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TekFusion TwinWoofer, Budget IEM for $50, Impressions, and discussions thread
Sep 1, 2014 at 6:16 PM Post #32 of 61
Subbed since I might be on the mini oz tour
 
Sep 13, 2014 at 3:13 AM Post #33 of 61
Form Follows Function: Tekfusion Twinwoofer
 
... Never ever never ever judge a book by the cover?!.
 
First off as one of the head-fiers selected to review the Twinwoofer IEM, I would like to thank Tekfusion for giving me this opportunity. Like many, I have never heard of Tekfusion prior to their "Reviewers Wanted" thread here at head-fi, but since I am always curious to hear new gears from different brands I applied to be one of the reviewers (plus it doesn't hurt to get free review samples to play with :). From what little information I was able to gather on these Twinwoofer IEMs my expectations of them weren't really that high to be honest because they seem to be your conventional consumer variety that is bass heavy and is not much to write home about and the "Twinwoofer" naming scheme sure didn't help with that cause either. Anywho now that I got that preface out of the way, lets get down to the sonic nitty gritty of these Twinwoofers shall we....
 

 
So how do these Twinwoofers sound??? Upon initial listen with the included medium stock tips they seem to confirm my preconceived notions more than not. The bass was bloated and boomy which was pretty intrusive of the rest of the sonic spectrum. In other words their bloated bass quantity bleeds into their mid-range as well as their treble making these sound like your typical garden variety cheapo bass heavy IEMs you can find in many consumer stores. But upon more careful listening and going through my test tracks I was able to hear some potential, especially in the mid-range of these Twinwoofers. Their narrow bore stock tips was of poor generic quality and seems to have constricted their sound making them even more bassy than they actually are, therefore I did a good amount of tip changing or "rolling" as we like to call it in this hobby. Lo and behold my gut feeling of changing these to wider bore tips (in order to liberate and de-congest their sound) was right on the money. Not only did wider bore tips opened up their sound further allowing the mids and treble to come forward but it also made the bass less bloated and boomy sounding. These are still very bassy IEMs no ifs or buts about it but their overall sonic balance is much better with wider bore tips such as the Triple-fi 10 tips I used. As always I also put them through the paces of burning these in as well, and their bass did seem to have settled down some with more burn-in, but it wasn't really a night and day difference for these Twinwoofers.
 
Now that these Twinwoofers have been properly seasoned and cooked thoroughly via tip rolling and burn-in how do they truly sound???  Surprising as I have documented here, these Twinwoofers have a pretty forward and clear mid-range, which was able steal some of the spot light from their bass quantity. This is a very good thing in my book because it not only challenged and somewhat shattered my preconceived notion of these being your conventional bass only IEMs but it also shows that these Twinwoofers has got some nice potential if they are further fine tune these. We might get a really good sounding IEM that is able do their entire sonic spectrum justice and not just the bass if the sonics of these are further refined. After a couple of weeks of burn-in and with wide bore tips the bass quantity is not nearly as intrusive or as obnoxious as it was the case with their stock narrow bore tips during my initial out-of-the-box 1st impressions. This allowed their mids and treble to come forward resulting in a better balance across the sonic spectrum, though bass is still the dominant player. The bass is very ample in quantity but quality wise even though it reaches pretty deep into the sub bass regions, it is of a softer variant. Impact and slam is there but it not as tight as it could be so it gives a sense that it is bloated and uncontrolled. There is not much texture to the bass nor are there great depth which further adds to its boomy quality. Although the mid-range clarity and presence is a lot better than before with good forwardness, it is still lacking in resolution, 3Dness and definition hence there is not much lushness or great micro-detailing to their overall sound. The treble has decent presence and extension and it is never bright, harsh nor sibilant but there is no sparkly or shimmering or even smoothness to it which you would commonly associate with very well tuned/ refined sounding gears. The overall soundstaging and imaging of these Twinwoofers is a bit hazy with a slight veil which makes the overall sound not very clear. The sound projection also feels a bit distant like the sound is somewhat coming to you from far away instead of that 3D sense where it surrounds/submerges/envelopes you and your senses.
 
Therefore, all in all when you take these qualities into context, these Twinwoofer has more of a bass and mid-range emphasis, with the treble/highs lacking behind a bit. Even thought their mids have good forwardness and presence it is lacking in refined qualities such as lushness, resolution, and definition. Therefore combined with a bass that has great quantity but lacks tightness, depth as well as texture with a somewhat distant/ veiled presentation is what is holding these Twinwoofers back from a truly great sounding IEM. For the current $50 MSRP I can not recommend these due to the fact that in that price range there are many heavy hitters which bests these Twinwoofers today. But at their original MSRP of $18 or so, they would have been a good recommendation because of their very nice mids for a bassy headphone, unlike your typical "V" shape sound with a sucked out mid-range.
 
It is true that one should not judge a book solely by its cover, or in this case the name of these "Twinwoofer" because they are not just all bass with zero substance as I was glad to be proven wrong. Even though I would not say these are extremely dark nor warm, they are nonetheless very bassy IEMs just as I had expected them to be and as the "woofer" aspect of their naming scheme also suggested. From personal experience though the shape, size and design of most IEMs often hints at how they normally sound/ perform in that IEMs with large housings are typically more bassy while smaller IEMs are more balanced with less bass quantity. These Tekfusion Twinwoofer seems to fit my observation in that its bass heavy sound is the result of their long and big tube-like housing, hence its form follows its sound/function and vice versa.

 
Form Follows Function > Judge Book By The Cover.
 
With the narrow bore stock tips these Twinwoofers has really good passive isolation and I would say it is well above average, but there is also more driver flex due to the vacuum seal. With wider bore tips such as the Triple-fi 10 tips isolation is decreased a bit but there is a less driver flex. For me there is no doubt they sound a lot better with wider bore tips due to a better balance of the sonics mainly due to the reduction and better control of the bass quantity. Due to the light weight of their housing and round/smooth shape, ergonomics are actually very good, despite their housing seems overly long and a bit large. The housing of these Twinwoofers is made of metal and has surprisingly good in built quality as well.

The cable is a bit thin and rubbery though, but it is suffice for these IEMs same could be said of the 3.5mm jack. Packaging and accessories are not going to blown you away as it is pretty spartan but adequate. One cloth pouch, 2 sets of triple flange tip (M/L), 3 sets of narrow bore single flange tips (S/M/L).
 
Sep 17, 2014 at 6:17 AM Post #35 of 61
djscope said:
I've received the tour unit today from @H20Fidelity
 and will be doing a short review after a week. Also will be doing my first impression when I get a chance.

Cheers!
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:popcorn: mine will be coming back from a mini tour too (just within my friends)
 
Sep 18, 2014 at 3:50 AM Post #36 of 61
First impressions:
 
I must say that these are great fun. Very nice bassy IEMs. Visceral bass that extends far without drowning any mids. Mids are good and highs are somewhat rolled off but the sound doesn't lose any clarity. Soundstage is average but has well defined depth. I've never had so much fun listening to house music. IMO it is tuned for modern music and it has done a very good job at doing just that.
 
Sep 21, 2014 at 2:58 AM Post #38 of 61

DJScope - TekFusion TwinWoofer Review

 
Now I wish I could've put more time into these great earphones, but circumstances at work and home made that very difficult for me and I used every opportunity to give them all the time and attention I could. Alas it wasn't really enough, IMO, to do a full in-depth review. It was just a bad week for me.

Appearance:

 
The design is subtle and appealing. The silver accents are great but I would've like them better in fully black. Cable is as "stock" as it gets. Not much else to say on this regard.
 

Build Quality/Design:

 
Aluminium(?) housing is really nice. It's rounded at the edges. Cables are not so exciting but do have good strain relief. The cable has a lot of memory and you get some mechanical noise when using them on the go.
You can get some pretty bad driver flex with some ear tips. I've found that the small triple flange tips to be the best fit for my ears, and have to least amount of driver flex.
 

Sound:

 
Firstly I'd like to say that these sound DARK! Very dark. They somewhat remind me of the Mad Dogs 3.2. The frequency response, to my ears, sounds like it's on a downward slope from 30Hz all the way to 6Khz where it drops off about 10db and stay that way to my limit of hearing. Though clarity is surprisingly pretty good. 
 

Bass:

 
The bass is spectacular. Out of all the cons I can think of with the earphone, I will always forgive them because of how good the bass sounds. It's visceral (when amped) and plentiful, with good control. It stays coherent down to 30Hz, thereafter it fades away. It leaks a bit into the mids, imo, this is why it sounds so dark.
 

Mids:

 
The mids are nice. Not forward, maybe a little bit on the laid back side. Male vocals sound better than the females.
 

Treble:

 
Treble, or the lack of, is probably the worst part of the TwinWoofer. The lack of treble beyond 6kHz really hinders the sound. No sparkle or air. The soundstage also takes a hit. Most of the songs sound blunted/muted. I actually got my E17 EQ and raise the treble all the way up to +10bd, and the change was surprising. With the missing treble back, these earphone really open up. The sound stage becomes wider, you start to sense a bit of air between instruments, yet still no sparkle. Female vocals are brought back to life and the overall clarity of the sound is increase dramatically.
 

Conclusion:

 
What was originally an earphone I didn't like at first turned out to be a really enjoyable listen. After bumping up the treble, these earphone really become worthy contender. IEMs have never actually surprised me, but these did in the end. 
 
For $50, I might look into acquiring these down the line and put the Xiaomi Pistons aside.
 
 
 
P.S.
Thanks to @Brooko & @H20Fidelity for the opportunity of trying these awesome IEMs out. Sorry I couldn't put more time into reviewing them.
 
Also, this song plays really nicely into the strengths of these earphones:
 

 
Sep 21, 2014 at 7:11 AM Post #39 of 61
Nice review! Indeed, the highs roll off is pretty too early and here's a measurement from Innerfidelity to proof it xD http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/TekfusionTwinwoofers.pdf
 
Sep 21, 2014 at 7:59 AM Post #40 of 61
billsonchang007 said:
Nice review! Indeed, the highs roll off is pretty too early and here's a measurement from Innerfidelity to proof it xD http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/TekfusionTwinwoofers.pdf
Click to expand...


It looks exactly like I imagined it. Cheers for that!
 
Sep 24, 2014 at 1:51 AM Post #43 of 61
Sep 24, 2014 at 2:00 AM Post #44 of 61
I've never heard of H20Fidelity? Is that some kind of.... Mountain spring water?
 
Sep 24, 2014 at 2:46 AM Post #45 of 61
billsonchang007 said:
Uncle H20Fidelity
smily_headphones1.gif
Click to expand...

 
brooko said:
Not this kid - I don't Instagram
wink.gif
Click to expand...

 
h20fidelity said:
  I've never heard of H20Fidelity? Is that some kind of.... Mountain spring water?
Click to expand...

 
It must be you @H20Fidelity! Confess! 
 
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