Oh snap
that is a part of my favorite Hip hop verse ever done by DJ Quick 
Iām badder than bruised,
and madder havin to choose
'tween happiness and the blues,
and who be fillin my shoes
In Compton they shoot up schools too,
ridin by to see whoās who
Cock the shotty
they cruise through,
rock the body blood ooze through
Tell his family that dudeās blue,
no comin backfrom him scrappin
when ni**** was packin and he wasnāt packin too
I was genuinely not too interested in the Olina mostly due to already owning the Timeless but Jesus Christ ā¦ reading the thread and seeing all of these mods and what is actually possible with this set makes me want to buy them JUST to play around with them. Happy to see everyone enjoying their sets regardless!
Tripowin x HBB Olina impressions and comparison with Tanchjim Oxygen (Pt1, based on stock Olina)
Context
I want to start off by thanking HBB for putting in his time and effort to help create the Olina. Your passion for music and audio gear shines through your awesome contributions to the audiophile community.Ā
For full disclosure, I purchased my Oxygen (O2 from now on) in Nov 2021. It should be obvious that I paid a lot more money to get the Oxygen than the Olina. I'm trying to be objective, but you should know this. On the other hand, I am a fan of HBB's collabs, and was an early adopter of both the Mele and the Olina. Take this info as you will.
Now, I'm not a reviewer, and I'm writing my impressions for fun. My impressions are a window into my thought process as I try to decide which IEMs to keep in my collection. I bought my Olina from Linsoul, and have no affilitations nor obligations to date.
Olina shells are light and comfortable. They are more comfortable than the O2. That being said, even though the O2 is infamous for its poor fit, I find the weight of Oxygen shells to impart a premium feel to the set. Also, after extensive tip rolling, I find the O2 to be comfortable with AZLA Xelastic, stock Aladdin, and Spinfit CP145 tips
Impressions
Overall, the Olina sounds great. Plenty of other reviewers have described its sound signature, so just briefly: Olina sounds somewhat like the Harmon target, although I find it to sound brighter than the target. I will go into details in my comparison section below, along with specific test tracks, but I am very satisfied with the following: treble extension, detail, imaging, and staging.Ā I would have preferred more bass; not as much as the Mele, but enough to add body and improve timbre for some instruments and notes. For e.g., upper registers of the violin, saxophone, female vocals can be aggressive and sound slightly metallic.Ā
| Olina | O2 |
| Very good imaging | Very good imaging |
| Wide stage | More bass, more body to notes, more bass extension, more rumble |
| Slightly better detail: clock ticks more distinct | Better timbre of organ because of bass |
| Ā | Stage a bit narrower |
| Olina | O2 |
| Driver feels faster | Great heavy sounding hits from timbani during the first 13 seconds (13s) |
| Crisper sound | 2:28 busy section with lots of bass: O2 handles very well, and so does Olina, but more bass and better texture in O2 |
| Bass sounds pillowy at times | Ā |
| Stage wider, taller | Ā |
|
Olina |
O2 |
| Violin timbre a bit off; violin sounds a bit metallic first 45 s. That being said, very nice extension/airinessĀ | Better violin timbre in the first 45s |
| There is definitely bass presence, just feels too fast or pillowy | More body to notes 45 - 60s |
| Ā | Double bass has authority and weight |
| Ā | Stage sounds just as wide as Olina in this track |
| Ā | At times the bass can be a bit overpowering |
|
Olina |
O2 |
| Good timbre for the instrument (gayagyeum), but some notes sound a bit thin | Excellent timbre |
| Stage is taller, wider; nice echo and reverb of string movements | Stage is good, just not as wide. Good echo and reverb |
| Tad better resolution | Excellent layering, imaging |
| Very good imaging | Ā |
| Ideal amount of bass | Ā |
Ā
|
Olina |
O2 |
| Definite bass presence but pillowy (e.g., first 35s) | Good width but not as much as Olina |
| 40-50 s: wide stage, tall. Sometimes feels a bit too wide? Like stretched out too thin | Bass extends deeper |
| Treble is a bit... Crunchy? Hard to describe | Double bass has authority and weight |
| Ā | Good echo |
| Ā | Smoother lead male vocals |
|
Olina |
O2 |
| Wiiiddee stage | Smoother vocals |
| Forward vocals; can be a bit peaky (e.g., 50 - 60s) | At 1min bass guitar comes in and you feel it |
| Treble bit crunchy at 1:54 - 2:09 | At 2:00 - 2:06 cymbal strikes are there but possibly not super crisp; sharper on Olina |
| Snare drums and cymbals sound more crisp than O2 | Ā |
|
Olina |
O2 |
| Resolution: can hear picking of bass strings first 10 s | Same resolution |
| Bass guitar sounds good | Bass guitar sounds sublime |
| Treble bit crunchy at 1:54 - 2:09 | Ā |
| Saxophone a bit metallic or thin at 0:57 | Ā |
Ā
Conclusion
The fact that I had to concentrate for a few hours nit-picking to discern differences between the Olina and the O2 speaks to the quality of the Olina. Yes I prefer the bass and timbre of the O2, but the Olina trades punches in imaging, detail, and possibly outperforms in staging. Now, the elephant in the room is: all of this is based onĀ stock Olina, and we know that modding (e.g., double mesh filter in the nozzle) will increase the bass and tame the treble. Would that be enough to bring it even closer to the O2 without sacrificing the stage? Would bass texture improve? I'll explore that in Pt2 :)
As always, thanks for reading, and happy listening :)
Great job, nice format. Waiting on part 2!
Excellent comparison, good work. I hope there will be more such comparisons in the future. 
I hate youā¦ why would you do that 
Just got home and it was here, didnāt think Iād get a card tbh
Excited to hear how these sound tho!
haha sorry, takes a long time to do these impressions, so i couldnāt fit in the mod this weekend. Soon, man, soon 
Still very new here and to hi-fi in general (only my second post), but Iām happy to be an early owner of the Olina!
As soon as I read about the double-filter mod, I couldnāt help wondering if thereās some similarity to the FD01/FDX1 story. I probably donāt have to recount it here, but the 20-second summary is that the JVC FD01, considered by some to be too strident in the upper mids, was modded by a well-respected member of another community (inserting baffling into the filter) with very positive results. So positive that Drop worked up their own version of this mod in 2019 and started selling the FDX1, including three different filters (no baffling, moderate, and maximum).
Cutting to the chase, how similar is this new double-filter mod on the Olina to the FD01/FDX1 mod? I may be seeing this naively, but both mods seem to be solving a similar problem (assuming you agree that such a problem even exists on the Olina) and itās doing it with what seems to be a similar technique.
If Iām not way off here, the irony is that I chose the FDX1 over the Oxygen when I was in the market for a mid-budget DD, but when I heard about the Olina I just had to try it. So Iāve been comparing it to the FDX1 (with maximum baffling) for the past week. Now that Iāve done this double-filter mod, however, it feels like a game-changer, at least to my ears. Like the Olina was working at an unmodded disadvantage before, but now itās more of even contest. Does that makes sense?
My library is almost exclusively acoustic instrumental, by the way, heavy on the classical with some jazz. (Hereās where the long-ago teenaged version of myself is saying, āWait, what???ā)
Shostakovichās 2nd String Quartet is a great test for high-mid peaks, because even if you love it, the violins do tend to get a little screamy. Unmodded and using wide-bore tips (SednaEarfitLights shown here), it was too much on the Olina. I switched to the CP100s but I still couldnāt hang in there. But now with the mod, not only does it work but I can go back to the wide-bores if I want. (I did try the JVC spiral dots on the Olina, but they donāt seem to go quite deep enough for me. The full-length version of the Sednas work much better.)
I was also using PEQ to try to tame that 2K-5K range on my own, but I know thatās not an ideal approach for most people here. (And even as I was doing it I realized that I was paying an unusually high price in the harmonics for some reason.) So bottom line, Iām very glad to have seen this mod, because for me itās made a very positive difference.
Iāll keep comparing the two, even if I probably donāt have the sophisticated ears to pick up all of the nuances, nor the vocabulary to describe what Iām hearing. But @nymz I see that you also have the FDX1 on hand now, so Iāll be looking forward to hearing your take on this!
Sorry, that went on a little bit long. But thanks to all for being here and making this a welcome escape from a world that feels pretty dark right now.
Thanks for sharing your experience! And glad to welcome a fellow enthusiast of jazz and classical music on this thread 
Broooooo, thanks for sharing and you have awsome music taste.
I will make a post about FDX1 today or tomorrow, but let me tell you, in timbre they are no match. FDX1 is a technical beast, but sounds so metalic that I canāt do instrumental with it (unless you eq to try to hide it). I only used green filter btw.
I prefer Olinaās holographic stage, even tho fdx1 is prolly bigger. FDX1 is more resolving.
The only reason Iām not buying a jvc for myself is that timbre, else I would. Since my library is focusing on jazz and classical more and more, I asked Dunu about Zen Pro, as some conesours recommended me, below 1k.
Iām glad you chimed in and saw the mod 
All cards updated. Please check if something missing and let me know!
@nymz and @ttorbic thanks for the welcome! Funny you should make those observations about timbre and soundstage, because my own paltry notes so far were just: āFDX1 has larger soundstage, Olina has better timbre.ā
(And of course in instrumental music, it all starts with timbre.)
@StevehamNY Welcome, Steve. Similar tastes here (classical, female vocals, and light jazz) and also considering Olina based on all the reviews and conversation w. @nymz. Probably dependent on tips, but in general howās the isolation? PS only thing I hate more than bad timbre is poor intonation, which you canāt fix! Canāt stand a flat flute entrance! 
