This unit was sent to me for review by Linsoul. As usual, what follows are my honest thoughts and opinions to the best of my ability.
I have to say, I’m very impressed with the strides Thieaudio has made with their presentation. The Legacy 2 arrives in a clean, black cardboard box. Inside you’ll find two types of silicone tips, a 0.78mm cable, and a compact carrying case. The L2 itself is nicely constructed and sports one of the more visually appealing faceplates that I’ve seen in its price bracket. For fit and comfort, the L2 is eminently easy on the ears and lightweight. You’ll hear zero complaints from me on any of these fronts. But readers already know I'm not too picky about this stuff and, of course, the actual sound is another matter which I’ll delve into below.
I was accidentally sent two units, so here they are measured above. The measurements were taken off an IEC-711 coupler; there is a resonance peak at 8kHz, so everything after that point should not be considered necessarily accurate. If you'd like to compare the Legacy 2 to other IEMs that I have graphed, please see here.
The L2 has a warm, balanced sound signature. You can see from the graph that the L2’s bass shelf extends up to 600hZ. Surprisingly, however, I don’t find it a particularly bassy IEM. To the contrary, the bass on the L2 is rather mellow and sounds like it’s lacking a good deal in the slam department. This is a complaint that I’ve cited about Thieaudio’s dynamic drivers in the past, and I can’t help but feel that the new beryllium driver being used is nothing out of the ordinary either. Most of that extended bass shelf’s effect, then, seems to be attributable to the midrange’s warmth. It’s a pleasant enough midrange with a more relaxed pinna compensation and smooth transition into the lower-treble. Nonetheless, I disagree with this choice of tuning. And not because I think it’s a bad tuning stand alone - far from it - but rather because it’s perpetuating a vicious cycle with the L2’s technicalities.
Indeed, technicalities are where I can't help but feel that the L2 is heavily lacking. Coherency isn't bad here, but it's mainly because the midrange and treble notes are blunted to the point of which they're matching the dynamic driver. Sheer note definition is definitely not the L2's strong point. Something else that sticks out like a sore thumb about the L2 is its dynamic range. It sounds like there's excessive dampening and it struggles to produce sound. It reminds me of when I'm trying to accelerate on my 90's Honda Civic onto the freeway, especially going uphill. A bit nerve-racking because everyone else is zipping by me and I'm pushing the pedal to the metal and can barely keep up.
Speaking of which, that’s a good segue. Sure, the L2 will get the job done adequately and, credit where credit is due, I have to say this is a good IEM. But it's not much else. There are a lot of other IEMs in this price bracket that trade blows with the L2 and, if you’re asking me, surpass it for less. I'll patiently keep awaiting the day that Thieaudio manages to put out an IEM that makes me go “wow”. This is just an IEM to go for if you want a really safe pick and don't know what you like.
The Legacy 2 is available for purchase here.
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