Thanks, looking forward!
Nor does a tri-hybrid have to be better. It will depend on iem itself. I have the spring 2 and I donāt see it doing much better than the Blon bl03.
I just find that it has some āsā sometimes that hurts.
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Absolutely! My single dynamic driver Dunu Zen is near the top of my IEM list beating some tribrids I own.
We call that sibilance.
Looks awesome, but that one costs more than all my headphones and IEMs combined, hahaha
I really want to settle for the Mangird UP as my endgame. I have already settled for the Focal Clear + Fostex Ebony as endgame for headphones, but for IEMs i really want to keep just one.
Just one??? Youāre just starting your collection! I think this is the IEM for you, but if youāre not brave enough, you could always settle for the Odinā¦
hello, I made this little graph for you,
Tea āBlueā vs Tea EQ āRedā
Tea EQ āRedā vs Xenns UP āGreenā
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That graph is for which EQ setting?
I have already ordered the Xenns UP, everything i see and hear about it fits exactly what i am looking for in an IEM
I am actually not starting a collection, maybe in the future i will but right now is not the best time. All the IEMs i am buying are just a journey to find one that i can settle with. I do plan on starting a collection in the future but right now i have different financial priorities, i have a 13 month old girl and my wife is 5 months pregnant with another girl, so i guess right now i am collecting baby girls! LOL
I am even selling my beloved Mustang, there is no way i can fit 2 baby chairs in it, one was already a stretch.
I will probably have room in my budget for a Legacy 2 since it is cheap and apparently it is awesome, it is probably a good idea to have a cheaper IEM for when i am riding a bike or something like thatā¦
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You make me sad luizgarcia. and here I thought we were IEM bros. Sad day indeed.
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I call the Police!!
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Please ask them to bring extra diapers when they come over!
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Sure thing
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guys does the vocals sounds in the center and you can pinpoint the vocal easily or does it sound horizonal more present in the mix just like for example tin t2
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Got my Teas today.
Long-winded praise
I can understand why theyāre so widely adored, and why some peopleās response is less enthusiastic (for example Mark from Super* Review, who I tend to have similar taste to).
While a 'phone with boosted upper mids would meet my needs for what triggers intense emotion/involvement on the right tracks, I fully respect the tuning these teas have for this reason:
Some of my favorite IEMs to date can deliver 100% of the emotion and feeling Iām looking for on some tracks, and it can taper off to 70% for other genres/mixes, and leave certain artists as sure-fire skippers when shuffling as unless Iām up for it, they wonāt be especially bearable.
Now, the Tea doesnāt deliver 100% of the kind of engagement Iām looking for from certain tracks, butā¦ it delivers 96% or so on across ALL genres and artists
I was on shuffle through my library for over 3 hours today and never had to adjust volume or skip track due to the tone not suiting my IEMs. It almost feels like some under-the-hood-AI-EQ-witchcraft, because the same profile that sounds fantastic for Beatles recordings with the BBC shouldnāt also perfectly work for Nightwish, Roots Manuva, Jordi Savall, Susumu Hirasawa, Tom Waits, Simon and Garfunkel, Cocteau Twins, Massive Attack, Skottā¦
In all cases, when a track came on, there werenāt any hollow/thinner/quieter patches ā or any shouty/sharp/sibilant/congested patches. It must be the golden FR for getting 96% of the beauty out of all styles.
The 3D effect is very impressive too. Itās not essential to my enjoyment but itās a beautiful and unique bonus.
During this week Iāll get to compare with the Dusk and the Globe, and keep one of the three.
If I had any qualm for such an amazing all-rounder, it would be BA timbre. Iām missing a certain vibe from strings/piano. Itās a compromise Iām happy to make at this stage of my impressions. Itās a flaw I have to work too hard to find. And everything about this set is how effortlessly enjoyable they are, as your library flies past.
Wearing with Xelastecs that came yesterday, Iāve spent so long deciding about biting the bullet on buying some, I can fully recommend them.
For anyone who has been cautious because unanimous praise usually means it wonāt sound special to you, I can say that unlike other similarly lauded sets (like the ISN H40) I havenāt been left disappointed. At all. The tuning of the Teas truly is special.
Who on earth are the engineers that appeared out of the shadows to present it to us? Theyāve made the universally great IEM other companies have been trying to for years.
If this set wasnāt already at/beyond the highest limits of my budget, you can bet Iād be looking at the UP with more than just wonder.
TLDR: Iād say my tastes are a little niche. The Magirdās profile doesnāt play to that niche. I still think theyāre incredibly great to listen to, and play everything with gusto, and would recommend them to anybody without hesitation.
Iām more likely to keep these for their ability to play everything, and buy a cheap set that play to the over-exaggerations I like for some music (Moondrop SSRs for example)ā¦ than to sink all my money into a set that meet that particular vibe well but donāt sound as great with everything else.
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Looking forward to your comparison with the Globe
UPDATE: Read before the rest. For some completely whack reason the Xelastecs I was wearing (a new purchase), when paired with my ear canal, made everything 3 times muddier/darker. Heck maybe 5x more. Maybe even more. Using Tenmak Whirlwind tips (also shallow and wide bore) and these are nothing like what I describe in the following section. Heck.
I need to learn to tip roll before saying things. Gosh.
So updated answer: These are now really close, Iām loving whatās in my ears, definitely contenders against the Teas. Glad to find such a great sound, sad that itās going to be a hard decision again now. These Globes sound fantastic.
First, very surprised, impression of the Globes.
Iāll have to revisit them tonight but my goodness, I always go into Penon model with very excited expectations and Iāve always been very surprised, in a bad way.
I know the Globes are meant to have fewer ādetailsā - call it a tube or vinyl sound, whatever you like. I had imagined ādetailsā to be āusually hard to hear characteristics of a track in the mixā, for example āOh I can hear the plectrum contacting the string before she picksā or āDid you notice the trumpet player inhaling?ā For sure I can skip those, which would seldom be heard in real life, for a non-fatiguing plunge into the music itself.
For three tracks out of the 8 or so very familiar tracks I began with, instruments are full on missing. Not the details of the instrument, the instrument itself. On āLook at me nowā by Caroline Polachek, thereās a percussive feature, some clicks and a pop (see around 1:20) that Iām used to hearing staged in different places, or at different levels of clarity with different headphones. I had to go back to find it on the Globes, it was barely audible. Iāve never experienced that.
A very odd feeling, like when vocals are removed from a track using phase inversion for the sake of repurposing it for karaoke or a remix. That element wasnāt missing detail, it wasnāt subdued, it was nearly fully erased from the mix. I thought maybe it fell at a fluke frequency and that it would hardly ever happen, but within minutes I found that in āMidasā by Skott, the muted picking that makes more or less the only percussion in the song (itās from 2:06 onward) was again inaudible - so every verse sounded like the unpunctuated first ones.
The final blow for me was listening to Super Pretty Naughty by Buck 65. Perhaps in the other two tracks those forms of percussion could be considered unorthodox, although as deliberate parts of the mix I canāt imagine a case where they should be almost completely removed. In this spoof dance song (done very well by someone else who usually works in the genre), the rapid hi-hats, a pretty ordinary way of adding percussion to a track if you ask me (listen from 1:09 for example) have had all the life and most of their volume removed, like someone tried to remove them but failed.
To me thatās worse than a full removal. Going to a concert and hearing a track with no drummer would for sure be weird. But going to the concert and catching a glimpse of the drummer bound and gagged behind the stage curtain is distracting from however well produced the rest of the sound is, and reminds you of whatās missing.
Iām going nuts here, itās like Penon was set up as a joke company with fake prestige and reviews just to mess with me every time I get to try one of their products. God forbid that if I ever one day have a shot at trying the volts I should be disappointed. It feels like a personal troll, or a parallel universe that this should happen.
This goes beyond a āhouse soundā issue, their Fans do not mask parts of the music from existence altogether. I didnāt love the FR of the Orbs at all, but nothing besides high treble was taken ransom.
Iām someone who loves forward vocals, and Iād say even Iām surprised at just how large and in front all vocals (I guess I mostly tried female) are in the mix. Maybe with them taking up 60% of the stage, higher pitched percussion is masked, or some odd crossover issue? Iām not technically inclined enough to comment on the cause.
Note: This was the first 30 minutes of trying them. Xelastecs. I will of course try them again later, my initial impressions seldom stick. But Iām flabbergasted that certain instruments would be silenced so much. This has nothing to do with ādetailā level. I had such hopes with these having Penonās rich lows (which they do, the low frequency toms in The Grudge by Tool create the dark turbulent waters they are supposed to, very surrounding as Penon usually excels with) but also the raised upper mids which is usually a massive plus for my ears. Vocals are rich, maybe a little too rich even for me, but dang - muting hi-hats and other percussive features? Some songs rely on those for their variation and breaking them up.
Unless my psychoacoustics adjust as I give them longer, I donāt think Iāll get past that, whereas the Teas only sound better with longer listening.
For those with cable-faith, the issue with the Globes is when using a silver not copper cable, which should make the problem at hand less, not that Iām a believer myself.
Add-on after second window of listening : it does have a wonderful characterful sound over a lot of tracks. Does great things to Cocteau Twins for one. Iāll revise the problematic tracks again later. Clearly some strong pros, but that major con was unexpected.
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Very happy with the purchase of the Tea, although it is not an abysmal leap from the Blon Bl03 (I share the sound preferences of Bad Guy audio reviews) it is an excellent headphone.
I use them with the medium sized silicone tips and they have some stripes on the sides.
Does this iem need real Burn in?
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A lot of people say no, but I disagree.
In my experience, when I first got them, the 2K range was a little shouty and the sound (albeit detailed) was a little dry (sounds decayed unnaturally fast) and I was trying to heavily account for that with EQ.
After a few hours (less than 48 over the course of about 2 weeks), it really came into its own and all I had to touch was the sub bass and a little bit of a treble boost (I prefer a V signature).
So Iād say they definitely benefit from burn in, but if you donāt notice anything after 20-30 hours, then Iād say theyāre probably not going to change much more after that.
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Iām noticing a noticeably bigger scene compared to Blon 03.
Tomorrow Iāll do a comparison against the Spring 2 if itās of any use to anyone.
One question, which tip is the best?
Iāve tried the silicone ones that have grooves but they bother me and now Iām using the other flatter silicone ones and I really like them. I still have to try the memory tips that come with them.