TANCHJIM 4U REVIEW

>>I am brazilian and I speak portuguese, so forgive my english, I’ll use translation tools to help<<

INTRO:

Pay for 1 and get 4! The new release from Tanchjim Audio, IEM that feature a sound equalization filter system, this is the Tanchjim 4U.

The Tanchjim 4U was sent by HIFIGO, one of the main distributors of Tanchjim products, as well as several other brands and audio products. More information on the links below.

Price: $69.99 USD
Colors: Silver

Tanchjim Reviews: Tanya (portuguese), Mino (english)

HIFIGO LINKS:

https://amzn.to/3LGToDY

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DdSDTcT

SPECIFICATIONS:

Single DD:

• (1) Dual-Chamber DMT-4 Ultra LCP Diaphragm Dynamic Driver.

– Frequency: 8Hz – 48kHz
– Effective frequency: 20Hz – 20kHz
– Sensitivity: 122dBdB/Vrms
– Impedance: 32Ω±5%
– THD: 0.05% @1kHz 94dB
– 4-Level Adjustable Circuit Filter System.
– Termination plug: 3.5mm (straight design)
– Connectors: 2pin 0.78mm
– Cable size: 1.2m (detachable)
– Cable: litz copper silver-plated braid + silver-plated platinum wire shielding layer
– Shell: Alloy Zinc
– Earphone weight: 8.9g (one side)(without eartips)
– Cable weight: 14.8g
– Total weight (packaging, iems, etc): 207.8g
– Packaging size: 12cm [H] x 12cm [W] x 5.5cm [D]

UNBOXING:

PHYSICAL ASPECTS:

Construction: Here are very robust IEMs, made with a metal shell (zinc alloy) and a mirrored finish on the front. Very minimalist design with matte silver paint. These are very elegant IEMs, but they have some issues that can take away from the excellence of their construction. They are: the first is the faceplate, which has a glass part, and so I noticed that it scratches very easily. I went to clean the fingerprint marks to take the photos, and when I looked, there was a small scratch. The second thing is the weight of the IEMs. They weigh approximately 8.9g, which is already a value to be considered… it’s true that in your ears you don’t feel this weight issue, however, it’s impossible not to remember resin IEMs, or even other metal IEMs that weigh much less than the 4U.

Eartips: The kit was very good, two types of silicone eartips. Normal eartips and wide bore eartips. Both types are available in sizes S/M/L. They do have a more generic look, but they are very good, very soft and functional. I don’t use wide bore eartips, so I used the “normal” ones to evaluate them. At first, I started using the size M ones, but I felt that I could get a better seal on the ear canal with the size G ones. I don’t see the need to buy eartips from third-party companies (of course, this is subjective). I found the sound of the IEMs with the ones that come in the kit.

Cable: The cable is excellent! A very positive point. The aesthetic part may not be to everyone’s liking, but I really liked it, I like silver cables. It has exactly the things I look for and recommend that cables have, which are: being thin, being lightweight, having smooth earhooks (no ripples), having a straight plug, not generating microphonics, not having memory (addicted creases along the cable’s length), and having 2-pin connectors. All of these qualities that I mentioned are part of what the 4U cable is. I really liked it, Tanchjim always seems to put good cables in its IEMs. The only negative point is that the chin slider doesn’t hold very well, it slips… which doesn’t matter much to me, but probably does to someone else.

Filters: The big difference with Tanchjim 4U is that you can apply filters to the sound using a shift selector. There are 4 filters available, as shown in the illustration below. If you saw in the unboxing video, I changed the direction “arrows” and it was all very easy to do. I thought it would be a bit complicated to make the changes, but the product is of good quality and everything worked out fine, without any headaches. The only flaw here is that we don’t know which filter the arrows are indicating. I found the representation used by the company to be bad, it’s like little dashes. The company could have made a better representation, for example, using letters: M for monitoring, A for atmosphere, N for natural, and P for pop, I think it would be much better… although this is not something that is so relevant, once you find the filter that you like the most, you don’t change it anymore. There is also nothing explaining it in the manual, which is why I decided to take this illustration from the IEM’s ad to put here.

Fit and comfort: The 4U has a design that creates a horizontal fit, which is a good design for IEMs, with a well-rounded body that avoids any kind of discomfort. The stability of the fit is very good, I found the insertion to be average, and I found the isolation to be good/ok. The IEM nozzle seems to be thick, but for me, it didn’t cause any discomfort, which is a very personal matter, if you have a very narrow ear canal, be careful. In terms of comfort, I found it great, except for the weight issue, which yes, these are IEMs that for today’s standards could be lighter… although when using the IEMs, this detail didn’t cause me any problems. I usually play music sessions of about 2-3 hours and then take a break, so during that time, I didn’t feel any problems, with no pressure points. The 4U were a pair of IEM that reminded me a lot of the Moondrop IEMs, I must probably be associating them with that shell of the Moondrop LAN. Tell me, doesn’t it remind a little?

Accessories: Among the included accessories, the 4U came with a screwdriver to change the sound filters, which is a positive point. If they didn’t include this item, it would be complicated for the user. It also came with a velvet bag to store the IEM. In this price range, I think it could have come with a hard or semi-hard carrying case, and there would even be space inside the packaging to put it.

SOUND ASPECTS:

I understood the sound of the Tanchjim 4U as neutral-bright. The IEM have a slight emphasis on the bass region, the mids are more “natural”, and the treble is a little more pulled towards the bright side. It’s a more neutral IEM, so don’t expect fun, energy, etc. It tries to be a more “correct” IEM. Now, the big question will be in the treble area, let’s look at a factor that can make a difference for some people, as it did for me. The Tanchjim 4U were evaluated with the Atmosphere filter. So, the description of the sound below will be with this filter selected.

Bass:

Quantitative: The bass of the 4U is moderate, and as we will see in the paragraph about the filters, it can also be moderate to low. It is not an IEM for bassheads, neither with the most “bassy” filter nor with the largest eartips, the sound of the IEM is at the level that I consider the minimum for genres that seek more fun (EDM, POP, etc.). These are IEMs with more neutral bass, which are more suited to acoustic genres or music in which bass doesn’t need to be the star of the show. For example, MPB – brazilian popular music – sounds really good (although MPB is a very wide genre). The 4U has a slightly more emphasis on the mid-bass region than the sub-bass region. The IEM have a slight roll-off in the subs region, but it doesn’t affect the extension… it only affects it when using the other filters.

Qualitative: The bass is controlled, clean, smooth, defined, and neutral. So, you can already imagine that here we’ll have some more restrained characteristics, such as texture, physicality, and impact. It’s the kind of bass that’s there to accompany the recording, and therefore, it doesn’t invade the mids. The bass is more restrained, the impact is discreet, and it has a more “dry”, defined characteristic. The bass of the 4U isn’t massive, bloated, or muffled. Remember that the filter selected for the review is already the one that stands out the most among the others. It has very good bass for acoustic instruments, such as the acoustic guitar, for example, the sound is more natural, since it is an instrument that doesn’t need much sub-bass.

Mids:

Quantitative and qualitative: For me, the Tanchjim 4U mids are the best part of the IEM, the company got it right here in terms of quantity (and quality). People who like more emphasis in the mids will like the 4U, and the good thing is that it isn’t an aggressive, shouty, or harsh IEM in this region. It does have a bit of frontality in the mids, but I believe that is exactly because of the more contained bass. The mids are very detailed, with great definition, good clarity, and good transparency. Wind instruments sound very good, the 4U can get great performance with flutes, saxophones, trumpets, etc.

Voices: I think the Tanchjim 4U is an IEM that can deliver better performance for female/high-pitched voices, those with a higher timbre. The good detail, clarity, and airy of the IEM make high-pitched voices sound more energetic and lifeness. Another type of voice that also sounded really good with the 4U was whispering voices, you can feel that there is a lot of air coming out of the singers’ mouths, giving that sensation of a more intimate breath to the ears. For me, male/low-pitched voices lose out in terms of texture, the IEM ends up not being the best for guttural voices, and it also lacks “warmth”.

Treble:

Quantitative: The 4U’s treble is moderate, but in some situations it goes from moderate to high. Let’s explain this better. What happens here… I picked up the IEM to test and of the first 5 songs I listened to, 4 of them showed a more pronounced activity in the treble, that is, the IEM have a peak in the highest treble that makes some instruments sound more prominent in the presentation. So, I’m already turning on the alert to warn those who feel very sensitive to higher trebles, that at some point these IEM may go too far for you. I think they will be more suitable for people who are looking for IEMs with more emphasis on the treble region. Now, not every song will have this peak issue, so it will depend a lot on the recordings. It’s possible that in your music library this peak issue never appears, but it’s complicated because at some point it may appear and make the presentation “incorrect” (it is subjective, for you it may be the “correct” one). I didn’t feel any roll-off, the extension is very good.

Qualitative: So, for me, here in the qualitative part we will have a division, on the one hand the 4U’s treble will be very good, but on the other not so much. On the positive side, the treble will be of great definition, detail and airy. As I said in the previous paragraph, if the peak issue doesn’t appear in your music, then the treble will be very good, with an above-average performance. Now, if on the other hand the peak I mentioned appears, then for me I think the treble will go too far, generating coloration, and the sound of the instrument may become “artificial”. For example, with ride cymbals, triangles, and chimes, the sound comes out very thin and high, which creates that piercing sensation. Hi-hats will present themselves with more energy than necessary, generating a sensation of harshness (to my ears). So, as I said before, some songs will become brighter than others, to the point where I don’t like them. I found that the sound isn’t natural and coherent with reality. Of course, this is for my taste, but for someone else it might be exactly the type of treble they are looking for. For Jazz, instrumental music, music with strings, the 4U was very good, but for EDM, Hip-Hop, Rock, Metal, or some POP, I really didn’t think it was good.

Filters: As you can see in the frequency response below, what changes when you change the position filters is basically the bass region. Atmosphere is the one that offers the most quantity, from there on it only decreases, then comes POP, Natural, and finally Monitoring with less bass. Obviously, when you have this reduction in bass, the other frequencies end up appearing more in the presentation. From Atmosphere to POP, I didn’t notice much difference in the reduction of bass, the perception starts to become more significant in the Natural filter and in Monitoring, which then has a very roll-off in the bass sound. The word “monitoring” in English refers to studio monitoring, but for me the term wasn’t very well used, since with this filter the bass is greatly reduced, so it is difficult to monitor with this amount of bass (in my opinion). I see it as a positive point that the IEM offer these filters in the sound, although for me the Atmosphere is already the filter that makes the IEM more “balanced” (even though they aren’t an IEM with a balanced sound).

Soundstage: I found the soundstage to be only average. It is average in all three dimensions: depth, height, and width. Because these are IEMs that have more emphasis on the midrange and treble, the sound itself ends up being more frontal… but it’s not a harsh frontality, it is something normal, an Ok spatiality, neither too wide nor too closed.

Imaging: The Tanchjim 4U has excellent instrument separation, all instruments sound clear without sounding congested, and the vocals also have excellent cutouts, always one step ahead of the other instruments. Depending on the quality of the recordings, at times the 4U seemed to me to be a Full-BA IEM (IEMs with only balanced armature drivers), which are IEMs that can separate frequencies with excellent performance.

Driver Flex Test: I didn’t heard any driver flex when inserting the IEM into my ears.

Amplification: I used the Moondrop Dawn Pro – review coming soon – connected to my notebook to do this review. The output used was 3.5mm. The volume on the dongle was set to maximum and on Windows at 30 (out of 100). The Tanchjim 4U is an easy to play IEM, and doesn’t require extraordinary amplification. I tested the IEM on the FiiO KA11 and it played easily, also at around 25-30% volume. I believe that the 4U can play well on simpler sources, but I recommend that you have a good quality dongle to play your IEMs. Currently, I recommend the FiiO KA11 as a good cost/benefit dongle.

PROS AND CONS:

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