The Mino is Tanchjim's newest truly wireless in-ear monitor earbud that is available at a budget price of $39. This product was provided for review directly from Tanchjim.
True wireless has come a long way, and nowadays, I almost prefer to use them over wired products, despite my staple of gears. The biggest brands in electronics make some of the best wireless headsets like the Samsung Galaxy Buds series, the Apple Airpod series, and the Sony WF series. All of these are rather pricey however, and a lot of budget wireless options out there compromise quite a bit -- whether it's features, sound quality or app support.
Let's discuss how the Mino fares, especially at its low price point.
First off, the Mino has kind of an airpod pros type design, with small, short stems sticking downward from the main body of the product. These are in-ear monitors, as they have replaceable silicone tips and fit within your ear. The overall product is very lightweight and is comfortable to wear. No issues here.
The Mino comes in three colors: Black, White and Pink. For this review, I was provided the black set. It has a very simple design and coloring. The case is also black, but with a translucent lid. The case charges via USB-C cable but does not feature wireless charging like the more premium TWS products do.
The TWS IEMs connect upon opening the lid and pulling them out. Pairing them to my phone was very simple. There is also a Tanchjim app available for Android and iOS but it does not support the Mino yet at this time. One nitpick I really dislike about this product, however, is that it does not turn off automatically when put back into its case or idle. It'll continue to be connected to my phone throughout the day and night despite being in its case.
The product has a lot of features for the $39 price point. This includes touch controls and various modes including Active Noise Canceling and Transparency modes, which is a huge plus. Many true wireless products I try may have ANC but not the pass-through transparency mode that I really prefer using when I'm at work or at home, and need to be able to hear my surroundings.
These modes all work fairly well. The ANC is a lot better than I would have expected at $39, though the transparency mode isn't the best I've tried. There's also an audible hiss when its activated and this likely due to the microphones being on.
Sound Impressions
The Tanchjim Mino has a very balanced tuning, though slightly elevated treble in my listening. There's a fullness in the bass range and fairly balanced mid-range. Overall, it's not a bad tuning, but it does lean bright with some graininess.
The Mino does not have the best technical performance. It's just average for a true wireless, but it is much much better than I could have anticipated for the low price point. There's some blobbiness in the bass range, and the treble area can sound a tad bright at times, and reaching some sibilance artifacts too, but it's not the worst balance/v-shape tuning I've heard, and is very listenable overall.
I did not typically enjoy it for female vocal music though, as I did find the brighter treble range to be a bit overpowering and distracting, while either the limitation of the driver or the down-sampled bluetooth connection causing the graininess and lower-res sound overall.
I did like this however for instrumental music where it's mostly in the mid-range and bass that stand out. Jazz music sounded great with the Mino and I was surprised how decent these can sound for its low price point.
Final Thoughts
The overall sound signature isn't something that will wow you. It's pretty standard fare these days, but it is the complete package of truly wireless with a ton of features like transparency and active noise cancellation modes, a lightweight and comfortable fit, and future app support that does make the Mino a great value product that I enjoyed.
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