Link to my review and measurement index thread where one can also find a full review overview, more information about myself as well as my general-ish audio and review manifesto: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/956208/
I only give full stars. My ranking/scoring system does not necessarily follow the norm and is about as follows:
5 stars: The product is very good and received the "highly recommended" award from me.
4 stars: The product is very good and received the "recommended" award from me.
3 stars: The product is good/very good, but not outstanding/special enough to get any of my two awards. ["Thumbs Up"]
2 stars: The product is only about average or even somewhat below that and somewhat flawed/flawed in some areas. [neither "Thumbs Up" nor "Thumbs Down"]
1 star: The product is bad/severely flawed to outright bad. ["Thumbs Down"]
the t.bone EP-7
Source:
Personal unit.
Miscellaneous:
I was so curious about those in-ears distributed by Thomann under their own “the t.bone” branding that I just had to buy them. Back in the day their price was quite low for dual-BA, two-way in-ears, however nowadays there is much more competition with comparable specifications in this price range.
Seem to be the OEM version of the JTS IE-6.
Come with a really decent carrying case and three pairs of differently sized silicone ear tips.
Non-replaceable cable that seems to be highly comparable to the one my Shure SE846 have.
Decent build quality and nice, Westone-like design. Therefore excellent fit.
I like that the shells are transparent and that one can see the drivers through them. Interestingly, the internal wiring also acts as additional side indicator.
Two BA drivers per side, two acoustic ways, single-bore nozzle.
Sound:
Largest included silicone ear tips.
Tonality:
Punchy, warm, somewhat bassy and dark.
The upper midbass, upper bass and lower fundamental range are elevated by around 8 dB by diffuse-field standards, with the sub-bass showing somewhat less quantity (so it’s a more Westone-like bass hump that mainly concentrates on the midbass and upper bass as well as fundamental range), so it is a rather punch-driven bass signature with some undeniable warmth as the lows extend high up into the midrange at 900 Hz.
The lower mids show a good bit of warmth that brings vocals just a little closer in the mix.
The midrange timbre is generally on the warmer side and somewhat comparable to my Westone W4R.
The area of the upper mids and presence area around 3 kHz is in the background, which definitely gives voices a darker timbre but also makes them miss clarity in this range.
The middle highs at 5 kHz are clearly recessed, something that can be also found on my W4R, Shure SE846 and especially the Audiofly AF1120. Therefore there is not that much middle treble information on the EP-7 and the sound appears somewhat veiled/muffled and with details being held back, which is especially true for brighter voices; the highs are quite dark, and voices lack overtone clarity and many instruments sound somewhat muffled due to this – ultimately, the highs are just too polite in the lower and middle treble to show enough information in the music, which is even more accentuated by the warm lower mids.
One can basically say that the area above 2 kHz and below 7 kHz is audibly in the background, and should be around 12 dB more present in the area of around 5 kHz.
The level comes back around 7 and 8 kHz but remains sill around neutral in quantity and is rather soft in character, so there is no real added clarity or sparkle or whatsoever, just a move to save the tuning by adding some necessary quantity in this area so that cymbals are audible and not too muffled and so that the whole tuning is not entirely dark (without this, the highs would have been subjectively pretty much entirely missing).
Super treble extension is rather poor; there’s not much above 10 kHz (which is still better treble extension by one kHz than my Shure SE425, though), so one should not expect any subtle high overtone sparkle or glare.
Clearly this tuning is better suited for actual stage musicians’ monitoring in-ears than for recreational music listening (unless one wants a very dark and inoffensive treble presentation in the middle highs); probably bassists and drummers would be a good target audience. Given Thomann’s and the alleged OEM company’s (JTS) roots and market orientation, this definitely makes sense.
Frequency Response:
ER-4S-Compensation
Except for the peak shown above 10 kHz shown on the graph that is not there to my ears when performing sine sweeps, that’s about how I perceive the EP-7 as well, although that upper treble “peak” at 8 kHz on the graph appears very soft instead of bright when listening to music.
ProPhile 8-Compensation
Resolution:
The in-ears resolve generally well and just like one would expect from decent ones in the 300$ range – they are about on the same level as my Shure SE425 that I paid more money for than for my EP-7, and are actually even a bit above the Shure in terms of note separation.
Nonetheless, because of the tuning with the recessed lower and middle treble as well as woolly-warm lows, the treble and high midrange information is reproduced in a way that appears quite muffled and lacking.
Equalising the sound signature to that of my Shure in this area, the EP-7 would even be ahead of the SE425 in terms of resolution, but the raw un-equalised tuning just doesn’t allow that.
So, just as with many in-ears from earlier years that were targeted towards on-stage musicians as monitoring devices instead of for recreational musical enjoyment, the EP-7 are decent to good in terms of technical performance, but clearly held back by their target-group oriented tuning.
The lows show good control. Their character is generally somewhat on the softer and more “dynamic” side compared to the tighter, quicker SE425 lows, nonetheless the EP-7 are still fairly tight and quick, even though they soften a bit more towards the sub-bass. It’s a fairly typical response for the large BA woofer, and it’s not the slowest/softest BA implementation of it that I know of. Precise but soft and dynamic – that’s how I would describe it.
Soundstage:
Superior to that of the SE425 and larger but ultimately nothing really special (decent enough for fairly inexpensive multi-BA in-ears, but not even close to the stage of my InEar StageDiver SD-2 or Pai Audio MR3 in terms of size and openness – it’s somewhere between my Shure SE425 and Fischer Amps FA-3E in terms of dimensions).
Ultimately definitely on the smaller to average side of size. Appears rather circular, though.
The imaging (placement, separation, layering) is fairly precise, however not at the same level as that of my Fischer Amps FA-3E or Pai Audio MR3 (doesn’t necessarily have to at this price point anyway).
Conclusion:
Theoretically decent and convincing technical performance, but the tuning with the recessed middle treble and warm lower mids which results in a muffled presentation that appears as it lacked details while it actually doesn’t is ultimately definitely much better suited for actual stage musicians’ monitoring purposes than recreational music listening.
I only give full stars. My ranking/scoring system does not necessarily follow the norm and is about as follows:
5 stars: The product is very good and received the "highly recommended" award from me.
4 stars: The product is very good and received the "recommended" award from me.
3 stars: The product is good/very good, but not outstanding/special enough to get any of my two awards. ["Thumbs Up"]
2 stars: The product is only about average or even somewhat below that and somewhat flawed/flawed in some areas. [neither "Thumbs Up" nor "Thumbs Down"]
1 star: The product is bad/severely flawed to outright bad. ["Thumbs Down"]
the t.bone EP-7
Source:
Personal unit.
Miscellaneous:
I was so curious about those in-ears distributed by Thomann under their own “the t.bone” branding that I just had to buy them. Back in the day their price was quite low for dual-BA, two-way in-ears, however nowadays there is much more competition with comparable specifications in this price range.
Seem to be the OEM version of the JTS IE-6.
Come with a really decent carrying case and three pairs of differently sized silicone ear tips.
Non-replaceable cable that seems to be highly comparable to the one my Shure SE846 have.
Decent build quality and nice, Westone-like design. Therefore excellent fit.
I like that the shells are transparent and that one can see the drivers through them. Interestingly, the internal wiring also acts as additional side indicator.
Two BA drivers per side, two acoustic ways, single-bore nozzle.
Sound:
Largest included silicone ear tips.
Tonality:
Punchy, warm, somewhat bassy and dark.
The upper midbass, upper bass and lower fundamental range are elevated by around 8 dB by diffuse-field standards, with the sub-bass showing somewhat less quantity (so it’s a more Westone-like bass hump that mainly concentrates on the midbass and upper bass as well as fundamental range), so it is a rather punch-driven bass signature with some undeniable warmth as the lows extend high up into the midrange at 900 Hz.
The lower mids show a good bit of warmth that brings vocals just a little closer in the mix.
The midrange timbre is generally on the warmer side and somewhat comparable to my Westone W4R.
The area of the upper mids and presence area around 3 kHz is in the background, which definitely gives voices a darker timbre but also makes them miss clarity in this range.
The middle highs at 5 kHz are clearly recessed, something that can be also found on my W4R, Shure SE846 and especially the Audiofly AF1120. Therefore there is not that much middle treble information on the EP-7 and the sound appears somewhat veiled/muffled and with details being held back, which is especially true for brighter voices; the highs are quite dark, and voices lack overtone clarity and many instruments sound somewhat muffled due to this – ultimately, the highs are just too polite in the lower and middle treble to show enough information in the music, which is even more accentuated by the warm lower mids.
One can basically say that the area above 2 kHz and below 7 kHz is audibly in the background, and should be around 12 dB more present in the area of around 5 kHz.
The level comes back around 7 and 8 kHz but remains sill around neutral in quantity and is rather soft in character, so there is no real added clarity or sparkle or whatsoever, just a move to save the tuning by adding some necessary quantity in this area so that cymbals are audible and not too muffled and so that the whole tuning is not entirely dark (without this, the highs would have been subjectively pretty much entirely missing).
Super treble extension is rather poor; there’s not much above 10 kHz (which is still better treble extension by one kHz than my Shure SE425, though), so one should not expect any subtle high overtone sparkle or glare.
Clearly this tuning is better suited for actual stage musicians’ monitoring in-ears than for recreational music listening (unless one wants a very dark and inoffensive treble presentation in the middle highs); probably bassists and drummers would be a good target audience. Given Thomann’s and the alleged OEM company’s (JTS) roots and market orientation, this definitely makes sense.
Frequency Response:
ER-4S-Compensation
Except for the peak shown above 10 kHz shown on the graph that is not there to my ears when performing sine sweeps, that’s about how I perceive the EP-7 as well, although that upper treble “peak” at 8 kHz on the graph appears very soft instead of bright when listening to music.
ProPhile 8-Compensation
Resolution:
The in-ears resolve generally well and just like one would expect from decent ones in the 300$ range – they are about on the same level as my Shure SE425 that I paid more money for than for my EP-7, and are actually even a bit above the Shure in terms of note separation.
Nonetheless, because of the tuning with the recessed lower and middle treble as well as woolly-warm lows, the treble and high midrange information is reproduced in a way that appears quite muffled and lacking.
Equalising the sound signature to that of my Shure in this area, the EP-7 would even be ahead of the SE425 in terms of resolution, but the raw un-equalised tuning just doesn’t allow that.
So, just as with many in-ears from earlier years that were targeted towards on-stage musicians as monitoring devices instead of for recreational musical enjoyment, the EP-7 are decent to good in terms of technical performance, but clearly held back by their target-group oriented tuning.
The lows show good control. Their character is generally somewhat on the softer and more “dynamic” side compared to the tighter, quicker SE425 lows, nonetheless the EP-7 are still fairly tight and quick, even though they soften a bit more towards the sub-bass. It’s a fairly typical response for the large BA woofer, and it’s not the slowest/softest BA implementation of it that I know of. Precise but soft and dynamic – that’s how I would describe it.
Soundstage:
Superior to that of the SE425 and larger but ultimately nothing really special (decent enough for fairly inexpensive multi-BA in-ears, but not even close to the stage of my InEar StageDiver SD-2 or Pai Audio MR3 in terms of size and openness – it’s somewhere between my Shure SE425 and Fischer Amps FA-3E in terms of dimensions).
Ultimately definitely on the smaller to average side of size. Appears rather circular, though.
The imaging (placement, separation, layering) is fairly precise, however not at the same level as that of my Fischer Amps FA-3E or Pai Audio MR3 (doesn’t necessarily have to at this price point anyway).
Conclusion:
Theoretically decent and convincing technical performance, but the tuning with the recessed middle treble and warm lower mids which results in a muffled presentation that appears as it lacked details while it actually doesn’t is ultimately definitely much better suited for actual stage musicians’ monitoring purposes than recreational music listening.
