz

The main highlight of this product is that it has LDAC codec for such a cheap price! It’s the highest codec format available yet to transmit HiRes Audio Files via bluetooth format. It can transmit up to 990 Kbps which is of course still not the True Hi Res but something is better than nothing. The caveat here is that in LDAC mode I can get only 2-2.5 hrs of usage which is very less and of course we can’t compare to any other product at this price since no product supports LDAC. However on AAC mode with my iPhone I am able to achieve claimed 6-7 hrs of usage.

Through wired USB mode you don’t need to worry about the battery. You can transmit files up to 24 bit 96 kHz without any issues. No drivers are needed if you are planning to use this to your computer or Mac. For smartphones however if you wish you can install the HIBY BLUE app through which you can do EQ stuff and update the firmware of the product.

The other best feature of this is the Multi Point connect which is really underrated. I can now connect this receiver in USB mode to my computer and Bluetooth mode to my smart phone and it worked flawlessly.

The microphone is pretty good where it is also equipped with the CVC 8.0 Noise Reduction technology.

This receiver can also be used as an AUX mode where you can connect it to your car audio system and play your favourite songs from your smartphone ini high quality.

SOUND:​

After all these mind blowing price to performance features when comes to the sound this is very disappointing. It has weak power output claiming 8 Mw @ 32 ohms. They claim that you can use the headphones upto 60 ohms but in reality it’s not true. Even for a 32 ohms earphone the power feels pretty weak and you need to push the volume to the near max to get average sound. If you are having a very sensitive iem’s then it will be ok but if you are having any power demanding earphones then you need to look somewhere else.

The SNR also seems not good. The noise floor is average. The products like Tempotec Sonata HD Pro which is quite cheaper than this has very nice sound output with above average power output but it doesn’t have other functionalities that the H2 provides.

The bass is average and not worth the price they quote. They sound very flat in the bass region with very little resolution and the soundstage is very intimate and squared out. The mids are not revealing and the tonality is average. The high extension is not that good and the separation is mediocre. Overall in the sound department it just disappoints me. Even for a lesser price there are many USB dongles which provide above average sound quality which I can easily recommend over this.

VERDICT:​

H2 Bluetooth DAC AMP Receiver , a latest offering from the Hidizs team clearly proves that their product is designed for practicality over performance. They boast some serious specifications like the LDAC, Multi point connect, USB DAC mode with Bluetooth Mode, App support, Microphone Functionality etc but when comes to the pure audio output this is purely disappointing especially the AMP power is pretty low considering the price where even a 10$ dongle can beat this in terms of sheer power and audio. The Hidizs have dumped their lot of money in providing a nice set of features over the sound output which is suitable for some group of audience like mass consumers but seeing this in an audiophile perspective the sound matters the most. Hence this product is just a feature set according to me and for pure sound output I would even pick the Apple lightning single ended dongle, Sonata HD Pro and many other budget chi-fi dongles over this one

INTRODUCTION:

NiceHCK is a Chinese based company producing a lot of high end audiophile grade earphones. They manufacture a lot of high end cables and earphones to satisfy the need of people demanding some good audio experience. The EBX21 is the latest offering from the NiceHCK which is an ear bud with removable cable. The ear buds are actually not my type since they don’t go snug in your ears hence the audio will be not dynamic and rich, no isolation etc but I wanted to give this a try so that I may get a chance to reconsider my opinion on them. In this review let’s see how the EBX21 sounds.



DISCLAIMER:

This unit has been given to me as part of a review circle conducted by the Hifigo Team. I have not been influenced by any means to manipulate this review and this is completely based on my testing with my source hence this might vary to your view.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Driver – 14.2mm Dynamic Driver with Japan LCP diaphragm

Sensitivity – 121dB

Impedance – 32 ohms

Frequency Range – 20-32 KHz

Connector – MMCX

PACKAGE AND ACCESSORIES:

• NiceHCK EBX21 ear buds
• MMCX Connector Cable
• Premium Carry Case (Denim Finished)
• Foam covers (2 pairs)
• Silicone Rings (2 pairs)
• Cable Organizer
• Donut style foam covers (2 pairs)

DESIGN AND FIT:

This is one of the best designs I have seen in an ear bud. They look modern and sleek. It’s completely different from a classic earbud design which has the usual smooth curved glossy plastic body with fixed cables but the EBX21 done this completely opposite by using CNC Machined Aluminum, sharp edges with matt finish and a MMCX detachable cable which looks awesome in real and feels very premium in the hand. Since this is metallic they have some heft towards the body thus providing a premium feel.

The cable is also good where they are braided and covered by denim texture. In reality they provide a premium feel and are non-tangible. The cable has a Y splitter and the termination is 3.5mm with metal casing over it. The sides of the ear buds are marked with R and L and also differentiated by colors, Red for right and Blue for left.

There are no pressure vents since this is an open back design and no suction is created in the ear canal. The fit is fine; actually I’m not a fan of ear buds mainly because of their fit. They don’t provide isolation like an in-ear monitor because of its open back design. The rubber rings and the foam covers helped a bit in providing a good fit.



SOUND:

Since this earbud is very sensitive it’s very easy to drive via the smartphone. For this review I have used the iPhone with the Apple Dongle and the Hidizs H2 Bluetooth DAC AMP.

iPhone + Apple Lightning 3.5MM Dongle + Hidizs H2

The overall sound is very natural and smooth in the EBX21. The transparency is very good in this earbud and the detail retrieval in the high end is very much appreciated. There is a lot of air in between the instruments and is very spacious thus providing a good sense of soundstage. It sounds balanced or flat overall hence the bass can’t be appreciated well.

BASS:

As this being an ear bud you can’t expect the sub bass rumble to bang your head. The sub bass is subtle whereas the mid bass elevation is done nicely. The mid bass gives a nice body to the sound overall and provides engagement. In tracks like WHY SO SERIOUS – HANS ZIMMER the sub bass can’t be felt very subtle so for fun listening this is definitely a no go. The mid bass however sounds very natural and smooth. The drums hit nice and the impact is very good. The slam and the rumble can’t be expected in an ear bud thus overall as an ear bud the EBX21 sounds very nice and smooth.

MIDS:

The mid section is the shining aspect in the EBX21. They sound very natural and transparent. The details are very nicely retrieved with good instrument separation. Both male and female vocals sound very natural and realistic. The tonality is exceptional and no timbre issues are found. The guitar strings sound very nice and placement is done very well. In tracks like SULTANS OF SWING – DIRE STRAITS the guitar strikes very nice. They sound very open and transparent.

Overall the mid section is the star performer here. They sound natural, transparent and more open thus the tonality is exceptional.

TREBLE:

The treble is extended nicely and sounds very airy. The ear buds main advantage is the openness. They sound very wide and airy. They are very suitable for relaxing sessions. In tracks like the DREAMS – FLEETWOOD MAC there is no sibilance I experienced during my listening. When the cymbal crashes they sound very smooth and precise. Even for longer listening sessions this works very nice. It Sounds smooth, open and airy.

Overall the treble is well extended, open, airy and smooth without compromising the detail retrieval in the high end.

TECHNICALITIES:

SOUNDSTAGE: The soundstage is the massive aspect here. It’s very wide and deep. They sound very opn and it gives a big sense of space in between the instruments. Especially in the tracks like GLOBAL GEAR – PUNYA SRINIVAS the whole listening experience felt like sitting in an orchestra. Overall this is one of the best soundstage monsters and being an ear buds this will not be a amazement to you.

IMAGING: The imaging is very good too. The instrument placement is neatly done and the transitions from the left to the right channel is very smooth and no stutters are observed. In the tracks like CROSSING - YOSI HORIKAWA the rickshaw crossing is depicted very nice and smooth in between the channels.

LAYERING: The layering is also done exceptionally. On A track like CARDIGAN – TAYLOR SWIFT the background instruments are layered very well and it’s a very pleasant experience listening via this EBX12. They sound absolutely natural.

Overall the technicalities are delivered very well by the EBX21. This just makes me change my opinion towards the Ear Buds.

VERDICT:

The EBX21, a latest earbud offering from the NiceHCK is tuned to sound very transparent and natural. They sound very open and have a nice relaxing sound signature to it. The mid section sounds very natural and the amount of detail retrieval is marvellous. The technicalities are exceptional, especially the soundstage and layering. If you are a bass head this will definitely don't satisfy you but there are other options like the Vetala Earbud. If you like the open, transparent and natural sound then this is the one to get. This is my primary go to pick for a relaxed and natural sounding earbud.

INTRODUCTION:

Kinera has been a big game player in the chi-fi earphone market since 2011 and developed a variety of high end audiophile grade earphones. They have many patents for their custom tuned driver units in the earphone market. In the budget segment they have quite a few earphones like Seed, SIF, BD005, TYR and the latest BD005 Pro which is the successor to their BD005. Now the BD005 Pro is equipped with a hybrid driver system involving the 9.2mm beryllium dynamic driver and their custom tuned BA to deliver the sound. In this review let’s check out whether the BD005 Pro lives up to the name of Beryllium since they mostly sound nicer.



DISCLAIMER:

This unit is given to me as a part of a review tour conducted by the Hifigo Team. I have not been influenced by anyone to manipulate the review in any means and this review is fully based on my opinion and usage pattern. It may vary from person to person and depends upon the source you use.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Driver: 9.2mm Beryllium Diaphragm Dynamic Driver Unit and Custom Tuned 30095 series high frequency BA Driver.

2 pin 0.78mm connectors

Impedance: 26 ohms

Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20 KHz

Sensitivity: 108dB

Termination Plug: 3.5mm

3D Printed Earpieces

DESIGN AND FIT:

The earpieces are designed beautifully by providing them with 3D Printing. The faceplates are hand crafted and are meticulously designed. The faceplate has branding on it which is gold lettered and glitters of gold are spilled over the faceplate. The whole earphone is resin made and feels sturdy in the hand. The overall build quality is nice and the heft of the product gives nice premium feel in the hand.



The 2 pin connector area is nicely flushed along with the body of the earpiece. There is a single pressure vent in the back side of the earpiece.. The nozzle is not very long but due to the custom shaped design the fit is really comfortable and exceptional. They isolate very well but here is the thing, including tips are really horrible. Nothing fits my ears and I just ended up using the third part ear tips. The included tips are barrel shaped and don't fill the ear canal hence sound isolation is not good. The nozzle is covered by mesh and its silver plated.



The included cable is a 4 core silver plated detachable cable which is average in feels. The cable is very sturdy of course but the premium feel is lacking. They are highly prone to tangling and have a sticky texture to the cable. The ear guides are nice and feel comfortable. The surprising thing is they have included a mic in the cable which most of the chi-fi earphones don’t have. The mic quality is average but hey something is better than nothing. The 3.5mm is gold plated and it’s a L shaped jack.

SOUND:

Source: iPhone + FiiO Q3, Apple Lightning 3.5MM Dongle.

The overall sound signature leaned towards bass and it felt like a W shaped sound signature. The bass is plentiful and the custom tuned BA is very good in retrieving the detail well enough. The timbre is not good and the tonality is way out of the park. The tonality is very metallic and not natural. For me if an earphone falls out in the tonality then it’s definitely a no go from my side. Let’s talk about the sound in detail.

BASS:

The bass quantity is very nice, has nice extension in the low end and digs deeper when the sub bass hits. The problem is they are very less resolving and feel congested in the bass region. As these possess beryllium drivers I thought this is going to have some nice bass but it disappointed me. Surprisingly they have a nice texture to the bass

In the bass, apart from the congestion and the lack of resolving tendency it also lacks slam. The mid bass hump made the bass weaker in slam hence the sub bass feels weaker even though they have nice extension and rumble. When playing bass heavy tracks they struggle in the bass region and to mask that lack of resolution they pump up the quantity over the quality.

The beryllium always possesses a faster decay and attack as per my testing but BD005 pro’s attack is slower and the decay is pretty slow. There is no sense of feel when the sub bass notes ends. Overall for casual fun listening these beryllium will satisfy you.

Tracks Used:

1. Bigfoot – MALFNCTION
2. Bad Guy – Billie Eilish
3. Why so Serious – Hans Zimmer

MIDS:

The mids are fine and good but not great. They sound very thin in the mid range; they lack body due to the recessed lower mid. The upper mid are elevated more than the lower mid. The upper mid are uneven in nature and hence there is a hint of graininess.

The guitar strings strike nicer and the drums have nice attack too but they don’t sound natural. They sound slightly plastic. The tonality is way off and has timbre issues. The vocals sound slightly recessed where the female vocals sound more forward than the males. The vocals get very shrill when the volume is increased and gets slightly sibilant especially when the female vocals appear.

I would have preferred a slight boost in the lower mid than the upper mid thus reducing the shrillness and thinness in the mid section.

Tracks used:

1. Cardigan – Taylor Swift
2. For The Good Times – Perry Como
3. Something Happened On The Way To Heaven – Phil Collins

TREBLE:

The treble extension is not great because it was taken care of by the custom tuned BA by Kinera. There is a good amount of air in the high notes and nice separation too. Everything felt fine for the price and suddenly observed the Sibilance which totally destroyed those good impressions over it. The tracks like MOVE YOUR BODY –SIA just makes you scream in sibilance. The BA does a good job in retrieving the detail in the treble region but fails to control the sibilance.

There is also a hint of graininess. They definitely don’t appear smooth and have some treble peaks. The lack of treble extension makes it less enjoyable and rolls off in the upper end earlier.

Tracks Used:

1. Move Your Body – Sia
2. Graffiti – CHVRCHES

TECHNICALITIES:

SOUNDSTAGE: The soundstage is not wide or deep but average. Since the bass feels very congested they don’t give a sense of a big soundstage. They have a good amount of space between the instruments but it's not the widest I have seen.

IMAGING: They are average too. The instruments move nicely from the left to right and have smooth transitions between the channels.

The layering is not good at all. They fall off very badly and due to the lack of resolving and congested nature the layering feels weird and not good overall.



VERDICT:

BD005 Pro, the budget offering from the team Kinera excels in some aspects like the quantity of bass, both bass & treble extension and detail retrieval in the high end but falls off in other aspects like the technicalities, resolution etc. Of course at this price point nothing can be expected to be extraordinary but at least should be able to compete with the other competitors in this price point, but during my testing the BD005 Pro fails. This a strong competitive segment where some great earphones like Tin T2 Plus, HM Heart Mirror etc. are available for covering technicalities and if you want that good resolving bass the Pai Audio DR2 is available.

So for 50USD this doesn’t satisfy me but your mileage may vary. You may like it so it’s better to give this a try before concluding the remarks. For now the Tin T2 Plus and HM Heart mirror are still the contenders to beat in this price point.

INTRODUCTION:

KB-Ear is a major game player in the chi-fi industry earphones market producing a lot of audio gears ranging from budget range to the high end stuff including earphones and cables. Their recent flagship variant is the BELIEVE model which looks similar to the Diamond model which launched a few months back. I reviewed the diamond a few days back and I really loved its sound for the price, it had a nice timbre with good bass response. The internals are completely changed now, adopting the new BERYLLIUM diaphragm imported from Japan for delivering outstanding sound quality. In this review let’s see whether Believe really lives up to the Beryllium sound signature.

NOTE: Now BELIEVE has been discontinued by the KB-Ear due to the resource constraints and currently not available for sale in the market.



DISCLAIMER:

This unit has been provided by the HIFIGO team as I’m being part of the HIFIGO review circle. This review is completely based on my opinion and I’m not influenced by any person to manipulate the review. Thanks to Pulkit Chugh for taking me in this review circle and the HIFIGO team for arranging this review circle. This review is completely subjective and it’s based on my sources and experience with IEM’S with similar configuration.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Unit: 9mm Pure Beryllium Diaphragm Dynamic Driver (Imported from Japan)

Cable: 4 strands of 6n single crystal copper Litz

Interface: 2 Pin 0.78mm

Plug: 3.5mm

Frequency Response Range: 20Hz-20 KHz

Sensitivity: 98Db

Impedance: 17 ohms

Color: Black with blue

DESIGN:

The design is similar to that of the Diamond but now it is slim. Now the earpieces got slimmer with reduced weight and the total profile got lean. It still got the gradient carbon fiber panel with the brand logo on it. The theme is based on the Sea where the faceplate has blue stripes resembling the waves and nature. The shell is made of aluminum cavity with five axis CNC aviation technology. This technology effectively suppresses the resonance and enhances the sound cohesion



The front and rear chamber balance pressure relief technology has been implemented to ensure a distorted sound output yet maintaining the natural sound output since the beryllium diaphragm is extremely light.

The nozzle is of medium length and gold plated with wide enough apertures covered with mesh. The whole shell is matt finished hence no more fingerprints. The cable is really nice and thankfully they don’t get tangled! The color is nice with a supple texture. The 4 core looks good; I would have appreciated it if they had provided 6 or 8 cores since the lower priced diamond comes with even nicer textured cable. The ear guides are soft and nice. Thankfully they went with the 2 Pin and not the troublesome MMCX.



FIT:

The fit is nice overall, the kb-ear team claims that their design isolates up to -26db which is quite nice. They fit well with decent isolation and with perfect ear tips you can get a nice fit in your ears. I found a perfect fit with the L size ear tips since my ears are big.

SOUND:

Sources: iPhone, FiiO Q3, Apple Lightning to 3.5mm dongle

The overall sound output is slightly U shaped with excellent bass extension and smooth yet detailed treble. The mids are placed forward with nice engaging vocals. They are quite energetic in sound output. There is a slight hint of sibilance which is like genre specific especially female vocals but not troublesome or fatiguing. In fact this is one of the best non fatiguing earphones I have tested.

This is quite power hungry hence a nice portable DAC amp is required to unleash the full potential of it. I have used the FiiO Q3 in this review hence the sound may vary with the sources.

BASS:

Nothing short of extraordinary! I just love the bass in it. Most of the bass head earphones lack in the resolution department even though they have a larger quantity of bass. This Believe has an adequate amount of Bass with nice resolution, separation, texture, quality etc. The separation and resolution are the biggest aspects of this earphone. They sound expansive with nice layering in the background.

1. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WHEN YOU ARE NOT SAVING THE WORLD – HANS ZIMMER

What an experience listening to this! This track just sounds amazing in the Believe. Those sub bass kicks are pretty awesome. Most of the earphones I have tested struggle to get a separation between those sub bass kicks and the mid bass kicks but this one just easily clears it. The resolution is excellent. At 1:45 see the separation this will just blow away your mind. 2:22 will just create goose bumps all over your body because of that separation and resolution you are going to experience. At 4:37 the separation will just make you stunned.

1. INSTANT CRUSH – DAFT PUNK

Those starting drum beats kick nicely with a nice impact. When the vocals start they are clearly separated out with forward placement. There is no mid bass bleed and hence the resolving factor is 10/10. At 1:27 those sub bass kicks are nothing short of wonderful.

1. FLIGHT – HANS ZIMMER

I mostly use the Hans Zimmer tracks to test the sub bass because they have nice impact and attack. BELIEVE just stole my heart. At 1:31 the sub bass and the mid bass are separated nicely with superb resolution. At 1:52 I always look for that skull rattling subtle rumble when testing out all the earphones and this BELIEVE gave me that subtle rumble at ease.

1. EVEN HEAVEN – AIMER

This is amazing! At the start of the track the low end kicks are very nice and addictive. The sub bass extension is fantastic, the rumble just rattles your skull and I literally rewind that section to feel the rattle in my head! The mid bass and sub bass separation is in a different league.

In precise words the bass is attacking, resolving, detailed, controlled with excellent separation and textured response. 10/10 for bass



MIDS:

The mids are placed slightly laidback since it adopts a U shaped sound signature. The vocals are nice and crisp with good enough details in the mid section. The drums, strings and background instruments are well layered and have nice space between the instruments. Both the male and female vocals sound nice with a little bit of warmth. Since there is no mid bass bleed the vocals sound very clear and separated from the background instruments.

1. SULTANS OF SWING – DIRE STRAITS

This is kind of a complex track where a lot of instruments are in the background. Even in this track the BELIEVE does a good job by bringing out the vocals as natural as possible by maintaining the natural tonality and separated from the cluster of instruments. All the three frequencies are represented clearly without mingling anything.

The coherency of the sound is amazing in the Believe and that’s the thing I always like in the single DD iem’s because they never fail to do that. Believe does a good job in bringing all the frequencies in a single motion and it’s a pleasant treat to the ears.

1. WHEN YOU SAY NOTHING AT ALL – SUSAN WONG

The guitars are portrayed very well in the background. Susan's vocals just shine! It Sounds very smooth and nice. The guitar strings are separated out well from the vocals. At 2:00 when both the male and female vocals strike they sound coherent and under control. The layering and the soundstage is impressive in this track when listening via the Believe.

In precise words the mid section of Believe is slightly laidback giving a nice sense of wider soundstage and is very spacious in between the instruments. They sound very coherent and natural. The timbre and tonality are brought out excellent.

1. CAPSIZE – FRENSHIP

The female vocals sounded precisely well with no hint of harshness. The high end also sounded very open and spacious. The details are good with nice extensions.



TREBLE:

The treble is neatly extended with nice detail retrieval and resolution. There is nearly null sibilance observed and in rare cases they feel sharp in certain female vocals. The brilliance is tuned to perfection and that’s the magic of single DD’s. They give that coherent sound better than the hybrids. The high notes sound natural and no harshness is observed for the most part.

1. OUT FOR BLOOD – SUM 41

This track is kind of a rock/metal based genre and good for testing out the harshness and sibilance since a lot of electric guitars are played here. Believe has nice texture and resolution in the treble region and this track shows it. The complex guitar strings are nicely separated out without losing the detail. When the vocals start to cry out loud they are still under control and never disturbed the listening experience. Overall they have a nice extended treble region with excellent resolution and separation.

1. SHOOTING STAR – ANNA YVETTE

In this track the vocals normally appear sharp and it’s a good one to test out the sibilance. Believe easily passed this test and sounded nice and smooth. There is a bit of sibilance when the vocals really cry out loud but for the remaining part they sound nice.

1. MR.BRIGHTSIDE – THE KILLERS

This is a very complex track where a lot of instruments are placed in the background. Most of the earphones struggle to portray them clearly and even cause harshness but Believe is able to deliver them precisely and smoothly.

In precise words the treble is well extended, detailed, slight sibilant with specific genres which also adds a lot of brilliance in the top end which gives nice sparkle.



SOUNDSTAGE AND IMAGING:

The soundstage is pretty wide and large here and that’s the key aspect of the Believe. As this being laid back vocals they have a massive soundstage which is very attractive for the price. They have nice depth and width with enough height too. There is a lot of space present between the instruments.

1. HIDEAWAY – JACOB COLLIER

This track is composed of a lot of instruments in the background and has a lot of air and space between the instruments delivering a massive soundstage presence. The whole setting of those instruments appeared as if I’m sitting in a big massive hall. Overall I’m very pleased with the soundstage of Believe.

1. GLOBAL GEAR – PUNYA SRINIVAS

This indie classic is always good to hear at any point of time. The whole experience in Believe is very amazing with a good amount of air in between the instruments. This is well represented with a big sense of soundstage.

1. HOTEL CALIFORNIA – EAGLES

This good old track is always a favorite for everyone. In the beginning the guitar strings are represented well with distinct directions and when the drum kicks in the whole experience is wide and represented well.

The imaging is good and sweeps from the extreme right to the left. Each instrument can be pointed out easily even in busier tracks and sweeps smoothly from right to left.

1. CROSSING – YOSI HORIKAWA

This is the go to track for testing out the imaging technicalities of an earphone. In the beginning the auto crosses from the right to left and it’s well represented in the Believe.

1. SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN – CAMILE THURMAN

The guitar strings in the left side and the drums in the right side are represented well clearly. The whole composition sounds very nice with nice coherency.

VERDICT:

BELIEVE, the flagship earphone from the KB-Ear brand is really one of its kinds. The amazing bass response which is well controlled, resolved, detailed combined with a laidback mid section and sweet vocals, again combined with a well extended non sibilant treble section, which is again resolving and detailed enough is worth the reason why Believe is one of its kinds. The instrument separation is done well and that huge soundstage makes believe the NO: 01 earphone in this price range according to me.

From the build to the sound output everything is fantastically done. It’s sad to see that KB-Ear has stopped the production and the sales of Believe. I hope the team is going to plan something in the future to give life again to the Believe to continue its legacy in some other way! But only time will tell and as for now don’t stop believing in the Believe cause it’s the HOLY GRAIL.

INTRODUCTION:

BQEYZ is an audio brand based in china produces a wide variety of high quality earphones and of course their brand name stands for “BEST QUALITY EARPHONES FOR YOU”. Dongguan Xianchao acoustics technology co., LTD is an audio factory processing from materials to final products. The company has more than 20 years of experience in the audio industry.

They have variety of earphones ranging from budget to high end audiophile grade. Their flagship is the Spring 2 which has separate fan base for its tonality, mid section and detail retrieval. Following the same driver configuration with cheaper price tag the brand decided to release an earphone naming the SUMMER and in this review let’s see whether the sibling summer lives up to its ancestor.

DISCLAIMER:

This unit is provided to me by Elle Zhou Mam from BQEYZ Audio in exchange of my honest unbiased review on the product. I have not been influenced by the brand in any ways to produce this review.

SPECIFICATIONS:

DRIVERS: 13MM Coaxial Dynamic Driver + 5 layer Piezo Electric + Balanced Armature

SENSITIVITY: 107Db

IMPEDANCE: 32Ohms

FREQUENCY: 7-40KHZ

PIN TYPE: 0.78MM 2Pin

The coaxial dynamic driver has the newly improved PU+LCP diaphragm which is an upgraded driver from the spring 2 and expected to deliver better than the spring 2.

PACKAGING:

The box is simple and minimalistic. The box is covered by a outer sleeve which is lavender coloured with the summer leaves photo on the side of the sleeve which looked exquisite and gave a warm welcome to the user.

After opening the sleeve there is a black slip on box with the brand name printed in silver colour which is another minimalistic sign. The slip on mechanism is actually amazed me where there is a slot prepared accurately which sits snug onto the box. Inside the box there are earpieces, a hard zipper carry case which again looked premium, grey coloured with brand name on it. Inside the case there is the cable and a brush for cleaning the nozzle. Underneath these contents there are the 6 pairs of ear tips of S, M, L sizes. 3 pairs are black coloured and the other 3 pairs are blue/white coloured as same as the spring 2 tips. The blue tips are really comfy and provides nice fit and the brand should include this same ear tip in future earphones too.

BUILD AND DESIGN:

After all these premium things observed in the package, the construction of the earphone underwhelms you. It’s made of resin! For this price a consumer would definitely expect a metal or aluminium build but BQEYZ went with the transparent resin. This really affected the premium feel of the earphone even though they are light weight. They are available in two colours namely blue and black. Since its being a transparent body the drivers can be seen clearly especially in the blue one where it’s subtle in the black one. Even if it’s a plastic the finishing is done well where there is no cut and crease found near the faceplate and the body. The branding is done on the side of the earpieces with 3 pressure vents on the inner surface. The L and R markings are imprinted onto the ear pieces rather than the stickers which look nice.

Even though they are made of plastic the three drivers inside the earpiece gave the slight heft to the body which added the premium feel while handling it. The faceplate has leaves pattern and when the light hits there is an appearance of starry sky which starts glittering.

The cable is an 8 strand, 18 core single crystal copper silver – plated offering high-resolution signal transmission to bring out the best in the earphone. Thankfully the cable doesn’t get tangled easily even after smashing the earphones within the pouch.

FIT:

The fit is nice and seal depends upon the ear tips you use. I used the medium sized blue ear tips and provide good enough seal with no pain even after longer listening periods. There is a fin provided in the earpiece which seats nice in the ear and is comfort enough.

SOUND:

Source Used: iPhone Xr + FiiO Q3

The summer earphone is easily driveable so even with smart phone inbuilt DAC they sound great. They didn’t get scale to any high extent even with amp so that’s a good user friendly experience.

BASS:

In a single word if I want to describe the summer bass response is ACCURATE. There is no boomy or muffled bass, just accurate. There is more mid bass emphasis compared to the sub bass which gives enough body and warmth to the low mid section.

The sub bass has enough depth and extension with adequate rumble. It’s not bass head approved but sounds very adequate and accurate. My nitpicking gripe would be an extra rumble in the low end but hey! They tuned this exceptionally well to meet the need of an audiophile.

Tracks Used:

• Even Heaven – Aimer
• Royals – Pure Heroine (Lorde)
• Battling Musk Ox – Jacob Shea
• What are you going to do when you are not saving the world? – Hans Zimmer
• Why so serious – Hans Zimmer

The bass has nice definition and is relaxed in nature. The bass is tight and under control. Even in the busier tracks they were able to bring out enough details. The resolution might be not good enough but it’s definitely nice. The coaxial 12mm Dynamic driver is responsible for this low end and that PU+LCP diaphragm really does a great job in delivering the low end.

For my liking I would like the sub bass rumble to be even good but that’s just me. Overall the articulation of the bass is done well with control and texture. If that extra sub bass rumble had been done it would have been my favourite low end experience.

MIDS:

Holy Molly! SWEET! The vocal sounds absolutely gorgeous here. Both the male and female vocals are brought forward with nice tonality and timbre. These are tuned exceptionally well in the mid section. They have used their own customised Balanced Armature driver to deliver the mids and I just loved it.

The mid section is very energetic and engaging. It’s been a long time since I heard to this type of energetic earphone and I’m just reliving it. They have full energy and just bring the mid section in front and engage us in the pleasant mood.

The timbre is exceptionally well considering there’s a BA driver. The tonality is superb with excellent layering in the background. Especially in the song CARDIGAN – TAYLOR SWIFT (FOLKLORE) where in the starting there will be a lot of backbeats going on in the background while the Taylor swift sings. Summer is able to clearly separate out the beats from the vocals and can maintain the distance between the vocals and the beats which is sweet thus proving that layering is exceptionally good in the summer. Thanks the customised BA driver.

Tracks Used:

• Believe in life – Eric Clapton
• Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye
• Capsize – FRENSHIP
• When you say nothing at all – Susan Wong

I’m very impressed with the mid performance. The vocals, background instruments, piano everything just sounds natural and accurate. The tonality and timbre is very nice if not the best. That mid bass helped the body and providing fullness to the overall sound.

HIGH:

The 5 layer Piezo electric driver delivers the nice extended highs with nice detail retrieval. The guitar strings sounds very nice and beautiful. To accompany the excellent mid section and the bass response the high are near to free in terms of sibilance and harshness. During my period of listening they sounded smooth and nice with good enough detail retrieval. The resolution in the high department is done well compared to the low end.

During initial listening period there is some slight hint of sibilance in female vocals but later after burn in period it got a lot smoother with nice extension.

Tracks Used:

• You shook Me – Led Zeppelin – The electric guitar sounds nice and without harshness. Overall they sounded nice and smooth with nice extension
• Sultans of swing – Dire Straits
• Stand by me – Liam Gallagher – The acoustic guitar strikes natural and sounds very pleasant. The piezo highs are always nice to listen where they extend very well without any harshness.

SOUNDSTAGE AND IMAGING:

The soundstage is expansive in the sense of width when compared to height and depth. The instruments are spread out well with enough distance and have good sense of space within the instruments.

Tracks Used:

• Global Gear (Instrumental) – Punya Srinivas
• Hideaway – Jacob Collier
• Crossing – Yosi Horikawa

VERDICT:

The BQEYZ SUMMER which shares the similar components of spring 2 in a cheaper price tag is just a NO BRAINER! The summer has one of the best mid range performance as far as I know in this price range. The Piezo highs sounds very nice combined with the tight and under control relaxed bass response with the energetic and engaging mids makes this pair a very delicious recipe for the price.

Of course the build could have been better to provide that extra premium (the resin is sturdy enough though!) Feel but BQEYZ invested all their cash in to the internal organs to make it sound the best in the price range which is a welcome gesture to me.

Overall I would pick the summer as my daily driver any day without any hesitation. Under 130 USD this is going to be my NO: 01 recommendation. Whatever genres you may listen, the summer just excels and it is what it has been taught and been tuned!

INTRODUCTION:

Meze Audio is a high-end audio company based in Baia Mare, Rome, producing a wide range of audiophile grade headphones and earphones with high precision engineering. Their products are known for its warm sound with their handmade craftsmanship which brings the exquisite design language and premium feel to their audio gears. Their flagship product named Empyrean Phoenix is one of a kind and I hope their 99 neo will stand to their brand image.

SPECIFIACTIONS:

Transducer size: 40mm

Frequency response: 15Hz - 25KHz

Sensitivity: 103dB at 1KHz, 1mW

Impedance: 26 Ω

Rated input power: 30mW

Maximum input power: 50mW

Detachable Kevlar OFC cable

Plug: 3.5mm gold plated

Weight: 260 gr (9.2 ounces) without cables

Ear-cups: ABS Plastic

PACKAGING:

The box is pretty big with the image of the headphone printed on the front with the specs mentioned on the back. The box is a slip on package and after opening a big carry case is placed and inside that the headphone is present. Along with the headphone there is a small carry pouch which has the 3.5mm terminated cable and 6.3mm gold plated jack is also present to use it along with high end amplifiers.

The carry case is built very sturdy and is a hard EVA pouch. It’s designed to accommodate the headphones accurately and can withstand some shock when dropped on the floor.

DESIGN:

Just beautiful! The 99 series are hand built and the design is not common. The headbands are designed in a way that we don’t need to adjust them manually to fit our heads. They get automatically adjusted by the use of elastic bands. Cast zinc alloy hardware with electroplated coating, stamped manganese spring steel headband, memory foam and soft PU leather are premium materials to be found here as well. As the Neo shares the DNA of the Classics, we guarantee that the 99's are serviceable if any parts ever need to be replaced.

The ear cups has the black textured finish which is very soft to touch and the all black theme with the hint of silver trim gives the sense of premium feel to the headphones.

FIT:

The ear cups are oval shaped and the pads are very soft. Even though they are soft they are shallow and not deep hence some might find the ears to be touching the driver every time. The pressure distribution is done well here where the total 260gm weight is nicely distributed all over the head. Even after wearing for long listening periods they is no sense of discomfort until you use them in a colder environment. With warm surroundings the pads gets warm very quickly and you can literally feel the warmness in your ears.

SOUND:

Meze is known for its warm sound signature which most people like and is done in this some good way.

Source:

iPhone XR + Apple 3.5mm lightning dongle

Since this is only rated as 26ohms and having higher sensitivity it is very easy to drive via the smart phone.

BASS:

The strong aspect of this headphone is the bass. There is enough quantity of bass with nice sub bass extension. The rumble in the sub bass and the slam in the mid bass region is felt evidently. Though the bass quantity is more the definition and the texture is slightly lacking. The bass some times over shadows the details and sounds muffled

In the bass light tracks they sound nice and good with good low end presence but when the bass heavy tracks starts playing the bass tends to gets muffled and bloated due to excessive mid bass compared to the sub bass. The slam of the bass over powers the rumble hence they feel slightly bloated when comes to busy tracks.

The overall weight is nice and good but the texture is what lacks and that extra refinement in the bass could have made this headphone a notch better.

TRACKS USED:

Anywhere I Am – Mats & Rvmor

The bass is really sweet here. The drums sound deep and can feel the low end rumble. At 2:10 the sub bass presence can be felt nice and very tight. The background instruments sounds muffled since the bass is excessive.

Tron Legacy – Overtune

Tron legacy soundtracks are the best tracks to test out the bass definition and the quantity. The bass is presented well in this headphone with good sub bass extension and the background details can be heard since the track is not a busy one. At 1:38 the sub bass strikes and it sounds sweet.

MIDS:

Since this being L shaped signature the vocals are slightly distant and not forward. Nevertheless they sound smooth and no harshness is felt. Both the male and the female vocals sounds smooth and has that body due to the mid bass presence

Since there is a good amount of mid bass the vocals sounds warm enough and gives the girth and body to the music which is a welcome package. As the track gets busier the excessive mid bass becomes a biggest con where they start to bleed into the mids. As long as the track never gets busier the mids sounds nice and sweet. For most part in my opinion this headphone handles the mids well.

Tracks Used:

Love Story - Taylor Swift

The vocal sounds smooth and well bodied. No peak or harshness is felt during my listening experience. At 1:04 as the track becomes very busier the mid bass struggles to cope up with the vocals, background instruments, they start to get muffled.

As for as the rest of the track goes they sound very nice and smooth. They are very nice for casual listening and fun listening too.

Believe in Life – Eric Clapton

The male vocal sounds nice and smooth with no harshness. They sound as natural as possible.

HIGHS:

The highs definitely smoothed out a lot. They sound fine for casual listening but if you are into analytical listening then this will not suit you. There is a roll off in the treble section and the brilliance in the high region is not good enough. People who are prone to sensitive highs will definitely love this headphone since it’s relaxed and smooth.

Tracks used:

Lonesome Lover – Max Roach

Here the trumpet doesn’t sound rich. They sound smoother but lack brilliance. The sparkle is missing and gives very relaxed listening experience.

Terry’s Song – Bruce Springsteen

The guitar strikes nice and sweet. The smoothness gives the sense of relaxed bed time listen which some people will definitely love it. Overall they sound nice but the bass being the dominant here some lack of details is seen. The harmonica sounds well bodied and smooth which is very nice for casual listening.

SOUNDSTAGE AND IMAGING:

The soundstage is average considering the closed back type. Overall a good staging and the background instruments are felt clearly. The deep bass impact creates that sense of expansive soundstage.

The width, depth and the height all are normal and not as big as open back headphones.

Tracks Used:

Hotel California

At the initial part of the track the guitar sounds sweet and the background instruments are separated out clearly. As the track continues they sound a lot sweeter and relaxed.

Hideaway – Jacob Collier

Has the same staging as a budget range in ear monitors. The instruments sound nicer and can be felt separately without any clubbing.

The imaging is also spot on. The object sweeps from extreme left to the extreme right.

Track Used:

Crossing – Yosi Horikawa

The movement of the auto can be felt nice where it moves side to side. Overall they have good imaging.

VERDICT:

Meze 99 Neo is a good sounding headphone with interesting design and fabulous craftsmanship. From the packaging to the end product they are done with high precision. The sound signature being L shaped will satisfy the needs of a casual bass head. They have nice warm sound with lush mids and average treble.

If you like the warm sound with good bodied vocals and a relaxed treble then this is really a gem considering the build and fit of it. They are well constructed with awesome fit. The retail price is 200 USD which is quite expensive considering the competitors providing planar and open back headphone but if you really admire the craftsmanship and the warm relaxed sound then this is the one to get in this price range.

INTRODCUTION:

Tin HiFi is a widely known audio brand which is Chinese based company producing a lot of audio gears from budget category to the high end category. They have established a separate sound signature to themselves which has quite a big fans foe them and frankly I’m one of them. Their product line up looks neat and their latest product T2 Plus is my daily driver due to its natural tonality with balanced sound signature. Now they have launched a new product named as T5 as their successor to their T4 which is known for its great technical capabilities but many had few gripes with it, namely poor design and bass response. The T5 is designed to be one of their best in line up with great bass response and premium design. In this review let’s see the T5 stands up to the expectation of mine.


DISCLAIMER:

The views that I provided in this review are solely mine and are not influenced by the brand or any other member. I used this product for quite some time and expressing my views which are completely subjective and I don’t influence anyone who reads this to purchase the item.

PACKAGING:

As always! Tin HiFi is best in the market for making some exquisite packaging and the T5 is the proof of that. Best in class if I have to say it, usually I would never keep boxes because they take up the space and not quite attractive but every tin product I buy, I always keep them with me since they are crafted well. Same goes to the T5 too. It comes in a white box which is quite big, has T5 and the brand name printed in gold letters. The address is printed on the back of the box and after opening the front lid the lower compartment has the ear pieces in a velvet block and by removing that there are documentations and different pairs of ear tips along with a tweezers and a brush is included which made me quite amazed.

The upper compartment has the case itself which is very premium and made of leather. The white colored case looks rich and grand. Inside the case there is the 2 pin cable with 3.5 mm termination which is a welcome package since they are finally able to ditch the problematic MMCX connection which often is difficult to remove. Along with it there is a pair of foam tips and 3 pairs of replaceable nozzle filters for the earphone.

In front of the case there is a cute little metal plate with the Tin branding on it which added that extra richness to the case.

The cable is really of good quality since they are OFC cable with Kevlar coating on the outside. It’s just a 4 core cable but made of high quality. Black in color and there is a chain slider which is quite useful in managing the cable. There is a metal housing near the junction of separate wires with Tin branding on it. The connector is a straight plug and looks sturdy.



DESIGN:

Absolutely gorgeous! The shell of the earphone is made out of metal but its lightweight hence may be its aluminium same as the T2 plus which gives that real sense of premium. The body is glossy but the face plate is kind of brushed metal finish which doesn’t attracts a lot of fingerprints. The face plate has the subtle Tin HiFi branding on it which is super cool. There are three pressure vents, one on the back, side and inside.

The ergonomics of the earpieces are stunning where it fits perfectly in the ears at least to my ears. They are like semi custom shelled but made out of titanium is wonderful. Even though they are made of metal like titanium the weight balance is really done great, where after wearing they fell really light in your ears and even while holding they fell light.

The nozzle is short and has gold accent to it which added an extra touch to the premium feel. There is a metal mesh in the nozzle region to prevent the dust getting entered into it. The color of the shell is named as Titanium empty grey which matches with the actual color of the shell.


SPECIFICATIONS:

Driver: 10 mm DOC Speaker

Sensitivity: 103Db @1KHz 0.126V

Frequency Response: 10-20 KHz

Impedance: 48 ohms

Interface: Gold Plated 2 pin connector

Plug: 3.5 mm black glue gold plated plug.

Cable: 4 core OFC black PU cable + 200D Kevlar

Driver Speciality:

The T series in Tin lien up is known for its amazing sound quality in affordable range and to take that up a notch they have implemented a new driver named as DOC diamond diaphragm driver which is the next innovation derived from the DLC (Diamond like carbon) which have been popular for their fast responsiveness.

The new structural design allows the DOC diaphragm to be thinner, while being 60% stronger and more rigid than that of traditional DLC diaphragm.


Housing Design:

The T5 uses multiple internal chambers in order to tune the sound that makes its way to your ears. This design perspective is used in the gaming headsets to give clear mid and highs without compromising the bass.

SOUND:

SETUP: iPhone XR with Apple 3.5 mm lightning dongle

Being a 48 ohm earphone it’s slightly power hungry and it definitely gets benefited from high power sources but it ran perfectly fine with apple dongle but the volume needs to be increased slight a bit.

I have used the colored tips given in the package which is narrow bore and gave a good bass texture and reduced the shouty character whereas the full black tips aggravated the shouty character. The colored ones are rigid too hence provided good seal compared to the full black ones which are slight mushy.

BASS:

Based on my preference and my playlist this sounds really fantastic. This earphone has nice extension in the bass but not quite as refined as what other beryllium drivers give and of course they are double the price of this. As this uses the new DOC driver I thought that it will be giving the experience of a beryllium but even though they are not equal, they are comparable. It’s fast and has good depth but the defined nature is what missing.

The texture of the bass is definitely lacking in the T5 which makes quite less worth for the price. As I said there are enough amounts of bass but the texture is what lacking. It’s definitely not a serious issue but considering the price it appears as an issue. Nevertheless the bass is fast and punchy and has good slam effect.

NOTE: After the burn in period the texture improved a lot hence now they sound as what the DOC driver would do. So don’t get disappointed after the initial listening period because burn in makes a lot of difference in this unit.

The floor drop beats and drum sounds awesome since there is enough amount of sub bass presence.

TRACKS USED:

• Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy
• Against Me Cliché Guevara
• Turn your lights down

These tracks sound nice enough and this set is really good for listening Rock and Pop playlists since it has more thump in the bass and these tracks don’t require any presence of texture in the bass.

MID AND HIGHS:

The T series strongest aspect is the mid section and the mid highs where every product in their line up has the best mid range performance. The T5 has sweet mid range with some presence of warmth giving the body to the music.

The vocals are presented forward with no harshness.

TRACK USED:

Angel Vivaldi’s without words album

The guitar kicks in well and the vocals get blended with it thus providing a pleasant experience of listening. Usually this kick in of the guitar sounds sibilant in most of the earphones but this T5 easily takes it up.

The highs are good but not detailed enough as what other earphones at this price provide. The extension is there but when comes to the detailing this one lacks. As comparison to the Starfield or Thieaudio legacy 3 the high department is where the T5 gets short. The Mid section is easily dominated by the T5 in this price range.

SOUND STAGE AND IMAGING:

The sound stage is pretty wide and it really surprised me. It’s wider than the Starfield and some of the other competitors. Height, width and depth everything is massive and this might be due to the new driver in them. It has the biggest sound stage compared to all of the T series line up. Due to its big sound stage and impressive comfort this can be easily recommended for gaming sessions.

The mid highs are elevated hence the footsteps and minute detailing are easily brought out and make a perfect pair for gaming sessions.

The instrument separation is great since the sound stage is wide enough. The instruments can be easily pointed out from right to left and sweeps from left to right seamlessly.

POST BURN IN SOUND IMPRESSION:

After some burn in period of approx 50 hours they start to sound really good. Now the texture of the bass got improved a lot and the real whoop can be felt. The bass got really benefitted from the burn in process. I really started to like the sound coming out of it. May be its true that special driver tends to change sound after burn in period! Now I can easily recommend this if you are a loyal Tin HiFi fan and you love that classic T series sound signature.



VERDICT:

The T5 is really a good sounding pair of earphones which has that deep extending bass response which has lot of quantity and has one of the best mid range and mid high response for the price. The texture of the bass is somewhat lacking but it’s not a big deal (after the burn in the texture got improved too!)

The asking price for the T5 is 129 USD and for that price it’s a good buy but not a solid purchase. The premium build and the heavenly ergonomics of the earphone really justifies half of the price but the lacking of detail retrieval in highs makes this as an option instead of a solid purchase against heavy competitor like Thieaudio Legacy 3. If they have priced it fewer than 100 USD then it would have been my solid recommendation.

The nice bass response, sweetest mid range and mid highs, excellent build, heavenly ergonomics, gorgeous looks, exquisite packaging makes this pair as my go to recommendation for playlists like Rock and Pop genres and personally I would pick this unit myself. I hope you can get this unit for less than 100 USD in festive times and if it drops close your eyes and get them. Even for this price I would give this a solid recommendation if you love rock and pop music and also if you love the aesthetics.

INTRODUCTION:

Tin Hi-Fi is known for its excellent build, sound and packaging. It’s been followed for its many products including the T2 plus and P1. Here they have tried to give a substantial upgrade to their P1 which doesn’t have great sound in my opinion and the build. This has a unique tuning with exceptional tonality and mids. Let’s see what Tin P2 is offering in terms of sound…

SPECIFICATIONS:

• 12mm planar driver
• 32ohm impedance
• 90db sensitivity
• 10hz-20khz frequency range

PACKAGING:

• A pair of Tin P2 iem
• 6N OCC 2.5mm balanced cable
• 2.5 to 3.5mm adapter
• 4.4 to 3.5mm adapter
• 3 pairs of silicone tips and 3 pairs of foam tip

It also came with a good leather case which is quite good. It doesn’t have any magnetic locking but looks retro and classy. I would still prefer the old leather box which came with the P1.




BUILD AND FIT:

The P2 is made of metal which gives the chillness while touching it. It’s very soft to touch and triangular in shape. In the center of the iem there is a granular finish which is catchy and for me it provides an extra grip while holding it in the hand.

The build looks exactly like the T2 Plus which has the same material and branding on the top side of the earpiece. It has a pressure vent towards the ear canal area.

The best part here is the 2 pin .78mm connector instead of the controversial tin’s MMCX connection! Cheers to the Tin team. Now removing the cable is very easy and convenient.

The fit is good and not excellent. It’s made in the shape of an ear canal but isolation is not perfect. The large size silicone tips gave me good fit and the comfort and personally I didn’t like the stock foam tips and I’m usually not good with foam tips.



DISCLAIMER:

This unit is provided to me as a part of the review circle initiated by the Hifigo team. The impressions of the earphone made here is purely based on my experience with it and not influenced by anyone or paid by anyone to do this. If you are willing to purchase this please feel free to buy using the link:

https://hifigo.com/products/tinhifi-p2-tin-hifi-p2

SOURCE:

Device: Samsung Galaxy S10

Dac/Amp: Topping NX4 DSD, FiiO A5



SOUND:

Even though NX4 doesn’t do enough justice it does sound good with good enough technicalities. P2 is definitely a desktop iem rather than a portable iem. This needs a hell lot of power from desktop amps and doesn’t unleash its full potential if you use portable amps.

BASS:

The bass is really pleasurable in P2. The sub bass is definitely slightly elevated which gives the enough thump in the tracks. There is good enough sub bass and mid bass impact which gives the enough detail and resolution. There is good speed in the bass and the sub bass has more tightness while the mid bass has enough punch.

While listening to the busier bass tracks the P2 struggles to get enough details and jumbles the sound but it’s only for the specific tracks which has very deep bass impact and busy tracks. Overall I loved the bass from it and I never wanted more or less bass while listening to this. Has the right amount of impact in the bass and presented well.

TRACKS USED:

• MOUNTAINS – HANS ZIMMER
• WHY DO WE FALL – HANS ZIMMER
• ASTRONOMIA – VICETONE
• FLIGHT - MAN OF STEEL
• RAINY NIGHT IN TALLINN- LUDWIG GORANSSON
• ROYALS - LORDE

MIDS:

The mids have natural tonality in this and it has a slight warmer tone to it. The tonality is good and it’s balanced well across the genre. The mids are slightly behind the bass but it doesn’t mean that they are unbalanced or non-cohesive. It brings out the airiness between the instruments and has good detail retrieval and resolution is great.

There is a slight aggressiveness in the upper mid region but it is not unbearable in condition. The tonality has slight dryness too due to the planar driver inside it but the warmer tonality removes the dryness in it to some extent.

TRACKS USED:

• DREAM ON - AEROSMITH
• THRILLER- MICHAEL JACKSON
• BLANK SPACE – TAYLOR SWIFT
• LOVE BUG BLUES – CHARLES BRADLEY

TREBLE:

The highs are really extended to the maximum level. You can be hearing good enough details in the highs. The upper high has some slight aggressiveness and this may be a problem for the treble sensitive people. At this price point this is the best one I have heard which has some good extension in the treble region but if you are sensitive to the 16k region then this might hurt your ears. During my listening it doesn’t bother me in the 16k region and it may not for you too!

TRACKS USED:

• LONESOME LOVER – MAX ROACH
• FAUST – THE SAD SKINHEAD

SOUNDSTAGE AND IMAGING:

It is very interesting to see that P2 being a planar has not enough width in the soundstage. But it has one of the best depths in the soundstage. The layering is top notch. The imaging is great too where the instrument travels across the track is presented at its best.

The depth in the soundstage made me forget the lack of wideness in P2 and I enjoyed the layering and imaging in the P2 a lot.

Since this is a mid-focused one some might doesn’t like but for me this sounds absolutely beautiful and stunning and this is definitely not a big deal breaker.

TRACKS USED:

• HIDEAWAY – JACOB COLLIER
• VEENA IN VIENNA – GLOBAL GEAR
• CROSSING – YOSI HORIKAWA
• BUBBLES - YOSI HORIKAWA

VERDICT:

Overall I loved the sound coming out of this. Tin made the P2 a beautiful sounding one with airiness and sparkly highs with good sub bass presence. The brighter treble made me love this more and some might find this region very sensitive to hear but I’m being a bright treble head it doesn’t bother me and sounds pleasing to me. Even the build is nice, same as the T2 plus with some extra weight and thickness. Fit wise it’s good too if you have good experience with the T2 Plus.

Finally, if you have enough power to drive this then it’s an absolute gem but if you have an underpowered gear then this will definitely don’t do justice and sounds very tiny and bass will not be having that planar impact and for the fact you will definitely hate this if you don’t have enough power to drive this.

If you have a good desktop amp to power this then close your eyes and GO GET IT!

PACKAGING:

It’s well packed and presented when compared to other chi-fi in this price range.Has good sliding box and has a velvet pouch inside with some good set of tips.Overall nicely done.

DESIGN AND FIT:

Clear shell design with dual tone color.Has a cyan transparent shell which is ergonomically designed with no gaps or creaks.

The cable could have been nicer.The stock one earhooks are very rigid and I definitely recommend a aftermarket one for perfect fit.

SOUND:

Source: LG G7 HiFi DAC

BASS:

1)Rainy night in Tallinn (Ludwig Goransson)- Bass is subtle and neatly laid out.No bloatness or congestion,The sub bass strikes well in the the 2:50 and the overall coherency of the bass is good.The separation of instruments when the bass strikes is slightly messy but for the price nothing to complain especially in 3:30-3:40.At 4:35-5:05 the bass is smooth and impactful and not boomy

2)Why do we fall-Hans Zimmer – At 0:30 the sub bass starts well and extends to the song very well.Here comes the magic!!! At 1:30 is where the real impact comes.I always check every iem whether it clearly represents this area.This one does it sweet.The thumping sound is beautiful!..

Overall the bass is sweet.Has subtle and good enough sub bass extension and very very slight mid bass bless but nothing to complain cause I have seen many other hugh priced iems having this issue!..

MIDS:

1)Willow-(Taylor swift) – The vocals are nice.The female vocals are not forward and slightly behind the male vocals but nicely done.The instrumets are separated well and strikes good.

2)Stand by me (Liam Gallangher) – The male vocals are presented well its at the right place and no recessed vocals.The guitar strikes are sweet.No harshness or unwanted spikes.When the “s” strikes many iem struggle to produce it without the sibilance..this one easily passes it!

HIGHS:

1)Lonesome Lover ( Max Roach) - It’s a bright sounding one but hey it’s brings out the necessary details of the song.No harshness or sibilance and tunes in a pleasing manner-The trumpets sound when it reaches its peak they sound delicious and never fatigues the ear.

PROS AND CONS:

PROS: U Shaped sound that doesn’t fatigues the ear
Good bass and dynamic range

No harshness or sibilance

Price

CONS: Average soundstage

OK ish cable

VERDICT:

It doesn’t defeat anything in this price but can be a good collection in this price range especially for it’s looks and price.Overall it’s a good sounding one