iBasso 3T-154

IBASSO 3T-154 IEM- An New tuning experience

IBASSO has been a well-known brand in the music industry and has been making great iems, DAPs etc which are very well known throughout the world. Founded in 2006, I has been gaining ground with their superior DAPS and DAC AMPS, dongle at most of the price segments. Today I am getting a chance to try their DAC AMP- IBASSO 3T-154 IEM.

DISCLAIMER-
This review is part of a IBASSO and Aural Cafe-organized tour in India, and I have not received any compensation for my thoughts. I am grateful to Aural cafe, Ibasso and Pradipta Sur bhai for including me in this tour. If you want to purchase it, you can buy it from the official product website from the link: IBASSO 3T-154 IEM

PACKAGING-
Its very simple but environment friendly. I loved the case made up of synthetic leather and hold the iem and case in a slightly tight manner. The Thank you letter on the top acted as an padding pretty much but nothing can happen to this iem for sure. I would love to see more padding being added to top. The foam holding the iems are of medium firm and could easily handle the some bumps. Lots of tips and a screwdriver were also present. An extra pair of 3.5mm plug was also present which can be replaced from the cable which is 4.4mm.


SPECS-

• Driver Configuration: 1 Dynamic Driver (15.4 mm with 3T Magnetic flux)
• Impedance: 16Ω ± 10%
• Freq Response: 7Hz-41Khz
• Sensitivity: 116dB/mW @1kHz
• Isolation: -26 dB
• Cable: 1.2 m with detachable 4.4mm and 3.5mm Termination

BUILD-
The iem are big and won’t fit easily into most ears. There is much more way to give but hey they fit me well but protruded a bit outside of the ears a lot. But that can be said of the weight as they are quite light on weight and made up of magnesium alloy (not don’t burn it please ). This counters the big size and well makes it comfortable on the long run

CABLE-
It’s a big and thick cable like I like it. There is good heft to it and the interchangeable plugs can be replaced with the included screwdriver which makes it much more secure and easier to replace too. There is a little bit of cable noise with movement but not much to distract from music.

NOTE: This iem was used with HiBy R4 and also PAW S1. I loved it with both of them but I used HiBy R4 more hence most of the review will be with that. Now HiBy is a neutral source mostly so you can change the source to match this iem which is nearly on neutral side.

SOUND IMPRESSIONS-

SUB-BASS-
Subbass has great initial hits which feels deep and impactful. It does go deep but not too much sub-bassy that can entice the sub-bass heads. There is extension of the sub-bass notes, but they are more well defined and easily recognizable among other instruments than going too deep. They have good attack speed, but the decay is also fast hence limiting the spread a lot, making it restricted to the middle of the head stage rather than spreading to the corners of the head stage. But the tonality is wonderful sticking to being slightly warm to neutral mostly. But even with sub-bass this good, the small details in the head stage still comes through.

BASS-
Bass is impactful dynamic and has wonderful tonality. The tones are slightly warm to neutral and tonal differences between different bass instruments are very easy to recognize. The notes are dynamic showing good height differences in the notes and you can know which notes are made form hitting harder while which are not. The notes base are small though, body is though good size and has good extension overall too. There is more presence of bass in the middle of the headstage and it also shows a good amount of depth in the headstage but not as of physical depth rather the presentation of the instruments right in front of you while the bass coming from a little below and behind the vocalist and instruments. The dynamics are so good that it feels great to listen to musicals.

MIDS-
Male vocals are great. There are great tonal differences between the vocalists. There is good roughness to their voices and its well defined. This makes the male vocals feel more real. Female vocals sound sweet and well defined. Their voices are much more defined given their tonal differences. They reach higher in the head stage too unless but in line with the head stage of the song. The vocals are dynamic and are more intimate in nature with the music eclipsing the singer. But the notes base is small, body is quite long and well-defined edges are also present. With that being said, the small nuances comes up easily and sss are more smoothened and wont feel sharp at all.

The instrument notes are quite dynamic and have a slightly warm to neutral tonality. They are quite different in their presentation but the definition is literally the best thing. Even the notes which are quite low in volume and to the entire edges of the headstage have their own dynamics. The notes are having a good base and body nearly equal in dimensions, but the extension is really good with reaching quite high in the headstage. The individual notes of the individual instruments are also quite well defined. The attack speed is great but the decay is slightly fast, but still lingers enough to leave a great taste in your mouth. The placement of the instruments is beautiful with accurate presentation of the instruments in the headstage. The instruments feel like having their own space yet, they feel cohesive. The separation is great of the instruments and their notes. The notes are quite easily defined and I love it. The instruments are mostly present surrounding the vocalists and the resonances that you hear from the headstage or the room make it a wonderful experience. You can literally feel the size of the stage where the music is being recorded or the orchestra music happening there. A very big expansive.

TREBLE-
Instruments here have a generally neutral tonality with very big dynamics. Their tonal differences are easily felt and even the height difference is easily recognizable. The energy of the instruments is really good just inking the line between excitement of the treble instruments like saxophone etc, when required and then making it just neutral enough to have long listening session. This change in energy is what makes this iem wonderful. Attached are the notes characteristics of good body and base and longer extension to the headstage along with beautiful separation and placement makes this a really good iem. The individual notes are also well defined with the room characteristics coming into play makes this a musical listening experience without fatigue.

VERDICT-
A wholehearted yes to this iem, I love this iem. A little improvement in the sub-bass could be great, which is nicely handled by EQ or even a cable change or get PAW S1 would do.

First of I use sophisticated music system including, streamer, ddc, Aes -> dac, amp, hifiman, senheisser for my daily dose of tunes and am quite accustomed to pretty realistic presentation of music. So my opinion about this iem IBasso 3T-154 from my years of experience based on this.

I am not affiliated to the brand but I want this review to help the brand tune the dynamic driver correctly as I think this has potential specially for Indian, US, European music, recorded before this current generation of EDMs, where mids have the utmost importance.

Fit:- Honestly inserting this iem in the ear canal was like 'fu**' too big, pls pull out.... Ibasso should fix this in next iteration. otherwise most people wont even bother to use it.

Sound Overview:- Perceived frequency response is inverted U shape. Both top end beyond 6k and below 80hz starts slowly rolling off. But the major problem laid at the 2-3k region, and it was severe internal resonance peaking randomly while playing tracks. These issues need to addressed first and if fixed, probably 90% job done. The driver should retain the existing musicality and nuanced mid frequency capability.

Bass: Good dynamism and excursion, air movement from the huge 15mm driver. Only it lacked volume/ loudness but it wasn't a issue in system as I played through dac, amps with powerful discreet output stages to pump power

Mids: Excellent but with resonance issue. The midrange is very nuanced and subtle changes in vocals and instruments gets picked up. But around 2khz area, resonance and peaks and whatever, something went wrong.

Treble: Nothing special, smooth relaxed. Decent sound stage as a 13k DD but falls off above 7k significantly.

So, frequency extension, proper tuning and optimizing the shape of the iem for easy insertion needs utmost attention from Ibasso.

Introduction
This is the iBasso 3T-154, and it is an interesting IEM in many ways. “3T” in the name means that the drivers in the IEMs are capable of having a maximum magnetic flux of 3 Tesla. “154” in the name refers to the diameter of the beryllium-plated dynamic drivers in the IEM.

I’ll just call it 3T from now on. Is the first and only IEM to feature a magnesium alloy shell as far as I know. And it is the IEM with the largest dynamic driver yet at 15.4mm. This driver size was used in earbuds, but according to my research it has never been used in an IEM. Correct me if I’m wrong. Having a few weeks to listen to them, they were reminiscent of listening to open back headphones in many ways.

The specifications of the 3T are on the screen right now. Pause the video if you need to. Now, let’s unbox the 3T and I’ll tell you more about it.

Build, Accessories, and Cable
The 3T is housed with magnesium alloy shells to reduce the overall weight of the IEMs. According to iBasso, using magnesium alloy shells are 36% lighter than aluminum alloy shells and 78% lighter than stainless steel shells. It has a replaceable gold nozzle design, which interesting reveals the 15.4mm drivers once you remove them.

The 3T comes with lots of tips. It came with 4 sets of silicone tips, each set in different shapes and sizes. And also, two sets of foam tips, a larger pair and a smaller pair. You can experiment around with the tips to see which one you like most. I prefer the solid black tips from the stock tips. But after further experimentation, the Final E tips I had lying around fitted me best. The 3T also came with two extra nozzles, they are exactly the same as the ones on the IEMs, so I’m not sure why they provided an extra pair. It’s good to have spares though.

The 3T comes with a 0.78mm two-pin detachable cable, made from high purity silver-plated copper. The cable is quite chunky for an IEM cable, the wires, the splitter and the plug are all pretty large. You can swap out the plug to a 3.5mm or 4.4mm plug using the included screw driver in the package. Personally I would prefer a narrower and lighter cable, but this one is pretty decent considering the size of the IEMs.

Fit and Isolation
Initially, I was worried that the 3T wouldn’t fit in my ears as I have pretty small ears. I really wanted to like the Sony Z1R IEMs in the past , but they just did not want to fit in my ears due to the width of them. Luckily, 3T isn’t as wide and I have no problem fitting them in my ears. The magnesium shells are flared towards the outside, so that the part that actually fits in your ear isn’t that large. The largest part of the IEMs actually sit outside on the concha of my ears. Despite of the large shells they actually sit very comfortably in my ears, there aren’t any hot spots even with extended periods of use. I would say the 3Ts are comfortable IEMs to wear for me, thanks to its round shells and lightweight magnesium alloy shells. Although these look pretty huge. They are only about 9.5 grams per side.

The isolation of the 3Ts is below average in my experience. There are a total of 5 vents on the inner side of the IEMs, so don’t expect them to block out a lot of external noise.

Tuning
The 3T has a mostly neutral tuning and it is a highly detailed sounding IEM with slightly forward sounding mids. The driver sounds so quick and responds so well to minor details, it almost sounded like a planar driver. The mids and upper mids of the 3T are super resolving. It will pick up a lot of minute details in a recording, especially in the vocals. With a mostly neutral and natural tonality, I think the 3T will actually work great as a studio monitor IEM. Listening to them for the first time, it immediately reminded me of my Fostex T60RPs.

Bass
With 15.4mm beryllium-plated dynamic drivers, the 3T is capable of producing fast and impactful bass. However these are not your typical basshead IEMs. You will not get an overloading amount of bass on these IEMs. Instead you get a mostly neutral bass response will a slight boost in sub bass. Having a near neutral bass response, You won’t hear an exaggeration of lower frequencies like most warm sounding IEMs would. But when playing songs that asks for it, like EDM and Hip-hop music. The 3T will effortlessly and accurately reproduce the bass in the tracks.

One of my favorite tracks to test bass on is Hotel California by Eagles, from the Hell Freezes Over album. The 3Ts performed great and was able to reproduce those deep and rumbly drum notes throughout the song.

Mids
The mids are what stands out most on the 3Ts in my opinion, it’s super resolving and engaging. The mids are slightly forward sounding , which makes it excel in vocal-oriented tracks. The 3T has an emphasis on the upper mid-range, which to my ears make vocals sound airier and more echoey. I find it especially easy to pick up backing vocals, echoes and reverbs on the 3T due to the emphasis in the upper mids. In general, the 3T has a lot of clarity in the midrange.

I really enjoyed listening to Always Remember Us This Way by Lady Gaga from the A Star is Born Soundtrack. The track is really well mastered, and the 3T was able to reproduce the song nicely with Lady Gaga’s voice being super detailed and engaging. The echoes of her voice in the track was also nicely perceived with lots of clarity.

Highs
I think it is safe to say that the 3T is safe for treble sensitive users. The treble of the 3T is presented in a well controlled and precise manner. Symbols and high pitched notes in guitars sound natural with adequate resolution. There’s a smoothness in the treble that will allow hours of listening time without feeling fatigued. However, if you like a lot of sparkle and treble in your IEMs, you might find the treble of the 3Ts to be too conservative.

Soundstage & Imaging
The soundstage performance of the 3T is average. Although the width of the staging isn’t particularly wide, the imaging and instrument separation is impressive. Even in busy rock tracks, you’ll be able to hear a distance between the vocals and different instruments with great clarity. Many IEMs that are not resolving enough will often be perceived as a wall of sound when playing busy tracks. Meaning that all the instruments will sound like it’s coming from a single plane. That never was an issue with the 3Ts thanks to its highly resolving and transparent 15.4mm drivers.

Sources
I tested the 3T-154 with the DC07Pro, DX180 and the Shanling UA4. My favorite combination sonically was with the DC07Pro. I personally like a slightly warmer sound and the DC07Pro added just a slight touch of warmth in the bass of the 3T. Also mind that the 3T is a very sensitive IEM, so make sure to use a quieter amp for the best quality. I had some hissing using the UA4 balanced port.

Comparisons
Compared to the ER2XR, I immediately heard more upper bass quantity on the ER2. The 3T has much quicker bass and better sub bass presentation. Comparing the mids and vocals, both of them have similar clarity, but the 3T’s vocal presence sounds slightly more forward than the ER2. Comparing the treble, the ER2 has more detail in it, but the 3T has a wider sense of space in the treble frequencies.

Hearing the 3Ts for the first time, it immediately reminded me of the Fostex T60RPs. Comparing the two, the bass is actually very similar. Both of them have a very quick bass response. Comparing the mids, I feel that the T60RPs are a bit shouty on the vocals, sometimes it will sound a bit too fatiguing on modern pop and rap songs. The 3T, although is a bit forward sounding in general, it sounds more laid back than the T60RPs. Treble wise, the T60s have better extension. By comparison, the 3T has a smoother treble response.

Genres
I’ve tried many genres with the 3T and I found it performing especially well in classical music, metal, rock and vocal oriented pop tracks, thanks to its great driver technicalities and depth in imaging.

However, what sounded particularly bad was some old and poorly mastered recordings from the past. For example, some old albums from The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. They sounded flat and dull with the 3Ts. I’d prefer using smoother and warmer sounding IEMs if you listen to a lot of tracks like these. The 3T is picky on the source, if there are any flaws in the recording, it will be exaggerated.

Conclusion & Recommendations
In conclusion, the 3T-154 is a unique sounding IEM with unique features. While most IEMs in this price bracket feature a warm and smooth tuning. iBasso is aiming to provide us with something a bit different than what others are doing. The result is a pair of dynamic driver IEMs, that shares a lot of similarities with open-back headphones in terms of sound characteristics.

I would especially recommend the 3T for someone who is invested in full sized headphones, but are finding most IEMs sounding too congested to give these a try. I think they provide a sound experience similar to semi-open or open back headphones in the form factor of an IEM.

In general, if you are looking for a neutral IEM with great clarity in the mids, I think the 3T will be a compelling choice for you in this price range.



Disclaimer: The product was provided by iBasso for the purpose of the review.