šŸ”¶ XENNS Mangird Tea 2

Seems my Teas are entering Europe as we speak, so Iā€™ll probably get them tomorrow. I can feel the hype already :fire: :fire:

Bring out the drum rolls:

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What Iā€™m getting from this and HBB reviews is ā€œIf you already have the first generation, you can continue to use it with peace of mind. You donā€™t have to rush to change the second generation.ā€ :v:

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My first take on Teas Mk2 is out. :heart:

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@Precogvisionā€™s impressions on Tea MK2:

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Daddycog spoke. Better than expected, respect.

Hype is balanced now :dancer:

On to get some coal for this hype train. Tchoo tchoo

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haha itā€™s better than what you expected?? i thought it read like he wasnā€™t strongly reccing this at the price pointā€¦
Also, on his ranking spreadsheet, the score for MK2 is 3.55 - i think he hasnā€™t inputted a number in the ā€œBiasā€ cell yet, which is probably why itā€™s not showing 5? Itā€™s better than OG Tea (4.3), but not by much. Olina is ranking higherā€¦ :smirk:

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Is it the first time you check a take from Precog?

image

Better than I what I expected for his standards, thatā€™s for sure.

no iā€™ve been following him for a while too; even considering his even-keeled approach, the last two paragraphs arenā€™t laudatory by any means. But, this is why one should read a range of reviews before deciding on where to spend $$$$

As you might infer, I think that the tuning of the Tea 2 is pretty solid and that the people at XENNS arenā€™t your usual, mud-slinging warriors. But technicalities are where the Tea 2 stumblesā€¦To this end, I find the Tea 2ā€™s note texturing and ability to capture trailing ends of instruments is mediocre. It is fair to note that too much texture yields undesirable grain. But if youā€™re asking me, the Tea 2 has leaned too far in the opposite direction, and this lack of perceived detail probably isnā€™t aided by the recession in the lower-treble. Outside of this, the imaging and dynamics of the Tea 2 can best be summarized as ā€œadequateā€ for $300, but nothing that really grabs my attention.

I suppose the question at this point is whether the Tea 2 is the Moondrop B2 alternative that its predecessor was purported to be. Mostly, I guess? The Tea 2 is certainly not a bad IEM. It does offer a more laidback presentation relative to the B2 thanks to a more desirable bass tonality, relaxed upper-midrange, and a foil to the B2ā€™s 6kHz peak. But even if the IEMs mostly trade blows for raw tuning, I do feel that the B2 comes out on-top by a decent margin for technical performance, especially in terms of raw detail retrieval. So while I think the Tea 2 is worth a listen, the bias score will reflect my general feelings: I want to like this IEM, and I commend XENNS for trying a different style of tuning, but itā€™s missing something for me.

P.S. Did you add in the 5 to that bias score cell? That would raise the overall score to 5.55. Should be more like 3-4 to land at 5/10.

His 5/10 score at the end is his Bias, as far as I understand.

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Ah really? interesting. should make that clearer in his write-up, tbh. So, for his tastes, he views Tea MK2 and Olina as equally enjoyable. I guess this is in line with your initial impressions, right? They trade blows?

Yes, they do. To me Olina is an outlier.

Will really depend on libraries, as always

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Curious about that review :love_you_gesture:

Curious also though graph looks promising. Some of what I have read was not flattering . I am realizing that I may well have to go some EJO7 type to get what I want. We will see. Did just get Timeless so I have something to play with as I bide my time. I really want these to be great btw.

He does like the Blessing and they are not bad. Oh well was hoping this be where Precogs thoughts were.

Iā€™m really torn on joining the exclusive Tea cult or picking a Softears Volume as my next IEM.

Has anyone A/B them for technical performance? Doesnā€™t makes sense to compare both tonality wise due to different tonalities.

I have both, what you would like to know?

Keep in mind for me, they arent in the same league.

Awaiting review and awaiting comparison to EJO7 m ! You are borrowing one right ?

I will ask, yes!

Technical performance (IE: Sheer resolution, imaging and separation.)

Precog said the Tea 2 is kind of meh in all these areas.