>>I am brazilian and I speak portuguese, so forgive my english, I’ll use translation tools to help<<
INTRO:
The Tanchjim Audio is already a very famous company because of its wired earphones, but they also make TrueWireless (TWS) earphones. The Tanchjim Mino is the company’s newest completely wireless earphones.
Price: $41.99 USD
Colors: White, Black, Pink
Tanchjim reviews: Tanya (only portuguese)
TANCHJIM LINKS:
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DDEBpSh
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DB8vdSp
SPECIFICATIONS:
– (1) 10mm Dynamic Driver (DD) Beryllium coated per side
– Frequency range: 20Hz – 20kHz
– Impedance: 32Ω
– THD: 0.058% @1kHz 94dB
– Touch Controls
– Bluetooth 5.3
– Codecs: AAC, SBC
– ANC – Active noise cancellation
– Ambient Sound
– Signal range: 15-20 meters
– Tanchjim App – customization and EQ
– Battery life: 5h+26h (ANC On), 6h+31h (ANC Off)
– Compatible OS: Android, iOS, Windows
– Auto Pause/Resume
– Waterproof level (Earbuds): IPX4
– ENC for calls
– Earphones battery: 35mAh
– Case battery: 380mAh
– Charging via cable (USB-C)
– USB-C power supply: input 5V 1A
– Case size: 5cm [H] × 6cm [W] × 2.5cm [D]
– Weight: 4.3g (one side)(without tips)
– Case weight: 39.6g (without earphones)
– Total weight (box, earphones, etc): 172.3g
– Packaging size: 10cm [H] x 10cm [W] x 5cm [D]
UNBOXING:
PHYSICAL ASPECTS:
Eartips: I really liked the Mino’s eartips, they are very soft, very comfortable. I didn’t feel the need to use eartips from other companies. I evaluated the earphone with the size G ones. The only detail here is that they are oval – and the earphone nozzle too – I particularly don’t like earphones with a nozzle in this shape, but I think it’s the first time that an earphone with an oval nozzle managed to be 100% effective, I didn’t find any problem. I also tested with the Spinfit CP360 in size M and they fit in the earphones and inside the case, although I didn’t like their interaction with my ears, I preferred the stock ones.
PS: I did the product evaluation with the white eartips, I don’t know if the material is different in other colors.
Construction: The Mino is an earphone made entirely of plastic, and it certainly is not the most sophisticated plastic I have ever tested, but at least I thought the quality is a little better than the Moondrop Space Travel. The Mino has a round part that is the Touch area, and I must say that the size was very interesting, as it makes it easier to control the earphones, very good for small, medium, or large fingers.
It’s impossible not to evaluate the Mino and don’t talk about the size of the earphone… So, before the earphone arrived, I thought it would be a bizarrely large earphone, but fortunately when the earphone arrived I saw that it was just my impression. It does have a larger part than usual among other TWSs that I evaluated, which is where the Touch and the stems are, however, in my view, it’s still at an acceptable level (including for me who am more minimalist).
The case lid I found to be the weakest point of the product, the material itself doesn’t give me enough confidence if by chance I drop the product on the floor. Obviously, I didn’t do this test – and I won’t do it – but it is worth noting in case you are a person who has a habit of accidentally dropping things. The lid is an important part of the product, there’s a whole pairing process and notification when you open it. In this regard, the Moondrop Space Travel has an advantage, as it doesn’t have a lid.
It is a lid that is very easy to open, it doesn’t have any kind of lock, so it’s possible to open it with just one hand. The opening and closing system is through a spring that is inside the case. It makes a “clack!” sound when we close it, I don’t like this noise, and the worst thing is that there’s not even a rubber to soften the impact.
Another detail I noticed was the USB-C port at the bottom of the case. We know that this detail has already been corrected by many wireless earphone manufacturers, so Tanchjim is a bit behind on this issue. But then, the design of the case doesn’t make it stand vertically (upright), so in this case it doesn’t matter whether the USB-C port is at the bottom or at the back.
Bluetooth signal connectivity: About the signal range. I did the test here leaving the smartphone in the room and walked around the house, about 10 meters away from the device and the signal started to fail. So, the Mino had a performance inferior to that described by the manufacturer (15-20 meters), and also below the other current TWSs that I tested. Note that this test includes some walls between the smartphone and the earphone. Also note that 10 meters is already the most common distance described by the TWSs on the market, so the earphone is still competing with the others. I found the connection stability to be good, at no time did it disconnect, even having signal failures due to the distance, the earphone remained paired and playing music. I found the gesture touch control to be very responsive, I had no problem.
Latency test: The Mino has two settings. Normal mode and game mode. In my tests, the game mode managed to perform better than the normal mode (albeit minimally). What happened was that when watching some videos on YouTube, I found that the sync was faster in game mode. Not that the normal mode is bad, isn’t that, it’s just that I had this perception that there was a micro delay between the speech and the image in normal mode, a minimal thing but I thought it was.
Tanchjim App: Following are the screenshots of the application that I found interesting. I think the images are self-explanatory and so I don’t need to elaborate.
One point I didn’t find cool in the App was always needing to turn on the smartphone’s geolocation. If you don’t give permission to access your location, you won’t be able to enter the App.
Auto pause and resume: Function that when you take the earphones out of your ear, the sound automatically stops, and if you put the earphones back, the sound returns. It works with either side, and it’s possible to disable the function through the App. The Mino also has the function of using only one side while the other is charging in the case, that is, mono mode.
ANC and Ambient Sound: I found the ANC good, but it didn’t surprise me, I confess that as I heard the Samsung Buds FE before the Mino, I think that the ANC of the latter can have a slightly higher effectiveness. As usual, to say that the ANC is always a smoothing of sounds, it won’t prevent you from hearing external sounds completely, who knows in the future this technology can achieve such a feat. The Ambient sound is always effective in all TWSs, it opens the microphones to capture the sounds around, so, it’s always better than if the microphones were turned off.
Microphone: The microphone test wasn’t good at all. As usual, I tested at night in a quiet and noiseless environment, then I turned on a fan towards my face. The results were: in a noiseless environment, the capture of my voice was not 100% clean, some noises left the audio with a very weak quality. Then with the fan on, the quality only worsened, the voice didn’t even appear amid the large amount of noise introduced by the wind. Pure hissing. In this microphone aspect, the Space Travel had a slight advantage because when in quiet environments, it managed to extract a good quality of voice. But both when facing the fan, were disasters.
Fit and comfort: Surprisingly, the fit was excellent! It seems that by having the stems further away from the body, it ends up generating a balance in the ears, it’s even difficult to describe what happened here. I thought it would be a kind of bigger & heavy earphone, but no, on the contrary, as the earphone is very light, it doesn’t suffer alteration in the ears, the stability is 100%. I liked the fit of the Mino more than the Space Travel. This is a very subjective part, so, for my ears, the Mino managed to have a very good comfort, I managed to do my sessions of listening to music for 2-3h non-stop, and I didn’t feel any discomfort. I reported in the paragraph of the eartips the issue about the earphone having an oval nozzle, and that in this case here everything went right, although I still continue preferring the earphones with round nozzle. I found the isolation good/ok, and the insertion is something between shallow and medium.
Page for downloading the App: https://tanchjim.com/en/services/
SOUND ASPECTS:
I understood the sound of the Tanchjim Mino as Neutral with a slight Bass Boost. The tuning of the Mino is very similar to that of the Moondrop Space Travel, and then I know that many people will want to know: “is it worth double the value?”. So, this is not such a simple question to answer, because it encompasses other characteristics besides the sound. In my opinion, I liked the Mino more in a general context, that is, sound, physical aspects, and also the App. The thing that weighs most in favor of Space Travel is not having the lid on the charging case, and perhaps having a greater range of the bluetooth signal, because in the other aspects, the Mino wins (in my opinion).
I evaluated the Mino with the preset “default sound”. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to describe each available preset, the evaluation would be immense. And also, I didn’t feel great modifications between the presets, I think what has more difference is really you going for your preset “custom sound” and equalizing the frequencies to your liking. It’s a pity this customized equalization cannot be applied in real time, that is, you need to change the frequency and save it in the preset, for then the modification to take effect. I would like the modifications in the sound to happen in real time, like, changing in the EQ and at the same time changing in the sound. The way it is currently, it generates a little more work, but the result is the same.
Bass:
Quantitative: I think the bass of the Mino is at the moderate level. It is the same level of bass as the Space Travel, but for some reason, I was able to perceive a little more bass with the Mino than with the Space Travel, perhaps it was a better sealing of my ear canal. Here I leave the observation, if you prefer earphones with a lot of bass, I would first indicate the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2, the Galaxy Buds FE, or Anker P20i. The Mino has more emphasis in the sub-bass region, the mid-bass appear less in the presentation. I didn’t feel roll-off, and the extension is good.
Qualitative: The bass of the Mino has weight, has substance, has strength, but as you saw in the previous paragraph, they aren’t in excess, which makes them well controlled. This also leaves the bass with a more “clean” characteristic. They never invade the mids, they are always in that condition of accompanying the recording, which generates a very interesting balance. The bass has impact but are well delimited, they don’t sound neither too expansive nor too dry, a middle ground. Now enters the opposite of what I said in the previous paragraph, if you are looking to reduce the bass because your current TWS has too much, the Mino may be the option. I like bass, but for example, I think that with the Galaxy Buds FE the presentation becomes very heavy, warm, and the Mino isn’t like that, so I think I can adjust in the custom EQ the little more bass that I would like the Mino to have to stay ideal.
Mids:
Quantitative and qualitative: Just like in the Space Travel, the part that I liked the most in the Mino were the mids. It’s unusual to see mids more forward in TWSs, especially in this price range. The earphone has a well elaborated pinna gain, brings a lot of information without sounding aggressive. Undoubtedly it is a very interesting proposal to see a TWS prioritize the mids, the sound becomes more “correct”, without that recess that some wireless earphones have. Here in the Mino the voices are well enhanced, guitars appear more in the recordings, snare drum become clearer, wind instruments sound more palpable. Of course for a TrueWireless earphone it’s already something very good, but also don’t expect the last drop in detailing, in this issue here the wired earphones can extract more performance (in my opinion).
Voices: Here without a doubt the earphone can deliver more benefit for female/high-pitched voices. It’s true that it is great with the types of voices that are more in the center of the vocal scale, that is, baritones and tenors, mezzo sopranos and contraltos. The Mino is also good for low male voices, however, I think it’s not the best situation, because for example, the Buds FE can deliver more texturization for this type of voice.
Treble:
Quantitative: Here also equal to Space Travel, it was the part that I thought had the least emphasis in the sound of the earphone. The Mino has treble at the moderate level. I think that in some way it has a slightly larger quantity than the Space Travel, which makes me think that the treble of the Mino are better. It may have been some interaction with the eartips or anything else, but I think that the treble of the Mino presented a better performance than the Space Travel. Whoever is looking for an earphone with quieter treble, the Mino is a great indication.
Qualitative: The treble of the Mino are discreet, “normal”, soft, polished, they aren’t colored, they aren’t fatiguing. The sparkle is very discreet, it doesn’t bother, it doesn’t sound too crystalline nor too dull. I think it could even have a touch more sparkle, for my taste, of course. I also think that the earphone could have more detailing and more airy, but compared to Space Travel the detailing I found the Mino to be a little better. The earphone didn’t present sibilance. The treble don’t present stridency, harshness, nor are they sharp. Hi-Hats are soft and without harshness, but they also don’t bring the micro detailing. Fingerpicking on steel string guitars sound more contained, more “natural” sound. Remember that the material used by the Mino driver is different from the Space Travel, this may be the issue of one delivering a slightly superior performance to the other, but this is in the field of supposition itself, I cannot affirm.
Soundstage: The soundstage of the Mino I found to be medium. As it has mids a little more “forward”, the presentation is closer, as if the singer was closer to you. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Buds FE has a larger spatiality in the sound than the Mino, however, the stage of the Mino can be more objective, the presentation is more direct, guitars can show more energy, you feel a closer proximity in the Mino.
Imaging: The instrumental separation of the Mino I found good/medium. So, if you compare it with the Space Travel, the Mino is a little better, now, in fact if you compare it with a hybrid wired earphone, for example, then of course the Mino will not win. But it didn’t do badly, it’s possible to hear all the instruments without sounding congested, something that in the Space Travel in some occasions I felt.
Driver Flex Test: The Mino didn’t present driver flex noise.
Amplification (or volume in the case of TWSs): This part is to say “how loud” I thought the earphone can get. I found that the Mino has a good/medium level of volume, testing on the smartphone I left it at 80%, which is equivalent to volume 12 of the 15 available on Android. I don’t have the habit of listening to music very loud. It was possible to reach the maximum volume without feeling discomfort. From what I have tested, the Mino is in coherence with the other TWSs that I tested recently (Moondrop Space Travel, Anker P20i, and Samsung Galaxy Buds FE).
Music is subjective, so below is the list of some musical genres that I personally think that was better with this IEM. Remember that were only few genres and few artists tested. If I describe that one genre was better and the other don’t, it doesn’t mean that you can’t listen to your favorite music genre with this IEM and love it. So, here goes:
Better:
Hip Hop
Reggae
MPB*
EDM
POP
Rock
Blues
Metal
Samba*
Bossa Nova*
*Brazilian musical genres.
Not so much:
Classical
Jazz
Link da Playlist:
Graphs by TANCHJIM:
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