Mangird MT4 Review: Uninspired

Introduction

Today's IEM of interest, the Mangird MT4, costs $200 and is a 1 DD + 3 BA hybrid. It's the baby brother of the Mangird Tea that Antdroid reviewed a while back and gave a thumbs up. Though to be honest, the previous two sentences mean nothing to me. With no prior experience with this brand, I have no expectations for the MT4. But I suppose it's a good place to start a review when there's little bias one way or another.

Disclaimer: The Mangird MT4 was provided to me by Linsoul in exchange for this honest review. I am not or will be compensated in any other way.


What's in the Box?

Included in the box your standard set of accessories. There's one set of KZ-style star-shaped tips. There's one set of generic silicon tips. And there's one set of generic foam tips. I'm going to be using the generic silicon tips as I find the MT4 to have a bit of a finicky fit and the KZ tips don't cut it for me.

It also comes with normal looking 2-pin cable and a circular metal hard case. At first glance, the 2-pin cable seems to be of decent quality. However, I found that the L and R sides were mislabeled and the molded ear guides pointed out at awkward directions. I swapped out the cable for something more comfortable.

The IEMs themselves have a transparent blue resin shell and faceplate displaying its logo. Subjectively, I think it looks pretty good. The nozzle does have a flange on it to prevent tips from slipping. Comfort is alright though the edge of the shells do touch my ears a bit and puts pressure on them. As mentioned above, the fit and seal can be a little finicky. I spent a bit more time tip rolling and adjusting the fit until I was comfortable. YMMV.

 

Sound

My first quick listening session with the MT4 made me a little upset. I thought they were so aggressively mediocre and uninspired that it was almost a slap in the face of any one spending money to buy it. I stopped listening to them for 2 weeks.

When I finally decided to give them a serious go again, I found myself being less critical of it. But I don't really love it either. It's vanilla. Decently, if generically, tuned and technically adequate. It makes me shrug my shoulders and go "It's an IEM I guess". 

Bass:

The bass presentation on the MT4's doesn't actually feel as bassy like the graph would indicate here. I think it's because it gets balanced out by the upper mids enough. It's also a lot more midbassy than subbassy. There is some rumble but it's light compared to the boominess in the midbass. Bass quality is fine. It's decently tight and can handle some quick bass guitar passages well enough. There isn't much bass texture though; it's low-res and blob-like. There's good bass quantity and the MT4 never feels lacking for low end. While it may lose control at times, tracks are consistently full and bodied.

Mids:

There is some bass bleed into the lower mids that can be muddy and smeared at times but I wouldn't go so far as to call it bloated. It does come down to level around the 300 Hz mark. The MT4 has a definitely warm slant to it but once again, this is mostly balanced by the plentiful upper mids. The pinna gain rises rather quickly and has a peak centered around 2 kHz which generally isn't ideal, though it isn't an issue here since the upper mids are maintained without dropping off. Vocal are fairly forward and don't have the best tone but does fall neatly within the "good enough" zone. 

Treble:

Like many IEMs, the treble is the weakest part of the MT4. It takes the approach of just not having much at all as it drops off right after 4 kHz. While this helps against complaints about sharp treble, the lack of upper harmonics does take its toll. Hats/cymbals sound soft without their characteristic shine. Vocals lack an airiness or "breath" to them. Clarity starts to suffer when the track gets too busy in the low end. Still, it's not all bad. There's enough treble to mostly maintain instrument timbre. Treble is treated as a side dish rather than the main course.

Presentation:

Imaging on the MT4 is a little weird for me. Instrument placement is concentrated in the traditional left, center, and right imaging zones. Like there's a gap in sound in between the left ear and center, and the right ear and center instead of a contiguous image. It's a unique sensation that's not fully organic but not bad. Soundstage is mediocre. There's no height, little depth, and constrained between the ears. Resolution is alright but not really step up from other good budget IEMs like the T2 Plus. And certainly does not compete with $100 mainstays like the Tin T4 or Moondrop Starfield. Overall, it's mostly your average IEM type of stuff. Nothing of note.

 

Should You Buy It?

No. I don't really see the point in it to be honest. This is one of those IEMs that seem to have been made just to have something at a lower price point in hopes that the Mangird Tea's reputation (?) can carry its marketing. The MT4 isn't an "objectively bad" IEM. But as with my initial impressions, I do think it's uninspired. It does absolutely nothing to innovate. And while I understand that everything needs to be novel, for a 1/4th the price I could get a Tin T2 Plus and have the same technical performance and arguably better tuning. I usually try to think of some use case or justification that someone might use to buy any gear. For the MT4, the only one I could come up with is if you like the look, aren't value conscious, and want a very safe IEM to buy. But really, the Mangird MT4 I think will be swept under the rug and forgotten by the time you finish reading this sentence.

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