Thx all for the birthday wishes last week. Fate decided to give me covid on my 50th birthday, so unfortunately I did not have much time to enjoy the latest addition, the Turii Ti. Now that I have recovered I started doing some listening (mainly with the Shanling M9) and would like to share first impressions.
Build and comfort
The Turii Ti look and feel fantastic. The build quality seems excellent. The cable is very supple and looks great. The plug of the cable can be changed but I only use 4.4 mm, so that element has no benefit for me personally, but the concept is nice. The Turii Ti have a peculiar shape. They don’t nestle naturally inside the ear, and as a result, they are not so easy to wear, at least with my ears. Somewhat similar to the Z1R, they kind of hang by the stem, esp on the right hand side, where my ear canal is thinnest. Fortunately they are much lighter. And also fortunately, I received the
Radius deep mount clear at around the same time. With these tips I can get a pretty solid fit. But it takes some getting used to, esp. after listening mostly to CIEMs in the past weeks.
Tuning
When I looked at the FR chart prior to purchase, I noticed the elevated mid bass and esp. lower mids as the standout feature. I experienced this type of tuning previously with the Fir Xenon 6, which takes it to the extreme.
It worked well with some genres I thought, e.g. soundtracks, but with metal the bass was too loose and boomy for me. But I liked the concept of elevated lower mids, giving the music more body and warmth, and I was curious to see if the Turii Ti strikes the right balance for me. And of course, due to the reports of the main enthusiasts (aka shillers)
@Scuba Devils,
@blotmouse,
@normie610, expectations were high
.
During the first few songs it became clear to me that the tuning is not as different from ‘mainstream’ tuning as e.g. Xe6, it is quite subtle. Yet, the elevated lower mids are noticeable, giving music the full body and extended rumble I was expecting, and the warmth that goes with it. I think this is why some have such a strong emotional connection with this IEM. Vocals are excellent, e.g. with a song like
Indigo Night by Tamino. However, the upper mids/lower treble are also quite elevated, and when there’s a lot going on in that area, the warming effect can be cancelled out, e.g. with some metal music. But overall, they sound nicely balanced to me, and I think they can be seen as an allrounder.
I read some comments that they are relatively bass light, which I would not expect based on the frequency response. When compared to e.g. the Supermoon, which has a bit of a ‘bass monster’ reputation, you would expect to hear less sub bass and equal or more mid bass, see below. (Graphs superimposed and normalized at 1khz by
@Dynamo5561. Thx bro
).
When I try one of my go-to mid bass test songs,
Return to the Sauce by Infected Mushroom (from 0:51 onwards), I get nice, full-bodied bass with great texture. When changing over to the Supermoon, the mid bass indeed sounds more subdued to me, which I did not expect. I also tried it with e.g.
Slow Acid by Calvin Harris, and I get great, thumping mid bass with the Turii Ti. On to the sub bass then. I tested it with
All I Ever Need by Caribou, which has rumbling sub bass from the get-go, and indeed, the Supermoon has stronger sub bass. But I don’t find it lacking on the Turii Ti, there’s a nice rumble there as well. There’s just more emphasis on the mid bass.
Zooming out and overlooking the whole FR, I think the Turii Ti has an excellent tuning. It sounds very natural, e.g. drums and strings sound life like. The timbre can be nice and warm, e.g. with jazz, but when called for there is energy and excitement as well. Sometimes a bit too much for my taste. But I am quite sensitive to upper mids/lower treble, and generally prefer a dip there, as e.g. Traillii and 64 audio IEMs tend to provide.
Technical performance
When it comes to technical performance, I hear a wide sound stage, with sounds coming from behind my ears, almost. The venting might have something to do with that, as has been suggested. I don’t have an issue with isolation, but I use them in a quiet environment indoors. The detail retrieval and imaging are very good. I listened to the song mentioned by
@Natesdailies above (
The Force Theme by Eliott Tordo) with the Supermoon, which has great detail retrieval, and I recognize his description. When changing to the Turii Ti, I hear differences in tonality and timbre, but the detail retrieval and imaging are not that different to my ears.
Conclusion
To conclude, I really like the Turii Ti, upon first listen. It is an easy-to-listen-to, natural sounding IEM with a warm, inviting timbre and very good technical performance. I have yet to fully hone in on its defining characteristics. Being a single driver, coherency has been suggested as one of its main strengths. They do sound coherent to me, but so does the U18T, so for me that will not be what earns it a place in my collection longer term. I suspect I will be using them mainly for the more laid-back, atmospheric music styles, such as (smooth) jazz, vocals, soundtracks/modern classical, rather than the exuberant and energetic, to take full benefit of its timbre and natural sound.
As I am rounding out my collection and preparing for a headfi hiatus, it looks like this will be the final piece of the puzzle (OK, apart from a cable
@doctorjuggles is making for my Odin..
). If they don’t stay longer term, it will be mainly due to the fit … but so far, so good.
