Big thank you to Andrew and
Musicteck for making this review and IEM in my hands a possibility, getting it out of the way quickly, the IEM itself is without a doubt a 5/5 rating, the reduction to a 4 is strictly based off the cable and package contents at this price point (both are amazing, but I'll go more in depth on my thoughts later). To find this great IEM and other Nostalgia Audio products be sure to visit Musicteck's shop at
https://shop.musicteck.com/collections/nostalgia-audio.
When I was thinking about buying this IEM I was looking for a final IEM to round out my entire set, namely an all BA or BA/EST set that would be a much more neutral but extremely technical, and I'm happy to say that the Tesseract does deliver, but with some slight nuances which I'll cover below. Now onto the basic stuff.
Packaging:
The packaging is extremely nice, it's all themed to their "futuristic" story and time travel story laid out in the IEMs detail page, a lot of thought clearly went into the cohesiveness of the whole package and the art is great. The box is sturdy and even the opening presentation sticks the whole futuristic bit in.
Once the flaps are opened, it pushes the box containing the IEMs and accessories to the top, as if lifting out of a pit. Lifting the final flap (simply held by tape seen on the left), you reveal the star of the show.
Contained is a very large and high quality metal case, nicely lined with a rubberized silicone to protect the contents. This is probably the nicest case I've received with an IEM. It's SPACEOUS, no more tightly winding your cable to fit it inside the case and it's rugged, but also sharp....I took a nice bit of my finger off getting it out of the packaging so careful there (finger slipped like a buffoon and scraped along the ridges). Then you have your serialized ownership card, which follows the theme of both the case and IEM with ridges/slits, your "Tesseract" cable (I really wish they named it something else...not sure why they re-used the name) and your Tesseract IEMs snuggly packed in (there's a push out underneath them on the back to make it easier, well designed and struggle free, unlike the case). Underneath all this is your accessory pack containing a wide variety of tips, a leather cable clasp and IEM bootie. It also comes with a carrying bag with the tesseract logo, name and nostalgia audio branding on it, however I almost missed this bag as it was in the outer cardboard box which it was shipped in (the shipping box is Nostalgia's box, with your serial number on the box).
The Tesseract comes with Dekoni medium foams, the newest Symbio foam/silicone hybrids and plain black silicone. This is my first real gripe with the Tesseract, you're putting a great BA/EST IEM in and then you're including largely foams, which the inner diameter of is extremely tight around the rather large nozzle of the Tesseract. Firstly, foams and an already leaner treble presentation make no sense (for me they don't work well with BA bass either, but that's a me thing I think). Secondly as I mentioned the large nozzle, the foam inner silicone grip likes to almost peel out of the foam when removing from the nozzle unless extremely careful you will destroy the foams. Then you have your included silicone tips which, when I say barely, I mean BARELY fit the nozzle of the Tesseract, you really have to give them a lot of force and stretch to get it on and quite frankly they didn't seal that well for me.
The branded bootie and cable clasp are of good quality and very nice additions which for me, at this price point, are expected to be there. All in all, the packaging experience is great (minus my stupid finger slip) but the included tips feel like an afterthought in terms of synergy and fit to the IEM. This is .5 of the 1 point removed from the total rating.
Tesseract Cable:
Before getting into the sound profile and analysis of the Tesseract I want to cover the cable. As I mentioned at the start, it is a very high quality 4 wire 22 awg, pure silver, cable with a 4.4mm termination and standard .78mm 2 pins both of which are nicely rhodium plated (a rarity it seems these days) but for me it simply does not synergize with the Tesseract itself, further details as to why will be covered in the early portions of sound analysis. Throughout this review, I'll be using the Effect Audio Cleopatra II Octa in place of the stock, with brief comparisons to stock for sake of clarity and accuracy.
Few notes before the sound analysis to add to the above: All comparisons are done using the iBasso 320 Max, ultimate mode on, fast roll off, gain/volume matched as accurately as I humanly could (no tech on hand to help me do it, yet). I'll be using the Cleopatra II Octa cable and Radius Deep mount Clear medium tips. Other IEM combos are as follows, for clarity/replication by others: Viking Ragnar/Magnus 8W/stock medium silicone, UM Mest Indigo/Ode to Laura/Canal Works Gel filled mediums, CA Trifecta/Eletech Victoria/Canal Works Gel filled medium, EE Odin/Horus+Cleopatra 8w/final audio type e clear small.
The Tesseract is a fairly large IEM and will protrude decently out of the ear and they have a long nozzle for deep insert. At first I had to play around a lot with tips to get a proper seal and get a real sound profile analysis out of them. I really like to focus on pictures like the above because I find them to be a shot/angle that is often lacking in the manufacturers presentation of the IEM but it is a very important one so users can at least try to determine size/fitment. With all that said, once I got that proper fit and seal the Tesseract really shined. Now onto the sound.
Build Quality:
Overall the Tesseract is fantastically built, they are an IEM that is on the larger size and thus some may have fit issues but if you've used the Odin the shell is extremely similar in shape and fit, only slightly longer along the X axis, so it inserts deeper and sticks out of your ear a bit more. I do wish the faceplate to body felt a little more sealed but I don't foresee any issues as it doesn't feel loose or have any give/bend. The nozzles are WIDE and thus you may have to go several sizes under your standard tip size used.
Soundstage:
On the stock cable, the Tesseract has a wide, but very lack depth and height. It expands far left/right but it is nearly a flat plane. This is where my cable rolling began with the Tesseract and I had the Cleopatra II Octa sitting around un-used so I immediately swapped it in. The benefits are immediate and drastic, the soundstage goes from basically flat to reaching wide, deep and reasonably tall, not the tallest but that's largely down to treble presentation, as when trying a brighter cable such as the Magnus 8w I noticed a lot more height. This is an IEM that is SUPER sensitive to all parts of the chain, you can mix, match and mold it to sound how you want it to while retaining great technicalities and, at worst, "service-able" soundstage in all axes. For me, the cleo II is doing everything I'd want in this department, wide expansive stage, deep reaching lows and a nice extension in the treble which definitely helps open the stage with the massive amounts of air I'll describe further below.
Noble Viking Ragnar: For a comparison to my other IEMS, the Viking Ragnar exceeds the Tesseract all areas but this may largely be due to perception of the stage because of the Ragnar's top end weight and double DD down low. It's probably an unfair comparison but the Tesseract does come close enough to the Ragnar that it shouldn't be a deal breaker if you want a massive stage.
UM Mest Indigo: The UM Mest Indigo is a close enough match that it is hard to tell them apart in staging, I found it was largely song dependent, songs that had more treble presence lend themselves to the indigo due to the harder roll-off of the Tesseract.
EE Odin: Unfortunately, as many who frequent the TOTL IEMs know, the Odin is showing some age in the technicalities department, while still a great sounding IEM by all means, it does often struggle to keep pace with the staging of newer IEMs. Mind you it's not massively far behind, but it is a distinct difference one can easily discern.
CA Trifecta: My love and hate relationship with the Trifecta makes this difficult. The Tesseract is the CLEAR winning in staging as it is a much cleaner (neat) sound than the over-the-top sound everywhere with next to no space between notes Trifecta but something about the Trifecta can just sound big, but in the party trick type of way where you know it's not there but it can feel like it is at times.
All in all, the Tesseract is an IEM with great staging capabilities that will only be further enhanced by your choice of cable that can extend or close in the stage in areas you wish.
Imaging/Resolution:
As one would expected of an IEM with SIX est's, the imaging and resolution on the Tesseract are impeccable. There is such a large amount of air and space between all your notes, aided by the great transient response of the BA bass and Mids that you are able to pin point absolutely everything on the stage. The notes are clear, light and ethereal but with amazing detail throughout, but as I'll explain further within the bass section, this is by no means an IEM lacking punch or rumble.
Noble Viking Ragnar: I was very surprised here, trying to put aside my Ragnar bias, I believe the Tesseract comes close and POSSIBLY equivalent to the Ragnar in it's imaging and resolution as it is an extremely clean, clear and pin point accurate sound akin to the Ragnar, especially when using the magnus 8w to compare each.
UM Mest Indigo: The BCD magic as with my comparison to Ragnar keeps the Indigo in the race. It's an excellent IEM when it comes to imaging and resolution and probably among the top out there alongside other UM products. It not only matches the Tesseract and the Ragnar it can even (quite often!) outpace both in this area.
EE Odin: Akin to my soundstage comments about the Odin, the Odin is an IEM with great technicalities but due to it's age and upper mid push, I feel like it can often sound too full and some resolution is lost while the ability to pin point an instrument is there, you kind of have to dig for it amongst the other sounds. This was a major complaint for me with the stock cable, the Horus+Cleo cable definitely allows the Odin to at least slightly compete in this space but it is by no means close to the Tesseract.
CA Trifecta: The Trifecta surprisingly has a great ability to place instruments but it sorely lacks in resolution due to the abundance of sound that there is. As I've stated in my brief reviews of the Trifecta, it often suffers from a sort of "bleed behind" effect, where the treble can sound as if it is creating a wall behind the rest of the sound which makes hearing minor or quieter sounds in a track difficult. So not much of a competition here, similar to Odin, great IEM but it has a clear lane to stay in, not as much of an all-rounder as the Tesseract.
Timbre:
Tesseract has a very natural analogue timbre on both stock and Cleopatra II Octa, maybe leaning a hair more on the Cleo but not too warm or colored as to lose detail. I'll be brief with the comparisons to my other IEMs as they are all excellent (with the exception of Trifecta's upper registers which can sometimes lean slightly metallic and unnatural). The Ragnar is a colder, more analytical sound, the Indigo is very similar especially in the mids while the Odin is slightly warmer leaning and the Trifecta being warmer in the bass, equal in the mids and colder in the treble.
The fun part! Bass, Mids and Treble!
Bass:
This is a place that is usually the most contentious for users, especially among our Watercooler friends (next being treble due to sensitivities) and I'm happy to say that I think the Tesseract would be able to turn (or at the very least, satiate) even those DD loving 'coolers that have sworn off BA bass into a believer. The Low-Pass-Labyrinth (LPL) as Nostalgia Audio calls it, I believe functions as a way for them to take BA bass, notorious for it's quick transients and therefore lack of sustained rumble and punch, and slow it down (by virtue of causing the sound waves to reflect off each of the built walls) so it can gain some of the qualities of a DD while being able to retain what makes DD bass so good (the accuracy and cleanliness). The bass has often surprised me on this chonky boy of an IEM, so much so that the other night while listening I thought I had put my Odin's in and upon reaching up to my ears felt the faceplate and realized it was indeed the Tesseract. Now, with a grain of salt, the Cleopatra II Octa is DEFINITELY part of this equation as I have always been able to eek out more rumble and punch when using this cable. The stock cable still has a fair bit of rumble and a tiny child punch but no where near the levels and tactility of the Cleo. The notes are fast, yes, but when comparing (off memory) to other BA bass sets such as the Traillii I believe the Tesseract takes a clear and decisive win, being much more akin to even a double DD set like the Odin and Ragnar. I'll do my best below to compare between my collection of IEMs to let you, the reader, make your own best informed decision as all five of my IEMs have a bass presentation I love and believe to be of the utmost quality befitting of a ToTL IEM.
Noble Viking Ragnar: The Ragnar is also a leaner bass presentation despite being a double DD. Both share a very high quality bass presentation but the Ragnar reaches deeper than the Tesseract can. I'd say the quality is on par with the overall presentation being different, the Ragnar has a greater amount of rumble and punch being the primary difference. Personally, I love both of these presentations and certain music will definitely benefit from the Tesseracts lighter punch and marginally quicker decaying rumble.
UM Mest Indigo: Indigo is always hard to compare the bass vs another IEM due to the BCD so I'm going to factor it in and treat it as the whole package and not try to dissect the parts of the whole here. I've always enjoyed the quick transient IEMs (if you can't tell by my top 3 IEMs) and the Indigo's bass is no exception. While not as lean as the Ragnar, the Indigo's bass is fast, extremely punchy and when the BCD hits just right, you'll get full size speaker levels of rumble. The quality of the Tesseracts bass is barely greater than or equal to the Indigos but the Tesseract has a bit more air among the notes than the Indigo does. Again, both insanely good and it will be down to preference here.
EE Odin: Odin bass, my often biggest complaint about the Odin is that, without a good cable upgrade past the stock Stormbreaker, the bass simply bleeds everywhere into the mids, completely uncontrolled due to the lower mid/mid-bass dip. Quality wise, again both are simply immaculate and will give you all the details you could ask for out of a bass presentation. The difference lies in the cleanliness of the Tesseract's presentation, there is no bleed, notes are controlled, airy, detailed and simply amazing for me. Rumble and punch between these two feels fairly on par, leaning toward the Odin with just a touch more of each. I love both, but the Tesseract is definitely the winner in bass for me, shocking all DD lovers out there, I'm sure.
CA Trifecta: Unlike the Odin, despite being triple DD, the Trifecta's bass is well controlled and never bleeds into the mids and when compared to the Tesseract there is a lot more punch but only marginally more levels of rumble which I fully believe is the LPL at work, and if my assumption is correct, Nostalgia Audio really has some great tech on their hands with that little piece of work. Again, quality isn't a concern on either of these, if anything it's slightly in favor of the Trifecta but I attribute that to the overall presentation rather than bass vs bass on the strictest of comparisons.
Mids:
The Mid presentation of the Tesseract is very similar to that of the Odin and the Indigo with Ode to Laura. The lower mids are prevalent but both male and female vocals shine on the Tesseract, sounding very natural and extremely detailed (even more so than the Odin, I'd say equivalent to Ragnar and Indigo+OtL). The upper mids flow very smoothly into the lower treble and thus give an extremely balanced presentation that takes away from any peaks or harshness that people often has issues with in the Odin. The air and etherealness of the mids is astounding but they do not sound even slightly recessed and may well be my favorite mids across all my IEMs. Not overly smoothened or flat, detailed, emotional and direct but not in your face while still having that wispy ethereal flow.
Noble Viking Ragnar: Mid presentation of the Ragnar is definitely more forward than that of the Tesseract. Neither shows any signs of bloom or other unwanted peakiness that may make the sound fatiguing or glaring for some listeners. There is a greater weight to the mids on the Ragnar and a greater division between mids and treble. Where there is a distinct "line in the sand" between low treble and upper mids on Ragnar, the Tesseract flows neatly between these two creating an ever so slightly more coherent sound. While the Tesseract flows more between the two, this does not mean that they blend, there is significant air between, just as everywhere else. This isn't a knock to the Ragnar, as I greatly enjoy that separation but many listeners prefer the more analog sound, which I believe the Tesseract provides slightly more of (stock cable has a similar comparison but the Cleo takes that and elevates it to another level).
UM Mest Indigo: Indigo with Ode to Laura and the Tesseract are astonishingly similar, as they both have that great wispy and ethereal nature to their sound profile that I personally am a huge fan of. While the Indigo's mids are set further back by the Ode to Laura, the Tesseracts remain toward the front but overall mostly balanced to the rest of the FR, never "stealing the show" so to speak by being overly forward. Both IEMs are excellent in this space and a deciding factor for users (if they can manage to even acquire an Indigo) should be the overall sound as a whole since both (with these specific set ups) are very similar. Quality, air, details are all found in spades from these two.
EE Odin: Fully taking into account my use of a much more expensive upgrade cable (Horus+Cleo 8w) the mids of the Odin are excellent. The addition of this cable was one of my largest changes to an IEM I had experienced, as it took the bloom that was typically present around the mids and tamed/removed it almost entirely. As a result the mids were much more enjoyable and had sweeter, clearer and more detailed sound. The mids here are definitely further forward than the Tesseract and like the Ragnar have a greater separating line between lower treble and upper mids. I would say there is a greater amount of detail and clarity from the Tesseract but less emotion/sway to the vocals.
CA Trifecta: This is an IEM I struggle to define the mids on. They are of great quality and resolution when not overshadowed by the bass and treble forwardness. Female vocals are much less effected by this than male vocals. The key difference between these two isn't quality, resolution or their ability to present the mids but how the mids are shaped by the surrounding frequencies. The Tesseract is much more balanced, therefore the mids present in a much neater, tighter and cleaner package for the user to analyze but the Trifectas mids are a part of the whole, much like the rest of the Trifecta sound, it's meant to be enjoyed as part of the entire package, not by itself.
Pictured: The glowsticks contained between the grills (sorry for the garbage angle, only way I could get them to shine).
Treble:
If I had to pick 1 area of contention for me, it would be the treble. The Tesseracts treble is great quality and the listener is distinctly able to tell that a lot of attention was paid to the shaping/presentation of the treble as Nostalgia wanted it. My issue is, I love me some treble, and I do wish it was ever so slightly more elevated, especially with the stock cable, lower or quieter cymbal notes can be a little harder to hear than I personally would like. Take this with a grain of salt though, as I love the Ragnar's over the top treble and have never once been bothered by the peaks present in the Trifecta so I have a massive tolerance for in your face treble and often prefer it. The treble is well extended and doesn't drop off too fast but has very decisive transients which lend themselves to less cymbal reverb (I do not mind this, personally prefer it). There is also air for DAYS within the treble and it is extremely well separated. I personally believe most users will find the treble presentation to be perfect for them and I agree, it's amazing, but it could use a TOUCH more. If you want more treble out of the Tesseract I highly recommend selecting a very bright cable (Horus+Cleo did a nice job but I felt it pushed the mids a little too much out of balance for me), Magnus 8w (Hakugei Indra) was a nice choice but I ended up reverting to the Cleopatra II Octa due to the mids while not losing too much on the treble. The last thing to note is the Y axis extension is not as much as one would expect given 6 est drivers, it's far more reserved in it's placement.
Noble Viking Ragnar: This is going to sound rough for the Tesseract, but that's my Ragnar fan boy coming out, sorry Tesseract. The Ragnar's treble is absolute perfection, airy, extended and reaches very high. The Tesseract has amazing quality and clarity akin to the Ragnar but it is unable to separate as far up into the Y axis. Due to that lack of Y axis reach the treble is not always as apparent as it is in the Ragnar. The treble in the Ragnar is also slightly more incisive, but using the magnus 8w on the Tesseract brings them close as the Cleo II Octa tends to be a tad on the smoother end of treble. Overall your choice between these two is going to come down to: do I want treble in my face or do I not.
UM Mest Indigo: There are a lot of similarities between the Indigo+Ode to Laura and the Tesseract+Cleopatra II Octa and the treble is not immune to this. Both are sparkly but the Indigo+OtL is a little darker while the Tesseract+Cleo has a tad more zing to it's notes. Similar to the Ragnar, the Indigo is able to decidedly win in the Y axis soundstage expansion.
EE Odin: Hands down, the Tesseract has the Odin beat in the treble region. There is much more clarity and air to the notes and slightly more expansion in the soundstage which allows the treble more room. Odin's treble has always been a little weak, sort of overshadowed by the peaky mids where as the Tesseract doesn't suffer from that problem. The implementation of the est drivers feels much better but they definitely do need a tad more power than the Odin to reach their peak performance.
CA Trifecta: The Trifecta is a very treble forward IEM in order to balance out the bass, the issue with the Trifecta will always be two fold. One - it's treble can, at times, sound metallic or thin and two - the aforementioned "bleed behind" effect that can cause coherency issues in some more cluttered tracks. The Tesseract has an overall higher quality but lower quantity treble that many will prefer and I've never once had an ounce of sibilance with them as opposed to the fairly frequent with Trifecta.
All in all: The Tesseract has definitely earned a keeper and probably last spot in my IEM collection. Those who love to play around with the sound of their IEM by altering the chain will adore this IEM (owners of the C9, N8ii will have many unique sounds). It's a highly coherent, clarity driven, ethereal sound which I simply adore. Hopefully this helps anyone interested in this IEM and new to Nostalgia Audio as I was before the Tesseract make an informed decision.
If you're interested in one, don't forget to check out the Musicteck store for Nostalgia Audio at
https://shop.musicteck.com/collections/nostalgia-audio while they are still available (only 150 total exist).
