TECHNICALITIES: 8.8/10
TIMBRE: 8.2/10
SOUNDSTAGE: 8/10
IMAGING: 9/10
MUSICALITY (subjective): 8/10
CONSTRUCTION: 8.5/10
ACCESSORIES: 8.5/10
SOUND VALUE: 8.5/10
Intro
SuperTFZ is another IEM branch of TFZ company. I’m not sure to understand the reason of this side branding. From company description, it’s aiming stage musician and monitoring IEM, but the Force1 I’ve review is a basshead V shape which I don’t find appropriate for this purpose.
One thing sure, TFZ is a IEM company from China that specialize in dynamic driver technology for about 10 years, and this show even with very bassy Force1 that impress me with it’s speedy attack and high resolution.
Today I will review their flagship IEM call SuperTFZ Crown.
Priced 220$, the Crown is a single Dynamic driver IEM with dual impendance switch offering different dynamic loudness balance. The DD used is a special one and is describe as follow:
‘’Ultra /ow distortion, pure audio quality
The Crown flagship adopts a newly developed Tesla dynamic driver, with ceramic suspended edges and a blue film dome, as well as a strong magnetic flux of N52 magnet, ensuring that it always operates at ultra- /ow distortion levels. Whether it is total harmonic distortion, transient distortion, or phase distortion, it is controlled at a remarkable level, and the sound is clean, clear, and pleasant to hear, pure and durable.
Ceramic suspended edge+ blue film dome architecture, flagship level acoustic driver
CROWN adopts a new generation of acoustic technology, equipped with a ceramic suspended edge and blue film dome structure, a 12mm dual magnetic circuit Tesla magnetic pack, and a CCAW voice coil. The blue film dome adopts physical vacuum DC magnetron sputtering technology, which has the characteristics of high rigidity and light weight, making high- frequency beautiful and smooth.
The 12mm oversized dynamic unit can provide better large dynamic performance, as well as strong /ow- frequency volume and texture.
It is also effortless in achieving high- definition resolution, not only achieving reference level stage monitoring performance, but also in music appreciation.’’
All of this is certainly promising in term of performance sound value, but let see how it sound in this review.
CONSTRUCTION&ACCESSORIES
The craftmanship of the Crown is very impressive yet the design will not be for everyone in term of look. I'm not sure to understand the need to show electrical compenent since it might make it more vulnerable to shock impact. As well, the metal lining will be hard to clean and do collect dust easily.
Nonetheless, the built is very good. Housing is all made of thick glossy metal, i love the crown logo carved in housing too.
The 2pin connector aren't recessed but feel well embeded in metal body and quite durable, it mean any cable apart QDC 2pin will work.
The shape dont have spiky angle and is ergonomic, as well the nozzle is long enough for versatile deep or shallow fit.
The included cable is a modular of decent quality. Its a 4 core silver plated cable and im happy it include 3 plugs type (2.5mm and 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm single ended). It's not an end game cable and worth being upgrade if you want to exploit full potential of the Crown. I enjoy the ISN S4 cable as well as Penon Quattro cable and Simgot LC7 more than stck cable which brighten tonality a bit too much to my taste.
The packaging was elegant and number of accessories is good enough. We have 3 different model of eartips. The very welcome modular cable, a nice carrying case and cleaning too....as well as switch too that I loose. All in all, we have good price value accessories.
SOUND IMPRESSIONS
Let’s begin by saying that the only other SuperTFZ IEM I’ve tested is the Force1, which is an intense basshead banger with hard V shape bright balance...so I was expecting at least a quite bassy IEM with the Crown which….
Isn’t the case at all.
It’s a mature and neutral sounding one, with impressive technical performance, but not something I would call fun sounding for sure. So I was a bit s underwhelmed first by the dynamic heft it deliver, I was seeking the bass engagement to finaly conclude: this IEM is quite well tuned and can go from near monitor neutrality to a lush and warm one that is fatigue free and immersive in the long run.
Yes, the Crown have to sound flavor due to the switch that offer 2 impedance level: 20ohm when ON and 68ohm when OFF.
ON is the bright neutral, it’s more edgy in definition and lively and energic in dynamism.
OFF is warm neutral, it’s less clean, more hazy and organic as a whole, thicker and lusher in timbre (more euphonic), less sharp and darker in treble with more sub bass warmth.
The tonality of both is neutral with slight sub bass boost, warm mellow mids bass impact, gently forwards upper mids and upper treble, all balanced in a way nothing really dominate the spectrum. I find the dynamic too lean to be consider U shape even if sub bass and lower treble has greater boost in balance, mids don’t feel recessed enough to be called so. Simply put, upper mids and treble dominate the balance without making it sound too bright, especially with switch OFF that warm it up.
I find the Crown to shine with instrumental music like classical and jazz, folk and indie, not so much with electronic, rap, soul and R&B even if the female vocal in those track will sound very good.
The bass sit behind mids and treble and don’t attrack a lot of attention, yet it’s linear, deep and well controled.
I will focus on ON switch here since it go warmer, darker, thicker and a notch bassier with the impedance at 68ohm, it trade lushness and note weight for clean separation and texture presence of On switch.
To some extend, this is monito like bass presentation, apart the slight warmth we have on kick drum, which just have minimal punch, barely appreciable at normal volume. This is the main nitpick, because the bass is clean and well define and both double bass and electric bass soud full and realistic, it’s not an euphonic mellow boom like with OFF switch.
The sub bass line have natural sustain with well define presence, not too grainy or textured, while not plain thin it will not deliver a lot of grunt or rumble vibrancy, it will extend in a dense airy way, natural in decay, not amplify with unwanted resonance. So, monitoring for bassist will be easier than for drummer unless it’s all toms and percussions since the tom has this natural resonance release too, impressive in realism and openess.
As note, it’s certainly not a basshead nor a headbanger IEM, their no ‘’oomph’’ nor hard thumping here, the rhythm section are rather flat in dynamic but don’t feel distant or plain dull, just...mature, and refined in their balance.
Quality bass which isn’t rolled off nor plain anemic.
Now the mid range is quite impressive in fact and that even if it’s not the fullest or most forwards, most energy come from upper mids but we have enough low harmonic to get natural and rich restitution of a wide range of instrument from female vocal, to saxophone, to piano and so on.
It’s a versatile, clean and open mid range with effortless resolution that doesn’t go too edgy or polished, the ON switch here pull off the macro warmth that darken definition edge. Those sensitive to pinna gain above 8db might find higher pitch instrument a bit too energic or loud since it’s most dynamic part of tuning balance here, but their near zero sibilance unless the track is invade by it, in that regard, you’ll need to go OFF switch to tame the loudness and make it more buttery upper mids wise.
The transparency is quite good too, which permit good tracking of instrument. I don’t struggle to position piano and saxo as well as double bass and percussions in a jazz track, just the kick drum unless recorded in dominative way.
The saxo have a boosted presence which is well define and centered in middle stage, it’s not stretched so some might find it a bit compressed but it don’t affect the tone or concentrate the texture. The attack is fast and agile with energic attack lead and loud but well controlled release, this mean it can deal with very fast saxophonist without going messy.
To be honest, I’m tremendously impress by mid range naturalness as well as the sweet vocal presentation since both male and female vocal are well extract and on front seat, with wide envelopping presence that isn’t shouty nor screamy, this make me conclude that the Crown are vocal specialist and quite a superio one in sub-300$ price range.
Switch OFF note: Mids become lusher and darker, imaging goes one dimension and instrument mix togheter their presence and are harder ton position. Presence seem wider but we can’t perceive the delimitation of definition which is more foggy. Timbre goes thicker euphonic way. Attack weight seem heavier yet hit in a more mellow and diffuse way so fast note will mix togheter. Overall mids feel more forwards but not in an energic way, its due to extra lower mids body, so piano note sustain are more bodied, we can say it goes a bit more mid centric, warm way.
Now the treble too is very refined. It’s well balanced enough so you don’t get distract by too much analytical micro details but this doesn’t mean you will struggle to follow the percussions since the resolution is quite crisp here, free of trebly spike so it does offer minimal sparkle and brilliance but not in a very loud way.
In other word, it’s a lean treble with extra upper mids crunch for proper attack lead bite and an extension that isn’t rolled off or dark, which underline the high quality of dynamic driver used.
I know an IEM can extend above 10khz when we have this natural resonance of percussions or acoustic guitar release, I mean the one that is recorded, and the Crown will not boost it to the point of going shrill or splashy, it’s the listener ears curiosity that will find it in proper recording. This was already note with piano note release, it’s the same with percussion, it’s clean, slightly thicken in sutstain with extra crunch from upper mids and very richly resolved without going too upfront.
So we have both spakle and bite as well as good attack control.
Female vocal are more upfront and bright than male vocal, presence is boosted but balanced, their no unwanted texture grain. Sibilance occur but onl with low impedance ON, which mean it become sensitive to amping gain. With low impedance OFF, it become smoother but leaner too. Again, sibilance is rare, not invasive and proper source matching will solve this but I don’t think Crown is appropriate for those very sensitive to upper mids boost.
The resolution of treble is very impressive, it extract great amount of sound info including subtle micro details in background, it’s the type of IEM that will make discover new micro details in you music unless you’ve heard kilobuck IEM like Unique Melody Mest MK3.
Switch OFF tame treble sharpness and make resolution a bit more hazy and sirupy. It's a bit darker treble wise, and we have less sparkle and air on top.
The Soundstage is average wide and tall but quite deep and open and airy. It’s a bit hall like.
The imaging is quite good and I can see people using those IEM for monitoring drum, vocal, saxophone and even percussions. Since the layering is transparent and spatiality is open, positioning is realist and well resolved.
COMPARISONS
VS SIMGOT EA1000 (1DD+PR-220$)
Overall balance feel more V to W shape, crisper and bassier.
The dynamic is more lively, thumpy, rumbly and holographic.
The bass is thicker, rounder, faster and better controlled. It a bit less lean in sub bass extension, but punch notably harder, kick is better define and textured too, separation has less warmth.
Mids are brighter and edgier, more open and transparent, better resolved, cleaner and less lean, while the Crown offer a bit more natural and dense timbre, male vocal are more forward while female vocal are smoother with wider presence, attack edge is more softed.
Treble is way more snappy and speedy, percussions definition aren’t as colored with sustain crunch and warmth, we have greater amount of micro details, more air, brilliance and sparkle, while for the Crown their a bit more texture crunch which can benefit electric guitar or saxophone texture, overall treble is less spiky and leaner too.
Soundstage is just a notch wider with the Crown, whil notably taller and deeper with Simgot.
Imaging is sharper with Simgot, crisper and more open and spacious in multi layering.
All in all, technical performance of EA1000 are from another league here, while for tonality it’s brighter and more energic as well as a bit more spiky, Crown win for vocal and timbre naturalness, making it feel more mid centric than less neutral EA1000.
VS FINAL A4000 (1DD-160$)
A4000 is slightly brighter and more V shape.
Bass is warmer and more boomy, it’s thicker and have more slam. The sub bass is more rolled off and not as well textured and layering since sub and mid bass punch mix up their energy for extra slam. Overall quality is better with the Crown, leaner, deeper and cleaner and while drum kick isnt as punchy, it’s better resolved.
Mids are more recessed and dull with the EA4000, female vocal are darker, less open in presence, quite unpleasant, more prompt to sibilance and odlly balanced in harmonic unlike fuller, more forwards and natural vocal of Crown.
Treble is less sparkly and snappy, percussions are foggy and half cook with the EA4000, it lack air and sens of openess too which make overal macro dynamic more muddy too.
Soundstage is wider, taller and deeper with Crown.
Imaging is notably superior too.
All in all, this time its the Crown that feel from another league both in technical performance and tonal balance. It’s very last time I listen to those A4000!
CONCLUSION
The SuperTFZ Crown take me by surprise and show a more mature aspect of this IEM company I wasn’t aware off.
TFZ show with the Crown that they can tune well an IEM in a refined way that doesn't loose it's balance by pushing resolution higher, as well, the impedance switch is a very welcome idea for those that need smoother more laid back musicality, this can be use when you want to take a break from more energic dynamic of lower impedance and easier to drive ON switch.
The Crown offer very competitive technical performance even by today standard, but if you seek for fun bassy tonality, better choose other IEM from its vast catalogue like the Force1 which will make your brain shake with it's intense slam.
All in all, this IEM is a good choice for stage musician that want to be able to enjoy music out of stage in a more relaxed way.
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PS: I want to thanks Penon for sending me this review sample. I don't participate to Affiliated program nor get any $ compesation for the IEMs I review (and collect for comparisons purpose)
You can order the Crown for 219$ here:
https://penonaudio.com/TFZ-CROWN.html