Thieaudio Legacy 2 Impressions
This showed up last week courtesy of Linsoul. Presentation and build-quality are a step up from some of Thieaudio's past budget IEMs like the Legacy 3 and Voyager 3; it's always nice to see a manufacturer aiming to improve their game. Of course, sound quality is another matter entirely, and to that end, I think the L2 is just OK.
The first thing that stood out to me was the downwards-compression. The L2’s not a particularly difficult IEM to drive, yet I constantly find myself trying to turn up the volume to milk out more presence from the IEM. Even listening to tracks that I know are lacking in dynamic range, everything sounds ever-so-dampened. And that's just the icing on the cake. Notes on the L2 are soupy and slow; perplexing, really, given that this is the same BA driver being used in the ER4 which is by no means lacking in the resolution department. Am I maybe exaggerating? I don’t think so. To lend context, A/B-ing it with the Tanchjim Tanya, I’d say the IEMs are comparable for technicalities if not the L2 a small step behind. The L2's definitely behind the Moondrop SSR or Aria in the technical department. And all of these IEMs cost less than the L2; heck, considerably less in the Tanya's instance. That's a shame, because the L2's tuning is actually pretty nice - warm, relaxed, and on the darker side. But tuning only gets you so far and, to my ears, the L2 is an IEM that is circumscribed from the outset by its technical performance. It's particularly ironic given that most budget IEMs live and die on their tonality. But hey, at least I don't see the L2 offending anyone, which is a higher bar to clear than one might think.
Score: 3/10
This showed up last week courtesy of Linsoul. Presentation and build-quality are a step up from some of Thieaudio's past budget IEMs like the Legacy 3 and Voyager 3; it's always nice to see a manufacturer aiming to improve their game. Of course, sound quality is another matter entirely, and to that end, I think the L2 is just OK.
The first thing that stood out to me was the downwards-compression. The L2’s not a particularly difficult IEM to drive, yet I constantly find myself trying to turn up the volume to milk out more presence from the IEM. Even listening to tracks that I know are lacking in dynamic range, everything sounds ever-so-dampened. And that's just the icing on the cake. Notes on the L2 are soupy and slow; perplexing, really, given that this is the same BA driver being used in the ER4 which is by no means lacking in the resolution department. Am I maybe exaggerating? I don’t think so. To lend context, A/B-ing it with the Tanchjim Tanya, I’d say the IEMs are comparable for technicalities if not the L2 a small step behind. The L2's definitely behind the Moondrop SSR or Aria in the technical department. And all of these IEMs cost less than the L2; heck, considerably less in the Tanya's instance. That's a shame, because the L2's tuning is actually pretty nice - warm, relaxed, and on the darker side. But tuning only gets you so far and, to my ears, the L2 is an IEM that is circumscribed from the outset by its technical performance. It's particularly ironic given that most budget IEMs live and die on their tonality. But hey, at least I don't see the L2 offending anyone, which is a higher bar to clear than one might think.
Score: 3/10
