TinHiFi P1

Intro


Disclaimer: I purchased the TinHiFi P1 with my own money and this review is written of my own accord. For more reviews like this, check out our blog at www.perrivanaudio.com

Accessories and Build Quality (Score: 8/10)

On top of the usual silicone tips, the P1s come with 3 sizes of foam tips, which I really appreciated as the foams really helped quite a bit in taming the highs on the P1. I especially like the feel of the included foam tips. The included cable is a braided copper cable which pairs well with the aesthetic of the P1s. The only complaint would be that the quad braid could've been a little tighter. Build quality of the IEMs are stellar, as expected of TinHiFi. The buds have a full metal built and a mirror-polished finishing.



Fit (Score: 7.5/10)

The fit wasn't the best due to the shape and nozzle but was remedied with the included foam tips. I would have preferred a longer nozzle for a more secure fit. The IEMs themselves are tiny so people with larger ears may struggle with them. My ears are on the smaller size so they were alright.



Sound (Score: 8.3/10)



I would have to review the P1s under the assumption they are fed enough power. Without enough power, the P1s wouldn't sound the way they are intended.

Sources Used

• Hiby R5
• Lotoo Paw S1
• Modi 3>Schiit Heresy/Schiit Vali

Albums and Tracks tested with

• Gryffin - Gravity
• Conan Gray - Sunset Season
• The Vamps - Night & Day
• Itzhak Perlman - Carmen Fantasy
• Boston Symphony Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa - The Nutcracker
• Ragtime Broadway Recording
• BORNS - Dopamine
• Andy Gibb - The Very Best Of

Bass (Score: 7.0/10)

The bass is a little conflicting. I'll start off with the negatives. Even with amplification, the bass is on the lean side. The sub-bass extension is quite weak. However, the timbre and tonality of the bass notes and impact in the midbass are really enjoyable. It's a prelude of what is to come in the mids. The attack on the drum beats on EDM tracks like "All you need to know" by Gryffin are speedy and punchy, albeit lacking that bottom end extension which would have made things perfect. What made the lack in bass extension more jarring the pronounced highs, tilting the balance a little too much to overlook.

Mids (Score: 9/10)

The mids on the P1s are one of the best I've heard on an IEM under $300. Vocals are rich and well-textured without compromising on clarity. Listening to Conan Grey and BORNS was such an immersive experience. The sound doesn't come across as coloured but instead just so natural and organic and makes everything sound "live". The planar mids really shine through on the P1s. The timbre of brass instruments on Lucky Chops are especially enjoyable, and they benefit a lot from the wide soundstage of the P1s. The energy of the upper mids also comes out with amplification. If your set sounds a little muted in the mids, try hooking it up to an amp and perhaps you would like it much better.

Treble (Score: 8/10)

The Tin P1s are a detail beast in the treble region. The extension is impressive, but the post 10k information does get quite overwhelming after a while. However, this does give the P1s expansive highs and helps with the staging. The triangles at the end of Carmen Fantasy sparkled ever so brightly and sweetly I just caught myself smiling by the end of the song.

Crash cymbals and Hi-hats sound incredibly accurate down to the decay speed. Lower treble has an almost linear response, picking it up from the upper mids. It has a nice silky tonality and wasn't sibilant for me. That said, I enjoyed the P1s much more with a pair of foams to cut back the treble hotness. These are a tad bit too top-heavy to listen for prolonged periods with silicone tips.

Overall

The P1s cannot survive without an amp. I tried powering it straight from my phone's audio jack and everything was muted except for the treble and the sound was quite a turn-off. The soundstage was constricted and vocals were weak and bass was non-existent.

Even on more powerful sources like the Hiby R5, which can sufficiently power the P1s (albeit not as well as my desktop setup), I only found them more enjoyable with the volume turned up. However, with the P1's excitable treble, I found myself struggling to use the P1s for longer listening sessions.

Comparison

VS TRI I3 (Review here)



I have compared them to the TRI I3 Tribrids previously. The P1s provide a more comfortable fit for my smaller ears. In terms of sound, the I3 has a much more authoritative bass response. I prefer the overall timbre and sound signature that the P1s were going for, but I wish they also had the extension that the I3 had. The P1s are also harder to drive than the I3. However, if I had to pick one, I would say I enjoyed listening to the P1s much more than the I3s.

Conclusion



The TinHiFi P1 is one capable IEM should it be fed the power it needs. It is harder to drive than quite a number of full-sized headphones and is very difficult to use on the go. On top of that, the especially lean bass is a potential deal-breaker for many as it makes the tuning little too top-heavy for comfortable listening beyond a certain time. However, it is nonetheless an immensely well-built and capable planar earphone and one that I thoroughly enjoyed it on my desktop setup. As much as there is significant room for improvement, I am very satisfied with the tuning that the P1 provides at this price point.

As many following my notes know already, I don’t believe in “all rounders” and P1 is definitely not going to change my mind.

It excels – and phenomenally so – in delivering a supremely refined and relaxed acoustic experience. Every segment of the spectrum is rendered in an expertly micro-calibrated way: nothing is lush, nothing is too thin, rythm sections are rendered almost “gently”, although each single beat – bass and highs alike – is there and at the right time and evidence for me to feel it.

Solo or small group classical music – especially strings and pianos -, classic jazz, songwriters, folk & similia are at their top on P1. On a higher level, P1 is the right companion when I am in a self-centered, balanced mood, I am not looking for extra energy to input or expel through music, and I want to have music flow all around and through me effortlessly.

Once I managed to solve subjective sibilance issues by adopting SpiralDot tips, the sole small personal brush stroke I sometimes want to give P1 is a slight raise in low-bass (low-midbass + sub-bass) presence. Here’re the values I apply: Preamp : -4dB / Lowshelf: +2dB 80Hz Q:0,64 / Lowshelf: +4dB 150Hz Q:1,1
Wether I want to apply this or not essentially depends on the track or the genre really calling for it, then I do it liberally as such amount adds some welcome warmer body to the overall presentation while keeping P1’s low-bass inherent nature intact: superfast, unbloated, unbleeding.

Enough forewording, here's the analysis:

Test setup

Hiby R5 – Balance Ended port – JVC Spiraldot tips – **** 8*63core 6N Single Crystal Copper cable – Lossless 16/44.1 – 24/96 – 24/192 FLAC tracks.


Signature analysis

Tonality Neutral as for tuning, and superlatively smooth as for presentation. Planar drivers output impact is obvious: transients are lightning fast, everything is clear and polished. Every note is lean as can be – in the good sense, that is polished, unbloated yet bodied, not “thin”. TIN job has been to keep everything as musical as technically possible.

Sub-Bass Slightly rolled-off, and not even mainly that. Sub-bass notes are fast and textured, but they hit with kindness so to say.
Even raising presence by means of some EQ shelfing – which is very well received if applied – P1 won’t become the right choice for EDM or other strong-bass-rythmical genres.

Mid Bass More present than sub-bass yet of the same general quality. Notes are mildly bodied, very fast, but most of all they hit in a sort of gentle way. On P1 bass punches fast and precise but doesn’t leave bruises. It’s jabbing, not hooking.

Mids Mids are detailed at a very fine grain. Every single breath in voices is rendered with precision and clarity. String instruments are at their best here, this aspect is just phenomenal. On the other hand, transients are so fast that depending on the situation some emotion may be lacking.

Male Vocals Quite elevated and rather warm, they lean-back in terms of overall presence on stage due to the fast transients. Very detailed, simply put very nice.

Female Vocals Less forward than Males, and leaner too. Most of the positive things stated about mids do apply, barrred some occasions where Females come accross a bit too thin. It’s important to mention that I did have to sweat a lot to get rid of sibilance which – luckily – I identified being 100% connected with in-ear resonance, so I could get rid of it with appropriate tip pairing. After rolling many models, the ones doing the right cleansing trick in my own ear canal are JVC Spiraldots (only!). YMMV, and a lot so – many are so lucky as to not possibly experiment any sibilance with P1 no matter the tips

Highs Airy, clair, extended, sparkly and fast. P1 trebles have it all, and then some. Crispy textures offer a high level of detail sensation more as the consequence of clarity than of purely technical (and sometimes dual-bladed) detail retrieval.


Technicalities

Soundstage A sensation of space, mostly in depth terms, is definitely there. My impression is not that of a huge room though, rather a non-crowded one.

Imaging It’s more layering than imaging what is superb here. Other IEMs make instruments feel more physically distanced one from another on the stage, while P1 “keep the group more closer”.

Details Again, it’s more clarity the word here, rather than detail. Hearing so fast, unsmeared sound gives a very refreshing sensation of cleanness.

Instrument separation All sounds are prefectly separated, and the separation is not even cut with a knife but rather smoothed with a thin grain file. As mentioned above P1 “keep the group rather close”, but no sound congestion is ever determined by instruments proximity.

Driveability Tough. Forget a phone, forget any entry level DAP. The absolute minimum requirement to let P1 shine is 200mW@32Ohm.


Physicals

Build Very solid full metal housing, offering a very convincing durability sensation

Fit The triangular shaped housing, its modest size and the very long nozzles make it very easy to score a good and solid seal almost effortlessly, no matter which kind of eartips are applied – with the sole exception of stock “short + wide bore” silicon ones which are hilariously too short, so much so that the housing nozzle can easily protrude out of their front opening totally screwing the sound.

Comfort Extremely comfortable even for protracted sessions

Isolation Average at best. The housing is not large enough to fill the concha compeletely which is good for comfort but obviously suboptimal for isolation, which is also not helped by the presence of a front and a back vent.

Cable Per se, it’s a nice quality 5N OFC and copper alloy cable, if only not a masterpiece in terms of braiding. Too bad that it’s offered only in 3.5 single ended termination version, which is an obvious myopic choice considering P1’s significant power requirements. I instantly swapped it with a good balanced-ended one, while dedicating it to my T4 pair.


Specifications (declared)

Housing Full metal, very elegant shape and mirror finish
Driver(s) 10mm planar magnetic driver
Connector MMCX
Cable 5N OFC and copper alloy, 3.5mm single ended terminated
Sensitivity 96 +/- 3dB
Impedance 20 Ω
Frequency Range 10Hz to 40kHz
Rated Power 10mW
Package / accessories 3 pairs of narrow bore silicon tips, 3 pairs of larger bore and shorter silicon tips, 2 pairs of foam tips, velcro cable strap, leatherette coffer, 1 shirt clip
MSRP at this post time $ 169,00

A presentation on this item is top-notch opening the box when finds a fancy Display showing off the Tin P1 in it's shiny Glory and a beautiful hard case to carry them around in accessories also include various tips of different sizes including foam tips, a beautiful pure copper cable and then the P1 themselves.

Build quality is excellent although I thought that the T3's cable was just a little better. Still very pretty and durable.

Comfort is excellent as usual from Tin HiFi the angular shape I imagine would fit most years especially being on the smaller side of most earphones.

Soundstage is very interesting whilst not overly wide the sound seems to come from everywhere inside your head and almost 3d effect.

The highs are probably one of the best features of this unit having excellent clarity and separation without being overly harsh.

The mids are phenomenal and like the treble have a great quality of detail and clarity with great separation and a mild warmth to them. Giving that's probably the best vocal presentation of any IEM so far.
Bass is not overtly enhanced but rather neutral and its presentation until called upon the lower-end has outstanding details and a rapidness very tight with noticeable layering.

Over all these are a extremely transparent and neutral sounding earphone that highlights every frequency with great detail and separation befitting of a much more expensive pair of headphones. Yet are very pleasant and unique and the presentation of signature.

Although these are able to be driven by most sources given the 20 ohms impedance but because of the 96 decibels of sensitivity they tend to scale better with a amplifier/ DAC-amp or good Dap to get the best sound possible out of these the more power pumped into these the more magic you will get out of them.