Tripowin Leá
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Since the basics have been covered by the previous reviewers, I'll focus on sound.
You find the whole story at https://www.audioreviews.org/tripowin-lea-review-jk/
Equipment used: MacBook Air | Earstudio HUD 100 (low gain) with AudioQuest JitterBug FMJ.
Great channel balance.
Leá’s signature is warm-neutral, organic, but notes are lean. It is unbalanced to my ears with lack of bass dynamics and too much of an edge in the mids.
Bass is exceptionally tight and clean right down to the lowest frequencies, although it does not reach very deep into the sub-bass. Slam is lacking. The low end lacks bite and is too polite.
This politeness is turned into the opposite in the midrange. Vocals are lean, and pointy, though overall still reasonably organic. They are attenuated by an over-energized upper midrange and lack weight, though note definition is ok. Call it shouty, there is too much harshness and some body lacking in the mids for my gusto.
The midrange is simply a too edgy and lean. When turning the volume up to reach satisfaction in terms of vocals body, all I get is bleeding eardrums. It is like the torture of Sisyphus as the desired result is never achieved. At low to moderate volumes, the midrange is fine, though.
Treble rolls off way to early. Cymbals are frequently buried and lack substance. They are clean but lack weight.
Stage is relatively narrow and has decent depth and height. Imaging, instrument placement, and separation are surprisingly good. So are clarity and resolution. But bass kick is lacking, painted over and taken hostage by the strident, over-energized mids, which knocks the whole experience out of balance.
In comparison, the $20 Astrotec Vesna sound fuller, wider, and smoother — just way more cohesive. Notes are also much better rounded in the Vesna.
In summary, Leá offers nothing new, sonically. Another one for the lowest drawer in my desk.
Until next time…keep on listening!
Get it from Linsoul Audio.
You find the whole story at https://www.audioreviews.org/tripowin-lea-review-jk/
Equipment used: MacBook Air | Earstudio HUD 100 (low gain) with AudioQuest JitterBug FMJ.
Great channel balance.
Leá’s signature is warm-neutral, organic, but notes are lean. It is unbalanced to my ears with lack of bass dynamics and too much of an edge in the mids.
Bass is exceptionally tight and clean right down to the lowest frequencies, although it does not reach very deep into the sub-bass. Slam is lacking. The low end lacks bite and is too polite.
This politeness is turned into the opposite in the midrange. Vocals are lean, and pointy, though overall still reasonably organic. They are attenuated by an over-energized upper midrange and lack weight, though note definition is ok. Call it shouty, there is too much harshness and some body lacking in the mids for my gusto.
The midrange is simply a too edgy and lean. When turning the volume up to reach satisfaction in terms of vocals body, all I get is bleeding eardrums. It is like the torture of Sisyphus as the desired result is never achieved. At low to moderate volumes, the midrange is fine, though.
Treble rolls off way to early. Cymbals are frequently buried and lack substance. They are clean but lack weight.
Stage is relatively narrow and has decent depth and height. Imaging, instrument placement, and separation are surprisingly good. So are clarity and resolution. But bass kick is lacking, painted over and taken hostage by the strident, over-energized mids, which knocks the whole experience out of balance.
In comparison, the $20 Astrotec Vesna sound fuller, wider, and smoother — just way more cohesive. Notes are also much better rounded in the Vesna.
Concluding Remarks
The Leá turn out to be too aggressive in the midrange and too dull at the bottom end for my ears. Some smoothness in the midrange is urgently needed. Technicalities are surprisingly good. They are average iems for listening at low to intermediate volumes in their price category. Build and haptic of the earpieces are excellent, though.In summary, Leá offers nothing new, sonically. Another one for the lowest drawer in my desk.
Until next time…keep on listening!
Disclaimer
The Leá was provided by Linsoul Audio for this review and I thank them for that.Get it from Linsoul Audio.
The review sample was kindly provided by Linsoul in exchange for my honest and subjective evaluation.
The price is $25.99 and you can order it by Linsoul, using the following non affiliate link Linsoul.
Tripowin
Tripowin, which was established in 2019, is essentially a Linsoul in-house brand.
Reading at their website we learn that "At Tripowin, we use the latest and most advanced driver technologies in order to deliver incredible audio performance at a budget price. By focusing on uncompromising driver quality and engineering experience, we have created numerous audio solutions that have garnered international praise. Partnering closely with the audiophile community, we are always striving to create the best that sound beyond their price. It’s great audio that doesn't cost an arm."
Leá
The Leȧ is a budget friendly earphone that utilizes the latest generation of liquid crystal polymer (LCP) diaphragm driver to produce outstanding tonal balance and audio resolution.
This is the same 10mm driver used by several extremely popular models from other manufacturers, but they have further enhanced its performance by creating an acoustic chamber rather than a standard sound tube.
By eliminating the sound tube, they are able to reduce unwanted harmonic resonance while creating a more life-like soundstage and depth. Compared to previous generations of 10mm dynamic drivers, this LCP diaphragm has tighter surface tension and resistance, allowing for much quicker response and audible improvements in sound quality.
Build quality, appearance and fit
The compact and lightweight ear shells, which are made from metal, have an anatomically shaped design that follows the natural curves of the ear.
The sound tube is quite extended so the ear shell can be flushed quite deep in the ear cavity, ensuring a stable, tight fit and good passive noise attenuation.
The Leá feels comfortable and offers a stress free using experience, even after long listening sessions.
That is, if you are happy and comfortable with the three only pairs of ear tips that are included inside the package.
The design is rather uninspiring and dull, the black painted shells have a barely visible "Tripowin" logo engraved on them and they make a non attractive visual contrast with the shiny silver cable connectors.
An all black cable should be a better match.
Cable
The Leȧ comes standard with an upgraded silver-plated oxygen-free copper cable.
Using a 2-pin connector, the cable is interchangeable, allowing the user to mix and match the cable, as well as ensuring the longevity of the IEM.
The cable is thick and heavy with a bulky and ugly, plastic, splitter while the 3.5mm plug is not gold-plated but otherwise is well made, it seems durable and has low microphonic noise.
The 2-pin connectors seem to be fragile and frequent plugging and unplugging should be rather avoided.
Accessories
The Leá comes in a simple package with three pairs of eartips and two extra, removable ear-hooks to assist with the fit.
A carrying pouch is not included.
Listening impressions
As per usual practice I left Leá playing music for 150 hours before listening.
The Leá is easy to drive and most of the listening was done with the FiiO KA1, Periodic Audio Rhodium and ddHiFi TC35B.
As uninspiring and humble the Leá might look the opposite is to be said of the sound which in contrast is inspiring and musically attractive.
The sound performance comes as a real surprise with a well balanced tuning that has decent technicalities for such a low cost earphone.
The Leá sounds coherent, smooth and slightly laid back with a natural and lifelike timbre, something rare at this price point where most earphones are heavily V-shaped or too bassy.
The bass is well extended without too much of a roll off, then gently downsloping to the lower mid-range keeping things clear and well defined without intruding into the mids.
The Leá is not a bass cannon but nonetheless a satisfying performer with modern music while the bass stays tight and controlled enough with plenty of clarity and well organized layering as to sound great with most demanding genres like classical music.
It is not too fast but you can't call it sluggish either, decay is quite relaxed and natural while the presentation can become powerful enough when it is needed without any severe boominess or loss of control.
The texture is full bodied and all instruments sound intense and weighty, not lean and fake.
The mid range is balanced and natural with a touch of upper mid-range emphasis that aids with clarity and vividness but thankfully you are not going to hear any shouting females or anything else annoyingly forward.
Voices and instruments sound very engaging with a harmoniously intense expression, realistic timbre and weighty texture.
The Leá is great for listening to vocal and choral music of all kinds like Antonio Vivaldi's sacred oratorio "Juditha Triumphans"
Treble is smooth and subdued but not too much as to sound muted and blunt.
The Leá is warm and slightly laid back but you can't say that it is lacking in vividness however it is not that sparkling and agile.
This is not a brilliant sounding earphone nor the most extended and analytical one but on the other hand it is fairly easy to the ear and forgiving of poor quality.
What mostly stands out about the Leá are the naturalness of the timbre, the tonal accuracy and the realistic timing of the decay.
The soundstage is decently wide and spacious with a pretty much accurate imaging and it can convincingly reproduce the ambience and the scale of the music.
Compared to the Jade Audio (FiiO) JD3 ($20)
The JD3 is more luxurious and beautiful looking with a bullet shaped design and a finish of higher quality.
It is less bulky and more lightweight but the Leá is equally comfortable thanks to the anatomical shape.
The cable on the JD3 has an inline microphone and is permanently attached to the ear shells but it is of high quality and certainly more lightweight and thinner than the Leá cable.
The JD3 is cheaper but it comes with a simple carrying pouch and four pairs of ear tips.
Sound-wise the JD3 tuning is more mainstream than the Leá with a "V" shaped sound signature.
Sub-bass reaches deeper while there is an extra bass / mid-bass emphasis but not at the expense of mid range clarity.
On the other hand, the Leá is more neutrally tuned in the bass region with better overall clarity, deeper layering and increased control however it is not as impactful and fun sounding.
Then the Leá is more forward in the upper-mids followed by a subdued treble whereas the JD3 is exactly the opposite.
The Leá has better mid range consistency with a natural timbre while the JD3 sounds less intense, more distant and slightly more artificial.
In contrast though, the JD3 is more brilliant sounding, faster and agile with extra clarity, better extension and deeper detail retrieval.
Both are definitely good for the asking price, with strong personalities that differentiate them from the crowd.
The JD3 is the party animal where the Leá is the more sophisticated classical music companion.
In the end
The Leá is a $25 earphone with a good price to performance ratio and a surprisingly mature tuning which will appeal to people who mostly appreciate natural timbre and tonal accuracy.
A nice addition to a well saturated market where everything sounds more or less the same, the Leá can be rightfully considered as your first reference sounding earphone.
Test playlist
Copyright - Petros Laskis 2022.
The price is $25.99 and you can order it by Linsoul, using the following non affiliate link Linsoul.
Tripowin
Tripowin, which was established in 2019, is essentially a Linsoul in-house brand.
Reading at their website we learn that "At Tripowin, we use the latest and most advanced driver technologies in order to deliver incredible audio performance at a budget price. By focusing on uncompromising driver quality and engineering experience, we have created numerous audio solutions that have garnered international praise. Partnering closely with the audiophile community, we are always striving to create the best that sound beyond their price. It’s great audio that doesn't cost an arm."
Leá
The Leȧ is a budget friendly earphone that utilizes the latest generation of liquid crystal polymer (LCP) diaphragm driver to produce outstanding tonal balance and audio resolution.
This is the same 10mm driver used by several extremely popular models from other manufacturers, but they have further enhanced its performance by creating an acoustic chamber rather than a standard sound tube.
By eliminating the sound tube, they are able to reduce unwanted harmonic resonance while creating a more life-like soundstage and depth. Compared to previous generations of 10mm dynamic drivers, this LCP diaphragm has tighter surface tension and resistance, allowing for much quicker response and audible improvements in sound quality.
Build quality, appearance and fit
The compact and lightweight ear shells, which are made from metal, have an anatomically shaped design that follows the natural curves of the ear.
The sound tube is quite extended so the ear shell can be flushed quite deep in the ear cavity, ensuring a stable, tight fit and good passive noise attenuation.
The Leá feels comfortable and offers a stress free using experience, even after long listening sessions.
That is, if you are happy and comfortable with the three only pairs of ear tips that are included inside the package.
The design is rather uninspiring and dull, the black painted shells have a barely visible "Tripowin" logo engraved on them and they make a non attractive visual contrast with the shiny silver cable connectors.
An all black cable should be a better match.
Cable
The Leȧ comes standard with an upgraded silver-plated oxygen-free copper cable.
Using a 2-pin connector, the cable is interchangeable, allowing the user to mix and match the cable, as well as ensuring the longevity of the IEM.
The cable is thick and heavy with a bulky and ugly, plastic, splitter while the 3.5mm plug is not gold-plated but otherwise is well made, it seems durable and has low microphonic noise.
The 2-pin connectors seem to be fragile and frequent plugging and unplugging should be rather avoided.
Accessories
The Leá comes in a simple package with three pairs of eartips and two extra, removable ear-hooks to assist with the fit.
A carrying pouch is not included.
Listening impressions
As per usual practice I left Leá playing music for 150 hours before listening.
The Leá is easy to drive and most of the listening was done with the FiiO KA1, Periodic Audio Rhodium and ddHiFi TC35B.
As uninspiring and humble the Leá might look the opposite is to be said of the sound which in contrast is inspiring and musically attractive.
The sound performance comes as a real surprise with a well balanced tuning that has decent technicalities for such a low cost earphone.
The Leá sounds coherent, smooth and slightly laid back with a natural and lifelike timbre, something rare at this price point where most earphones are heavily V-shaped or too bassy.
The bass is well extended without too much of a roll off, then gently downsloping to the lower mid-range keeping things clear and well defined without intruding into the mids.
The Leá is not a bass cannon but nonetheless a satisfying performer with modern music while the bass stays tight and controlled enough with plenty of clarity and well organized layering as to sound great with most demanding genres like classical music.
It is not too fast but you can't call it sluggish either, decay is quite relaxed and natural while the presentation can become powerful enough when it is needed without any severe boominess or loss of control.
The texture is full bodied and all instruments sound intense and weighty, not lean and fake.
The mid range is balanced and natural with a touch of upper mid-range emphasis that aids with clarity and vividness but thankfully you are not going to hear any shouting females or anything else annoyingly forward.
Voices and instruments sound very engaging with a harmoniously intense expression, realistic timbre and weighty texture.
The Leá is great for listening to vocal and choral music of all kinds like Antonio Vivaldi's sacred oratorio "Juditha Triumphans"
Treble is smooth and subdued but not too much as to sound muted and blunt.
The Leá is warm and slightly laid back but you can't say that it is lacking in vividness however it is not that sparkling and agile.
This is not a brilliant sounding earphone nor the most extended and analytical one but on the other hand it is fairly easy to the ear and forgiving of poor quality.
What mostly stands out about the Leá are the naturalness of the timbre, the tonal accuracy and the realistic timing of the decay.
The soundstage is decently wide and spacious with a pretty much accurate imaging and it can convincingly reproduce the ambience and the scale of the music.
Compared to the Jade Audio (FiiO) JD3 ($20)
The JD3 is more luxurious and beautiful looking with a bullet shaped design and a finish of higher quality.
It is less bulky and more lightweight but the Leá is equally comfortable thanks to the anatomical shape.
The cable on the JD3 has an inline microphone and is permanently attached to the ear shells but it is of high quality and certainly more lightweight and thinner than the Leá cable.
The JD3 is cheaper but it comes with a simple carrying pouch and four pairs of ear tips.
Sound-wise the JD3 tuning is more mainstream than the Leá with a "V" shaped sound signature.
Sub-bass reaches deeper while there is an extra bass / mid-bass emphasis but not at the expense of mid range clarity.
On the other hand, the Leá is more neutrally tuned in the bass region with better overall clarity, deeper layering and increased control however it is not as impactful and fun sounding.
Then the Leá is more forward in the upper-mids followed by a subdued treble whereas the JD3 is exactly the opposite.
The Leá has better mid range consistency with a natural timbre while the JD3 sounds less intense, more distant and slightly more artificial.
In contrast though, the JD3 is more brilliant sounding, faster and agile with extra clarity, better extension and deeper detail retrieval.
Both are definitely good for the asking price, with strong personalities that differentiate them from the crowd.
The JD3 is the party animal where the Leá is the more sophisticated classical music companion.
In the end
The Leá is a $25 earphone with a good price to performance ratio and a surprisingly mature tuning which will appeal to people who mostly appreciate natural timbre and tonal accuracy.
A nice addition to a well saturated market where everything sounds more or less the same, the Leá can be rightfully considered as your first reference sounding earphone.
Test playlist
Copyright - Petros Laskis 2022.
I should start off this review by saying that I never really wrote a review for an IEM before, so please take my opinions and descriptions with a grain of salt. My hearing is not great, either, but from what I have heard of these so far, I am quite impressed at the price I bought them for ($42.99 with custom cable).
NOTE: This review has been considerably edited since the time I own this pair of IEMs. With around 7-8 months under my belt with them, I can now say what I like and don't like a bit more confidently. Still, though, please take me with a grain of salt.
Packaging:
The packaging is rather simplistic and nothing that would significantly stand out. For $26 I guess you shouldn't expect a lot, but what's included is enough. Once you remove the foil cover, you get access to the foam cutout with the IEMs, a couple of spare tips and under the Tripowin logo paper sheet, the stock cable and silicone earhooks. You may have already noticed the other box on the left, and that's the custom cable (Zonie) I've ordered. I'll get to that later.
I think that this packaging can work very well with better materials, however. I'm not exactly a box guy and I recycle almost everything I can, so anything that's small and easy to dispose of is a big win in my book. If Tripowin decides to go for more environmentally-friendly materials, I can definitely see this working.
Build:
The IEMs themselves are actually rather impressive in their build quality. I've handled a few pieces of in-ears before, and this one stands out, cause it actually makes me feel confident in their quality. One thing to note is that the nozzles are also quite extended outwards (at least compared to my Panasonic RZ-S500s, with which the low nozzle extension cripples their comfort).
The same cannot be said for the stock cable, however. As soon as I removed the piece of plastic holding it together, it tried to uncoil and reach out at me from the box. I've tried using the Leás with the stock cable and I can't say I would recommend it - it tugged at everything possible and loved to tangle up. A custom cable can handle this problem quite nicely - the Zonie that I use is a remarkable improvement, albeit still around the average in quality, if we're talking custom cables. It's far more pliable, does not hold its shape in a particular degree and feels far nicer, albeit a more careful eye can notice minor quirks such as the individual wires splitting off a bit earlier than some would like. I have not bothered using the stock cable at all since trying them out for my first time.
There is also an issue that you should probably be aware of, depending on your climate. I move a lot between my current living place (around 700m above sea level) to the city I frequent, which is barely 200m above. There's a rather large difference in moisture, which unfortunately translates into the filters. This issue seems to, sadly, affect most Tripowin IEMs. This leads to the filters condensing over and blocking off some of the sound, which can really only be fixed by a complete filter swap. On the bright side, using filters such as those from the Tanchjim Tanya also tames the top-end a little bit more, possibly giving the Leá the edge they need. Depending on your climate and your ears, this will either not be a problem at all, or it will be a dealbreaker you should be aware of.
Comfort, fit:
The Leás are actually deceptively small. I managed to put them into my, for context, rather small ears without many problems, and the fit with the already installed tips is also decently sufficient. They seal reasonably well with some time to adjust them in my ears, although their comfort, or perhaps lack thereof, is something you should take into account. The tips are fine, but nothing outstanding that will make you want to wear these for hours on end. The tips are also not very easy to put on the nozzle.
If you're going to use custom tips, I believe the comfort of these would be quite competent and easygoing. I can manage about four to five hours tops before I really have to take them out.
Sound:
I'll put a TLDR here. Not V-shaped, leaning towards treble and mid-high frequencies. If you want something with more bass, I would recommend to look elsewhere.
I've tried them plugged into my phones (Xiaomi Poco X3 (running MIUI, now Lineage 19), Xiaomi Redmi 4X), Bluetooth DAC (FiiO BTR5 2021) and audio interface (M-Audio AIR 192|4), and they all reached a very comfortable listening volume about 30-50% way in (except the FiiO, which was at about 50/60 on low gain throughout every listening session I've had with them).
Other than that..I'd say for the price point I expected something in the classic veil of "give it bass, give it treble, forget 'bout the mids". Thankfully, that's not the case, and I actually find the Leá quite refreshing in this regard. Sub-bass is quite well controlled although not very strong. Personally, I don't mind, albeit a part of me would have liked a very minor increase, around 1-2db. I have moved from songs I'd love bass in a long time ago, but if you like music such as that, these don't have a tone you would find particularly pleasing.
However, I have found myself to enjoy the treble on these quite a lot. They feel detailed and decently clear, and surprisingly not harsh or tiring to my ears. This will absolutely be different for other people - I've got a couple kinks in my hearing as-is. Cranking the volume too high will make the treble sound quite hot, perhaps even harsh, at least according to the people I tested these on. If you're treble-sensitive, this is also an area you should be aware of. Timbre is about average. Nothing hit me as completely incorrect, but it's all just kinda okay.
Soundstage..well, it's a closed-off IEM. I didn't expect much and the result is still quite decent. Nothing outstanding being offered here.
Conclusion:
I quite like the Leá. Well, actually, I kind of love them. For their price, the tone they offer is quite different to most similarly-priced offerings, not being filled with bass.
Would I say these are the best under fifty dollars? No. Quite frankly, I don't own enough sub-50 IEMs to say that with certainty - the CCA CRA+ are on my radar right now. What I can absolutely say is that these offer a sound distinct and different enough to stand out in the sea of KZs, Blons and other V-shaped IEMs.
Weren't it for the stock cable, I probably would've given these a 4.5/5 instead of a 4. They are absolutely a pair you should consider, though.
Tripowin Leá
Review by Redcarmoose 03/25/2022
The Tripowin Leá is that girl in school who had glasses, sat quietly in back of the class and kept pretty much to herself. She dressed conservative and spoke only when spoken to. Though if you got to know her she was a special mix of pleasant, traditional and truthful. Is there room in the world for such an IEM sound signature? Let’s find out.
Unlike the last two bass exploitation makers I just reviewed, Leá is refreshing and tame. Still she’s not “milquetoast” or boring but has all in place, with only one slight issue which we will get to. Leá is the girl you could maybe marry once you fall in love with her. Why? Because she does it all (almost), and is careful and respectable.
Leá dresses in black, is not garish, but is expressing her very own style. She is built-well, comes with few accessories, yet gets the job done. Many may look at her as cheap and want nothing to do with her. Yet there is truly a value to be found, especially if her sound signature harmonizes to the frequency you’re on.
Really for the longest time you never noticed Leá; she was never a blip on your radar. That fact was easy to understand, being she was at the back of the class and kept mostly to herself. But once you started taking to her she opened-up. She had stories to tell and an entire world of distinctive personality and charm. Turns out she has two sisters in school! Her older sister, Mele was quite popular, and Olina (while new) is also carving quite the niche for herself around town. Myself, not ever meeting Mele or Olina, will only be able to give you my thoughts on Leá . Still, it may be true that sister Olina becomes head and shoulders above Leá. That’s just life!
Tripowin Leá
10mm LCP Dynamic Driver HiFi in-Ear Earphone
Kareena Tang from Linsoul sent me the Tripowin Leá IEM in exchange for this review.
Tripowin Leá+Stock Cable-$25.99
Tripowin Leá+Stock Cable & Tripowin Zonie Grey 2.5mm-Extra Cost
Tripowin Leá+Stock Cable & Tripowin Zonie Grey 3.5mm-Extra Cost
Tripowin Leá+Stock Cable & Tripowin Zonie Grey 4.4mm-Extra Cost
PRODUCT PRICE WITH STOCK CABLE
$25.99 USD
Comes with a 1 year warranty.
Get them here:
Linsoul website: https://www.linsoul.com/
Linsoul Aliexpress Store: https://ddaudio.aliexpress.com/store/2894006
Linsoul USA Amazon Store link: https://www.amazon.com/s?me=A267P2DT104U3C&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DE
Tripowin:
Tripowin emerged (from Shenzhen) in 2019 making splash with a range of quality cables. Then they made the TP-10 IEM then the TC-01 IEM. While the TP-10 was priced at around $35.00, the Tripowin TC-01 was/is $49.00 and probably the best $49.00 IEM I had ever heard back in January of last year. It’s still a big seller to this day.
TC-01
https://www.linsoul.com/products/tripowin-tc-01
But Tripowin didn’t really have a hit at Head-Fi until the release of the Mele. To say the Mele is a phenomenon probably best describes her. They just released the Olina next.......
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tri...iscussion-thread-olina-out-now.959328/page-43
The rest is as they say history! Of course the Tripowin Leá is another take on another sound……another artistic understanding of what we call IEM music replay. I haven’t heard the Mele or Olina, but even though all 4 are basically Dynamic Drivers, they are tuned different. The TC-01 was actually very bass heavy. The TC-01 some thought (myself included) was an improvement on the BLON BL-01 sound. Yet I felt one of the Tripowin TC-01 issues were too short of nozzle, with such an IEM you need longer tips. And while really for $49 dollars the TC-01 was amazing, it just never resonated with the community like the Mele or Olina.
Now it seems the Tripowin Leá has almost gone overboard on extra-long nozzles. I mean look at the length of them! Though I have to say the Leá fits perfectly! They are actually very small IEMs, and typically smaller fits better as well as fits more folks. You really don’t even notice them in your ears. They also have an uncanny way of staying exactly in place. They stay in place so good they are really one of the few IEMs I’ve tried I can recommend as a sports IEM.
Build 10/10
Fit 10/10
Cable...(nice)
The Cable in Use:
Imagine with me......................looking at the cable in photographs the cable looks one way, but using it is another. You don’t want the cable to actually be coiled-up in use, you want it to extend out and lay across your body, and that’s what it does. While slightly stiff and springy, still it works for what it is. The plug at the tip is L shaped and is incorporated with nice strain relief. Though putting it away (all into a small area) may be cause for concern.
I mean the cable was fine until I took off the twist-tie…………then I let the “snake” out of its nest. It almost bit me!
The packaging is fairly simple but works well with the product. I would way rather have Tripowin spend money on sound than fancy packaging. At $25.99 they can only do so much with the packaging. So it comes in a very small box, has three sets of tips, a cable and some cable guides. That is it. No paperwork, or love notes. The tips are actually fine surprisingly. After tying out a series of different tips I found the included large size tips to work well with placement, air-tight fit and inner-bore diameter. The wide bore tips normally reduce bass slightly, but increase sound-stage and treble/midrange. Narrow bore tips will often reduce perceived imaging distance as well as increase bass tone.
The cable guides are interesting. They allow the cable to stay over ear, preventing it from flopping out of the set (over-ear) position and going horizontal on you. This inclusion is very different and seems to work. We are offered qdc style of 2 pin connectors. Such a device only allows so much downward force placed on the IEMs two pin receiver, as it is physically halted by the internal shape. So if you were ever wondering why people use them, that is why. Also they offer side to side structural relief on the plug. They look funny if you have never had a set before.
Sensitivity-105+_3db
Impedance-32 ohm
Cable-Silver Plated Cable in 1.2m
Driver Config-10mm LCP Dynamic Driver
Frequence Response-20-20000Hz
Connectors-2-pin 0.78mm
See what Linsoul says about the driver:
"The Leá utilizes the latest generation of liquid crystal polymer (CP) diaphragm driver to produce outstanding tonal balance and audio resolution."
"Compared to previous generations of 10mm dynamic drivers, this LCP diaphragm has tighter surface tension and resistance, allowing for much quicker responses and audible improvements in sound quality. It's the next level of high-definition in the dynamic driver category."
So, I do agree with much of this being true, in that if I go back into my old collection of $26.00 to $50.00 IEMs...........I do notice a big improvement in sound!
Amazingly the BLON BL-01 was $22.99 back in December of 2020 when I reviewed it. Really a whole different sound. Where the Leá is more of a neutral sound with added warmth. I have to say I’m not as much experienced with the ultra-budget market as I was back in the time of 2013-2016. Though from back then I still have my collection and yes, the Leá betters them in detail, clarity and especially soundstage. Yet while the detail and resolution is there, the Leá needed the darkest amplifier obtainable to not show a hot treble gain when turned loud. Even from a phone, it showed this to be the case.
(SenyorC) The review below this one:
He also found the exact same issue. Basically you have an area of the treble which ends up too bright if the volume of music is raised beyond a certain level. Now what’s interesting is there is ways to deal with this. Some people may actually be fine if they enjoy the regular listening volume that’s provided. It’s just you can’t crank it up. The pinna gain area of hearing is the most sensitive part of our hearing. This frequency range is primarily vocals, and better yet female vocals. So as humans we were designed to have extra-special hearing in this particular area. It’s also the area that gets physically amplified by the structure of the outer-ear. Due to IEMs bypassing that tissue structure amplifier, they add a boost to those frequencies to allow IEMs to sound like regular headphones.
The effect is two fold, a balance as too little pinna gain and the sound can lack resolution and detail. Too much and can have a style of issue that the Leá has. Another member here, baskingshark has figured out another way to deal with this. I haven’t tried this mod but it does look like a thing I would be into, as I typically gravitate towards warmer signatures anyway.
Member baskingshark has tried a filter:
"The Tanya filter (green graph) indeed tames the lower treble and upper mids and makes the Leá become less bright (and harsh), but you lose a bit of micro-details and clarity as a tradeoff."
Now it is worth taking note.............the fact that the other way completely bypass the issue is combine it with a super dark amplifier. I hooked up the Leá with included tips as well as included cable to my reference system. Amazing the top-heat was gone. So I don’t know why someone would hook a $25.99 IEM to a $2200 Sony TA-ZH1ES.......but it's a possibility, and it works to get rid of the gain. Probably many will figure out an amp that works
The Technicalities:
These are qualities are different than Frequency Response, they work together to enable realism in playback.
Technical Ability - A blanket term for attack transients, imaging, decay, tonality, tonal balance, timbre, soundstage, temperature, and texture. At times overall frequency response (if even and correct) is considered part of technical ability.
Just note that we are only talking about the part of Technical Ability that does not include Frequency Response at this point.
Technical Ability
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being best:
Decay-9
Tonality-5
Tonal Balance-9
Timbre-5
Texture-8
Imaging-9
Attack Transients-9
Soundstage-7
So I’ll start at the bottom of the list. Soundstage is interesting as there is an area of the upper mids which has an amazing soundstage. Also the treble has nice soundstage but it’s rolled off, so what treble is there has it. Though maybe it’s the tune, but the bass area has very little soundstage. Attack Transients are fast. Imaging really follows all the descriptions of soundstage. Texture is a style of “mixed results” with the emphasis on quality being in the upper mids, with some obviously for the lows to get an 8. Timbre is really off. The biggest issue (and only real issue) I personally have with how this particular IEM sounds, and that is taking price into account. Tonal balance is actually a wild card as this IEM can sound actually slightly different depending on source. I preferred it on warmer amps/DACs…….but I totally get how some reviews would find it stark and “hot” at some higher volumes, as that is exactly what happened on my brighter DAPs. Tonality was ascew due to timbre. It just doesn’t sound real, but in this alternate way, it’s OK. You simply have to listen to it long enough that you somehow start to get used to its tilted sound (Timbre) universe. Decay was good because nothing was really delaying too long.............but how it did delay was adequate.
The total confusion here comes when you try to rate this IEM on Timbre and Texture. The two are actually very related. But here the texture is better but it’s displaying a bad timbre.
Remember too, a lot of this is learned, meaning you need to hear correct instruments in life, or hear them played back correctly in a recording to identify when they are off in replay. So a person with limited experience will not even note the Timbre being so very off.
Frequency Response:
Well look at the graph, it looks OK does it not? For this price it’s nice. It’s just that FR is only so much of the equation. Still FR is 80% of happiness, when choosing an IEM. Is the bass enough? Does the treble have enough sparkle? Does the midrange have that level of personality that I like? So FR is actually very subjective too, to a point. But a generalization of a FR response curve is going to satisfy a lot of people because many folks follow the same style of likes and wants. But beyond that FR also stands to show reality. Meaning is it even, correct and complete? The fastest way to make something messed-up is to make the FR uneven. Then it becomes incorrect and finally if a part is left-out then it’s not complete. This all exists still parallel to someone’s wants and needs. It’s kind of a way to accept a slightly different way to hear music, yet still have respect for another persons interpretation of that music. A lot goes into a person’s personal perception of tone. It’s their ear canal shape, there resonance points, then there are also the physiologic attributes of their hearing, also much we truly don’t understand. Some even believe FR preferences start at a very young age when forming listening habits. What we know for sure is some have the tone controls set one way and another set of people have then set another. There is no right or wrong to this stuff, in a way. The Leá does great frequency response wise. Though the bass level could be greater, again that’s just me. But I totally understand the tuning and why it was chosen to be what it was. The fact that it’s balanced in such a way will draw attention from people that want just that……balance. The bass has this definition that comes from an even and correct response, so it’s fast and is well placed in the soundstage that’s presented. The bass does not bleed into any other area of the mix. The mids are not thin or thick but just where they are suppose to be. That is the whole point of this tune. I mean yes, overall it’s slightly warm, but ever so slightly.
Treble has two qualities. One for what is provided, it’s nice. But in typical DD fashion it rolls of slightly too soon. This isn’t really a big deal with a headphone of $25.99, in fact it is often/mostly expected. So in form to the price range, you get just what you paid for, or better. This is a typical treble sound for this price bracket, still an extra-gift if you want the speed and soundstage. It does do some stuff right but the Timbre makes it a challenge.
IEM reviews:
Upon arrival every IEM tells a story. Some are good, some are fair, some way less than fair and some better than good. Yet each reviewer at times tells a different story. Due to people weighing their purchase decision of a single review, completeness and accurately are ultimately stressed. How can IEMs get different interpretations? I think a lot of comes from two simple things. One, each reviewer has different amplifiers and digital audio converters. Two, each reviewer has their own personal sound signature. Even though we try to be objective, it is never fully obtained. Yet the very best reviews are able to convey a sense of general quality for better or worse.
Subjectivity in reviews:
Everyone is different and has different musical interpretations. What sounds great to one person may sound too bright to another. What sounds too warm to one, may sound perfect to another. That’s why the best process is to read a bunch of reviews and try to figure out if there are similarities. That or find a select few of writers and go by what they say. Typically after one or two purchases you’ll know who you can trust with recommendations on headphones.
Music:
KMFDM-In Dub: 44.1 kHz - 24 bit
This is actually fairly refreshing as many of my IEMs over-emphasis the bass this album intrinsically has. Here we are treated with this basic well done round bass. The bass doesn’t really span out into the right and left soundstage, but seems to hold the throttle down, pushing the song forward from the middle of the soundstage. While probably the most entertaining thing about this bass is the “bass melody” which is always present but extra focused when you take away all the deepness and physicality offered. You’re left with this bass song, like something someone would hum. And I’m truly NOT making embellishments of bad, this has a good quality! But again your path to winning here is to combine the Lea with a warm, warm source.
Lucia Cifarelli’s vocals show slightly more subdued than with other IEMs. But the fact that the way they are processor compressed makes it the point anyway of this sound. Lots of echoes and over-dubs. Fast!
All and all this band and this end sound are a perfect match for Lea. The style of soundstage seems to accentuate the midrange that these IEMs naturally do anyways.
Theater of Tragedy-Assembly (Remastered) 44.1 kHz - 24 bit
Playing my favorite song on this album “Episode” The guitars are the one focus of how the song seems to work. It’s kind of an electronic-gothic rock groove. Though the thinner (off-timbre) tone of how the guitars are presented are a spoiler. Really an example of the off timbre present. You’re 1000 times better-off with electronic music due to the timbre issues. Finding real sounding instruments may be a challenge, I’ll keep looking?
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Hans Zimmer & Junkie XL: 96 kHz - 24 bit
I love this whole album and I love how the Lea does it too. This is actually my favorite album for this IEM. In fact for this review I have been listening to it a lot. It makes sense, and it’s good but again all of our troubles are still present. It’s just that the longer you listen, the less you notice the timbre issue at hand and simply end up listening for a style of enjoyment anyway. The sound is big and wide in our soundstage. The bass is fast and imaged well. This album has all kinds of elements. Violins that have small explosions placed at the end. Big washes of sound and the Lia tune makes room to hear it all.
“The Red Capes Are Coming” is dramatic and strange. There are big orchestrated elements and electronic (sampler) sounds mixed. Also much quieter sections which make use of single piano strikes. These also have a faint synthesis following which is then joined with more quite piano notes. And........the violins start-up once more.
The AKG k701:
There are all styles of values in the IEM world. Happiness is finding the signature which goes along with your goals. Where the standard sold sound character in the $26.99 price bracket performs a typical V signature, the Lea is not like that. And in fact the journey to arrive at a more classic audiophile place has been the quest. With this more neutral idea of happiness we have arrived at a very very different IEM sound signature. How can neutral be different you ask? Let me explain the hows and the whys.
As I was listening I kept thinking this reminds me of something? But you know how that goes, where at first I couldn’t place what it was? Then it hit me.......this is sorta like the IEM version of the AKG k701 full-size headphone.
The AKG k701 full-size headphone, in that it’s way of doing neutral combines a midrange accentuation along with a recession in lower mids. Of course the highs are not like the k701 in that they are rolled off early. But the character that equals the k701 is the big soundstage followed by fast bass. This idea of neutral was AKG’s idea back when the k701 was introduced, and it’s very much a refreshing construction of an IEM signature today. The other main difference is/was the AKG k701 obviously had/has better timbre abilities.
Pace and EDM:
Pace in replay is one of a grandest displays in a $26.99 purchase. Reason being is two fold, number one the driver IS just fast..........really fast. Number two, we are experiencing an upper and middle midcentric tonality. Such is an effective reduction of lower midrange energy...........which in essence highlights the speed going on. Reading such talk may cause questioning as to what music would be best. For one, actually I choose EDM. The reason is two fold, one EDM has almost none of the timbre issues displayed, and two EDM is just great with this style of bass. For the longest time you read about people talking about getting close to EDM due to this heavy bass character. Now Lea is slightly warm but we are not dealing with a seismic earthquake activity here in any shape or form. The bass is pulled taut and narrow, both in size and decay. Again this section is about Pace; and that’s the real beauty here. People may ask, “So you’re listening to fast reproduction of EDM and it’s good?”
The AKG k701:
About 13 years ago I found the AKG k701 full-size headphone the same entertaining spectacle? You are basically putting the bass energy in its place and not letting is dictate the whole enchilada, resulting in a refinement of sorts. A way to hear EDM as more melodic and less...doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh. Surprisingly EDM vocals come out this way and well as the imaging of all elements.
Conclusion:
Leá offers an exciting window into the music that normally I wouldn't look through. Upon witnessing what it did right, the value became obviously clear. If you are into this type of sound, I've done all I can to explain it. While there is always the standard V shaped regular $26.99 response for sale out there, the Leá is truly offering the alternative. The Leá is offering more.....more clarity, bigger soundstage, faster bass, and a truly neutral sound experience in a small package. If someone never heard the Leá they would be surprised at what it does. As even though there is a "playing it safe" sound signature going-on here, the results musically are far from boring or stale. The sound never gets old due to so much going on. They are well built, come with all the accessories you need and fit wonderful. For the price asked I'm not sure you could ask for more?
Disclamer:
These ideas and studies are the thoughts of only one, your experience may vary.
Equipment Used:
Sony WM1Z Walkman DAP MrWalkman Firmware 4.4mm/3.5mm
Sony WM1A Walkman DAP MrWalkman Firmware 4.4mm/3.5mm
Sony TA-ZH1ES DAC/AMP Firmware 1.03
Electra Glide Audio Reference Glide-Reference Standard "Fatboy" Power Cord
Sony Walkman Cradle BCR-NWH10
AudioQuest Carbon USB
Apple iPhone
Review by Redcarmoose 03/25/2022
The Tripowin Leá is that girl in school who had glasses, sat quietly in back of the class and kept pretty much to herself. She dressed conservative and spoke only when spoken to. Though if you got to know her she was a special mix of pleasant, traditional and truthful. Is there room in the world for such an IEM sound signature? Let’s find out.
Unlike the last two bass exploitation makers I just reviewed, Leá is refreshing and tame. Still she’s not “milquetoast” or boring but has all in place, with only one slight issue which we will get to. Leá is the girl you could maybe marry once you fall in love with her. Why? Because she does it all (almost), and is careful and respectable.
Leá dresses in black, is not garish, but is expressing her very own style. She is built-well, comes with few accessories, yet gets the job done. Many may look at her as cheap and want nothing to do with her. Yet there is truly a value to be found, especially if her sound signature harmonizes to the frequency you’re on.
Really for the longest time you never noticed Leá; she was never a blip on your radar. That fact was easy to understand, being she was at the back of the class and kept mostly to herself. But once you started taking to her she opened-up. She had stories to tell and an entire world of distinctive personality and charm. Turns out she has two sisters in school! Her older sister, Mele was quite popular, and Olina (while new) is also carving quite the niche for herself around town. Myself, not ever meeting Mele or Olina, will only be able to give you my thoughts on Leá . Still, it may be true that sister Olina becomes head and shoulders above Leá. That’s just life!
Tripowin Leá
10mm LCP Dynamic Driver HiFi in-Ear Earphone
Kareena Tang from Linsoul sent me the Tripowin Leá IEM in exchange for this review.
- Latest Generation 10mm LCP Dynamic Driver
- Balanced Tuning
- Upgraded Silver-plated Oxygen-free Copper Cable
Tripowin Leá+Stock Cable-$25.99
Tripowin Leá+Stock Cable & Tripowin Zonie Grey 2.5mm-Extra Cost
Tripowin Leá+Stock Cable & Tripowin Zonie Grey 3.5mm-Extra Cost
Tripowin Leá+Stock Cable & Tripowin Zonie Grey 4.4mm-Extra Cost
PRODUCT PRICE WITH STOCK CABLE
$25.99 USD
Comes with a 1 year warranty.
Get them here:
Linsoul website: https://www.linsoul.com/
Linsoul Aliexpress Store: https://ddaudio.aliexpress.com/store/2894006
Linsoul USA Amazon Store link: https://www.amazon.com/s?me=A267P2DT104U3C&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DE
Tripowin:
Tripowin emerged (from Shenzhen) in 2019 making splash with a range of quality cables. Then they made the TP-10 IEM then the TC-01 IEM. While the TP-10 was priced at around $35.00, the Tripowin TC-01 was/is $49.00 and probably the best $49.00 IEM I had ever heard back in January of last year. It’s still a big seller to this day.
TC-01
https://www.linsoul.com/products/tripowin-tc-01
| Triptowin TC-01 Universal IEM https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/tripowin-tc-01.24878/reviews#item-review-25056 |
But Tripowin didn’t really have a hit at Head-Fi until the release of the Mele. To say the Mele is a phenomenon probably best describes her. They just released the Olina next.......
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/tri...iscussion-thread-olina-out-now.959328/page-43
The rest is as they say history! Of course the Tripowin Leá is another take on another sound……another artistic understanding of what we call IEM music replay. I haven’t heard the Mele or Olina, but even though all 4 are basically Dynamic Drivers, they are tuned different. The TC-01 was actually very bass heavy. The TC-01 some thought (myself included) was an improvement on the BLON BL-01 sound. Yet I felt one of the Tripowin TC-01 issues were too short of nozzle, with such an IEM you need longer tips. And while really for $49 dollars the TC-01 was amazing, it just never resonated with the community like the Mele or Olina.
Now it seems the Tripowin Leá has almost gone overboard on extra-long nozzles. I mean look at the length of them! Though I have to say the Leá fits perfectly! They are actually very small IEMs, and typically smaller fits better as well as fits more folks. You really don’t even notice them in your ears. They also have an uncanny way of staying exactly in place. They stay in place so good they are really one of the few IEMs I’ve tried I can recommend as a sports IEM.
Build 10/10
Fit 10/10
Cable...(nice)
The Cable in Use:
Imagine with me......................looking at the cable in photographs the cable looks one way, but using it is another. You don’t want the cable to actually be coiled-up in use, you want it to extend out and lay across your body, and that’s what it does. While slightly stiff and springy, still it works for what it is. The plug at the tip is L shaped and is incorporated with nice strain relief. Though putting it away (all into a small area) may be cause for concern.
I mean the cable was fine until I took off the twist-tie…………then I let the “snake” out of its nest. It almost bit me!
The packaging is fairly simple but works well with the product. I would way rather have Tripowin spend money on sound than fancy packaging. At $25.99 they can only do so much with the packaging. So it comes in a very small box, has three sets of tips, a cable and some cable guides. That is it. No paperwork, or love notes. The tips are actually fine surprisingly. After tying out a series of different tips I found the included large size tips to work well with placement, air-tight fit and inner-bore diameter. The wide bore tips normally reduce bass slightly, but increase sound-stage and treble/midrange. Narrow bore tips will often reduce perceived imaging distance as well as increase bass tone.
The cable guides are interesting. They allow the cable to stay over ear, preventing it from flopping out of the set (over-ear) position and going horizontal on you. This inclusion is very different and seems to work. We are offered qdc style of 2 pin connectors. Such a device only allows so much downward force placed on the IEMs two pin receiver, as it is physically halted by the internal shape. So if you were ever wondering why people use them, that is why. Also they offer side to side structural relief on the plug. They look funny if you have never had a set before.
Sensitivity-105+_3db
Impedance-32 ohm
Cable-Silver Plated Cable in 1.2m
Driver Config-10mm LCP Dynamic Driver
Frequence Response-20-20000Hz
Connectors-2-pin 0.78mm
See what Linsoul says about the driver:
"The Leá utilizes the latest generation of liquid crystal polymer (CP) diaphragm driver to produce outstanding tonal balance and audio resolution."
"Compared to previous generations of 10mm dynamic drivers, this LCP diaphragm has tighter surface tension and resistance, allowing for much quicker responses and audible improvements in sound quality. It's the next level of high-definition in the dynamic driver category."
So, I do agree with much of this being true, in that if I go back into my old collection of $26.00 to $50.00 IEMs...........I do notice a big improvement in sound!
Amazingly the BLON BL-01 was $22.99 back in December of 2020 when I reviewed it. Really a whole different sound. Where the Leá is more of a neutral sound with added warmth. I have to say I’m not as much experienced with the ultra-budget market as I was back in the time of 2013-2016. Though from back then I still have my collection and yes, the Leá betters them in detail, clarity and especially soundstage. Yet while the detail and resolution is there, the Leá needed the darkest amplifier obtainable to not show a hot treble gain when turned loud. Even from a phone, it showed this to be the case.
(SenyorC) The review below this one:
He also found the exact same issue. Basically you have an area of the treble which ends up too bright if the volume of music is raised beyond a certain level. Now what’s interesting is there is ways to deal with this. Some people may actually be fine if they enjoy the regular listening volume that’s provided. It’s just you can’t crank it up. The pinna gain area of hearing is the most sensitive part of our hearing. This frequency range is primarily vocals, and better yet female vocals. So as humans we were designed to have extra-special hearing in this particular area. It’s also the area that gets physically amplified by the structure of the outer-ear. Due to IEMs bypassing that tissue structure amplifier, they add a boost to those frequencies to allow IEMs to sound like regular headphones.
The effect is two fold, a balance as too little pinna gain and the sound can lack resolution and detail. Too much and can have a style of issue that the Leá has. Another member here, baskingshark has figured out another way to deal with this. I haven’t tried this mod but it does look like a thing I would be into, as I typically gravitate towards warmer signatures anyway.
Member baskingshark has tried a filter:
"The Tanya filter (green graph) indeed tames the lower treble and upper mids and makes the Leá become less bright (and harsh), but you lose a bit of micro-details and clarity as a tradeoff."
Now it is worth taking note.............the fact that the other way completely bypass the issue is combine it with a super dark amplifier. I hooked up the Leá with included tips as well as included cable to my reference system. Amazing the top-heat was gone. So I don’t know why someone would hook a $25.99 IEM to a $2200 Sony TA-ZH1ES.......but it's a possibility, and it works to get rid of the gain. Probably many will figure out an amp that works
The Technicalities:
These are qualities are different than Frequency Response, they work together to enable realism in playback.
Technical Ability - A blanket term for attack transients, imaging, decay, tonality, tonal balance, timbre, soundstage, temperature, and texture. At times overall frequency response (if even and correct) is considered part of technical ability.
Just note that we are only talking about the part of Technical Ability that does not include Frequency Response at this point.
Technical Ability
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being best:
Decay-9
Tonality-5
Tonal Balance-9
Timbre-5
Texture-8
Imaging-9
Attack Transients-9
Soundstage-7
So I’ll start at the bottom of the list. Soundstage is interesting as there is an area of the upper mids which has an amazing soundstage. Also the treble has nice soundstage but it’s rolled off, so what treble is there has it. Though maybe it’s the tune, but the bass area has very little soundstage. Attack Transients are fast. Imaging really follows all the descriptions of soundstage. Texture is a style of “mixed results” with the emphasis on quality being in the upper mids, with some obviously for the lows to get an 8. Timbre is really off. The biggest issue (and only real issue) I personally have with how this particular IEM sounds, and that is taking price into account. Tonal balance is actually a wild card as this IEM can sound actually slightly different depending on source. I preferred it on warmer amps/DACs…….but I totally get how some reviews would find it stark and “hot” at some higher volumes, as that is exactly what happened on my brighter DAPs. Tonality was ascew due to timbre. It just doesn’t sound real, but in this alternate way, it’s OK. You simply have to listen to it long enough that you somehow start to get used to its tilted sound (Timbre) universe. Decay was good because nothing was really delaying too long.............but how it did delay was adequate.
The total confusion here comes when you try to rate this IEM on Timbre and Texture. The two are actually very related. But here the texture is better but it’s displaying a bad timbre.
Remember too, a lot of this is learned, meaning you need to hear correct instruments in life, or hear them played back correctly in a recording to identify when they are off in replay. So a person with limited experience will not even note the Timbre being so very off.
Frequency Response:
Well look at the graph, it looks OK does it not? For this price it’s nice. It’s just that FR is only so much of the equation. Still FR is 80% of happiness, when choosing an IEM. Is the bass enough? Does the treble have enough sparkle? Does the midrange have that level of personality that I like? So FR is actually very subjective too, to a point. But a generalization of a FR response curve is going to satisfy a lot of people because many folks follow the same style of likes and wants. But beyond that FR also stands to show reality. Meaning is it even, correct and complete? The fastest way to make something messed-up is to make the FR uneven. Then it becomes incorrect and finally if a part is left-out then it’s not complete. This all exists still parallel to someone’s wants and needs. It’s kind of a way to accept a slightly different way to hear music, yet still have respect for another persons interpretation of that music. A lot goes into a person’s personal perception of tone. It’s their ear canal shape, there resonance points, then there are also the physiologic attributes of their hearing, also much we truly don’t understand. Some even believe FR preferences start at a very young age when forming listening habits. What we know for sure is some have the tone controls set one way and another set of people have then set another. There is no right or wrong to this stuff, in a way. The Leá does great frequency response wise. Though the bass level could be greater, again that’s just me. But I totally understand the tuning and why it was chosen to be what it was. The fact that it’s balanced in such a way will draw attention from people that want just that……balance. The bass has this definition that comes from an even and correct response, so it’s fast and is well placed in the soundstage that’s presented. The bass does not bleed into any other area of the mix. The mids are not thin or thick but just where they are suppose to be. That is the whole point of this tune. I mean yes, overall it’s slightly warm, but ever so slightly.
Treble has two qualities. One for what is provided, it’s nice. But in typical DD fashion it rolls of slightly too soon. This isn’t really a big deal with a headphone of $25.99, in fact it is often/mostly expected. So in form to the price range, you get just what you paid for, or better. This is a typical treble sound for this price bracket, still an extra-gift if you want the speed and soundstage. It does do some stuff right but the Timbre makes it a challenge.
IEM reviews:
Upon arrival every IEM tells a story. Some are good, some are fair, some way less than fair and some better than good. Yet each reviewer at times tells a different story. Due to people weighing their purchase decision of a single review, completeness and accurately are ultimately stressed. How can IEMs get different interpretations? I think a lot of comes from two simple things. One, each reviewer has different amplifiers and digital audio converters. Two, each reviewer has their own personal sound signature. Even though we try to be objective, it is never fully obtained. Yet the very best reviews are able to convey a sense of general quality for better or worse.
Subjectivity in reviews:
Everyone is different and has different musical interpretations. What sounds great to one person may sound too bright to another. What sounds too warm to one, may sound perfect to another. That’s why the best process is to read a bunch of reviews and try to figure out if there are similarities. That or find a select few of writers and go by what they say. Typically after one or two purchases you’ll know who you can trust with recommendations on headphones.
Music:
KMFDM-In Dub: 44.1 kHz - 24 bit
This is actually fairly refreshing as many of my IEMs over-emphasis the bass this album intrinsically has. Here we are treated with this basic well done round bass. The bass doesn’t really span out into the right and left soundstage, but seems to hold the throttle down, pushing the song forward from the middle of the soundstage. While probably the most entertaining thing about this bass is the “bass melody” which is always present but extra focused when you take away all the deepness and physicality offered. You’re left with this bass song, like something someone would hum. And I’m truly NOT making embellishments of bad, this has a good quality! But again your path to winning here is to combine the Lea with a warm, warm source.
Lucia Cifarelli’s vocals show slightly more subdued than with other IEMs. But the fact that the way they are processor compressed makes it the point anyway of this sound. Lots of echoes and over-dubs. Fast!
All and all this band and this end sound are a perfect match for Lea. The style of soundstage seems to accentuate the midrange that these IEMs naturally do anyways.
Theater of Tragedy-Assembly (Remastered) 44.1 kHz - 24 bit
Playing my favorite song on this album “Episode” The guitars are the one focus of how the song seems to work. It’s kind of an electronic-gothic rock groove. Though the thinner (off-timbre) tone of how the guitars are presented are a spoiler. Really an example of the off timbre present. You’re 1000 times better-off with electronic music due to the timbre issues. Finding real sounding instruments may be a challenge, I’ll keep looking?
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Hans Zimmer & Junkie XL: 96 kHz - 24 bit
I love this whole album and I love how the Lea does it too. This is actually my favorite album for this IEM. In fact for this review I have been listening to it a lot. It makes sense, and it’s good but again all of our troubles are still present. It’s just that the longer you listen, the less you notice the timbre issue at hand and simply end up listening for a style of enjoyment anyway. The sound is big and wide in our soundstage. The bass is fast and imaged well. This album has all kinds of elements. Violins that have small explosions placed at the end. Big washes of sound and the Lia tune makes room to hear it all.
“The Red Capes Are Coming” is dramatic and strange. There are big orchestrated elements and electronic (sampler) sounds mixed. Also much quieter sections which make use of single piano strikes. These also have a faint synthesis following which is then joined with more quite piano notes. And........the violins start-up once more.
The AKG k701:
There are all styles of values in the IEM world. Happiness is finding the signature which goes along with your goals. Where the standard sold sound character in the $26.99 price bracket performs a typical V signature, the Lea is not like that. And in fact the journey to arrive at a more classic audiophile place has been the quest. With this more neutral idea of happiness we have arrived at a very very different IEM sound signature. How can neutral be different you ask? Let me explain the hows and the whys.
As I was listening I kept thinking this reminds me of something? But you know how that goes, where at first I couldn’t place what it was? Then it hit me.......this is sorta like the IEM version of the AKG k701 full-size headphone.
The AKG k701 full-size headphone, in that it’s way of doing neutral combines a midrange accentuation along with a recession in lower mids. Of course the highs are not like the k701 in that they are rolled off early. But the character that equals the k701 is the big soundstage followed by fast bass. This idea of neutral was AKG’s idea back when the k701 was introduced, and it’s very much a refreshing construction of an IEM signature today. The other main difference is/was the AKG k701 obviously had/has better timbre abilities.
Pace and EDM:
Pace in replay is one of a grandest displays in a $26.99 purchase. Reason being is two fold, number one the driver IS just fast..........really fast. Number two, we are experiencing an upper and middle midcentric tonality. Such is an effective reduction of lower midrange energy...........which in essence highlights the speed going on. Reading such talk may cause questioning as to what music would be best. For one, actually I choose EDM. The reason is two fold, one EDM has almost none of the timbre issues displayed, and two EDM is just great with this style of bass. For the longest time you read about people talking about getting close to EDM due to this heavy bass character. Now Lea is slightly warm but we are not dealing with a seismic earthquake activity here in any shape or form. The bass is pulled taut and narrow, both in size and decay. Again this section is about Pace; and that’s the real beauty here. People may ask, “So you’re listening to fast reproduction of EDM and it’s good?”
The AKG k701:
About 13 years ago I found the AKG k701 full-size headphone the same entertaining spectacle? You are basically putting the bass energy in its place and not letting is dictate the whole enchilada, resulting in a refinement of sorts. A way to hear EDM as more melodic and less...doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh. Surprisingly EDM vocals come out this way and well as the imaging of all elements.
Conclusion:
Leá offers an exciting window into the music that normally I wouldn't look through. Upon witnessing what it did right, the value became obviously clear. If you are into this type of sound, I've done all I can to explain it. While there is always the standard V shaped regular $26.99 response for sale out there, the Leá is truly offering the alternative. The Leá is offering more.....more clarity, bigger soundstage, faster bass, and a truly neutral sound experience in a small package. If someone never heard the Leá they would be surprised at what it does. As even though there is a "playing it safe" sound signature going-on here, the results musically are far from boring or stale. The sound never gets old due to so much going on. They are well built, come with all the accessories you need and fit wonderful. For the price asked I'm not sure you could ask for more?
Disclamer:
These ideas and studies are the thoughts of only one, your experience may vary.
Equipment Used:
Sony WM1Z Walkman DAP MrWalkman Firmware 4.4mm/3.5mm
Sony WM1A Walkman DAP MrWalkman Firmware 4.4mm/3.5mm
Sony TA-ZH1ES DAC/AMP Firmware 1.03
Electra Glide Audio Reference Glide-Reference Standard "Fatboy" Power Cord
Sony Walkman Cradle BCR-NWH10
AudioQuest Carbon USB
Apple iPhone
Accurate - The music is (as much as possible) unaltered by the recording or playback equipment.
Aggressive - Forward and bright sonic character.
Airy - Spacious, typically referring to upper midrange and treble.
Ambience - The overall impression, feeling, or mood evoked by an environment or acoustical space, such as the performance hall in which a recording was made.
Analytical - Detailed.....typically thought of as neutral or bright.
Articulate - The overall ability to offer fast transients and efficient imaging of instruments.
Attack - The leading edge of a note and the ability of a system to reproduce the attack transients in music.
Attack (2) - The time taken for a musical note to reach its peak amplitude eg. notes will tend to sound more defined rather than blended with other notes.
Balance - Usually the tuning of the earphone. A well-balanced headphone would not have one particularly dominant frequency, but rather all would be “balanced.”
Bass - The audio frequencies between about 60Hz and 250Hz.The lower end frequency of human hearing. Bass can be measured in quantity (heaviness) and quality (clarity). Other bass descriptors are “muddy” and “boomy.”
Bass-head - Emphasized Bass.
Bloated - Excessive mid bass around 250 Hz. Poorly damped low frequencies, low frequency resonance.
Blurred - Poor transient response. Vague stereo imaging, not focused.
Body - Fullness of sound. Substantialness of response.
Boomy - Excessive bass around 125 Hz. Typically edging into midrange and affecting pace.
Boxy - Having resonances as if the music were enclosed in a box. Sometimes an emphasis around 250 to 500 Hz. Often called cardboard box sounding, like boxes used as drums.
Breakup - When different points on the surface of a diaphragm begin to move out of sync, causing distortion. Breakup often occurs in dynamic drivers at high volumes as forces on the diaphragm increase. Breakup is less likely to occur at lower volumes or in planar magnetic or electrostatic headphone drivers.
Bright/Brightness - Boost in the upper frequencies or upper-mid range. Brightness is a feature enjoyed by many but walks a thin line to becoming unpleasant depending on the individual.
Brilliance - The 6kHz to 16kHz range controls the brilliance and clarity of sounds. Too much emphasis in this range can produce sibilance on the vocals.
Clear - Transparent.
Closed - A closed-in sound lacking in openness, delicacy, air, and fine detail usually caused by Roll-off above 10kHz; in contrast to Open.
Congestion - Poor clarity caused by overlapping sounds. Congested sound signatures lack detail and clarity, making it hard to hear separate instruments and may also be called muddy or muffled.
Coloration - The effect of a device on the music signal. The opposite of “neutral.” Various aspects can affect the tone, responsiveness or the frequency response of the music/audio.
Crisp - Clear.
Dark - A tonal balance that tilts downwards with increasing frequency. Opposite of bright. Weak high frequencies.
Decay - The fadeout of a note as it follows the attack.
Definition (or resolution) - The ability of a component to reveal the subtle information that is fundamental to high fidelity sound.
Delicate - High frequencies extending to 15 or 20 kHz without peaks.
Density - I personally started to use this word to describe note weight, and note authority.
Depth - A sense of distance (near to far) of different instruments.
Detail - The most delicate elements of the original sound and those which are the first to disappear with lesser equipment.
Detailed - Easy to hear tiny details in the music; articulate. Adequate high frequency response, sharp transient response.
Dry - Lack of reverberation or delay as produced by a damped environment. May come across as fine grained and lean. Opposite of wet.
Dynamic - The suggestion of energy and wide dynamic range. Related to perceived speed as well as contrasts in volume both large and small. Still in the end this word has many interpretations.
Edgy - Too much high frequency response. Trebly. Harmonics are too strong relative to the fundamentals. Distorted, having unwanted harmonics that add an edge or raspiness.
Euphonic - An appealing form of distortion that generally enhances perceived fidelity, often ascribed to the harmonic elaborations of some valve amps.
Fast - Good reproduction of rapid transients which increase the sense of realism and "snap".
Focus - A strong, precise sense of image projection.
Forward(ness) - Similar to an aggressive sound, a sense of image being projected in front of the speakers and of music being forced upon the listener. The opposite would be “Laid-back".
Full - Strong fundamentals relative to harmonics. Good low frequency response, not necessarily extended, but with adequate level around 100 to 300 Hz. Male voices are full around 125 Hz; female voices and violins are full around 250 Hz; sax is full around 250 to 400 Hz. Opposite of thin.
Grainy - A loss of smoothness resulting is a loss of clarity and transparency.
Grunt - Actually a guitar term intended to denote an authoritative and fast low end frequency response ability in hollow body jazz guitars.
Harsh - Too much upper midrange. Peaks in the frequency response between 2 and 6 kHz.
Highs - The audio frequencies above about 6000 Hz.
High Midrange (High Mids, Upper Mids) - The audio frequencies between about 2kHz and 6kHz.
Imaging - The sense that a voice or instrument is in a particular place in the room. Directly measured with square wave graphs and indicates transient edge response quality in the time domain.
Impedance - Indicates how much power is required for the driver. The higher the impedance, the more power is required to get the maximum quality and volume of sounds out of the driver. Electrical resistance to the flow of current in an AC circuit. The higher the impedance of the headphone, for instance, the less current will flow through it.
Layering - The reproduction of depth and receding distance, which audibly places the rows of performers one behind the other.
Laid-back - Recessed, distant-sounding, having exaggerated depth, usually because of a dished midrange. Compare "Forward".
Layering - The reproduction of depth and receding distance, which audibly places the rows of performers one behind the other.
Less-Tangibles - Everything other than FR, hence reverberations, texture, instrument timbre, soundstage etc…..etc.
Liquid - Textureless sound.
Low-Level Detail - The subtlest elements of musical sound, which include the delicate details of instrumental sounds and the final tail of reverberation decay.
Low Midrange (Low Mids) - The audio frequencies between about 250Hz and 2000Hz.
Lush - Harmonically complex, typicality thought of as thick with many additives. A rich tone and usually with some warmth to the overall presentation.
Metallic - Typicality an overall sheen which can become part of an off timbre response.
Midrange (Mids) - The audio frequencies between about 250 Hz and 6000 Hz.
Musical (or musicality) - A sense of cohesion and subjective "rightness" in the sound.
Nasal - Reproduced sound having the quality of a person speaking with their nose blocked. Closed off; a measured peak in the upper midrange followed by a complimentary dip.
Naturalness - Realism.
Opaque - Unclear, lacking Transparency.
Open - Sound which has height and "air", relates to clean upper midrange and treble.
Pace - Often associated with rhythm, a strong sense of timing and beat.
Physicality - Weight and realness, typicality used (by me) to describe bass, but can carry over to all frequencies. Female and male vocals could have physicality, if they sound real.
Piercing - Strident, hard on the ears, screechy. Having sharp, narrow peaks in the response around 3 to 10 kHz.
PRaT - Pace, rhythm and timing.
Presence Range - The presence range between 4kHz and 6kHz is responsible for the clarity and definition of voices and instruments. Increasing this range can make the music seem closer to the listener. Reducing the 5kHz content makes the sound more distant and transparent.
Presence - An emphasized instrument response around 5 kHz for most instruments, or around 2 to 5 kHz for kick drum and bass.
Punchy - Good reproduction of dynamics. Good transient response, with strong impact. Sometimes a bump around 5 kHz or 200 Hz.
Range - The distance between the lowest and highest tones.
Resolution - The clarity to separate and delineate musical information.
Reverb - Short for reverberation. A diminishing series of echoes spaced sufficiently closely in time that they merge into a smooth decay.
Rich - See Full. Also, having euphonic distortion made of even order harmonics.
Roll-off (Rolloff) - The gradual attenuation that occurs at the lower or upper frequency range of a driver, network, or system. The roll-off frequency is usually defined as the frequency where response is reduced by 3 dB.
Round - High frequency rolloff or dip. Not edgy.
Rhythm - The controlled movement of sounds in time.
Shrill - Strident, Steely.
Sibilant - The high unpleasant peaks that are usually unpleasant to the ear if too prevalent.
Sizzley - See Sibilant. Also, too much highs on cymbals.
Smeared - Lacking detail; poor transient response, too much leakage between microphones; poorly focused images.
Smooth - Describing the quality of sound reproduction having no irritating qualities; free from high-frequency peaks, and relaxing to listen to. Not necessarily a positive system attribute if accompanied by a slow, un-involving character.
Sound Signature - The unique intrinsic sound quality of a headphone, music player, DAC, or audio cable. Some audio products emphasize the higher treble ranges while others strengthen the bass. This overall sound profile of audio devices helps audiophiles fine-tune the listening experience by pairing the right headphone cable, DAC, or music player with their headphones.
Soundstage - An illusionary effect of headphones to produce a listening space front to back, up and down and right to left.
Speed - Pace and timing, can have relationship with overall “tune”.
Steely - Emphasized upper mids around 3 to 6 kHz. Peaky, non flat high frequency response. Metallic.
Strident - See Harsh, Edgy.
Sub-Bass - The audio frequencies between about 20Hz and 80Hz.
Sweet - Typically reference to smooth comfortable high pitch sounds.
Technical Ability - A blanket term for attack transients, imaging, decay, tonality, tonal balance, timbre, temperature, soundstage and texture. At times overall frequency response (if even and correct) is considered part of technical ability.
Swagger - The ability of music to somehow find its core groove. This results from capturing and replaying the subtle nuances that make timing and pace special.
Synergy - The interaction or cooperation of two or more audio components in an audio system, which, when combined produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. Example: the synergy between a DAC and a headphone amp.
Texture - The timbre of multiple instruments playing together, though more accurately the instrument “voices” together.
Thick - Typically bass or lower midrange density.
Thin - Fundamentals are weak relative to harmonics; bass light.
Tight - Good low frequency transient response and detail.
Timbre - The tonal character of an instrument which separates it from other instruments of the same tone.
Timing - Tempo in relationships with clarity of pace.
Tinny - Thin harmonically narrow, metallic, in treble region.
Tone - The sound of definite pitch.
Transient - The leading edge of a percussive sound, though the term can be applied to any wave form.
Transparent - Easy to hear into the music, detailed, clear, not muddy. Wide flat frequency response sharp time response, very low distortion and noise. A hear through quality that is akin to clarity and reveals all aspects of detail.
Treble - The highest part of music and voice. See Highs. (Most often used when referring to the treble control on amplifiers).
Upper Midrange (Upper Mids, High Mids) - The audio frequencies between 2 kHz and 6 kHz.
Vivid - A word often used to describe clarity and intensity.
Veiled- Lack of full clarity due to noise or loss of detail from limited transparency.
Warm - Good bass, adequate low frequencies, adequate fundamentals relative to harmonics. Not thin. Also excessive bass or mid bass. Also, pleasantly spacious, with adequate reverberation at low frequencies. Also see Rich, Round. Warm highs means sweet highs.
Weighty - Good low frequency response below about 50 Hz. A sense of substance and underpinning produced by deep, controlled bass. Suggesting an object of great weight or power, like a diesel locomotive.
Width - The apparent lateral spread of a stereo image. If appropriately recorded, a reproduced image should sound no wider or narrower than how it sounded originally.
Woolly - Loose, ill-defined bass.
Aggressive - Forward and bright sonic character.
Airy - Spacious, typically referring to upper midrange and treble.
Ambience - The overall impression, feeling, or mood evoked by an environment or acoustical space, such as the performance hall in which a recording was made.
Analytical - Detailed.....typically thought of as neutral or bright.
Articulate - The overall ability to offer fast transients and efficient imaging of instruments.
Attack - The leading edge of a note and the ability of a system to reproduce the attack transients in music.
Attack (2) - The time taken for a musical note to reach its peak amplitude eg. notes will tend to sound more defined rather than blended with other notes.
Balance - Usually the tuning of the earphone. A well-balanced headphone would not have one particularly dominant frequency, but rather all would be “balanced.”
Bass - The audio frequencies between about 60Hz and 250Hz.The lower end frequency of human hearing. Bass can be measured in quantity (heaviness) and quality (clarity). Other bass descriptors are “muddy” and “boomy.”
Bass-head - Emphasized Bass.
Bloated - Excessive mid bass around 250 Hz. Poorly damped low frequencies, low frequency resonance.
Blurred - Poor transient response. Vague stereo imaging, not focused.
Body - Fullness of sound. Substantialness of response.
Boomy - Excessive bass around 125 Hz. Typically edging into midrange and affecting pace.
Boxy - Having resonances as if the music were enclosed in a box. Sometimes an emphasis around 250 to 500 Hz. Often called cardboard box sounding, like boxes used as drums.
Breakup - When different points on the surface of a diaphragm begin to move out of sync, causing distortion. Breakup often occurs in dynamic drivers at high volumes as forces on the diaphragm increase. Breakup is less likely to occur at lower volumes or in planar magnetic or electrostatic headphone drivers.
Bright/Brightness - Boost in the upper frequencies or upper-mid range. Brightness is a feature enjoyed by many but walks a thin line to becoming unpleasant depending on the individual.
Brilliance - The 6kHz to 16kHz range controls the brilliance and clarity of sounds. Too much emphasis in this range can produce sibilance on the vocals.
Clear - Transparent.
Closed - A closed-in sound lacking in openness, delicacy, air, and fine detail usually caused by Roll-off above 10kHz; in contrast to Open.
Congestion - Poor clarity caused by overlapping sounds. Congested sound signatures lack detail and clarity, making it hard to hear separate instruments and may also be called muddy or muffled.
Coloration - The effect of a device on the music signal. The opposite of “neutral.” Various aspects can affect the tone, responsiveness or the frequency response of the music/audio.
Crisp - Clear.
Dark - A tonal balance that tilts downwards with increasing frequency. Opposite of bright. Weak high frequencies.
Decay - The fadeout of a note as it follows the attack.
Definition (or resolution) - The ability of a component to reveal the subtle information that is fundamental to high fidelity sound.
Delicate - High frequencies extending to 15 or 20 kHz without peaks.
Density - I personally started to use this word to describe note weight, and note authority.
Depth - A sense of distance (near to far) of different instruments.
Detail - The most delicate elements of the original sound and those which are the first to disappear with lesser equipment.
Detailed - Easy to hear tiny details in the music; articulate. Adequate high frequency response, sharp transient response.
Dry - Lack of reverberation or delay as produced by a damped environment. May come across as fine grained and lean. Opposite of wet.
Dynamic - The suggestion of energy and wide dynamic range. Related to perceived speed as well as contrasts in volume both large and small. Still in the end this word has many interpretations.
Edgy - Too much high frequency response. Trebly. Harmonics are too strong relative to the fundamentals. Distorted, having unwanted harmonics that add an edge or raspiness.
Euphonic - An appealing form of distortion that generally enhances perceived fidelity, often ascribed to the harmonic elaborations of some valve amps.
Fast - Good reproduction of rapid transients which increase the sense of realism and "snap".
Focus - A strong, precise sense of image projection.
Forward(ness) - Similar to an aggressive sound, a sense of image being projected in front of the speakers and of music being forced upon the listener. The opposite would be “Laid-back".
Full - Strong fundamentals relative to harmonics. Good low frequency response, not necessarily extended, but with adequate level around 100 to 300 Hz. Male voices are full around 125 Hz; female voices and violins are full around 250 Hz; sax is full around 250 to 400 Hz. Opposite of thin.
Grainy - A loss of smoothness resulting is a loss of clarity and transparency.
Grunt - Actually a guitar term intended to denote an authoritative and fast low end frequency response ability in hollow body jazz guitars.
Harsh - Too much upper midrange. Peaks in the frequency response between 2 and 6 kHz.
Highs - The audio frequencies above about 6000 Hz.
High Midrange (High Mids, Upper Mids) - The audio frequencies between about 2kHz and 6kHz.
Imaging - The sense that a voice or instrument is in a particular place in the room. Directly measured with square wave graphs and indicates transient edge response quality in the time domain.
Impedance - Indicates how much power is required for the driver. The higher the impedance, the more power is required to get the maximum quality and volume of sounds out of the driver. Electrical resistance to the flow of current in an AC circuit. The higher the impedance of the headphone, for instance, the less current will flow through it.
Layering - The reproduction of depth and receding distance, which audibly places the rows of performers one behind the other.
Laid-back - Recessed, distant-sounding, having exaggerated depth, usually because of a dished midrange. Compare "Forward".
Layering - The reproduction of depth and receding distance, which audibly places the rows of performers one behind the other.
Less-Tangibles - Everything other than FR, hence reverberations, texture, instrument timbre, soundstage etc…..etc.
Liquid - Textureless sound.
Low-Level Detail - The subtlest elements of musical sound, which include the delicate details of instrumental sounds and the final tail of reverberation decay.
Low Midrange (Low Mids) - The audio frequencies between about 250Hz and 2000Hz.
Lush - Harmonically complex, typicality thought of as thick with many additives. A rich tone and usually with some warmth to the overall presentation.
Metallic - Typicality an overall sheen which can become part of an off timbre response.
Midrange (Mids) - The audio frequencies between about 250 Hz and 6000 Hz.
Musical (or musicality) - A sense of cohesion and subjective "rightness" in the sound.
Nasal - Reproduced sound having the quality of a person speaking with their nose blocked. Closed off; a measured peak in the upper midrange followed by a complimentary dip.
Naturalness - Realism.
Opaque - Unclear, lacking Transparency.
Open - Sound which has height and "air", relates to clean upper midrange and treble.
Pace - Often associated with rhythm, a strong sense of timing and beat.
Physicality - Weight and realness, typicality used (by me) to describe bass, but can carry over to all frequencies. Female and male vocals could have physicality, if they sound real.
Piercing - Strident, hard on the ears, screechy. Having sharp, narrow peaks in the response around 3 to 10 kHz.
PRaT - Pace, rhythm and timing.
Presence Range - The presence range between 4kHz and 6kHz is responsible for the clarity and definition of voices and instruments. Increasing this range can make the music seem closer to the listener. Reducing the 5kHz content makes the sound more distant and transparent.
Presence - An emphasized instrument response around 5 kHz for most instruments, or around 2 to 5 kHz for kick drum and bass.
Punchy - Good reproduction of dynamics. Good transient response, with strong impact. Sometimes a bump around 5 kHz or 200 Hz.
Range - The distance between the lowest and highest tones.
Resolution - The clarity to separate and delineate musical information.
Reverb - Short for reverberation. A diminishing series of echoes spaced sufficiently closely in time that they merge into a smooth decay.
Rich - See Full. Also, having euphonic distortion made of even order harmonics.
Roll-off (Rolloff) - The gradual attenuation that occurs at the lower or upper frequency range of a driver, network, or system. The roll-off frequency is usually defined as the frequency where response is reduced by 3 dB.
Round - High frequency rolloff or dip. Not edgy.
Rhythm - The controlled movement of sounds in time.
Shrill - Strident, Steely.
Sibilant - The high unpleasant peaks that are usually unpleasant to the ear if too prevalent.
Sizzley - See Sibilant. Also, too much highs on cymbals.
Smeared - Lacking detail; poor transient response, too much leakage between microphones; poorly focused images.
Smooth - Describing the quality of sound reproduction having no irritating qualities; free from high-frequency peaks, and relaxing to listen to. Not necessarily a positive system attribute if accompanied by a slow, un-involving character.
Sound Signature - The unique intrinsic sound quality of a headphone, music player, DAC, or audio cable. Some audio products emphasize the higher treble ranges while others strengthen the bass. This overall sound profile of audio devices helps audiophiles fine-tune the listening experience by pairing the right headphone cable, DAC, or music player with their headphones.
Soundstage - An illusionary effect of headphones to produce a listening space front to back, up and down and right to left.
Speed - Pace and timing, can have relationship with overall “tune”.
Steely - Emphasized upper mids around 3 to 6 kHz. Peaky, non flat high frequency response. Metallic.
Strident - See Harsh, Edgy.
Sub-Bass - The audio frequencies between about 20Hz and 80Hz.
Sweet - Typically reference to smooth comfortable high pitch sounds.
Technical Ability - A blanket term for attack transients, imaging, decay, tonality, tonal balance, timbre, temperature, soundstage and texture. At times overall frequency response (if even and correct) is considered part of technical ability.
Swagger - The ability of music to somehow find its core groove. This results from capturing and replaying the subtle nuances that make timing and pace special.
Synergy - The interaction or cooperation of two or more audio components in an audio system, which, when combined produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. Example: the synergy between a DAC and a headphone amp.
Texture - The timbre of multiple instruments playing together, though more accurately the instrument “voices” together.
Thick - Typically bass or lower midrange density.
Thin - Fundamentals are weak relative to harmonics; bass light.
Tight - Good low frequency transient response and detail.
Timbre - The tonal character of an instrument which separates it from other instruments of the same tone.
Timing - Tempo in relationships with clarity of pace.
Tinny - Thin harmonically narrow, metallic, in treble region.
Tone - The sound of definite pitch.
Transient - The leading edge of a percussive sound, though the term can be applied to any wave form.
Transparent - Easy to hear into the music, detailed, clear, not muddy. Wide flat frequency response sharp time response, very low distortion and noise. A hear through quality that is akin to clarity and reveals all aspects of detail.
Treble - The highest part of music and voice. See Highs. (Most often used when referring to the treble control on amplifiers).
Upper Midrange (Upper Mids, High Mids) - The audio frequencies between 2 kHz and 6 kHz.
Vivid - A word often used to describe clarity and intensity.
Veiled- Lack of full clarity due to noise or loss of detail from limited transparency.
Warm - Good bass, adequate low frequencies, adequate fundamentals relative to harmonics. Not thin. Also excessive bass or mid bass. Also, pleasantly spacious, with adequate reverberation at low frequencies. Also see Rich, Round. Warm highs means sweet highs.
Weighty - Good low frequency response below about 50 Hz. A sense of substance and underpinning produced by deep, controlled bass. Suggesting an object of great weight or power, like a diesel locomotive.
Width - The apparent lateral spread of a stereo image. If appropriately recorded, a reproduced image should sound no wider or narrower than how it sounded originally.
Woolly - Loose, ill-defined bass.
Intro: The packaging of this iem looks unconvincing. In the front, the box is only covered with a plastic cover, without any other cover under it. 3 pairs of eartips are also not good. For those who feel that CRA's tips are bad, in my opinion, Lea's tips are even worse. The tips from CRA are still better and not covering up the potential of the iem itself. Lea's tips actually make its voice seem dark, muffled, veiled, details don't come out clearly, the mids are also thinner, and the staging is narrow. In this review, I use Final type e clear to replace the default tips. Luckily Lea's stock cable is not that bad. The material and quality is better than the stock cable from CRA. Besides that, you get a pair of rubber earhooks that are comfortable to wear.
Bass: Just have enough quantity. Not the type of bass for bassheads, of course. The character is tight, the composition of the mid bass and sub bass feels balanced. Its sub bass can reach quite deep, and has a good quantity of mid bass punch. Its mid bass is not hollow like Aria. The bass speed from Lea is also quite fast, the control is good and doesn't bleed into the mids. The texture of the bass is also quite good (Ola is still having a better texture and bass details), and the clarity is clean. Decay bass in Lea is relatively short.
Mid: The mid position tends to be ushape where the mid is slightly below the bass and in front of the treble. With an upfront presentation, the mid position especially vocal in Lea feels intimate. Not only it is intimate, the emotions of the male and female vocals can be presented well and engagingly. The boost in the uppermid itself also plays a role in making the vocals sweet and their clarity clean. In addition, it makes the female vocals feel a little more advanced than the male vocals. Lea's mid weight is quite thin, but not the thinnest compared to other thin mids. The thickness is the same as kato and aria. So male vocals still feel heavy. The mids also tend to be neutral slightly warm without much coloration in the presentation. What's interesting, the mid are also having minimal sibilance, peak, and shouty.
The sound of mid instruments such as piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, and drums are crisp, with natural timbre, minimal peaks, and has good detail & resolution in its class.
Treble: In this sector, I like Lea the most, since the treble presentation is similar to the final e series, which is smooth, natural, and having minimal peaks, especially on hi hat cymbal and other instruments that are played aggressively. The upper treble extension is still good, although it is a bit roll off and a bit lack of body. Most other chifis at this price tend to be peaky and a bit grainy, for example the kz family. Before changing the tips, the treble from Lea, especially the lower to mid trebles, feels a bit dark and too smooth with less flavorful details. This is what made me decide to try other tips before I finally decided to use final e clear. In order to make sure that Lea's stock tips were the real culprit. Fortunately, this change in tips didn't make Lea's treble even more peaky. It is even make the details and textures come up clearly.
Technical: Surprisingly Lea has a good technicality in its class. The staging has a rather narrow width, unfortunately. But the depth and height staging is good. Pinpoint imaging is also good, assisted by a capable separation as well. The resolution, dynamic range, macro & micro details are also good and arguably one of the best in its price range. The transient speed is also quite fast. It is comparable with aria. So, when it comes to the metal songs, Lea is quite good to catch up the instrument speed, although it is not the fastest one under 100$, and sometimes it can be hard for it to catch up the extreme metal songs.
Comparison:
CCA CRA+ZEX+Starline reverse tips: The CRA has thinner tonal weight, better bass and treble extension, more bass and treble quantity, with more vshape mids. The timbre is not as natural and wet as Lea's with a drier presentation. There are still peaks, sibilance, and grainy in the mids and trebles. The emotion in the mid is also less lively, less sweet, and not as natural as Lea's vocal timbre. Overall, the CRA is more aggressive and bright in tone than the Lea, which is more laidback, warm and relaxed. Technically, CRA only excels in its wide staging and speed transients. Lea's resolution, micro detail, depth, height, imaging, separation, and dynamic range are superior.
King HZM+fender sureseal tips: Technically hzm excels above Lea on the technical things. Hzm has better treble extension and more treble quantity, while Lea has more bass, more mid bass, and deeper sub bass extension. Lea also has a warmer and more natural timbre. The mid from Lea is also more natural, sweeter and heavier in note weight, compared to the HZM which is still a bit thin even though its note weight is already boosted with aforementioned tips.
Lea's fitting is also quite comfortable and better than the CRA. It can go deeper into my ears. Unfortunately, the metal housing is a bit heavy on my ears, making my ears a bit tired when I put on Lea for a longer time.
With a good tonal and technical balance, Lea is suitable to be an alternative for all-around cheap IEM. Moreover, Lea is also easy to play by using a cellphone only. In line with my expectations, I'm looking for a harman or DF Warm LCP IEM with minimal sibilance and peak levels.
Sources:
Cayin i5
Abigail Dongle Dac
Apple music and some dsd files.
Songs that I use often:
Manjushage
Bohemian rhapsody - Queen
Killer queen - Queen
City - Dere
Cloudy without rain - Ndarboy genk
Satru 2 - Denny Caknan
Kettou - Penguin Research
No doubt - Official High Dandism
Me & the Stars - Noah (Garden Sky album)
Bad Guy - Billie Eilish
Knock me out - Afghanistan
Kirana - Dewa 19 ft Virzha
Who I am - Milet
Galway Girl - Ed Sheeran
Beauty and the beast - Ariana Grande & John Legend
Come fly with me - Michael Bubble
Bass: Just have enough quantity. Not the type of bass for bassheads, of course. The character is tight, the composition of the mid bass and sub bass feels balanced. Its sub bass can reach quite deep, and has a good quantity of mid bass punch. Its mid bass is not hollow like Aria. The bass speed from Lea is also quite fast, the control is good and doesn't bleed into the mids. The texture of the bass is also quite good (Ola is still having a better texture and bass details), and the clarity is clean. Decay bass in Lea is relatively short.
Mid: The mid position tends to be ushape where the mid is slightly below the bass and in front of the treble. With an upfront presentation, the mid position especially vocal in Lea feels intimate. Not only it is intimate, the emotions of the male and female vocals can be presented well and engagingly. The boost in the uppermid itself also plays a role in making the vocals sweet and their clarity clean. In addition, it makes the female vocals feel a little more advanced than the male vocals. Lea's mid weight is quite thin, but not the thinnest compared to other thin mids. The thickness is the same as kato and aria. So male vocals still feel heavy. The mids also tend to be neutral slightly warm without much coloration in the presentation. What's interesting, the mid are also having minimal sibilance, peak, and shouty.
The sound of mid instruments such as piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, and drums are crisp, with natural timbre, minimal peaks, and has good detail & resolution in its class.
Treble: In this sector, I like Lea the most, since the treble presentation is similar to the final e series, which is smooth, natural, and having minimal peaks, especially on hi hat cymbal and other instruments that are played aggressively. The upper treble extension is still good, although it is a bit roll off and a bit lack of body. Most other chifis at this price tend to be peaky and a bit grainy, for example the kz family. Before changing the tips, the treble from Lea, especially the lower to mid trebles, feels a bit dark and too smooth with less flavorful details. This is what made me decide to try other tips before I finally decided to use final e clear. In order to make sure that Lea's stock tips were the real culprit. Fortunately, this change in tips didn't make Lea's treble even more peaky. It is even make the details and textures come up clearly.
Technical: Surprisingly Lea has a good technicality in its class. The staging has a rather narrow width, unfortunately. But the depth and height staging is good. Pinpoint imaging is also good, assisted by a capable separation as well. The resolution, dynamic range, macro & micro details are also good and arguably one of the best in its price range. The transient speed is also quite fast. It is comparable with aria. So, when it comes to the metal songs, Lea is quite good to catch up the instrument speed, although it is not the fastest one under 100$, and sometimes it can be hard for it to catch up the extreme metal songs.
Comparison:
CCA CRA+ZEX+Starline reverse tips: The CRA has thinner tonal weight, better bass and treble extension, more bass and treble quantity, with more vshape mids. The timbre is not as natural and wet as Lea's with a drier presentation. There are still peaks, sibilance, and grainy in the mids and trebles. The emotion in the mid is also less lively, less sweet, and not as natural as Lea's vocal timbre. Overall, the CRA is more aggressive and bright in tone than the Lea, which is more laidback, warm and relaxed. Technically, CRA only excels in its wide staging and speed transients. Lea's resolution, micro detail, depth, height, imaging, separation, and dynamic range are superior.
King HZM+fender sureseal tips: Technically hzm excels above Lea on the technical things. Hzm has better treble extension and more treble quantity, while Lea has more bass, more mid bass, and deeper sub bass extension. Lea also has a warmer and more natural timbre. The mid from Lea is also more natural, sweeter and heavier in note weight, compared to the HZM which is still a bit thin even though its note weight is already boosted with aforementioned tips.
Lea's fitting is also quite comfortable and better than the CRA. It can go deeper into my ears. Unfortunately, the metal housing is a bit heavy on my ears, making my ears a bit tired when I put on Lea for a longer time.
With a good tonal and technical balance, Lea is suitable to be an alternative for all-around cheap IEM. Moreover, Lea is also easy to play by using a cellphone only. In line with my expectations, I'm looking for a harman or DF Warm LCP IEM with minimal sibilance and peak levels.
Sources:
Cayin i5
Abigail Dongle Dac
Apple music and some dsd files.
Songs that I use often:
Manjushage
Bohemian rhapsody - Queen
Killer queen - Queen
City - Dere
Cloudy without rain - Ndarboy genk
Satru 2 - Denny Caknan
Kettou - Penguin Research
No doubt - Official High Dandism
Me & the Stars - Noah (Garden Sky album)
Bad Guy - Billie Eilish
Knock me out - Afghanistan
Kirana - Dewa 19 ft Virzha
Who I am - Milet
Galway Girl - Ed Sheeran
Beauty and the beast - Ariana Grande & John Legend
Come fly with me - Michael Bubble
Attachments
This is only my second Tripowin the first being the TP10 an IEM that was not well accepted. I wasn't expecting much given the price under $25. Inside the box is 3 sizes of tips, a cable* and an all-metal IEM. its size and shape lend to its comfort and good isolation. The cable is a coil like pain in the butt, I do like its look but it's far from something I will keep using beyond my testing. tips are adequate and the unit itself is made very well although it looks bland.
This is using a similar or perhaps the same driver as the popular T3 plus. Both IEMs are quite likable despite the shortcomings if any.
Sound is neutral with elevation in the Sub-Bass and a warm but smoothed overall signature.
Bass: Good clean and has a fast decay. Sub overshadows the Mid-Bass but even, so it lends lower Mids with some warmth.
Mids: Both male and female are adequately portrayed here and Mids have a relaxed yet natural sound and fairly good details. Upper mids can get hot at higher volumes, this will be dependent on several factors.
Treble: Is smooth and non-offensive, there is details and good but not great extension.
Soundstage: is wide but not deep with imaging being above average with decent details.
Conclusion: For the cost this baby T3+ can be a decent daily driver for most, it's not perfect but it can be very pleasant.
The Tripowin Leá have been sent to me by Linsoul for me to test them and publish this review. There have been no specific requests from Linsoul, although I will leave a (non-affiliate) link to the Leá via the Linsoul web site on my blog.
This means that I will do my best to be as sincere and unbiased as possible but, as always, it is a good idea to keep in mind the fact that these IEMs have not cost me anything to try out.
Intro…
Tripowin is a brand that is fairly well known in the IEM segment, having gained even more traction lately due to collaborations with HBB, from the “Bad Guy Good Aurio Reviews” YouTube channel.
The Leá is a new budget option from the brand, coming in at just over 20€ and placing them firmly inside the sub 50€ category that I like to mention on Acho Reviews.
I have not had any previous experience with Tripowin so I was quite interested in giving them a whirl and seeing what they are capable of at such a budget price point.
Presentation…
The presentation of the Leá is very simple. They arrive in a small black box with a clear plastic cover. Inside there is a sponge insert containing the IEMs and two extra sizes of tips, with the cable stored below. That is all.
I am not one to complain about the contents or packaging of extreme budget IEMs, as I have said many times, I would much rather the cost be invested in the sound than anything else at this price point, and the Leá are no exception.
Build and aesthetics…
The IEMs are small and completely made of metal. The design is simple, all black, and features the brand stamped into the faceplate. I must say that I like them. Yes they are simple but they are also elegant and well made for their price point, absolutely no complaints from me in this regard either.
The included cable is not something that I like as much. For some reason it reminds me of the cable that was included originally with the HE400se (they have since changed the included cable), although the Tripowin is not as bad.
I can’t say that the cable is bad, it does its job, but it just feels cheap and plasticky. The cores are covered by what seems to be a silver foil, which is then covered by a transparent rubber material that gives that plasticky feeling I just mentioned. The 3.5mm connector is plastic, as are the slit and the chin slider, although the 2 Pin connectors are metal. A positive side to the cable is that it doesn’t have a preformed shape for the ear, but I stil find that it doesn’t feel nice resting over the ear.
The fit also disagrees with me for some reason. I had quite a struggle to get them to fit and seal properly, trying all kinds of tips (although I reverted back to the included L size tips for this review) and they never really felt comfortable in my ears.
This is obviously something that will be completely different for each individual, however, in my case, I just don’t find them comfortable.
Sound…
(note that all songs mentioned in this review are clickable links that will allow you to listen to the song on the streaming platform of your choice)
If we start off by looking at the graph that compares the Leá to my personal preference target, we can see that they are really not that far away from my preferences, especially with regards to the mids.
This would mean that, on paper, I would find them to be tuned in a way that that suits me, however, while I have listened to many songs that I have found pleasurable on the Leá, it has been an experience similar to the fit and comfort, I have had to actually pick specific music and specific volume levels to enjoy them.
My listening volumes are usually quite low, which helps the Leá quite a bit, but when increasing the levels a little, I have found that they can quickly become harsh. I have also found that tracks that I usually don’t have issues with will again sound quite harsh on them, whereas other songs I expected to be problematic were not actually bad, as long as volume levels are kept in check.
Let's take the usual walk through the categories and I will try to explain more as we go.
In the subbass region, there is some roll-off as we reach down to the lowest notes. Using the usual “Chameleon” by Trentemoller, there is sub bass but it is not a rumbling low end, being more present in the higher ranges of subbass and into the midbass.
The midbass does add some presence to the low end, doing it in a very clean way, but it always seems to remain rather polite. Now, I know that I am not someone who likes overly present bass, and my preferences have not changed, it is just that it seems to be lacking a little warmth in the lows, making instruments feel a little sterile. Listening to “Way Down Deep” by Jennifer Warnes, there is enough bass to give those hits a little life but again, it just comes across as being too polite.
Moving into the mids, the transition is pretty good, the bass doesn’t seem to invade the lower mids, keeping the lower mids present but without bloat, seeming to actually be rather detailed in these areas. I expected busy tracks in these regions, such as “The Room” by Ostura, to lose their composure in these areas but it is not the case, guitars and basses remain well separated and although I would like some more warmth to fill them out a little, it is nice to be able to separate the instruments in this area without needing to focus.
As we climb towards the upper mids, this is where I start to get a little cold with these IEMs. Now, there are tracks that sound fine in these areas when volume is kept low, but once volume levels are increased, or certain songs start playing, they suddenly become harsh and even painful at times.
For example, “Walking on the Moon” by The Police, has the guitar strikes that happen throughout the intro and these are not the most enjoyable experience if my volume levels were anything above very low. However, while the guitar strikes are not pleasurable, around 18 seconds in, there is a hit on the rim of the snare (at least I think it's a hit on the rim of the snare) which starts to happen with each guitar strike. This rim strike is outright painful.
As “Walking on the Moon” is not exactly a modern recording, we could blame the recording, if it wasn’t for experiencing the exact same things on other tracks such as “Breezeblocks” by Alt-J. I could literally name a bunch of songs from my usual test list that cause this experience. From Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” to "Bang Bang" by Dr. Dre, as soon as the volume is anything above my usual listening levels, I suddenly find them to become harsh and even painful.
Moving up to the higher registers, the same story continues. At low listening levels there really isn’t much to complain about, the extension is decent and they are clear and articulate, however, once the volume level increases…
Listening to the usual sibilance test, “Code Cool”, they are a little hot in the “S” department. They are not the most sibilant set of IEMs I have listened to, far from it, but the harshness I have been mentioning doesn’t help them feel any smoother in this regard either.
Conclusion…
I am at a bit of a loss with these IEMs. The tuning is good and the performance is good, when the music and the volume level allow. As soon as I leave the comfort zone, things become unpleasant for me very quickly.
I am very much aware that opinions differ greatly from one person to the next and that means I can’t say that the Leá are bad, they just are not for me. I could use them at low background levels and not dislike them, but as I said, my normal listening levels are low, so I think that anyone who likes to raise the volume more than I do (which I should immagine is the majority of people) will discover those sharp edges that appear.
The build is great and the price is also, so I think that they are worth trying out if you feel these are something you would enjoy but they won’t make my list of recommendations.
As with all my reviews, this is available in Spanish on my blog (here) and on YouTube (here)
TRIPOWIN LEÁ REVIEW
TONALITY: 7.8/10
TECHNICALITIES: 8.2/10
CONSTRUCTION: 8.2/10
SOUND BENEFIT: 8.5/10
Tripowin seems to have developed a keen interest in new technology dynamic transducers, thank goodness! And it was to their credit, with the TC01 model which was a great success. That wasn't enough for their ambition, so they then called on Hawaii Bad boi aka BGGAR aka Bad Guy Good Audio Review for it's aural expertise by number. This collaboration with the Bad Boy gave birth to the Tripowin MELE earphones which was very well received by the audio community. I can't comment on these IEM that I haven't tested, except that they have a frequency graph that seems well balanced and fleshy, inspired by the Harman curve but more bassy.
If you thought that Tripowin was done surprising you in the ultra-budget IEM segment, after the wave of ovation for the Moondrop Aria and Tinhifi T3+ using LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer) transducers, they decided to launch their own alternative of LCP IEM, the Tripowin Leá. These Leá use the ''latest generation'' 10mm LCP dynamic transducer and have an acoustic approach focused on an open and balanced sound reproduction according to the product description. Ah, and their price is just too good: $25.
But is it too good to be true? Spoiler: one thing for sure, it's a thousand times better than the TP10!!
SOUND IMPRESSIONS
(source used: Tri TK2, Xduoo XD05+ and Xduoo Link BAL2)
Note: the Leá benefits from a fairly powerful amplification. Impedance=32ohm Sensitivity=105db
My first reaction to listening to the Leá's was: good lord! that doesn't sound like $25! Then: wow, this transparency, this openness, these female vocals put forward, this heavy and not slippery bass strike. And then: hum, but there is something a little disturbing with the timbre, it's not very round or natural. In short, the longer it goes, the more severe I become when I dig the sound, no matter the price. Then I try to rationalize. So, in the end, my first impressions were positive given the low price of these Leá.
The TONALITY is clear and balanced with an emphasis on the presence of high mids and mid-bass strike. We could say that it is still a tuning inspired by Harman, and even Moondrop Kato which are a more abrasive than liquid version of this Harman signature. The feeling of transparency is amplified here, and it's airy without being particularly shiny. It remains punchy, mid centric and vivid without too much sharp spike.
The TECHNICALITIES are excellent for the price, in all areas except the high attack control which seems cut off in places. The resolution and transparency is really good for the price. The nuances of textures and levels of macroscopic detail too. The bass and treble extension, while not super linear, extend quite far too. The attack speed for a DD of this price is impressive too.
The TIMBRE is not perfect to my ears, a bit metallic in places, especially in the high mids and highs. It's dry too, sometimes the texture grain is too boosted too. It's thin but that thinness translates into transparency, so there's a positive side here. It remains realistic but lacks a bit of warmth, density and polish.
The BASS have more punch than weight well felt, they are clean, tapping and fast. The extension is a little compressed-cut, but the presence of the sub bass is there and textured, body is more in resonance than in vibrating density. These are fairly dry basses, somewhat similar to the Final A4000 or Kato in this respect. What surprises is their post-impact cleanliness, as it's not very fleshy, it doesn't smudge on the mids, it doesn't add warmth or body to the overall sound either. It's the least transparent part of the sound spectrum too, which isn't too much of a problem as it sits quite far behind, it's only when there's a lot of instrument playing that it can feel too stuck and lacking in relief and definition.
The MIDS are pushed in their presence of the high harmonics, they benefit more the female vocals than male, because the latter will lack body and will seem more in retreat. It's energetic, we find very little sibilance even if it shout a little sometimes. The presentation is centered and quite intimate, the timbre is thin and not very heavy in its attack fall. The piano sounds a little too dry and flat for my taste but the resolution is very good and the transparency too. The definition is not perfectly sculpted, which cancels out a holographic rendering due to a lack of relief and balances in dynamic amplitudes. The precision is also not always there. With the Leá, it is the auditory macrocosm that transmits its resolving vivacity, if you dig into the sound, you are struck by micro harmonic distortions or imbalances in texture rendering.
The HIGHS are both abrasive in places and smoothed in others. That is to say that there are dips and a peak at the top of the spectrum to bring out the attack energy. It's fairly well balanced, although in passages where the music has natural amplitudes at this treble peak, a certain stridency can occur, with several instruments in this field the resolution loses air and cuts out the definition. Still, this stridency seems softened, the splash cymbals cutting short for example. Again, the resolution is high, not the cleanest but still impressive when you consider the price of these IEM. On the other hand, the lack of refinement of this resolution can sometimes betray the price, this lack of upper resonance-sparkle and natural brilliance for example, and also of a complete definition of the image of the sound, with complete contour. The violins lack body, and the timbre is thin and rough, the harpsichord lacks weight, roundness and sparkle. So acoustic music, especially classical, can sound tonally out of tune. As for indie, pop, rock, rap and even jazz, it's going pretty well.
SPATIALITY is very particular with Leá, in the sense that we often feel in Live music, even when it is not. There is great hall resonance, in a scene that is deeper and taller than it is wide. Quite unique as a presentation and not always versatile I would say.
IMAGING sometimes takes advantage of this somewhat artificial open rendering, because the space seems stretched, the instruments have a place of their own. The positioning is not the most perfect in its clumsy micro definition, but it has a good presence precision of the instruments nonetheless.
CONSTRUCTION
For For $25, it's hard to complain about quality and durability. We have an all-metal construction, thick metal that feels solid. The finish is not the most perfect, but here we enter the whim. It seems invincible like EMP in fact. The 2pin connector is firmly encased. The shell has a long insertion shape and is comfortable. The insulation is very good too.
The cable is really good even if by the most flexible. Its sound reproduction does not require an immediate upgrade. Its durability could be questionable, but the sound reproduction is not diminished by it!
COMPARISONS
VS MOONDROP ARIA (1DD LCP-80$)
At 3 times the price of Leá, we expect more finesse and better sound reproduction and this is mostly the case here. Firstly, it's more organic, soft and cohesive overall, technically it's noticeably superior, both in attack control and instrument openness. The transparency is cleaner, the timbre denser and more natural, and the presentation wider and taller. Nothing scratches our ears here, emphasizing the lack of roundness of the Leà rendering, much drier and with less full and wide midrange presence. The basses have a better base too and although it doesn't hit as abruptly as the Leàs, their warmer and deeper-vibrant presentation is less distracting, but it's more liquid and less textured, delimited in the mid-bass , so more emphasis in the sub-bass. The vocals are more centered-compressed with the Leàs and quicker with a slightly plastic tone, it's clearer and more textured in the high harmonics, less wide-open. The high spectrum is more fully covered, giving the highs more relief and also natural resonance, it is less sharp for percussion and flatter in dynamics.
In the end, the Aria are more balanced, warm and natural with a higher level of technicality allowing a less compressed and saturated rendering in its transparency.
VS TANCHJIM TANYA (1DD-25$)
This comparison is extremely interesting to my ears, because these two intras seem opposite in listening but similar in frequency measurement. Apart from a few subtle details, they follow a balanced V curve tending towards the midrange centric, à la Harman, again and again!
Let's start with the superiority of the Leá, especially technical. It's cleaner, more open and ethereal, more transparent and resolute, more pointed too with a deeper spatiality. Where the shoe pinches is especially on the timbre side, which is more dense, natural and round with the Tanya. Tonally we believe in it more in Tanya, even if the immersion is more syrupy, padded and thick. The whole has more cohesion, the instruments have more body and there is no peak that distorts the harmonic realism of the rendering. Yeah, the definition is lower, the rendering more intimate and compact, but that's due to the heterogeneity of the timbres and not a compression of their body in favor of an artificially boosted presence.
In short, here there will be two camps, those who appreciate an emphatic resolution in presence (Leá) or those who fall in love with the natural timbre of the instruments (Tanya), even if they lack the space to express themselves well.
CONCLUSION
Often, I remain misunderstood in my appreciation of an IEM due to the fact that I tend to judge technicalities outside of musicality, and if I find them excellent or promising in an ''inappropriate'' price bracket, I tend to get excited like a kid, at least internally!
That's what happens with the Leá, I find the technicalities like attack speed, resolution, spatialization and transparency so impressive for the price that sometimes I forget the little tonal imperfections. But my open-mindedness in this regard also has a setback when I go into critical listening, which reveals a fairly flagrant lack of naturalness in the timbres with the Leá.
The fact remains that for $25, everything is there for the high price value, as much the construction aspect which includes a metal IEM that seems super sturdy and a silver-plated cable that is more than appreciated, as well as a revealing and lively sound that offers an open and fascinating listening experience. Yeah, Tripowin went from a company that search its identity to a company to watch with interest.
Maybe it's time to trip Tripowin?
-------
PS: I wanna thanks Linsoul for sending this review unit and letting me be fully honnest and critical in my sound impressions. I'm not affiliated and 100% independant as always as a reviewer.
You can buy the LEÁ here:https://www.linsoul.com/products/tripowin-lea
TONALITY: 7.8/10
TECHNICALITIES: 8.2/10
CONSTRUCTION: 8.2/10
SOUND BENEFIT: 8.5/10
Tripowin seems to have developed a keen interest in new technology dynamic transducers, thank goodness! And it was to their credit, with the TC01 model which was a great success. That wasn't enough for their ambition, so they then called on Hawaii Bad boi aka BGGAR aka Bad Guy Good Audio Review for it's aural expertise by number. This collaboration with the Bad Boy gave birth to the Tripowin MELE earphones which was very well received by the audio community. I can't comment on these IEM that I haven't tested, except that they have a frequency graph that seems well balanced and fleshy, inspired by the Harman curve but more bassy.
If you thought that Tripowin was done surprising you in the ultra-budget IEM segment, after the wave of ovation for the Moondrop Aria and Tinhifi T3+ using LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer) transducers, they decided to launch their own alternative of LCP IEM, the Tripowin Leá. These Leá use the ''latest generation'' 10mm LCP dynamic transducer and have an acoustic approach focused on an open and balanced sound reproduction according to the product description. Ah, and their price is just too good: $25.
But is it too good to be true? Spoiler: one thing for sure, it's a thousand times better than the TP10!!
SOUND IMPRESSIONS
(source used: Tri TK2, Xduoo XD05+ and Xduoo Link BAL2)
Note: the Leá benefits from a fairly powerful amplification. Impedance=32ohm Sensitivity=105db
My first reaction to listening to the Leá's was: good lord! that doesn't sound like $25! Then: wow, this transparency, this openness, these female vocals put forward, this heavy and not slippery bass strike. And then: hum, but there is something a little disturbing with the timbre, it's not very round or natural. In short, the longer it goes, the more severe I become when I dig the sound, no matter the price. Then I try to rationalize. So, in the end, my first impressions were positive given the low price of these Leá.
The TONALITY is clear and balanced with an emphasis on the presence of high mids and mid-bass strike. We could say that it is still a tuning inspired by Harman, and even Moondrop Kato which are a more abrasive than liquid version of this Harman signature. The feeling of transparency is amplified here, and it's airy without being particularly shiny. It remains punchy, mid centric and vivid without too much sharp spike.
The TECHNICALITIES are excellent for the price, in all areas except the high attack control which seems cut off in places. The resolution and transparency is really good for the price. The nuances of textures and levels of macroscopic detail too. The bass and treble extension, while not super linear, extend quite far too. The attack speed for a DD of this price is impressive too.
The TIMBRE is not perfect to my ears, a bit metallic in places, especially in the high mids and highs. It's dry too, sometimes the texture grain is too boosted too. It's thin but that thinness translates into transparency, so there's a positive side here. It remains realistic but lacks a bit of warmth, density and polish.
The BASS have more punch than weight well felt, they are clean, tapping and fast. The extension is a little compressed-cut, but the presence of the sub bass is there and textured, body is more in resonance than in vibrating density. These are fairly dry basses, somewhat similar to the Final A4000 or Kato in this respect. What surprises is their post-impact cleanliness, as it's not very fleshy, it doesn't smudge on the mids, it doesn't add warmth or body to the overall sound either. It's the least transparent part of the sound spectrum too, which isn't too much of a problem as it sits quite far behind, it's only when there's a lot of instrument playing that it can feel too stuck and lacking in relief and definition.
The MIDS are pushed in their presence of the high harmonics, they benefit more the female vocals than male, because the latter will lack body and will seem more in retreat. It's energetic, we find very little sibilance even if it shout a little sometimes. The presentation is centered and quite intimate, the timbre is thin and not very heavy in its attack fall. The piano sounds a little too dry and flat for my taste but the resolution is very good and the transparency too. The definition is not perfectly sculpted, which cancels out a holographic rendering due to a lack of relief and balances in dynamic amplitudes. The precision is also not always there. With the Leá, it is the auditory macrocosm that transmits its resolving vivacity, if you dig into the sound, you are struck by micro harmonic distortions or imbalances in texture rendering.
The HIGHS are both abrasive in places and smoothed in others. That is to say that there are dips and a peak at the top of the spectrum to bring out the attack energy. It's fairly well balanced, although in passages where the music has natural amplitudes at this treble peak, a certain stridency can occur, with several instruments in this field the resolution loses air and cuts out the definition. Still, this stridency seems softened, the splash cymbals cutting short for example. Again, the resolution is high, not the cleanest but still impressive when you consider the price of these IEM. On the other hand, the lack of refinement of this resolution can sometimes betray the price, this lack of upper resonance-sparkle and natural brilliance for example, and also of a complete definition of the image of the sound, with complete contour. The violins lack body, and the timbre is thin and rough, the harpsichord lacks weight, roundness and sparkle. So acoustic music, especially classical, can sound tonally out of tune. As for indie, pop, rock, rap and even jazz, it's going pretty well.
SPATIALITY is very particular with Leá, in the sense that we often feel in Live music, even when it is not. There is great hall resonance, in a scene that is deeper and taller than it is wide. Quite unique as a presentation and not always versatile I would say.
IMAGING sometimes takes advantage of this somewhat artificial open rendering, because the space seems stretched, the instruments have a place of their own. The positioning is not the most perfect in its clumsy micro definition, but it has a good presence precision of the instruments nonetheless.
CONSTRUCTION
The cable is really good even if by the most flexible. Its sound reproduction does not require an immediate upgrade. Its durability could be questionable, but the sound reproduction is not diminished by it!
COMPARISONS
VS MOONDROP ARIA (1DD LCP-80$)
At 3 times the price of Leá, we expect more finesse and better sound reproduction and this is mostly the case here. Firstly, it's more organic, soft and cohesive overall, technically it's noticeably superior, both in attack control and instrument openness. The transparency is cleaner, the timbre denser and more natural, and the presentation wider and taller. Nothing scratches our ears here, emphasizing the lack of roundness of the Leà rendering, much drier and with less full and wide midrange presence. The basses have a better base too and although it doesn't hit as abruptly as the Leàs, their warmer and deeper-vibrant presentation is less distracting, but it's more liquid and less textured, delimited in the mid-bass , so more emphasis in the sub-bass. The vocals are more centered-compressed with the Leàs and quicker with a slightly plastic tone, it's clearer and more textured in the high harmonics, less wide-open. The high spectrum is more fully covered, giving the highs more relief and also natural resonance, it is less sharp for percussion and flatter in dynamics.
In the end, the Aria are more balanced, warm and natural with a higher level of technicality allowing a less compressed and saturated rendering in its transparency.
VS TANCHJIM TANYA (1DD-25$)
This comparison is extremely interesting to my ears, because these two intras seem opposite in listening but similar in frequency measurement. Apart from a few subtle details, they follow a balanced V curve tending towards the midrange centric, à la Harman, again and again!
Let's start with the superiority of the Leá, especially technical. It's cleaner, more open and ethereal, more transparent and resolute, more pointed too with a deeper spatiality. Where the shoe pinches is especially on the timbre side, which is more dense, natural and round with the Tanya. Tonally we believe in it more in Tanya, even if the immersion is more syrupy, padded and thick. The whole has more cohesion, the instruments have more body and there is no peak that distorts the harmonic realism of the rendering. Yeah, the definition is lower, the rendering more intimate and compact, but that's due to the heterogeneity of the timbres and not a compression of their body in favor of an artificially boosted presence.
In short, here there will be two camps, those who appreciate an emphatic resolution in presence (Leá) or those who fall in love with the natural timbre of the instruments (Tanya), even if they lack the space to express themselves well.
CONCLUSION
Often, I remain misunderstood in my appreciation of an IEM due to the fact that I tend to judge technicalities outside of musicality, and if I find them excellent or promising in an ''inappropriate'' price bracket, I tend to get excited like a kid, at least internally!
That's what happens with the Leá, I find the technicalities like attack speed, resolution, spatialization and transparency so impressive for the price that sometimes I forget the little tonal imperfections. But my open-mindedness in this regard also has a setback when I go into critical listening, which reveals a fairly flagrant lack of naturalness in the timbres with the Leá.
The fact remains that for $25, everything is there for the high price value, as much the construction aspect which includes a metal IEM that seems super sturdy and a silver-plated cable that is more than appreciated, as well as a revealing and lively sound that offers an open and fascinating listening experience. Yeah, Tripowin went from a company that search its identity to a company to watch with interest.
Maybe it's time to trip Tripowin?
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PS: I wanna thanks Linsoul for sending this review unit and letting me be fully honnest and critical in my sound impressions. I'm not affiliated and 100% independant as always as a reviewer.
You can buy the LEÁ here:https://www.linsoul.com/products/tripowin-lea
Attachments
NymPHONOmaniac
@PKTK nice looking, i like the back plate finish matching body color. very well done. i have a crush for metal grey with black&white backplate, just sooooo sexy!
