Chaitanya
Cyborg Agent
Forum was missing a review for T-Peos Popular & I having used the for two weeks finally decided to write a brief impressions & review.
This is my semi-decent IEM so please don't consider my review as reliable, just think of it as a product explanation. Earlier I have owned only a pair of SoundMagic ES18.
After about 2 weeks of banging head over most of audio forums & reviews, I snapped & made a impulse decision to buy these & to tell you the truth, I'm more than happy.
PACKAGING & ACCESSORIES :
Simple packaging, nothing to write home about. In name of accessories all you get is 3 pairs of tips, a clip and … oh wait ! That's all. Even cheaper ES18 had a pouch to carry the stuff.
BUILD & QUALITY
This is part where you actually get a happy face. The metal casing for the drivers is welcome & the machined finish feels good to touch. The overall weight is very low, you can hardly feel that there is something in your ear. Semi flat cable is said to reduce microphonics (noise from rubbing of cable), but honestly it doesn't quite feel so. I've read that wearing them over the ear reduces the effect, but again finding perfect seal was tough & wasn't that great. Inclusion of chin slider could have helped the microphonics to some extent, IMO. For all my tests I found that the mid sized tips gave best combo of isolation & insertion depth.
SOUND QUALITY:
Device : HP Pavilion G6-2005AX with IDT HD Audio drivers + fb2k + WASAPI drivers on win7 HB
Occasionally used : Moto G + Google Play Music
Files : Mostly 320kb/s MP3, 256kb/s AAC, FLAC (Ripped from Audio CD)
First time I put these on to hear a song, I was like. Whoa! Man! Were those sounds present in song? First thing anyone would observe is that they are quite detailed (CAUTION: I ain't a pro audiophile, keep it in mind). I did feel there was something unnatural sounding, after about 30-40 hours of burn in (I used White, Pink, & Brown noise + sinusoidal, square & sawtooth sweeps all were 24bit, FLAC files generated in Audacity) it felt a lot better. Post burn-in the bass grew a bit tighter, the higher frequencies settled down & the headphones started sounding a lot neutral.
LOWS :
This is the area where these headphones really shine. The bass is very clean.
Many tracks like “Make It Bun Dem”(Skrillex), “Angel” (Massive Attack) felt quite better. On ES 18 the low end bass almost ate away other things in the songs.
The claps & thumps in “We Will Rock You” (Queen) felt very natural on these pairs. Also in songs like “Skinnyman” (Static-X) the ES 18's kept rumbling killing other sounds.
45 sec onwards in “Machine Gun” (Noisia) I felt drums were overwhelming but now they feel pleasant.
The claps in “Do I Wanna Know” were almost covered in rumble on ES 18's.
In “The Funeral” (Band of Horses), 4:30 onwards you can clearly differentiate each instrument even from within overwhelming bass.
In “Humpty Dance” (Digital Underground) you can clearly say that the bass riff(continuously repeating short musical phrase) grows & falls down amidst the drums.
In “Selkies : The Endless Obsession” (BTBAM) at 33sec mark you can clearly listen beats buried in the guitar sounds, I never actually knew they existed until now.
Also the song title “Party rock Anthem” (LMFAO) makes sense, you could tell how the drum skin must be vibrating (0-10sec). You could totally appreciate the low rumbling (30-80Hz) noise introduced intentionally.
MIDS:
Quite Fluid
I kept on playing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (Santana) again & again. I cannot explain how beautiful the guitar felt. The vocals by India.Arie felt much more lively than the dry'ish' sound on ES 18.
On “Letter” & “Wandering” from Vapor by Yosi Horikawa, you can appreciate the genius work by the guy. In fact one or two times I confused if the chirping of birds was coming from headphones or from outside, so natural.
In “Love Story” (Taylor Swift) (0-30 sec), the string instrument(I don't know
) whatever is, feels more opened up.
Now I can point out the instants where the singer has inhaled/exhaled very clearly(for ex @ 10 sec mark in “Rolling In the Deep”). Although I'm not a guy who loves classical music very much, I tried few piano tracks by Vladimir Sterzer. In “Vampires Dance” (Vladimir Sterzer), the rising & falling frequencies can be noticed distinctly. They sounded marvelous. In “Plus que ma propre vie”(0-60 seconds) from Twilight OST by Carter Burwell you will actually fall asleep floating within the beautiful harmonies.
I don't have much tracks to judge vocals but from a few tracks by Adele, Ed Sheeran & Iron & Wine I can say they are quite good. Fair enough for a 1.7k IEM
Also these headphones helped me know what bad engineering can do to songs, “radioactive” doesn't enthuse me quite that much as it used to. You are sure to fall in love with electric guitar with these.
About music by daft Punk, I can spend about 3 pages saying I love their music. All I can say is you will love how beautifully mixed synth makes melodies for your ears. Also I never knew that there were that no. of different sounds in background in “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke.
I actually never loved “Pull Me Under” (Dream Theater), but now that I can separate each of percussion instrument, I cannot stop playing it. For anyone moving from ES18 types to this set are guaranteed to fall in love with metal music just like me. I'm noob & cannot quite explain in terms but I have to say, “You got to try Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Bullet for My Valentine on these..”
Can't say much about highs. All I can say is there is ample amount of them & sometimes even a bit too much causing harsh sounds.
Soundstage : Very wide indeed. You can clearly point direction in which the instrument is playing. In fact in few binaural test clips I felt someone was knocking door behind me.
Summary :
Quite a blast in the price range.
Fairly neutral sounding (slight dip in mid range though).
Awesome bass (quality wise & not quantity wise), bassheads may look else where.
Fluid Mids.
Harsh Highs.
Wide soundstage.
Pros :
Lightweight
Neutral sounding
Soundstaging
Build Quality
Cons :
Fatiguing (3+ hours feels a bit uncomfortable (Courtesy : Harsh treble))
No Chin Slider
32 ohm impedance is difficult for phones to drive. (My Moto G failed to produce sounds that I heard on Laptop)
Bought from HiFinage
MRP :1.7k + 300(taxes & shipping) = 2k
Update 1 : these can get very annoyingly detailed, this cause one to hate badly engineered tracks like "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons & "Midnight City" by M83.
*i.imgur.com/Geoa14Z.jpg
*i.imgur.com/HJDowlx.jpg
*i.imgur.com/LX0k8Xw.jpg
*i.imgur.com/y4QcB2y.jpg
*i.imgur.com/WyeH7Dl.jpg
*i.imgur.com/mQ6Sppr.jpg
*i.imgur.com/m4XXtVU.jpg
*i.imgur.com/zRQwJNY.jpg
Specifications :
Driver Unit : Dynamic Driver
Impedance : 32 ohm / 1kHz
Sensitivity : 100dB / 1kHz
Power : 3mW / 20mW (norm./max)
Frequency Response : 20Hz ~ 15Khz
Connector : 3.5mm / 3pole / 24k gold plated L-type plug
Cord : half-flat cable 1.2m / Y-type
Weight : 7g
*i.imgur.com/HJDowlx.jpg
*i.imgur.com/LX0k8Xw.jpg
*i.imgur.com/y4QcB2y.jpg
*i.imgur.com/WyeH7Dl.jpg
*i.imgur.com/mQ6Sppr.jpg
*i.imgur.com/m4XXtVU.jpg
*i.imgur.com/zRQwJNY.jpg
Specifications :
Driver Unit : Dynamic Driver
Impedance : 32 ohm / 1kHz
Sensitivity : 100dB / 1kHz
Power : 3mW / 20mW (norm./max)
Frequency Response : 20Hz ~ 15Khz
Connector : 3.5mm / 3pole / 24k gold plated L-type plug
Cord : half-flat cable 1.2m / Y-type
Weight : 7g
This is my semi-decent IEM so please don't consider my review as reliable, just think of it as a product explanation. Earlier I have owned only a pair of SoundMagic ES18.
After about 2 weeks of banging head over most of audio forums & reviews, I snapped & made a impulse decision to buy these & to tell you the truth, I'm more than happy.
PACKAGING & ACCESSORIES :
Simple packaging, nothing to write home about. In name of accessories all you get is 3 pairs of tips, a clip and … oh wait ! That's all. Even cheaper ES18 had a pouch to carry the stuff.
BUILD & QUALITY
This is part where you actually get a happy face. The metal casing for the drivers is welcome & the machined finish feels good to touch. The overall weight is very low, you can hardly feel that there is something in your ear. Semi flat cable is said to reduce microphonics (noise from rubbing of cable), but honestly it doesn't quite feel so. I've read that wearing them over the ear reduces the effect, but again finding perfect seal was tough & wasn't that great. Inclusion of chin slider could have helped the microphonics to some extent, IMO. For all my tests I found that the mid sized tips gave best combo of isolation & insertion depth.
SOUND QUALITY:
Device : HP Pavilion G6-2005AX with IDT HD Audio drivers + fb2k + WASAPI drivers on win7 HB
Occasionally used : Moto G + Google Play Music
Files : Mostly 320kb/s MP3, 256kb/s AAC, FLAC (Ripped from Audio CD)
First time I put these on to hear a song, I was like. Whoa! Man! Were those sounds present in song? First thing anyone would observe is that they are quite detailed (CAUTION: I ain't a pro audiophile, keep it in mind). I did feel there was something unnatural sounding, after about 30-40 hours of burn in (I used White, Pink, & Brown noise + sinusoidal, square & sawtooth sweeps all were 24bit, FLAC files generated in Audacity) it felt a lot better. Post burn-in the bass grew a bit tighter, the higher frequencies settled down & the headphones started sounding a lot neutral.
LOWS :
This is the area where these headphones really shine. The bass is very clean.
Many tracks like “Make It Bun Dem”(Skrillex), “Angel” (Massive Attack) felt quite better. On ES 18 the low end bass almost ate away other things in the songs.
The claps & thumps in “We Will Rock You” (Queen) felt very natural on these pairs. Also in songs like “Skinnyman” (Static-X) the ES 18's kept rumbling killing other sounds.
45 sec onwards in “Machine Gun” (Noisia) I felt drums were overwhelming but now they feel pleasant.
The claps in “Do I Wanna Know” were almost covered in rumble on ES 18's.
In “The Funeral” (Band of Horses), 4:30 onwards you can clearly differentiate each instrument even from within overwhelming bass.
In “Humpty Dance” (Digital Underground) you can clearly say that the bass riff(continuously repeating short musical phrase) grows & falls down amidst the drums.
In “Selkies : The Endless Obsession” (BTBAM) at 33sec mark you can clearly listen beats buried in the guitar sounds, I never actually knew they existed until now.
Also the song title “Party rock Anthem” (LMFAO) makes sense, you could tell how the drum skin must be vibrating (0-10sec). You could totally appreciate the low rumbling (30-80Hz) noise introduced intentionally.
MIDS:
Quite Fluid
I kept on playing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (Santana) again & again. I cannot explain how beautiful the guitar felt. The vocals by India.Arie felt much more lively than the dry'ish' sound on ES 18.
On “Letter” & “Wandering” from Vapor by Yosi Horikawa, you can appreciate the genius work by the guy. In fact one or two times I confused if the chirping of birds was coming from headphones or from outside, so natural.
In “Love Story” (Taylor Swift) (0-30 sec), the string instrument(I don't know
) whatever is, feels more opened up. Now I can point out the instants where the singer has inhaled/exhaled very clearly(for ex @ 10 sec mark in “Rolling In the Deep”). Although I'm not a guy who loves classical music very much, I tried few piano tracks by Vladimir Sterzer. In “Vampires Dance” (Vladimir Sterzer), the rising & falling frequencies can be noticed distinctly. They sounded marvelous. In “Plus que ma propre vie”(0-60 seconds) from Twilight OST by Carter Burwell you will actually fall asleep floating within the beautiful harmonies.
I don't have much tracks to judge vocals but from a few tracks by Adele, Ed Sheeran & Iron & Wine I can say they are quite good. Fair enough for a 1.7k IEM
Also these headphones helped me know what bad engineering can do to songs, “radioactive” doesn't enthuse me quite that much as it used to. You are sure to fall in love with electric guitar with these.
About music by daft Punk, I can spend about 3 pages saying I love their music. All I can say is you will love how beautifully mixed synth makes melodies for your ears. Also I never knew that there were that no. of different sounds in background in “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke.
I actually never loved “Pull Me Under” (Dream Theater), but now that I can separate each of percussion instrument, I cannot stop playing it. For anyone moving from ES18 types to this set are guaranteed to fall in love with metal music just like me. I'm noob & cannot quite explain in terms but I have to say, “You got to try Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Bullet for My Valentine on these..”
Can't say much about highs. All I can say is there is ample amount of them & sometimes even a bit too much causing harsh sounds.
Soundstage : Very wide indeed. You can clearly point direction in which the instrument is playing. In fact in few binaural test clips I felt someone was knocking door behind me.
Summary :
Quite a blast in the price range.
Fairly neutral sounding (slight dip in mid range though).
Awesome bass (quality wise & not quantity wise), bassheads may look else where.
Fluid Mids.
Harsh Highs.
Wide soundstage.
Pros :
Lightweight
Neutral sounding
Soundstaging
Build Quality
Cons :
Fatiguing (3+ hours feels a bit uncomfortable (Courtesy : Harsh treble))
No Chin Slider
32 ohm impedance is difficult for phones to drive. (My Moto G failed to produce sounds that I heard on Laptop)
Bought from HiFinage
MRP :1.7k + 300(taxes & shipping) = 2k
Update 1 : these can get very annoyingly detailed, this cause one to hate badly engineered tracks like "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons & "Midnight City" by M83.
Last edited:
