This one got a bit long
I’ve spent a couple of weeks listening to the Tansio Mirai TSMR Shock, a $600 USD IEM with dual 8mm dynamic drivers, four balanced armatures, and two bone conduction drivers. The driver configuration appears to be the exact same as the TSMR X ($400), with the addition of two Sonion bone conduction drivers and adjustable dials for bass and treble, replacing the TSMR X’s bass-only switches. It has an impedance of 10 ohms and sensitivity of 102dB/mW at 1kHz. I enjoy the X, which I’ve owned for a 8 months, so my expectations were high. Thanks to the AudioGeek EU tour group for the opportunity to try this one!
More on the tuning dials in my end-notes, I’ll get to the point with my sound impressions using the settings I landed at: ~4.3 for bass and 3 for treble (higher numbers = more bass/treble). Is this an upgrade from the TSMR X? Yes, absolutely: the mids are clearer, separation is better, and the bass is more clear/defined. To my ears though, they’re quite different tunings: I can’t adjust the Shock to resemble the TSMR X in “Balanced” mode (switches in 010). In the grander scheme of things, they may be similar, but side by side I experienced the tunings as fundamentally different, despite the tuning dials.
Compared to the TSMR X, the Shock fills in the mids very nicely. The mids, especially the low mids, are recessed on the X making for a somewhat relaxed and bass-focused listen with the upper mids and treble to balance it out. Here with the Shock, the mids play a much more prominent role, and display great separation between instruments and vocal tracks - something I’ve noticed with other BC sets (BQEYZ Wind). In longer listening sessions, there was something with the upper mids or low treble that was just a bit fatiguing, but it’s hard to put a finger on.
The bass is great, and sounds more tight and controlled than the X. It’s got nice physicality, though the subbass isn’t as prominent as on the X, it doesn’t bring quite the same rumble. See my end-notes on adjustment for more on that.
The treble complements the mids nicely, but doesn’t have much air, or sparkle. I think I’d appreciate a bit more emphasis there relative to the upper mids/low treble, and turning up the treble dial didn’t quite do it for me.
Isolation is less than than on typical IEMs like the Ziigaat Estrella, and the bone conduction drivers leak more sound than typical IEMs. This might be a dealbreaker for people listening in an office environment at higher volumes. The 6.4mm nozzles worked well with various tips; I landed on Moondrop Springtips M and Penon Liquer Black S. The shells stick out slightly more than the TSMR X but are equally comfy in my ears (nozzles on the short side, but a good fit for me).
Overall, the TSMR Shock offers impressive bass, nicely separated mids, and a highly customizable tuning. I prefer it over my TSMR X. I think these are a great set at the price, even though the tuning could be a better fit for me in the aformentioned areas. If you’re looking for a slightly mids-forward set and comfortable with fiddling to find the right tuning for you, these are easy to recommend. I look forward to experimenting with these some more, and testing out Timmy’s EQ suggested settings!
End notes on adjustment:
I found it a bit tricky to dial in the sound. You have a lot of flexibility, but that’s both a blessing and a curse. A helpful image from -rowan- on Head-Fi greatly clarifies the dial settings, check that out here. The turning up the bass dial past 4.5 resulted in serious bass bleed into the mids for me, so although I wanted a little bit more subbass, I had to stop at 4.3. The treble was a little counter intuitive, since I found turning up the treble actually helped balance out the upper mids. The dials won’t do much to change the mids, so I couldn’t dial in the mids-treble balance that I was wanting (a bit more air relative to the upper mids and treble).
The Shock offers a lot of adustability, but you can’t do much to adjust the character of the upper-mids/low treble (ear gain region). Ineras over on Head-Fi put up some great plots that give a sense of what’s possible range, check them out here; DynamicEars, and Timmy/DucBloke too! Thanks to all those guys for sharing!
Some people (aformentioned head-fier’s) have been experimenting with filters over the mids tube to lower the mids a bit, and I can understand where they’re coming from with that. Might be just enough to bring the mids into “prefect” territory. Really though, it’s a nitpick for me… I enjoy the Shock a lot even as is.
Channel balancing is a fundamental challenge with dials, as hinted at by one of Timmy’s measurementss. No way around that unless you have a coupler to adjust. For that reason I actually prefer switches, but you trade off the flexibilty of the dials. It’s hard enough to get matched resistors for the left and right sides (as used with switches), not to mention potentiometers (dials). This isn’t a huge deal in practice though, I found the sound and stereo imaging to be good despite this. It does nag at me in theory though.