Tin Hifi T4 Review: Upgrade
Tin Hifi, despite my dissatisfaction with the P1, they still seem generating new hypes every time they release a new product. The Tin Hifi T4 is no exception, with tons of positive reviews from reviewers who received the product early just to "tease" their audiences and more or so with a successful crowdfunding campaign of over 300.000$ on Indiegogo, no doubt it is one of the hype of the chifi community in the last quarter of 2019. So, while most of the reviews out there are far before the release of the earphone itself, this post will be one of the first reviews of the Tin Hifi T4 after its release to the public, reflecting my own experience with it after a few days using it.
Before going into the post, if you are new, please read this before having any comments regarding my writing or point of view
Informations:
- Price: 110$
- Drivers: 1 DD
This unit was bought from Linsoul through their campaign on Indiegogo.
And yes, this is a little bit too late, but there are still about 2 days left before the campaign ends by the time of me writing this review, so grab the T4 for 20$ cheaper while you still can: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/tin-hifi-t4-in-ear-monitor-earphones#/
After the crowdfunding ends, it will available through Linsoul for 110$.
Packaging and Builds
- 3 pairs of white silicon tips (S/M/L)
- 3 pairs of black silicon tips (S/M/L)
- Pair of foam tips
- 1 leather case
- 3.5mm unbalanced MMCX cable (Which Tin Hifi also claim to have a market value of 35$)
- The IEM itself
Seem like Tin Hifi never gets tired of improving their packaging with every new release. Besides the usual silicon and foam tips, the leather case is bigger and in my opinion, looks nicer than the Tin P1 case. The cable looks good on screenshots, but not that good when you get your hands on it: it has a rubbery texture upon touching, which makes the chin slider comes with it harder to use due to the friction on the cable.
The Tin Hifi T4's build is metal as usual, but the coating is different from T3 and T2, there is also a new jet-engine like pattern on the back plate also. For some reason, the earphone has actually shocked me several times when I tried to use it with my laptop, something which hasn't happened to me when I tried their past product. While this issue is common for metal IEMs, I will give out this warning for the first time to future Tin Hifi buyers. (Or at least, ground your house...)
Sound:
Signature & Measurement:
Measurements are done on a steel coupler with dynamic microphone, while the result seem to be close to an IEC 711 coupler, there are noticeable roll off in the bass region and frequencies higher than 10kHz is also expected to have roll off.
My measurements are also raw and uncompensated, hence flat in graph =/= flat in real life.
The T4 seem to follow a neutral bright signature from its predecessor, but I have seen different interpretations of it: mildly V-shaped, U-Shaped, some even would even say it is warm-neutral. But, I think it still can be called as a neutral IEM despite the tuning.
The bass seems to be more focused in the sub-bass region rather than the usual mid-bass which gives more rumble to the T4, but not really punchy in anyway whatsoever so I would still obviously not recommend it to bassheads. The lower mids are slightly elevated and the upper mids peak nicely at 2kHz, there is also a peak on 6kHz, which can make vocals shouty depending on song choice. Finally, treble roll off after 6kHz, so cymbals don't seem to shine much on the T4.
Subjective opinions:
Surprisingly, while I expect a somewhat thin sounding notes from the T4 after hearing its predecessor, the reality seem different. Vocal for some reason sounds thick and while I am not that impressed with the T4 on many "weeb" song in my music library like 凋叶棕 - ためすがめ due to the high-pitched "anime" females vocal doesn't sound right to my taste, I was able to enjoy songs with male vocals like Baio - PHILOSOPHY! more than I usually do.
Comparing to T2 and T3, the Tin Hifi T4 tuning is less bright and less aggressive, providing a more balanced sounds across the board. It also sounds different from the newly released BLON BL-03: The Tin T4 is more shouty on female vocals and its bass lacks punch comparing to the BLON.
But, putting away my complaints about the tuning of the T4 which goes by my preference more than anything, the T4 note clarity is good, better than most (if not all) of the past Tin Hifi product (Yes, I think it beats the P1 technical wise, I wasn't a fan of it anyway despite the fact that it was an improvement to Tin Hifi past product at the time). Although this earphone imaging and soundstage is seemingly "average", for 110$, its technical ability seem to shoot nearly everything in this price range off the cliff which is really impressive.
Conclusion:
I usually would try to write some more of my thoughts about the IEM that I am reviewing, but this time, let just keep it short: Do I recommend the Tin Hifi T4? Yes! For 100$, in my opinion, it is the best that Tin Hifi has to offer and I see the earphone would still be relevant in the future as a solid recommendation to a lot of people just like how the T2 was. Hats off to you Tin Hifi.