Tri is a brand I had not heard about until Kinboofi and KB
Ears both requested to send me a set to review of their new I4 In-Ear Monitor. This
specific set was provided to me by Kinboofi, who are a retailer on Amazon as
well as making several audio cables that I actually have bought and enjoyed in
the past.
The $69 Tri I4 is a dual driver hybrid. It features a single
Knowles BA and a single 10mm biocellulose dynamic driver, and these are housed
in a CNC aluminum alloy shell. This shell features mmcx connectors and comes
with a detachable cable. One thing to quickly note is that this specific cable
looks very reminiscent of the new Campfire Audio cables packaged with this year’s
IO, Polaris and the latest Andromedas. In fact, I thought they were the same
cable as the one that comes with the Campfire IO, which I reviewed in
previously.
Being similar to this cable is a good thing, as I really
enjoyed this cable when I was demoing and preparing the review of the IO. In
fact, the shell is also well designed and extremely comfortable as well, giving
this set a thumbs up on ergonomics and comfort.
Sound
The I4 reminds me of a warmer, punchier, diffuse-field tuned
earphone. It actually reminds quite a bit of the Custom
Art Fibae 7 I recently reviewed in terms of sound profile. With the Fibae 7,
I thought it was a very well done, reference-like tuning. But it’s also quite a
bit more expensive than the Tri I4.
The I4’s biocellulose dynamic driver is very quick, and I
feel like the bass notes are clean, and responsive. I tend to think the bass decays
a bit too quickly. There is extension into the subbass, and that provides a
small amount of rumble that I really like. There’s just a slight bump in the
midbass that provides some punch to an otherwise flat bass response that some
may find lacking. The slight hump is within my acceptance, as I’m not a big fan
of the mid-bass bumps that provide that heavy punch and slam, mostly because
this can cause the lower mid-range to become quite muddy.
In the I4’s case, this isn’t an issue at all. The midrange from
bottom to top is very smooth and coherent, although a little lacking in body. The
I4 features a mid-forward sound signature, with extra emphasis on female
vocals, guitar strings, and the like. This makes those sounds very up close and
personal, though, not enough to be come totally congested.
A good representation of this is The Civil Wars “20 Years”,
which is an acoustic folk track with some tight guitar plucks that seem to
resonate and screech within my head. John Paul White’s voice doesn’t have the thick
grittiness I would normally like, and does have a little bit of a treble-induce
fringe to it, which is mostly due to the slightly bright treble response in this
in-ears. Joy Williams’ voice sounds just a tad closer to the front of the
scene, but sounds accurate and what I would expect.
Now the treble is a tad bright though not terribly harsh. In
my previous review of the Fibae 7, I said that Custom Art tuned it to push the
boundaries of what I find harsh without ever going over that line. In
retrospect, I find this to be accurate and the Tri I4 is what is just beyond
the threshold. It’s not far over, like say, the RHA CL2, or the BGVP DM6, but
it’s just slight above my level of brightness that makes me happy. This makes
some notes just a small bit strained and over emphasized to my liking.
For example, if I had to listen to Liz Fraser for a long
time with these, I may find it fatiguing, where on my current daily driver, the
qdc Anole VX, I can listen to it for hours. Speaking of which, one “Fifty-Fifty
Clown”, a track off of The Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas album, I find the
cymbals to be a little over splashy and just overall a tad brighter than I
prefer. The bass lines on it actually do extend well down and have a small bit
of rumble and definite punch to it that I am not normally listening to on my
other IEMs (again, I don’t prefer mid-bass).
The soundstage of the I4 is weird. It’s definitely midforward
and some instruments and voices are very closed in, in that it’s not a wide
soundstage, but there is still decent to good separation. I wouldn’t say the
imaging is great, but it’s average, especially at the price tag we’re talking
about here.
Overall
While it may seem like I am being very critical of the Tri
I4, I do find it a rather good performer for a budget priced in-ear. There’s
not a lot of stellar competition in it’s price range of $69, and you’d have to
look at the Tin Hifi T3, T2, and the KZ ZS10 Pro as similar and perhaps better options.
That said, the T3 is the closest in-terms of sound profile, while the other two
are leaner (T2) and much warmer and thicker (ZS10 Pro).
If the tuning was just a shade less bright, I’d easily
recommend these to anyone, as I find them to be a nicely done and decent
resolution of the price point. Since the tuning is a tad bright, I would say
that if you can handle a little treble sharpness, then go for it, and if you’re
treble sensitive, you may want to stay behind.
As mentioned above, Kinboofi provided a review unit to me. If you're interested in this IEM, you can find it on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Earphone-Balanced-Armature-Headphone-Champagne/dp/B07V4Q3FX3
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View the product ratings on
Antdroid's IEM Ranking List and/or Antdroid's Headphone Ranking List
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