I just got a Tanchjim Tanya, self purchased unit from the Yaotiger Aliexpress shop with a slight discount.
This is I think the cheapest Tanchjim IEM so far, retailing at $22 USD on most Aliexpress shops.
Accessories wise, not too shaby for the price, comes with 2 sets of eartips, velvet carry bag, spare filters.
One set of eartips has a wider nozzle bore, this one boosts the upper frequencies. The other set of eartips with narrower bore boost the bass.
The Tanya is a bullet shaped IEM, meant to be worn cable down. Sadly, the cables are non detachable, but they are quite supple and not tangly, and there's a strain relief. This is not the noodle thin, non strain relief reinforced type of cable that makes your heart drop (looking at you Final E3000, cough cough), I think it looks and feels quite durable. Would have preferred if it was MMCX as least, but I won't beat this area with a stick, since it is a $20ish USD set, and some of the pricier Tanchjim products do not have detachable cables too -> also looking at you, Tanchjim Cora!!
As per most cable down + non detachable design, there's some microphonics unfortunately, but not that bad. The cable is also quite long, so no worries like the Sony MH755 where the too short cable mandates that you can't move too far from the source.
The Tanya is very light and well fitting, very comfortable, as of the time of writing, I've used it for about 1.5 hours to put it thru its paces, no discomfort for me.
Strangely, the Tanya didn't come with any L/R markings to let us know which side is which, but there's a small dot on the strain relief insertion area (into the IEM) to denote that this is the left earpiece. This dot thing seems to be some relic design that I've encountered in some old school Japanese IEMs!
As for
isolation, it is below average, as per the open backed design, but this design does aid in soundstage, which we will discuss below, so it is a double edged sword.
The Tanya is rather difficult to
drive, despite its onpaper specs of sensitivity of 112 dB and resistance of 16 ohms. In fact, it sounds meh from a lower powered smartphone, and scales nicely when amped. I mean, you can get sound from a lower powered gear, but it can't sing. Ie soundstage, dynamics, microdetails are lost when it isn't amped. When underpowered, the bass bleeds quite a fair bit and music sounds congested. I tried the Tanya originally with the Shanling Q1 DAP and the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro at 2V power (with a 3.5 mm adapter), it sounded a bit mushy and overly thick. On amping this set with the Topping L30 amp, then the veil kind of lifted and I'm glad to report that this set can scale with power, and the bass can be quite clean when amped. Of course that brings us to the question of whether one should pair a $20 USD IEM with a more expensive amp, is that putting the cart before the horse?
On to the sound, OOTB, this is a
warm neutral set. Tuning is towards laid back and analoguish. I think the keyword to describe this set is
"lush". It is a non analytical set, and is a set suited to chill back and enjoy music.
Tonality is very good, maybe there's a slight upper mids peak around the 3 kHz region, but nothing too shouty or hot there for my tolerances -> in contrast, I couldn't use the Moondrop SSR for more than 5 minutes due to the icepeak 3 kHz spike on it.
Timbral accuracy on the Tanchjim Tanya is excellent, very good for vocals and acoustic instrument lovers. I think it has one of the best timbre I've heard in a $20ish USD set, it may even edge the fabled BLON BL-03 in the timbre department (will do some A/B testing to verify this).
The Tanya is mid
bass focused. There's a subbass rolloff, but there's a tickle of rumble called for when the deepest bass registers are played. As discussed, when underpowered, the midbass smears and bleeds, but on amping the bass tightens quite a fair bit. The Tanya doesn't have the most textured bass unfortunately.
Mids are thick and lush and this gives quite a lot of body to music. This may overly too thick for some, so it can be a pro or con, but those that like the analoguish sound will like it. The rest of the mids are slightly depressed until it rises and peaks at the 3ish kHz region, and then the
treble after that tails off. There's no sibilance on this set, so it is a rather treble safe set. Vocals are forward in this set due to the peak at the upper mids, but on some shouty tracks, I did not find that the Tanya is fatiguing or shouty for me.
On to
technicalities, soundstage is above average in all 3 directions, as per the open backed design. Probably some multi BA/hybrid sets at this price bracket will trump it in technicalities, but the Tanya's layering is very good for this price bracket, haven't heard this in a $20ish IEM before. Imaging and instrument separation are above average, I felt it can cope with busy passages of music when amped. However, details are not the best, as per the analoguish signature, so as discussed, it isn't a set for analytical listening, but just to chill and appreciate music.
Will do some burn in and A/B testing with other budget single DD sets like the BLON BL-03 and Final E3000. From initial listening, I think it sort of retains the timbre and analoguish feel of the BLON BL-03, but fixes the midbass bloat and poor fit of the BLON BL-03. Indeed, it may be cheaper than the BLON BL-03, as most folks need to run thru hoops to get aftermarket longer nozzles +/- cables to secure a better fit on the BLON BL-03.
TLDR:
Warm neutral set with good tonality and timbre. Lush sound signature. Needs amping to scale better. Good budget set to sit back and chill, not for analytical listening.
