Well you guys sure have clean setups.
I gotta get in on that watch case wave for sure. My collection is getting to a point where it’s getting kind of messy
You have an excuse, man, you’re basically a manufacturer at this point
A story of two Teas
Since the cult leader himself offered to share the joys of Tea with me, I gladly accepted and hereby hand in my report. Consider this more of an impression, than a review as there are other people more qualified to do the latter.
Disclaimer: Everthing here are my personal, subjective impressions. Ears are different and if you went through the same experience listening to the sets I promise you, you would walk away with a very different conclusion than the one I am describing here. So let’s start…
…with the boring stuff
Prolog - Fits, Builds & Cables
I received the OG Tea and Tea 2 from nymz as a loaner. Both came without original boxes & accessories and I received them with aftermarket cables, so I can’t say anything about those things. The fit for both was unremarkably good. Both Teas can be fit shallowly or deeply according to preference and without having a big effect on sound. The case is what you would expect from a multi driver IEM in terms of size and they are nice to look at. No complaints whatsoever.
Chapter 1 - OG Tea & Tea 2 - First impressions
You should know that I am a treble&air-head and as such the first listen with the OG Tea was not unexpectedly disappointing. Coming from IEMs like CRA or Timeless the Tea didn’t sound muddy, but very muted with certain frequency ranges - most noteably with voices. I like vocals and like them to be as detailed and clear as they would be as if the singer stands right next to me, which you can’t get with any equipment, but for me there has to be something going on >10khz for that to at least come close. So while the OG Tea didn’t please that preference of mine, something else was immediately noticeable: Music sounded very full and bodied. I try to avoid using the term “stage”, because it means something different to me, but maybe in your use of the word it would be what I am trying to convey here. Music is very immersive - especially in the lower frequency registers. The Timeless for example sounds very flat in comparision (in a negative way).
Going from the OG Tea to the Tea 2 my first impression was, that the issues I had with the OG Tea in terms of voice replay and air are somewhat improved, but not truly resolved, while keeping the good qualities of the OG. So the Tea 2 seemed to be like the better alternative and better allrounder compared to the OG. I remember thinking that while the Tea 2 is far from my preference, it would still make the cut to beeing a worthwhile listen, while the OG would fall just short.
Chapter 2 - Brain Burn-In
As I liked the Tea 2 better on first listen between the two, I decided to give them extended listening time so they could burn-in my brain. And that was pretty effective (and probably accelerated by my recent transition to the somewhat similiarily tuned MEST Mk2): I didn’t just not get annoyed anymore about lack of treble&air, but with certain songs I started wondering what I was really missing in the first place. After many hours I started wondering what my second impression of the OG would be and threw them back into my ears and what didn’t make the cut before was now quite enjoyable, even though I think my previous observations still hold true. It’s just, that I got more used to the sound. It still doesn’t give me the amount of treble&air I crave, but I also almost forgot about that.
Chapter 3 - The special sauce
So while I was listening some more hours with the OG I stumbled upon one song, which didn’t just give me goosebumps (which rarely ever happens), but to me perfectly illustrates what the OG is all about:
If you have a Tea a implore you to give it a listen (or at least the first 7 minutes of it). For some reason listening to this song with the OG was very captivating. When listening closer there were many things I didn’t like about the replay of the song. The OG made the cymbals go missing in action, the lead guitar setting in at 1:40 sounded weirdly distorted to me and add to all that the fact that the song isn’t a very high fidelity recording in the first place. However the atmosphere the OG Tea created with this song was extremly immersive and brought me joy listening to this song I didn’t get from other equipment. The drums, the bass guitar, the weirdly distored guitars really pulled me in like never before. When at minute 7 the singer made it’s first appearance and threw some vocals into the mix I noted that I was probably listening to this song far too loud. And then I noticed that if I did hear the cymbals, the treble in the guitar and all those things I usually look out for, I would have had to dial down the volume a lot sooner as to avoid pain and I would have been missing out.
So naturally I had to try out some other IEMs to see their effects. Listening with the Tea2 to the same first 7 minutes of the song, I just simply didn’t get the same feeling the OG gives me. I think the track sounds cleaner and more detailed than with the OG, the guitar solo at 3:40 sound much more like I would expect it to be and the music still sounded very full and bodied… but it’s just not the same. The OG just sounds more immersive and captivating than the Tea 2 for me.
The Timeless makes you hear things in the mix that you couldn’t hear with either of the Teas like for example the cymbals starting at 0:20 and while it is engaging on a completely different level, I have to admit that at the same time you loose a lot in terms of immersion, when listening with the Timeless. The song is still very enjoyable, but I never had goosebumps listening to this song with the Timeless.
Epilogue - Now what do I think about the Tea Twins?
In summary I would say this:
- OG Tea is a specialist. If you don’t mind a lack of treble&air and are looking for a laid back set, you may like the OG Tea. If you like listening to metal with a lot of low end and looking for immersion over detail, you may love the OG Tea.
- The Tea 2 is more well rounded and the safer choice. However at the same time it didn’t bring the special sauce the OG brought to the table.
- While I enjoyed giving the Teas a spin, I still would probably take the Timeless over both. Not because it is better… I think the Tea2 might be the objectively better set for most people between the two. But because just like the OG Tea the Timeless has a special sauce, which just happens to taste better to me
Post Scriptum - The hidden gem!?
While I was eager to test drive both Teas, there appeared a wild Dunu Titan S in the package as well. I wasn’t super interested in trying them, but gave them a quick listen, which I shouldn’t leave out of this report. The Dunu has a thin, but very flexible and nice cable, which however suffers from an appendix in the form of a permanently attached rubber cable binder. While the Tea 2 in principle reminded me of the Mest Mk2 sound signature wise, the Titan S seems to me more like a little Timeless. It has a very bright sound highlighting that treble&air. Sadly - similiar to the Timeless - it sounded rather thin. Overall I liked the Dunu S soundwise, but since it’s inferior to the similiar sounding Timeless which is already in my possession it didn’t receive to much attention or interest from me. So no… not a hidden gem, but still pretty good.
Credits
Credit to @nymz for sharing the joy and to Linsoul and Dunu for providing the loaners
Thanks for sharing!
Tea cult salutes you
I was all ready to share a picture of my current setup and then realized that too much of the stuff on my desk is not cool to share ( proprietary work stuff ), and I don’t have time to put it away right now.
Also we are packing for a move in three weeks and my place is a mess.
I have two IEMs on my desk, and an big mess of stuff under an ultra-wide and the laptop. There is a drawer with more IEMs just left of my desk, so “on the desk” is an honorific.
ACMEE Magic Sound 4 768K
Another source joins the bat cave. This time, a dongle. In fact, my only “real” dongle at this point.
Only 100 units made (AK4493EQ version). The regular version (Ess chip) is a pile due to low power and bad SQ. Once I saw it for sale, had to try it, as I found AKM is my prefered chip. AKM version has a mere 500mw
Good stuff, more on it later. Need to A/B and do some measures first. Battery drain on phone seems surprisingly good, I was expecting a bloodbath.
Do it! I ordered one already. It will take 4 weeks to get to me though
Same. The graph looks pleasant and it’s basically the price of a set of spring tips.
Those add on ear hooks though. I’m hoping they sit ok without them.
Just ordered as well, but this time through aliexpress. No point in rushing as I have other stuff inc. Im guessing a week or two.
Yeah, I can’t refuse that graph. Ordered.
quarks were quite good for $10 on sale… tempting
Graph on Chu looks better than Quarks and if tech is better it’s a home run
They also come with MD spring tips, which I’m curious to try. I’m still not convinced I can fit them, as everyone say they are smaller than average tips, but he will see.
Just wish I could grab a 20 dollar iem with spiral dots ++
I’m pretty new to IEMs and all the tips I use are S size. They are the only ones that seems to stay in well enough. But it seems strange because I always see people saying they need bigger tips. And I’m a big dude, 193cm (6’3"), so it seems odd I use small tips. Am I just shoving them too far in? Or I just got a small hole lol?
Every canal is different. As long as it seals and works for you, you gucci. Wearing small is great, since there’s always stock
for me the large Spring tips were between small-medium Spinfits… think there was one IEM I somewhat got them to work with
usually I use medium or large Spinfits