Hisenior specialises in professional and custom IEMs, and as such it’s quite off my “usual” investigation paths. That’s why I came accross an entry-level Universal fit model of theirs only thanks to a direct friend’s input. Invited by a (publicly available) 50% off its nominal MRSP I took the odds of a blind buy and I must say I’ve been happy of what I got, as I will try to outline here below.
At-a-glance Card
| PROs | CONs |
| Nice polished-neutral timbre | Bilaterally limited extension |
| Trebles | Imaging on mids and lows |
| Instrument separation | |
| Soundstage | |
| Fit and comfort | |
| Value | |
Full Device Card
Test setup
Questyle QP1R / Sony NW-A55 mrWalkman – Sedna Earfit Light tips – Stock 8core OCC cable – lossless 16-24/44.1-192 FLAC tracks.
Signature analysis
| Tonality | General tonality is neutral with a bass bump, i.e. it’s generally quite neutral with a slight predominance of the bass line, which nonetheless does not impose any definite warm coloration. Timbre is neutral-mellow, all notes make a good effort to come out clean while at the same time smoothed, unedgy, all this notwithstanding highmids and treble often daring into sparkly territory but never scanting into excessive sharpness. |
| Sub-Bass | Clearly rolledoff but not missing at all. Don’t expect good rumble though. |
| Mid Bass | Higher than sub bass, bumped up actually. Speed is in BA category but it’s not the fastest transient bass I ever heard at all, which gives it quite some meat and a sort of “smoothed” general personality. |
| Mids | Neither forward nor recessed, slightly warm and not overly fast in terms of transients. Rounded, polished, yet clean and textured |
| Male Vocals | Well bodied, warm which makes them appear quite “human”, natural. |
| Female Vocals | Also decently bodied but less than males, and less warm too, they are actually leaner then I wished they were. Not bad though. Depending on the cable they may come close to sibilance. |
| Highs | To me the best part of the signature, treble is forward but not bright, some air is present, transients are fast and details are above average on this (discounted) price point, while at the same time notes come out polished, smooth, so I dont get that metallic timbre which is a common flipside on “cheap detailed” treble implementations. Much like on the opposite sub-bass end, extension into the last octave is lacking. |
Technicalities
| Soundstage | Quite extended on all directions, this is a solid plus on T2U |
| Imaging | Spatial instrument positioning on stage does not impress me particularly, and is quite limited to the X axis. |
| Details | Detail delivery is above average on the bass end, and good on the treble section – probably I should say very good factoring street price in. |
| Instrument separation | Well executed on the lows, mids and trebles, with the sole notice that treble instruments get a bit messed up at high volumes. |
| Driveability | Not difficult at all due to its generous specs. |
Physicals
| Build | The transparent resin housings appear very solid besides being smoothed and I would say even elegant. |
| Fit | Shells are superbly designed and fit literally like a glove (I suspect this may be connected to the manufacturer’s experience on CIEMs). The supply of stock tips though generous is inadequate to my needs and tastes: white tips’ bores are too narrow and close stage too much; black tips would be much better (very wide bore to open the stage and very soft silicon to take a whiff off the bass) but are too short for my earshape paird with T2U’s nozzle length, and I can’t get a firm seal even with the largest size option. After the usual long rolling session I settled on Sedna Earfit Light. |
| Comfort | Just marvelous. Their specially apt shape paired with a light weight are very welcome by my outer ears. |
| Isolation | I presume thanks to the good fit, passive isolation is significant. The manufacturer declares a value of -18dB. |
| Cable | My bundled cable’s build quality was not good: after a couple of months of usage both male MMCX connectors presented perceivable crackling sound following drivers positioning let alone cable position adjustment. Irregardless of this, the bundled cable tends to push highmids too close to sibilant territory. After quite some rolling I settled onto an ol’ faithful Nicehck’s 16c High Purity Copper cable for now. |
Specifications (declared)
| Housing | Anallergic transparent resin shell with a solid black backplate |
| Driver(s) | 2 x Knowles Balanced Armature drivers + 2-Way Passive Crossover/ Dual-Bores/2Dampers |
| Connector | MMCX |
| Cable | 8 core braided OCC cable, 1.2 m with 3.5mm single ended termination |
| Sensitivity | 105 dB |
| Impedance | 18 Ω |
| Frequency Range | 20-20000Hz |
| Accessories and packaging | 3 pairs of foam tips, 3 pairs (S/M/L) of white mid-bore silicon tips, 4 pairs (S/SM/M/ML) of large-bore, short nozzle blac sift-silicon tips, an obscure-purpose 2.5M balance -3.5F single ended adapter, and waterproof pelikan carry case |
| MSRP at this post time | $169,00 ($79,00 “permanent” discounted price) |
Some bottomline considerations
Hisenior T2U are good drivers. Their strenghts are very solid, first and foremost that quite unique timbre of theirs and its implementation, which I find a very well centered compromise between relaxing smoothness and engaging vividness.
To my experience it’s quite difficult to find something better on this aspect at its current “Manufacturer Discounted Price” (whilst the magic would not be the same at twice that price, as the “official” List Price would be).
Pairing them on lower end sources than my usual ones (e.g. Fiio X3-III, or Meizu HIFI DAC Pro dongle) T2U still offer more than decent output, which is not a seconday plus after all.
Lastly, a quick comparison table with 2 other “Neutral-ish” drivers:
| final E1000 | T2U | final A3000 | |
| Timbre | Clear with a hint of warmth | Polished clarity | Clear |
| Tonality | Warmish neutral | Neutral + bassbump | Neutral + midbump |
| Sub bass | Rolled off, fast | Rolled off, fast | Rolled off (less), fastest |
| Mid bass | Flat, fast, punchy | Bumped up, fast, softened-punchy | Fastest, punchiest, most detailed |
| Mids | Moderately bodied, unrecessed, textured, slightly warm | Unrecessed, unbodied yet not thin, warmish in the lower part | More fwd, unbodied, detailed, transparent / uncolored. |
| Highs | Lively, modestly polished, rolledoff on last octave. Sibilant on lowend sources. | Lively, almost “energic”, quite detailed but polished. Not sibilant. | Sparkly almost brilliant yet not bright, airy. Highest detail level, not shouty, not screachy. Highmids glare out at high volume. |
| Soundstage | Big (wider) | Big (deeper/wider) | Biggest (XYZ) |
| Imaging & separation | Nice. Treble separation goes nuts at high volumes | Highs have better imaging lows have better separation. High gets messy at high volumes. | Best imaging and incredible layering especially on highmids/trebles, which screws up when highmids start glare party |
| Driving | Requires some untrivial power. Lowend sources make trebles grainier / sibilant. | Lowend source is ok power wise. Treble control welcome to reduce mess at high volumes | Require most power of the 3, and a treble-controlled source to “delay” glare as much as possible (Groove or A55 > QP1R > X3-III in spite of X3’s warmth) |
| Street price | $ 30,00 | $ 79,00 | JPY 12.800 ($ 123,00) |