Tangzu Wan'er S.G

Source(s)

• Conexant (CX-Pro) CX31993
  • Adds some brightness and sparkle in the treble.
  • Reduce a little bit of warmth in the midrange, making the bass cleaner.

Ear tips

• Acoustune AET07
  • Fairly neutral ear tips with a decently hard stem for a comfortable fit.

Packaging

• Comes with a decent amount of accessories
  • IEM.
  • Cleaning cloth
  • Wide selection of ear tips.
    • 3 pairs of narrow bore silicone tips (S, M, L)
    • 3 pairs of wide bore silicon tips (S, M, L)
  • Cable
    • Decent, thin and braided but tangles a little bit sometimes.
    • Should be a slight improvement over the clear/black version from what I remembered when I tried the Wan Er in my local store.

Build Quality

• Lightweight.
• Plasticky body.
• Build quality is only average and cheap.

Fit

• Nozzle width and length is average.
• Shell does not have an ergonomic design to complement the ear cavity shape like the Moondrop Aria or the Letshuoer x Gizaudio Galileo. Unfortunately, this does affect the overall comfort for me.
• I was able to listen on short period of time comfortably but it gets a bit uncomfortable and painful after extended use (3-4 hours).

Tonality

• Mild V-shaped.

Bass

• Bass is quite balanced with the mid bass taking a slight lead.
• Impactful, has good mid bass slam, decent rumble and depth, texture and definition is more on the average side but not bad by any means.
• However, the speed is a little on the slower side and it is not the most well controlled bass, which bleeds a little bit into the midrange but not necessarily a bad thing.
• Good amount of bass, very satisfying but never too overpowering.

Midrange

• Midrange is warm and natural.
• Vocals has a nice weight and body to the, which makes them sound full and lush.
  • Female vocals are a step more forward and energetic compared to male vocals, but is a little fatiguing and shouty to me after long listening sessions, depending on tracks too.
• Most of the instruments sounded natural, but due to the thicker note weight, strings like acoustic guitars is affected a little more by that thickness.

Treble

• Treble is sparkly on the lower region but rolls off in the mid and upper region.
• Overall, it is quite smooth and not harsh.
• However, it does lacks a sense of airiness since it doesn't extends well into the upper region.

Technicalities

Resolution

• Resolution is decent and competent for the price but not the best in this bracket.
• It sits somewhere in between the Truthear Hola and the 7hz Salnotes Zero, differences between the 3 are minor but noticeable in my opinion.

Soundstage

• Soundstage is average, which sounds a little compressed and in your head but not a huge problem for an IEM at this price point.

Imaging

• Imaging and accuracy is also average, I am able to tell where the instruments and vocals come from but only roughly.
• Gaming:
  • Apex Legends: Sound of footsteps and gunfire can be pinpointed in the correct direction but hard to pinpoint it exactly.

Separation

• Separation and layering is quite decent for a single DD budget set. Most instruments in busier tracks are layered well enough without feeling too overwhelmingly congested.

Conclusion

• Great starting point as a first IEM as it is very well balanced, versatile, and affordable.
  • Truthear Hola leans towards the warm and relaxing side.
  • 7hz Salnotes Zero leans towards the bright and sparkly side.

• This is my absolute favorite budget set of all. Fun, exciting, while being not too offensive at the same time. Very enjoyable, easy to listen tonality and decent technicalities, what else could I have asked for at this price range?
  • Have spent almost 3 weeks using the Wan Er daily and I genuinely enjoyed listening to it a lot.

Thanks for reading!

02 / 08 / 2023 update;

I increased my score from 4 / 5 to 4.5 / 5. This model is one of my favorite models in the budget segment, very well set. I have passed dozens of products in a similar segment, Waner was one of the best. comfort, setting, whatever you are looking for

Remember your last hype trains? truthear hola, waner sg. I'm here with waner today, let's see if waner is an exaggeration or is it really good?



Box contents;

- Ear tips I forgot the number of
- iems cleaning cloth with waner picture on it
- cable
- iems

There is also a waner picture on the box, it doesn't look like a iem box.





cleaning cloth;



iem and cable quality;

We see a waner made of resin, with different engravings on it. I remember that the black one had different lines in the embroidery. Mine is transparent and free from quality control issues. I would say average for this price band, personally I like the color. The quality is also fine.



sound quality;

It has a slightly warm and balanced sound, it certainly doesn't feel muffled. What I will say next is for the price band.


bass;

The bass is tight, voluminous and punchy. When I look at the price band, I come across a lot of bass sounds that bleed so little. A few years ago we could find v-shaped headphones with plenty of bass at these prices, quite a nice improvement.


mids;

As the vocals should be, as a vocal lover, I did not feel the vocals behind. Assuming I'm pretty careful about it, the waner vokla is a good iems. The instruments that show themselves on the mid-frequency graph are quite shallow in detail, if they were a little better, they would definitely be one of the few headphones that I can call the best in the headphone segment.


treble;

-It's definitely not too bright at normal volume, and the glow isn't bad either. I would say average for the price band, maybe they could have been a little more detailed. When you turn the volume up, things change and the trebles start to mix and if you are sensitive to treble like me, you start to feel cold even from this earphone. Wrong headphone for listening too loud.


timbre accuracy;

The timbre accuracy is fine, it plays naturally. I would give 8.1/10. Vocals and instruments play very naturally, I really like the timbre of it because it has a slightly warm voice character.


resolution;

I think the biggest deficiency of waner starts here. The resolution is generally low compared to its competitors, it does not play in detail. If you care about details, I recommend you to look for different options. Too many details fail without detail processing. Maybe this is the reason why waner can't compete with products in the 30-35 dollar band, if it had a little more detail success, it could definitely compete with a higher league.


comfort;

The iems is resin, and when it is light, it is already comfortable. When a small earmuff is added to this, I can listen to it for hours. I would easily say 8.5/10.



last word;

I have quite a few earphones in the 0-200 dollar band and I like to listen to waner on a daily basis the most. I use these headphones, especially when watching videos on platforms such as youtube, not like other headphones. Added to this very good comfort, the waner has become one of my favorite headphones. For something $20 it exceeded my expectations, highly recommend.



I ordered the headset through hifigo and they gave a discount. Thank you for that, I don't have any affiliation with hifigo other than waner. I ordered theiem from this store.
hifigo store
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EHD4nVj

Wan'er Shangguan was the only known female prime minister that was ever recorded in China's illustrious imperial history. She was one of the most important personalities during the Tang dynasty. Besides being a prime minister, She was also an imperial consort to Empress Wu Zetian's son. She was also known to be a talented poet, calligrapher and an accomplished scribe-administrator while working as her mother-in-law's secretary. Her life ends in a tragic manner as she was executed during a political coup inside the imperial palace.

Click to expand...

Wan'er S.G. is Tangzu's first foray on the ultra-budget segment. First, I need to introduce this audio company and what they are in the audio industry. Tangzu Audio was an audio brand formerly known as Tforce Audio. Their first product was the TForce Yuan Li and it received some praises and accolade from the audio community as it delivered an impressive sound that it was considered as a price to performance product that delivers a tonality beyond its price value.





Wan'er S.G. is a single transducer IEM and it has a self-developed 10mm single dynamic driver with a PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) diaphragm which offers a more durable, better resistant to wear and tear due to constant vibration with less distortion. The internals were encapsulated in a solid polycarbonate plastic shell with geometrical lines and some design-inspired from Tang dynasty era on its faceplate with utmost exhibiting in an attention to detail and it uses a QDC-type 2-pin connector.



The fitting is incredibly comfortable as it is quite light that I don't encounter any issues in a long listening usage. It has a satisfying sealing into my lug holes that it block some external noises from the outside surroundings.



With its product packaging, Tangzu Wa'ner is commendable on this one as it has a decent number of included accessories. For an ultra-budget level set, the presentation of the included accessories are well-organised. Even the product box itself is attractive and it has a stylised portrait of the Premier at the front then some basic specification, QR codes and address at the back. Tangzu really knows how to make the unboxing of their product very appealing.




Here are some included accessories:

● a pair of Tangzu Wan'er S.G. IEMs.
● a white-coloured OFC cable with an L-shaped, 3.5mm termination plug.
● 3 sets of white, medium bore ear tips in different standard sizes. (It actually reminds of a Final audio ear tips)
● 3 sets of black, narrow bored ear tips in different standard sizes.
● a cleaning cloth with a print of the Premier.




For amplification and driveability, Wan'er S.G. is an easy to amplified set that a device with decent power output will be able to power it suitably. It will deliver a good amplitude and full range sounding due to its low impedance circuitry on its internals.



As for tonality, Wan'er S.G. takes a more of a U-shaped sound signature with a balanced-warmish profile on its tuning. This kind of tuning is somewhat of a norm on current Chi-Fi tuning.



LOWS/BASS:


My initial impression of the bass quality of wan'er was it is thumpy, intense with ample impact. This is not a quantitative bassheads' preferred low frequency sound per se but it delivers a sufficient bass texture. It seems that it focuses more on the mid bass rather than sub bass.


Sub bass certainly has a presence as I discerningly felt those reverb and grumble coming from the instruments such as synthesisers, electric drum machines and low tuned bass guitars on my favourite tracks on certain genres like classic rock, synth-pops and old school hip-hops.


Mid bass has a good texture that will gives more body in bass drum kick, bass guitars and bass-baritone vocals. Bass kicks definitely have this full and thunderous sound while bass guitar has this sombre and resonant then bass-baritone vocals have this broad and dark sound quality that gives a weight and depth in the overall voice quality. This is not the cleanest bass, I hear a noticeable smearing towards the midrange.



MIDRANGE:


Due to some smearing from the bass region, it does give that warmth sounding but it gives a good amount of note density. Another observation that I heard on its midrange quality was that it has a smooth and decent crisp on it. Both male and female vocals boon to the quantity of the note weight. Baritones especially the lighter ones have substantial pleasant and mild with substantial gravelly tone while countertenors have this glassy and mellow quality especially if someone is doing a falsetto singing then tenors have a chesty, fuller and powerful sound that gives a sustaining range. Female vocals especially contralto and mezzo-soprano singers have this euphonic, luscious and tender sound while soprano has a rather a bit warmer sound as I expected a more lighter, brighter and energetic sound especially on lyrical and coloratura types. At least Björk sounds good on this but Mariah Carey and Celine Dion sound a tad lethargic.


On how the instruments sound, strings like acoustic/electric guitars had this crisp sound with ample bright sound on them while violins have this brilliant and sparkling sound on them. Brass instruments like trumpets have this vivid, metallic brilliance sound while trombones have the tense, full and brassy on it. Meanwhile, the flutes have this rich and penetrating sound on them while saxophones have an expressive and reedy sound on them. And the last ones are percussions, toms seem to have a hard and menacing sound, snare drums have this cracking and sharp on them, celesta have a lustrous and bright sound, and pianos have this vibrant and warm sound.



HIGHS/TREBLE:


The treble on Wan'er SG takes on a smooth and safer tuning. It has a enough shimmer due to some possible elevation on the upper mids to presence then a gradual slope towards the brilliance region that gives a lack of air and dampens a bit of its harmonics. The inherent reduction of the upper end is a double-edge sword, it gives a fatigue-free and less sibilance listening experience but at the expense of less detail and resolution capability.


Cymbals have ample glistening and lustrous sound on them and hi-hats have a soughing and shortened buzzing sound.




SOUNDSTAGE, IMAGING & OTHER TECHNICALITIES:


Like its contemporaries within its price range, Wan'er SG has a rather average technical performance. On the overall dimensions of its perceived sound/speaker stage. It has an average to above-average on wideness, a decent height and enough depth on it.


Imaging performance is just usual and nothing exceptional as it gives a fairly 2-dimensional stereo panning that I was able to locate vocals and instrument placement. Separation and layering aspect on this set is passable as it has an enough spacing on each element and stacking of each frequency and dynamic layering on the sonic canvas are quite bog-standard that playing a more complex tracks like multi-instrumental movies scores and orchestral tracks exhibits a thronged and jumbled presentation.


Coherency of the driver performs pretty well, it gives a homogenous and faster transient response given that it has a newer generation of dynamic driver. Resolution-capability wise, it has a more rigid presentation on macro-dynamics and micro-detail retrieval has an ample sharpness to exhibit nuances and fine subtleties of elements on its tracks. Timbre is more natural with just a hint of warmth and a bit of glint.



PEER COMPARISONS:


CCA CRA


● They are actually analogous in everything from implementation of drivers to build quality but Wan'er SG has better product packaging presentation and a bit better stock cable.


● This will be their contrasting aspects and it is their sound profile. CRA is more of a V-shaped sound profile. It focuses on sub bass, a less textured mid bass and lean and recessed midrange. then a scintillating and tad airy treble but it has sibilance and raspiness on it.


● As for technical performance, they have similar technical performance with the exception of soundstage width on which CRA has a narrower presentation.



TRUTHEAR HOLA


● Both Wan'er and Hola are comparable in many ways. Hola shells are 3d-printed, it has an LCP driver and a thicker cable which is currently the best stock cable in the under US$20 price segment. It also has a IEM faux-leather pouch which is quite a rarity on the said price range.


● As for tonality, both of them have a U-shaped sound signature but Hola has more emphasis on sub bass which gives a more tight and cleaner bass, a less textured midrange and an even more smoother treble.


● Technicalities-wise. They are almost alike with the exception of resolution capability but it has less sharper definition on detail retrieval and a narrower soundstage.



To wrap up my review on Tangzu Wan'er S.G.It seems that Tangzu did a good job on Wan'er SG as it became one of the cherry on the top set in under US$20/£17 which makes this price segment even became a crucial point on the current state of portable audio market.


With a very attractive pricing and a competent tuning that you can only find on a $100/£83 price segment a few years ago. For sure that this is not the most technical set but Wan'er SG seems to deliver the best possible sound quality that Tangzu can offer, a compensating feature set in affordable form.



TANGZU Wan'er SG is still available on all e-commerce platforms. Grab and try this set out.



SPECIFICATION:

MODEL: TANGZU WAN'ER SG
IMPEDANCE: 28Ω
SENSITIVITY: 107dB
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 20Hz – 20KHz
CABLE LENGTH: 1.2M
PIN TYPE: QDC-TYPE 2-PIN CONNECTOR (0.78MM)
PLUG TYPE: 3.5mm
DRIVER UNIT(S): (1) DYNAMIC DRIVER

Some Tracks Tested: ( * = 16-bit FLAC, ** = 24-bit FLAC, *'* = MQA, '*' = DSD, *'= .WAV)


Alison Krauss -When You Say Nothing At All *
Jade Wiedlin - Blue Kiss**
Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks **
Mountain - Mississippi Queen *
Queen - Killer Queen **
Guns N' Roses - Patience *'*
Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven '*'
Sergio Mendes- Never Gonna Let You Go '*'
Pearl Jam - Daughter **
Roselia - Hidamari Rhodonite *
Assassin - Fight (To Stop The Tyranny)*
Celtic Frost- Visual Aggression *
New Order - Blue Monday *
The Corrs- What Can I do (unplugged version) *
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Voodoo Child *
The Madness- Buggy Trousers *
Metallica - Motorbreath **
Mariah Carey- Always Be My Baby *
Destiny's Child - Say My Name *
Malice Mizer- Au Revoir *
Mozart - Lacrimosa *
New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Dvorak- Symphony 9 " From the New World." *
Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold (Sting cover)*
Michael Jackson - Give In To Me *
Exciter - Violence and Force *
Diana Krall - Stop This World **
Debbie Gibson - Foolish Beat *'*
The Sisters of Mercy – Lucretia My Reflection**
Suzanne Vega – Luka **
Lauren Christy – Steep *
Ottoman Mehter - Hucum Marsi *



P.S.

I am not affiliated to TANGZU nor receive monetary incentives and financial gains as they provide me a review unit for an exchange of factual and sincere feedback from yours truly.

Once again, I would like to send my gratitude to STEVE TONG and also to KENT ALFONSO for providing this review unit. I truly appreciate their generosity and trust towards me and other reviewers.