My sources are stated on my reviews. I used a Singxer SA-1 fed by a ZEN V2 for this review
TGXEAR discussion thread.
My sources are stated on my reviews. I used a Singxer SA-1 fed by a ZEN V2 for this review
Hey everyone. I went into @tgx78 studio here in Vancouver to pick up my Serratus. I was greeted by Jim and he gave me a tour of his studio. He offered me some refreshments. We sat down and had a brief discussion about the development of his ear buds. I remember auditioning his prototype early this year. Looking at his work station, it was endearing to see the passion and time he dedicates to this hobby. These are all hand made. He showed me his latest work: Ripple. When I think of earbuds, I think airplane freebies given out by stewardess'. As an IEM guy, I was curious to hear what differences an artisan version would have. Let's jump into some impressions:
Ripple & N8ii - Classical Music
I was interested in mainly catching up with Jim. I was able to audition a few full songs so take it this for what you will. This fit really well on me. Because of the open back nature of these not "sealing" completely, I noticed a large soundstage and lack of ear pressure. I liked it. It reminded me of how organic vintage tube sounds. It had lush mids which smoothed out the high pitched violin notes. I am heard a neutral bass quantity but a darker timbre overall. These also require a lot of power. I had to use twice the amount of volume: High gain on the N8ii P+ at 60 volume. These grabbed my attention. I definitely want an extended demo session.
Red Serratus - Ifi Go Bar - First impressions (3 Hours)
The Serratus sounds colder than the Tgxear Ripple. It has less mid bass but more sub bass than Ripple. I got it paired to the Go Bar which gives the notes more density. As a standalone, I would call a neutral timbre. Its not a resolution monster like the Supermoon but has more accurate timbre for instruments. There's a naturalness and an open sound that is different to IEMs. Comfort wise these are right up my alley. Its got a smooth relaxed diffused sound. Not a fair comparison but the transients are not clearly defined like the Traillii. The fact that my brain is comparing these to the Traillii which I consider the timbre king ($6600 vs $200) 3% of the MSRP, means that the Serratus is something special. I left these burning in for 2 hours. Gave it another try with the N8ii this time.
Red Serratus with N8ii:
Started out with classical once again with tubes on then moved into R&B, rock and electronic. Wow these scale massively. For instrumental music, I might still lean IFI GO Bar for the note density but for electronic I prefer the N8ii. I like the pronounced sub bass over the mid bass. Bass gets a texture boost swapping from the Go bar. While being on the leaner side, the mid bass still thumps hard enough for R&B music. I also noticed a blacker background for better separation from different frequencies (less diffused), more lower and high frequency extension (violin resonances linger longer), stronger dynamics. Overall, these are still on the relaxed side of things, most noticeably the softer treble. One advantage these have over other IEM sets that I have tried is the effortless cohesion. Each song that I put it through sounded "right".
These are an addicting alternative to traditional IEMS. As mentioned previously, one con is that they don't isolate well for noisy environments. The reciprocal end of that is an open sound stage (akin to a smaller portable open headphone). These feel light in the head. I have smaller-average sized ears. Because the shells are thin and doesn't touch my earlobes I feel like I can wear them all day. This was a fun experience for me and a good introduction to ear buds in general. Great work @tgx78.
Ripple & N8ii - Classical Music
I was interested in mainly catching up with Jim. I was able to audition a few full songs so take it this for what you will. This fit really well on me. Because of the open back nature of these not "sealing" completely, I noticed a large soundstage and lack of ear pressure. I liked it. It reminded me of how organic vintage tube sounds. It had lush mids which smoothed out the high pitched violin notes. I am heard a neutral bass quantity but a darker timbre overall. These also require a lot of power. I had to use twice the amount of volume: High gain on the N8ii P+ at 60 volume. These grabbed my attention. I definitely want an extended demo session.
Red Serratus - Ifi Go Bar - First impressions (3 Hours)
The Serratus sounds colder than the Tgxear Ripple. It has less mid bass but more sub bass than Ripple. I got it paired to the Go Bar which gives the notes more density. As a standalone, I would call a neutral timbre. Its not a resolution monster like the Supermoon but has more accurate timbre for instruments. There's a naturalness and an open sound that is different to IEMs. Comfort wise these are right up my alley. Its got a smooth relaxed diffused sound. Not a fair comparison but the transients are not clearly defined like the Traillii. The fact that my brain is comparing these to the Traillii which I consider the timbre king ($6600 vs $200) 3% of the MSRP, means that the Serratus is something special. I left these burning in for 2 hours. Gave it another try with the N8ii this time.
Red Serratus with N8ii:
Started out with classical once again with tubes on then moved into R&B, rock and electronic. Wow these scale massively. For instrumental music, I might still lean IFI GO Bar for the note density but for electronic I prefer the N8ii. I like the pronounced sub bass over the mid bass. Bass gets a texture boost swapping from the Go bar. While being on the leaner side, the mid bass still thumps hard enough for R&B music. I also noticed a blacker background for better separation from different frequencies (less diffused), more lower and high frequency extension (violin resonances linger longer), stronger dynamics. Overall, these are still on the relaxed side of things, most noticeably the softer treble. One advantage these have over other IEM sets that I have tried is the effortless cohesion. Each song that I put it through sounded "right".
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gazzington
Headphoneus Supremus
Just ordered a red serratus this morning
Hey everyone. I went into @tgx78 studio here in Vancouver to pick up my Serratus. I was greeted by Jim and he gave me a tour of his studio. He offered me some refreshments. We sat down and had a brief discussion about the development of his ear buds. I remember auditioning his prototype early this year. Looking at his work station, it was endearing to see the passion and time he dedicates to this hobby. These are all hand made. He showed me his latest work: Ripple. When I think of earbuds, I think airplane freebies given out by stewardess'. As an IEM guy, I was curious to hear what differences an artisan version would have. Let's jump into some impressions:
Ripple & N8ii - Classical Music
I was interested in mainly catching up with Jim. I was able to audition a few full songs so take it this for what you will. This fit really well on me. Because of the open back nature of these not "sealing" completely, I noticed a large soundstage and lack of ear pressure. I liked it. It reminded me of how organic vintage tube sounds. It had lush mids which smoothed out the high pitched violin notes. I am heard a neutral bass quantity but a darker timbre overall. These also require a lot of power. I had to use twice the amount of volume: High gain on the N8ii P+ at 60 volume. These grabbed my attention. I definitely want an extended demo session.
Red Serratus - Ifi Go Bar - First impressions (3 Hours)
The Serratus sounds colder than the Tgxear Ripple. It has less mid bass but more sub bass than Ripple. I got it paired to the Go Bar which gives the notes more density. As a standalone, I would call a neutral, slightly dark analogue timbre. Its not a resolution monster like the Supermoon but has more accurate timbre for instruments. There's a naturalness and an open sound that is different to IEMs. Comfort wise these are right up my alley. Its got a smooth relaxed diffused sound. Not a fair comparison but the transients are not clearly defined like the Traillii. The fact that my brain is comparing these to the Traillii which I consider the timbre king ($6600 vs $200) 3% of the MSRP, means that the Serratus is something special. I left these burning in for 2 hours. Gave it another try with the N8ii this time.
Red Serratus with N8ii:
Started out with classical once again with tubes on then moved into R&B, rock and electronic. Wow these scale massively. For instrumental music, I might still lean IFI GO Bar for the note density but for electronic I prefer the N8ii. I like the pronounced sub bass over the mid bass. Bass gets a texture boost swapping from the Go bar. While being on the leaner side, the mid bass still thumps hard enough for R&B music. I also noticed a blacker background for better separation from different frequencies (less diffused), more lower and high frequency extension (violin resonances linger longer), stronger dynamics. Overall, these are still on the relaxed side of things, most noticeably the softer treble. One advantage these have over other IEM sets that I have tried is the effortless cohesion. Each song that I put it through sounded "right".
These are an addicting alternative to traditional IEMS. As mentioned previously, one con is that they don't isolate well for noisy environments. The reciprocal end of that is an open sound stage (akin to a smaller portable open headphone). These feel light in the head. I have smaller-average sized ears. Because the shells are thin and doesn't touch my earlobes I feel like I can wear them all day. This was a fun experience for me and changed my perspective of ear buds in general. Great work @tgx78.
Thanks for sharing your insight and congratulations on the (serial no.1!) Red Serratus - what a beauty. It's always an interesting task comparing earbuds to IEMs. They both offer something distinct and valuable to the right listener. I think you hit on all the appeal that sucked me into earbuds in the first place. I hope you don't mind me sharing some thoughts on the back of your post.
These two points form the basis of the appeal for me. The sound is less constrained and space is captured more realistically.
IEMs also tend to be very attention grabbing, isolating detail very well and with excellent dynamics but this can be quite distracting from a tracks 'bigger picture', for me at least. Also, I struggle to 'passively' listen to IEMs while doing other tasks for two reasons: the isolation itself feels unnatural and confining being a distraction in itself (I'm not claustrophobic by any stretch but there's an odd and slightly unpleasant feeling at play) and then there's the presentation of the music - everything is pushed within the 'headspace' and most mid-centric IEMs (my favoured presentation) demanded my absolute attention. For me, Traillii was the only IEM that achieved a natural balance that was at once an immersive mid-centric signature but with the space to make it palatable for passive listening for long periods (and did equally well for 'active' critical listening). I ended up selling the Traillii because $6k was too much to be sitting on my desk when I was looking to buy my first house.
As you alluded to, I think that's inevitable given the driver & price differences. Something else I've come to appreciate is that the DD can't express transients with such high speed as well implemented BAs can but there's a balance to be struck to achieve a natural 'pronunciation' & emphasis of the note and that matters a lot for timbre. The Alpha has a smoothness/sustain to its transients that is complementary to instrument realism. The result is something akin to what my ear hears in real life.
This is the be-all and end-all for me. If I don't have cohesion in how sound is treated, I'm out. Thankfully single driver setups, even in IEMs, do this very well but an earbud takes it further, in my experience. I feel this is largely because there tends to be a better 'cohesion' in space too. Dimensions are generally more informative and the centre image is more spacious.
Alpha almost moved me to tears this morning with a stupendous replay of Elgars cello concerto:
Great review of the Tantalus @nymz - hopefully I'll hear it at some point. I also agree with nymz that the Alpha is more of a niche offering but I pick it every single time over the Serratus for the vast majority of my instrumental library - world/classical/jazz etc.
I cannot wait for the Ripples. This tonal difference alone suggests it could go toe-to-toe with the Alpha for my top spot. Jim has said some quite enticing things regarding the tonality and timbre of this one.
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