TRI Grace-S
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This item was kindly provided by Wendy Li from KBEAR.
Grace-S
TRI is the premier brand of KBEAR and has released some excellent IEMs in the past 18 months or so. In addition to this they produce a range of quality cables. The Grace-S is one of a new pair of cables recently introduced, along with the Grace-C.
Variant reviewed: 2.5mm 2 pin
The Grace-S is a 2-core design constructed from a hybrid mix of 63 strands of 6N OFC silver plated copper and 252 strands of 4N material in a coaxial configuration. There are 630 strands in total. The plug is made from alloy and carbon fibre and there is a chunky alloy chin slider. The 2 pin connectors are also alloy and have colour identification for the channels. The ear guides are gently curved and very comfortable. The cable feels of high quality and is very well made.
The Grace-S was tested with the following IEMs:
1. KBEAR Believe
2. TRI Starsea
3. KBEAR Robin
All IEMs were tested with stock cable and tips before comparison with the Grace-S. The Starsea's switches were set to "Balanced Tuning" (both switches up).
KBEAR BElieve
The KBEAR Believe is technically adept and majors on detail and clarity. Its one minor weakness is the moderately sized staging, but the Grace-S managed to improve this aspect of its performance whilst retaining all the positive attributes of the Beryllium driver and added just a little more clarity and detail. The Believe's superb technicalities were preserved and a little extra sub bass was revealed.
TRI Starsea
The TRI Starsea is a hybrid (2BA + 1DD) which has a high quality Knowles 29869 unit for the mids and a custom TRI HI-A tweeter. It has a neutral/bright profile with excellent staging but in stock form the bass is a little light. With the Grace-S there was an improvement in bass weight, clarity was improved and the staging became even more holographic. Separation, imaging and layering took a step up and the mids gained a bit of extra warmth. The Grace-S and Starsea was a great combination.
KBEAR Robin
The Robin is a 1DD + 4BA hybrid. It has a warm U profile and favours musicality over technical prowess. It may seem strange to pair the Robin with a cable costing twice as much as the IEMs themselves but it is a good experiment. With the Grace-S, there was a tightening of the bass, a brightening of the timbre and an improvement in the transient attack with leading edges more defined. This did affect the treble, which did not have the subtlety of the Starsea or Believe and led to some sharpness of tonality, causing it to struggle to keep up with the extra energy and levels of detail provided by the Grace-S.
The perfect cable would be one with no loss of signal from the source to the transducer. The Grace-S certainly reveals more information than I have heard so far and was particularly successful with the Starsea and if you have that IEM, I would strongly urge you to purchase a Grace-S cable to form the perfect partnership! Based on my experience with the earphones above, the Grace-S should perform well with any high quality IEM. Highly recommended.
Grace-S
TRI is the premier brand of KBEAR and has released some excellent IEMs in the past 18 months or so. In addition to this they produce a range of quality cables. The Grace-S is one of a new pair of cables recently introduced, along with the Grace-C.
Variant reviewed: 2.5mm 2 pin
The Grace-S is a 2-core design constructed from a hybrid mix of 63 strands of 6N OFC silver plated copper and 252 strands of 4N material in a coaxial configuration. There are 630 strands in total. The plug is made from alloy and carbon fibre and there is a chunky alloy chin slider. The 2 pin connectors are also alloy and have colour identification for the channels. The ear guides are gently curved and very comfortable. The cable feels of high quality and is very well made.
The Grace-S was tested with the following IEMs:
1. KBEAR Believe
2. TRI Starsea
3. KBEAR Robin
All IEMs were tested with stock cable and tips before comparison with the Grace-S. The Starsea's switches were set to "Balanced Tuning" (both switches up).
KBEAR BElieve
The KBEAR Believe is technically adept and majors on detail and clarity. Its one minor weakness is the moderately sized staging, but the Grace-S managed to improve this aspect of its performance whilst retaining all the positive attributes of the Beryllium driver and added just a little more clarity and detail. The Believe's superb technicalities were preserved and a little extra sub bass was revealed.
TRI Starsea
The TRI Starsea is a hybrid (2BA + 1DD) which has a high quality Knowles 29869 unit for the mids and a custom TRI HI-A tweeter. It has a neutral/bright profile with excellent staging but in stock form the bass is a little light. With the Grace-S there was an improvement in bass weight, clarity was improved and the staging became even more holographic. Separation, imaging and layering took a step up and the mids gained a bit of extra warmth. The Grace-S and Starsea was a great combination.
KBEAR Robin
The Robin is a 1DD + 4BA hybrid. It has a warm U profile and favours musicality over technical prowess. It may seem strange to pair the Robin with a cable costing twice as much as the IEMs themselves but it is a good experiment. With the Grace-S, there was a tightening of the bass, a brightening of the timbre and an improvement in the transient attack with leading edges more defined. This did affect the treble, which did not have the subtlety of the Starsea or Believe and led to some sharpness of tonality, causing it to struggle to keep up with the extra energy and levels of detail provided by the Grace-S.
The perfect cable would be one with no loss of signal from the source to the transducer. The Grace-S certainly reveals more information than I have heard so far and was particularly successful with the Starsea and if you have that IEM, I would strongly urge you to purchase a Grace-S cable to form the perfect partnership! Based on my experience with the earphones above, the Grace-S should perform well with any high quality IEM. Highly recommended.
Attachments
Tri Grace-S
Tri is a sister company of KBEAR and they have reached out to me for my take on how their higher end cables the Grace-S fairs in the market. So Wendy Li of KBEAR has provided me with the Grace S cables for my honest take. You can look up and purchase a set for you here. These here are my thoughts about the Tri Grace S cables.
The cables come with a nice medium sized rectangular zip up case. One can never have too may cases in the earphone game. The cables themselves are made of two types of SPC cables. A 6N crystal copper plated in silver for 1/4th the cores with the bulk of the Grace S being mostly about its 4N pure copper material plated in silver. Both types of SPC cables are then twisted together to form a thicker single core 315 strands of the material forms one core. The higher end 6N material has 63 strands vs the 252 strands of the 4N more copper based SPC. To be honest I would have liked to see the opposite here for the strands to make the Grace-S a bit more resolving than they are as I feel the bulk of the sonic enhancing ability is really more 4N copper plated properties vs the 6N.
A mix between a higher resolving 6N material vs the substance building 4N material is combined to bring out the best of both types of sonic properties in one cable. This cable is a bit unique as it is the first cable I have seen where two types of similar cable material SPC cables with different sound enhancing angles are mixed together. You usually see something like copper and then an SPC type of mix but two different SPC materials are a bit different. I suppose the idea there is to offer more silver based plating from combining both types of cables to bring an added resolving effect from utilizing more silver plating vs something like a copper and an SPC type design.
The cable is a simple two core design that is substantial in looks as each individual cores are thicker with the two cores twisted together to form the cables. A PVC type outer sheathing coats the outside of this hearty IEM cable and while the accessories on the cable itself is a bit plain looking using grey color metal with carbon fiber accents for the plugs. For a $100 cable it could use a bit of an upgrade on the accessories of the cables. Would actually be my only real complaint. If that is the only thing I am gonna complain about, that is a good thing. On the opposite, I have seen much fancier looking cables that while looking like a $100 bucks ends up not really enhancing anything to your earphones sound at all. But you don’t get a cable in the $100 range just for how it looks. You get it to enhance your earphones' sonic ability.
The TRi Grace-S is the best cable I have tried from KBEAR/ TRi. It has to be right, cus it is their most expensive cable. Does it warrant their cost vs their much cheaper offerings?
Cable synergy with your earphones is a real conundrum. On one hand you would like to try so many of the cables that are available that look fancy and even better looking than the Grace-S for much cheaper even. But one thing I have discovered early on in the cable game. Do not judge a cable by the way they look or what color they have. I have seen comments from non cable believers that say. I am getting so and so cables based on its looks and feel ect. Thats all fine and good but why even be looking at $100 plus cables in the first place if that was what you're going for. Nope the Grace-S does have a nice sound shaping form to their function. As you know in the cable industry it all comes down to the materials and how that material meshes with your favorite earphones.
These are observations from testing out the Grace-S with a variety of IEMs. First earphones I tried were their own Tri-I3. These earphones have garnered a few revisions and a newer smaller pro model you can look them up here. The sound of the Tri-I3 has a larger expansive stage and has some amazing mids due to the planer dynamic it is using. With the addition of the Grace-S. I noticed an immediate uptick with a greater expansion of an already larger wider stage for earphones. Grace S seem to add more body to the sounds and enhances dynamics of the earphones. When I say thicker and fuller. It isn't that the sound signature changes drastically but more so enhances or encourages certain sound aspects of the host earphone sound. For the Tri I3. It adds a slight note weight to the sonics, better clarity.
Stock pure copper cable vs Tri Grace-S
Bass seems to have a bit more authority. Vocals have more in the way of range, Treble comes cleaner in presentation vs their stock cables. I can tell the Grace-S has a good balance of technically enhancing your earphones sonics and adds the all important element of adding a fuller body of sound to your earphones sonics.
Now to something a bit more higher end. I recently did a review of NF Audios NE4 earphones you can read about them here, which are using 4 high precision BAs for its sonic characters. I say characters as it uses plates on the housing to change tunings for the NE4 to a drastic degree. Their reference tuning is one of the best balanced, open sounding wide staged tunings I have heard for an all BA design and I feel the sonic character of the NE4 reference tuning is well suited to hear any sonic changes from a cable change.
Stock SPC NF audio cable vs Tri Grace-S
Once again the Grace-S does for the NE4 what it did for the I3. Adding a subtle bit of note weight and fullness to the sonic character, stage gets a subtle enhancement as well, mids imaging and detail seems all enhanced a touch with a clean slightly smoother treble note. Its stage is already wide but with the Grace-S you're getting even a wider stage. Its bass character is full on with the Grace-S. A good resolving SPC type design the Grace-S seems to be very versatile in what it does. It doesn’t smooth out sounds like pure copper does and it doesn’t resolve as good as a pure silver cable but more so gives you a bit of both effects at the same time.
Last earphones I tested the Grace-S is the Tansio Mirai LAND. This tribrid earphone has some excellent stage and dynamics using ESTs for upper trebles 3 BAs for mids to treble with a 10mm dynamic for bass. You can read more about them here. The one knock on the LAND is that Tansio Mirai includes a basic SPC type cable which is valued at around $40 or so. While the included cable is a decent throw in. I soon found out when analyzing the sound that aftermarket cables are way better on the LANDs. This is where the Grace S clearly shows it is an upgrade on the included cable.
LAND SPC cable vs Tri Grace-S
LANDs sees an uptick in stage with a greater mid range fullness and sounds even more expansive vs the stock cables. The stock cable since it sounds thinner makes it sound like it has more treble. I noticed the Grace-S does not enhance treble as much as it does to enhance fuller sound so more copper in properties vs silver but enough silver content to not sound like it is overly smoothing out the treble notes. This fuller and slightly more expansive sound using the Grace S makes for a more immersive sounding LAND. Since LAND is a U shaped sound tuning it benefits from the fuller presentation of the Grace S. A great match up for the LANDs.
Overall I would say the Grace-S compared to other cables I own in the price range hold their own. It is clearly an upgraded cable compared to the better throw in cables you get with your earphones and I can argue much better than some you have to buy at this price range. It has a consistency and a versatility that is essential for such cables. There are cables you get online that will mesh with some earphones and not others I can’t see a scenario when the Grace-S does not enhance your earphone tunings. This aspect is very important when testing out cables and the Grace-S has shown me why Tri is charging the price to play. I know you can buy a bunch of cheaper cables that might even look better but at the same time does the cheaper cable add body and stage to your host sound enhancing its strong suits and there for ending up sounding even better. If not. This is where the $100 upgraded cable exists.
If your in need of a balanced cable in 4.4mm or 2.5mm and are looking for something that will not drastically change what you love about your earphones sound signature the Grace S is very good and versatile like that. The cons of the Grace-S is that it's common material type will not exactly excite the imagination of the earphone enthusiasts that are looking to squeeze every little bit out of their earphones. However the cables are well made, looks good and is not a burly thicker cable that helps with stage and a fuller sounding host IEM. It's got enough silver plating that will clearly let the Grace S not smooth out or hide any details from your favorites while enhancing the mids and bass to be full on. In the end if that's what you're looking for in an IEM cable. These will be a nice upgrade to your nicer IEMs.
Tri is a sister company of KBEAR and they have reached out to me for my take on how their higher end cables the Grace-S fairs in the market. So Wendy Li of KBEAR has provided me with the Grace S cables for my honest take. You can look up and purchase a set for you here. These here are my thoughts about the Tri Grace S cables.
The cables come with a nice medium sized rectangular zip up case. One can never have too may cases in the earphone game. The cables themselves are made of two types of SPC cables. A 6N crystal copper plated in silver for 1/4th the cores with the bulk of the Grace S being mostly about its 4N pure copper material plated in silver. Both types of SPC cables are then twisted together to form a thicker single core 315 strands of the material forms one core. The higher end 6N material has 63 strands vs the 252 strands of the 4N more copper based SPC. To be honest I would have liked to see the opposite here for the strands to make the Grace-S a bit more resolving than they are as I feel the bulk of the sonic enhancing ability is really more 4N copper plated properties vs the 6N.
A mix between a higher resolving 6N material vs the substance building 4N material is combined to bring out the best of both types of sonic properties in one cable. This cable is a bit unique as it is the first cable I have seen where two types of similar cable material SPC cables with different sound enhancing angles are mixed together. You usually see something like copper and then an SPC type of mix but two different SPC materials are a bit different. I suppose the idea there is to offer more silver based plating from combining both types of cables to bring an added resolving effect from utilizing more silver plating vs something like a copper and an SPC type design.
The cable is a simple two core design that is substantial in looks as each individual cores are thicker with the two cores twisted together to form the cables. A PVC type outer sheathing coats the outside of this hearty IEM cable and while the accessories on the cable itself is a bit plain looking using grey color metal with carbon fiber accents for the plugs. For a $100 cable it could use a bit of an upgrade on the accessories of the cables. Would actually be my only real complaint. If that is the only thing I am gonna complain about, that is a good thing. On the opposite, I have seen much fancier looking cables that while looking like a $100 bucks ends up not really enhancing anything to your earphones sound at all. But you don’t get a cable in the $100 range just for how it looks. You get it to enhance your earphones' sonic ability.
The TRi Grace-S is the best cable I have tried from KBEAR/ TRi. It has to be right, cus it is their most expensive cable. Does it warrant their cost vs their much cheaper offerings?
Cable synergy with your earphones is a real conundrum. On one hand you would like to try so many of the cables that are available that look fancy and even better looking than the Grace-S for much cheaper even. But one thing I have discovered early on in the cable game. Do not judge a cable by the way they look or what color they have. I have seen comments from non cable believers that say. I am getting so and so cables based on its looks and feel ect. Thats all fine and good but why even be looking at $100 plus cables in the first place if that was what you're going for. Nope the Grace-S does have a nice sound shaping form to their function. As you know in the cable industry it all comes down to the materials and how that material meshes with your favorite earphones.
These are observations from testing out the Grace-S with a variety of IEMs. First earphones I tried were their own Tri-I3. These earphones have garnered a few revisions and a newer smaller pro model you can look them up here. The sound of the Tri-I3 has a larger expansive stage and has some amazing mids due to the planer dynamic it is using. With the addition of the Grace-S. I noticed an immediate uptick with a greater expansion of an already larger wider stage for earphones. Grace S seem to add more body to the sounds and enhances dynamics of the earphones. When I say thicker and fuller. It isn't that the sound signature changes drastically but more so enhances or encourages certain sound aspects of the host earphone sound. For the Tri I3. It adds a slight note weight to the sonics, better clarity.
Stock pure copper cable vs Tri Grace-S
Bass seems to have a bit more authority. Vocals have more in the way of range, Treble comes cleaner in presentation vs their stock cables. I can tell the Grace-S has a good balance of technically enhancing your earphones sonics and adds the all important element of adding a fuller body of sound to your earphones sonics.
Now to something a bit more higher end. I recently did a review of NF Audios NE4 earphones you can read about them here, which are using 4 high precision BAs for its sonic characters. I say characters as it uses plates on the housing to change tunings for the NE4 to a drastic degree. Their reference tuning is one of the best balanced, open sounding wide staged tunings I have heard for an all BA design and I feel the sonic character of the NE4 reference tuning is well suited to hear any sonic changes from a cable change.
Stock SPC NF audio cable vs Tri Grace-S
Once again the Grace-S does for the NE4 what it did for the I3. Adding a subtle bit of note weight and fullness to the sonic character, stage gets a subtle enhancement as well, mids imaging and detail seems all enhanced a touch with a clean slightly smoother treble note. Its stage is already wide but with the Grace-S you're getting even a wider stage. Its bass character is full on with the Grace-S. A good resolving SPC type design the Grace-S seems to be very versatile in what it does. It doesn’t smooth out sounds like pure copper does and it doesn’t resolve as good as a pure silver cable but more so gives you a bit of both effects at the same time.
Last earphones I tested the Grace-S is the Tansio Mirai LAND. This tribrid earphone has some excellent stage and dynamics using ESTs for upper trebles 3 BAs for mids to treble with a 10mm dynamic for bass. You can read more about them here. The one knock on the LAND is that Tansio Mirai includes a basic SPC type cable which is valued at around $40 or so. While the included cable is a decent throw in. I soon found out when analyzing the sound that aftermarket cables are way better on the LANDs. This is where the Grace S clearly shows it is an upgrade on the included cable.
LAND SPC cable vs Tri Grace-S
LANDs sees an uptick in stage with a greater mid range fullness and sounds even more expansive vs the stock cables. The stock cable since it sounds thinner makes it sound like it has more treble. I noticed the Grace-S does not enhance treble as much as it does to enhance fuller sound so more copper in properties vs silver but enough silver content to not sound like it is overly smoothing out the treble notes. This fuller and slightly more expansive sound using the Grace S makes for a more immersive sounding LAND. Since LAND is a U shaped sound tuning it benefits from the fuller presentation of the Grace S. A great match up for the LANDs.
Overall I would say the Grace-S compared to other cables I own in the price range hold their own. It is clearly an upgraded cable compared to the better throw in cables you get with your earphones and I can argue much better than some you have to buy at this price range. It has a consistency and a versatility that is essential for such cables. There are cables you get online that will mesh with some earphones and not others I can’t see a scenario when the Grace-S does not enhance your earphone tunings. This aspect is very important when testing out cables and the Grace-S has shown me why Tri is charging the price to play. I know you can buy a bunch of cheaper cables that might even look better but at the same time does the cheaper cable add body and stage to your host sound enhancing its strong suits and there for ending up sounding even better. If not. This is where the $100 upgraded cable exists.
If your in need of a balanced cable in 4.4mm or 2.5mm and are looking for something that will not drastically change what you love about your earphones sound signature the Grace S is very good and versatile like that. The cons of the Grace-S is that it's common material type will not exactly excite the imagination of the earphone enthusiasts that are looking to squeeze every little bit out of their earphones. However the cables are well made, looks good and is not a burly thicker cable that helps with stage and a fuller sounding host IEM. It's got enough silver plating that will clearly let the Grace S not smooth out or hide any details from your favorites while enhancing the mids and bass to be full on. In the end if that's what you're looking for in an IEM cable. These will be a nice upgrade to your nicer IEMs.
