Price: 169$
Where to buy: https://www.linsoul.com/collections/tin-hifi/products/tinhifi-p1
Specifications:
Driver: 10 mm planar diaphragm
Impedance: 20 Ω ± 15%
Sensitivity: 96 ± 3 dB
Frequency range: 10 Hz – 40 kHz
Rated power: 5 mW
Max power: 10 mW
Max distortion: 1 dB
Interface: Gold-plated MMCX connector
Cable length: 1.2 m (3.9 inches)
Thanks to Linsoul and Tin HiFi for providing this review sample.
Unboxing and first impressions
This is a luxurious package. A black box opens up like it were containing a jewel. And the chrome finish of the buds, which appear as you lift up the cover, it’s in fact kind of a piece of jewelry. The cable and the tips are stored inside a beautiful yet pretty useless case, which struggles to even contain the buds and the cable alone, when attached together. But it’s a leather case (I don’t know if it’s real or fake) and has a good magnet for closing it. And it closes, when you manage to store the IEMs, but it’s far from being a useful carrying case. In fact, with the T4 they changed the style to a much more sensed one.
This is the absolute first planar I try; not just among IEMs, but also considering headphones. I know what’s behind this technology, the advantages and the compromises. The P1 are maybe the first good cheap orthodynamic IEMs in the market. And that’s one of the best things happening in ChiFi right now, together with low voltage electro/magnetostatic drivers in Eastern earphones.
First thing first: the cable is very good-looking, it’s probably from the same factory as IBasso cables, because this is really similar to the IT01 cable. I like it even considering its weak braid. It does the job and I honestly don’t feel the need to change it – even though Tin HiFi just released a dedicated upgrade cable for this model and it may have a better connection with the buds: this one has kind of a loose attach. The pre-curved hooks are okay, but the overall fit of the P1 is not the best ever. I prefer using the foam tips – the included ones are amazing, better than any Comply I’ve ever tried – but the shape and the stability are really improvable. For me, every Tin product excels in design, build quality and presentation, mostly even in sound, but has to be revisited for the fit.
The accessories are great, two different sizes of foam tips and many silicon ones with different bore sizes.
Sound
So, here’s the crucial point: they need juice. A lot of juice which most of the smartphones on the market cannot provide. I’ve tried a direct output from a Honor 8 and at maximum volume the sound is hearable in a noiseless environment. My Mi MIX 2 doesn’t have a headphone jack, so I use a DAC/Amp anyway, and that’s surely better: Audirect Whistle is good, Zorloo ZuperDAC-S too (even if it has a bad connection so it’s kind of a failure as a portable device). And I’ve used the XDUOO XP-2 (wired and wireless), which however has to be pushed at maximum volume with high gain! My actual combo is FiiO M7 to TOPPING NX4, set to high gain and with bass booster activated (but for the tests I put it off): the P1 sound pretty flat to me, with emphasis on the high frequencies; so I enjoy some enhanced bass, considering they still don’t push it so hard.
Speaking of bass (stock settings), I find it really deep, reaching a good low sub frequency range. And while it’s not punchy, it’s lightning quick: the decay is sudden, giving a clarity I’ve never heard on a low end. It’s kind of having a dynamic quality and air with the speed of a good balanced armature. Also, I find it perfect on bass-heavy tracks (e.g. Billie Eilish’s “You should see me in a crown”) because tracks like that also give the punchiness which these earphones don’t add: they don’t color, at all. And I really like this, which I consider high fidelity.
The midrange is really enjoyable. It has a little notch, so vocals are sometimes a bit recessed (some Oh Wonder tracks feel a bit undertone because of this, e.g. Livewire), but the upper side is shining, even a bit enhanced. Don’t get me wrong, I feel most of the times like these are mid-oriented earphones, but somehow with some tracks they seem not to give enough justice to the mids. Let’s say they are not gentle earphones, the master should be good to make them sound good – and your hardware has too, obviously: in fact, I still think this is not the best setup for the P1 (but it’s the best that I have at the moment). I will try some headphone amplifiers when I’ll have the chance, because I really believe they are going to give what these earphones need. The instrument separation is really nice, not always perfect but again, I believe this is a limit of my sources. Higher bass and lower treble may be the critic points which might lack some clarity, sometimes. I’m that gingerly because the P1 sound spectacular in a lot of situations and the critics are very track-dependent. Treble is great, it reaches smoothly the highest frequencies and doesn’t have painful picks. Listen: they need a lot of power, so when you turn the volume up you sometimes expect to be caught unprepared if some frequencies happen to be more elevated than others. This never happened. I’m always surprised about the control this single driver can offer – and I now understand the praise of this technology. Soundstage is not the widest, it’s pretty deep though; but the thing that surprises me is the amazing imaging, which is maybe the most precise I’ve ever heard. Everything is pretty in-your-head, with a precise distribution of the instruments around you.
What I think of the sound, in the end, is that the P1 are made for music listening, more than production: they don’t lack details and their tuning is flat and uncolored, but they are too hard to drive for a monitoring kind of purpose. If you have the right gear to make them shine, I’d absolutely give them a try.
My music: Jon Hopkins, “Singularity”; Billie Eilish, “When do we fall asleep, where do we go?”; Coldplay, “Ghost stories”; Bon Iver (Discography); Jack Garratt, “Phase”; Jamie Cullum, “Taller”; Sia, “Colour the small one”; The Bloody Beetroots & Jet, “The great electronic swindle”; Jacob Collier, “In my room” and “Djesse (Vol.1)”; John Coltrane, “Giant steps”; Lauv, “I met you when I was 18”, Oh Wonder (Discography), Radiohead (Discography), ecc..
My files: MP3, M4A, FLAC, ALAC, few DSDs (Pink Floyd).
Comparisons
Well, finding a competitor for the P1 is not easy at all. This kind of driver is not mainstream and it’s usually prerogative of pricier earphones. I can try to compare them to some other IEMs which are similar in price.
IKKO OH1: 1DD+1BA which work pretty nice together. They are a little less expensive than P1, giving you a wider soundstage and a punchier bass. In general, I find both to have their personality in design and sound, while lacking on comfort. For a common user, I think OH1 would suit better all their needs: they need way less power to be driven, and the signature is easier to appreciate.
BGVP DMG/NiceHCK M6: these twins can be found, by this time, for half the price of the P1. They are bass monsters – like, even too much – but they offer a wider stage and more detail (and easiness to drive). Their multi-balance hybrid configuration is good, not the best and most coherent of all times, but their fun tuning is really enjoyable for the most part. Sibilance is the biggest issue.
BGVP DM6: pure multi-balanced armature setup, which is way, way easier to drive, but it sounds more congested, much bassier, and unfortunately cannot sound good on this setup (M7+NX4). The comfort is superior, though, and I really like the shell and the MMCX connector more. These are now anachronistic, in my opinion, because they managed to get a finer and more mature tuning on newer models.
Coming soon: VS BQEYZ Spring 1.
Conclusions
The Tin P1 are not an easy recommendation. For the price, you can taste a technology which usually is way pricier, and with the right gear you assure yourself a great sounding pair of earphones. However, they are not a “T” series model and it’s clear that you can’t power them with just a smartphone; and even with dedicated DAC/Amps you may need something more – maybe a desktop class amp. Sound-wise, in my opinion, they are absolutely recommendable, with a great personality and a mature tuning. The price is fair, and I believe the ones who spend that much money for an IEM – knowing its necessities – can afford a dedicated amp to match.
Pros
Build quality
Design
Accessories
Tuning
Timbre
Details
Cons
Really hard to drive
Bass may be lacking for some