So Here we are! After a little chat in private with @Nymz and a little bit of organization for the cult tour, I finally got the parcel with the oh so precious sets: Dunu Titan S, Mangird Tea OG and Mangird Tea 2.
I finally got to test some iems way above my usual comfort zone of 50~200$, thanks to a crazy man that lend 700$ worth of stuff by mail without asking anything in return. So thanks a lot @nymz: youāre canāt be sane, but i thank you for that 
Iām no tester, and donāt feel particuarily at ease with english language. I consider myself having not enough experience in the hobby to articulate a sum up clearly. Thatās why I wonāt organize my feedback as a test, but will try and describe my feelings and observations while I was listening to my usual ātest playlistā.
Then Iāll compare it to the Timeless, the set that could be the closest to the Tea Price tag.
disclaimer: I listend to the teas with Spinfit CP100, plugged in a DX3 pro V2 DAC/AMP combo. I listened to it through radsone ES100 and l&P W1 too, but have nothing significant to say about that, so they wonāt be talked about further.
Adele - rolling in the deep :
I thought the set would be bassier than what I heard; it is not and seems pretty ballanced at first; then the subbas kicks in and you get where the power goes.
At the beginning of the song, you can hear symbals from a tambourin; these cymbals on the teas are recessed compared to what Iām used to; I conclude that the set is somewhat dark, or at least darker than what I usually listen to.
The voice is so beautifully rendered, my god!! so precise, and full!! It is placed a little in front of you (instead of āin your headā), but that doesnāt shave any detail
the instrument separation allows you to go and pick any detail you want in the song.
the set, by being dark, should be an easy listening for long sessions.
Birdy - Skinny love :
the voice of Birdy seems to be quite hard to render properly: a too bright set will make it thin, too fragile and maybe agressive, but a too dark one will lose the cristaline property of her timbre.
The tea handles her voice brilliantly, effortlessly.
It seems that this track has been poorly recorded: you easily ear the studio noises (piano pedals, chair crackling,ā¦) and there are some artefacts; Moreover, the track is easily sibilant on every S and T and even some Dā¦
All these imperfections will allow for bad tuning detection.
The tea doesnāt bring the crackling forward, nor the pedals depress, so itās all good. The sibilances, too, are here but limited.
Usually on this track, the piano and the voice compete for the same space if resolution and/or FR is not balanced enough. Of course with Teas, there is no such issue.
Hotel de Paris - fly me to the moon :
I listen to this track beacause I like it, and hearing the crowd chatting (at the beginning and the end of the songs) is fun; the low number of instruments allow an audiophile beginner to decypher which instrument does what.
What stroke me on this track with teas is the bass. I never heard it like that before, with so much definition and body; yet it doesnāt steal the show and stays back compared to the voice of the singer. The voice of the singer, though, seems to lack a little something. Iād say that some harmonics should be upped a little for it to shine as much as the female voices shined on the other tracks.
On the teas, I feel I could push the volume without discomfort at levels that would become damageable on the long term for my health. this is a sign, for me, of a very good set that can handle power and doesnāt change FR with it.
Lorde - buzzcut season :
The subbass on this song with the teas is something that gets to you; I canāt imagine someone not loving the sense of engagement it brings. the song is quite complex, with many movements inside the stage for each instrument; with the tea, I heard it while I never did on other sets; thatās a very good sign for imaging capabilities.
the whole song is rendered in a quite balanced way by the teas; once again, everything is well defined and separated (a pure bliss for those who like critical listening). The ābass melodyā that starts at 1:09 is easily hearable, well defined and quite upfront. It is at the verge of being too much, creeping on to the voice/main melody.
Postmodern Jukebox - Creep :
that song, that singer, that arrangementā¦
At 0:49,Haley Reinhart produces a rasp while singing āwhat the hell Iām doing hereā that I felt. I mean, I phisically felt a hurting sensation when she did that; I wasnāt focused at the time, and it caught me by surprise.
That rasp, oh my god, how precise and powerful it was!! I never heard it like that before, even with the DT300 or the Timeless (BA and planar sets). On the other hand, this capability is a double edged swordā¦
Hoshi - Ta mariniere :
a double esdged sword, as I said: Hoshi, as a rocker obviously smokes a lot and must drink at least as much; as a result, her voice is naturally raspy. On this track, this raspiness is put on front with the tea, making the song uncomfortable and tiring.
Pantera - cowboys from hell :
oh man, the double-kick drum on this set is just amazing! I undertand why peolpe tell the teas are the go-to iem for Metal.
So, what can we learn from all this?
First, the tea deserves its price bracket: its technical abilities outpass any other set Iāve ever heard. The subbas focus brings something new to the songs, while not shadowing the rest of the frequencies.
The more I think about this set, the more I recognize it is exceptionnal, compared to whatever Iāv heard so far.
VS TImeless
the timeless, right out of the bat, has less sensivity
On Adele, the voice is way more recessed. On Birdy, the voice is more nasal, thinner, less natural. the sibiliances are more present and the voice fights more with the piano for the space.
On the Zelda 25th anniversary medley by Koji Kondo, everything has less body ; the cymbals and tambourin are less nuanced, less detailed, but are way more upfront
On Born of a broken man (Rage Against The Machine), the fisst instrumental part is just presented as a wall of sound on the timeless, whereas on the teas you can easily separate the instruments
generally, the Timeless has more midbass and way less subbass than the teas
All in all, the match is just a bloodbath: the teas are better tuned and present way more details and technicalities than the timeless.
Conclusion
the teas are a weird set, when you think about it: the bass really is focused on subbass, in the risk of being overdone on some occasions. the bass, while being boosted (seen on graphs) doesnāt sound overdone at all; they even sound at the good level. despite the set being quite dark, the voices are presented upfront and doesnāt sound dark at all.
it gives a set that has nothing in common with what I have ever heard:
- the subbass and bass section is very precise and present, without being overdone
- the mids are the best Iāve ever experienced, and has become my goal for audio
- the technicalities (instruments separation, details, resolution) are top notch
I note that I could get tired quite quickly when listening to the teas. I still donāt know why; is it BA timbre, the subbas quantity, the fact that I push the volume more? that question would require further time to investigate, but I sadly had to send the set to the next one in the line, spreading the Cult.
I admitedly have not a great experience with iems, especially above 200$. I actually began to doubt the quantity of upgrade I could have for 250$ and above, given the disappointement the Timeless was for me. Now that I have heard the teas, my faith is restored. And for 250$ on Drop, it is a no brainer.
I finally have to admit it: I love this set. The more I think about it, the more I realize I need it in my audiophile life.
@nymz. Iāve only had the opportunity to try out two buds so far, but Iāve been impressed with both. Together they total barely $30 MSRP and I have to admit, they pretty much compete with my Meles in terms of which set I pick up. My only issue is fit so far. MX500 chassis is absolutely a no go for my right ear. Pretty severe discomfort after only 15-20 minutes. EB2S is better, but after about an hour, that same discomfort comes back in the right ear. I really
