P1 promised to be a very uncommon IEM to me, and I must say it did deliver! A very special addition to my personal collection that won’t quit anytime soon.
At-a-glance Card
| PROs | CONs |
| Spectacularly calibrated neutral tuning. | Very crisp highs might not be in everyone’s taste. |
| Superfast transients. | Some might want more incisive bass. |
| Relaxing, silky tonality. | Lack of emotion on some genres. |
| Very comfortable (might be subjective) | Significant amping required. |
| Unobvious tip rolling may be required to avoid sibilance (subjective). |
Full Device Card
Test setup
Hiby R5 – Balance Ended port – JVC Spiraldot tips – Yinyoo 8*63core 6N Single Crystal Copper cable – Lossless 16/44.1 – 24/96 – 24/192 FLAC tracks.
Signature analysis
| Tonality | Neutral as for tuning, and superlatively smooth as for presentation. Planar drivers output impact is obvious: transients are lightning fast, everything is clear and polished. Every note is lean as can be – in the good sense, that is polished, unbloated yet bodied, not “thin”. TIN job has been to keep everything as musical as technically possible. |
| Sub-Bass | Slightly rolled-off, and not even mainly that. Sub-bass notes are fast and textured, but they hit with kindness so to say. Even raising presence by means of some EQ shelfing – which is very well received if applied – P1 won’t become the right choice for EDM or other strong-bass-rythmical genres. |
| Mid Bass | More present than sub-bass yet of the same general quality. Notes are mildly bodied, very fast, but most of all they hit in a sort of gentle way. On P1 bass punches fast and precise but doesn’t leave bruises. It’s jabbing, not hooking. |
| Mids | Mids are detailed at a very fine grain. Every single breath in voices is rendered with precision and clarity. String instruments are at their best here, this aspect is just phenomenal. On the other hand, transients are so fast that depending on the situation some emotion may be lacking. |
| Male Vocals | Quite elevated and rather warm, they lean-back in terms of overall presence on stage due to the fast transients. Very detailed, simply put very nice. |
| Female Vocals | Less forward than Males, and leaner too. Most of the positive things stated about mids do apply, barrred some occasions where Females come accross a bit too thin. It’s important to mention that I did have to sweat a lot to get rid of sibilance which – luckily – I identified being 100% connected with in-ear resonance, so I could get rid of it with appropriate tip pairing. After rolling many models, the ones doing the right cleansing trick in my own ear canal are JVC Spiraldots (only!). YMMV, and a lot so – many are so lucky as to not possibly experiment any sibilance with P1 no matter the tips |
| Highs | Airy, clair, extended, sparkly and fast. P1 trebles have it all, and then some. Crispy textures offer a high level of detail sensation more as the consequence of clarity than of purely technical (and sometimes dual-bladed) detail retrieval. |
Technicalities
| Soundstage | A sensation of space, mostly in depth terms, is definitely there. My impression is not that of a huge room though, rather a non-crowded one. |
| Imaging | It’s more layering than imaging what is superb here. Other IEMs make instruments feel more physically distanced one from another on the stage, while P1 “keep the group more closer”. |
| Details | Again, it’s more clarity the word here, rather than detail. Hearing so fast, unsmeared sound gives a very refreshing sensation of cleanness. |
| Instrument separation | All sounds are prefectly separated, and the separation is not even cut with a knife but rather smoothed with a thin grain file. As mentioned above P1 “keep the group rather close”, but no sound congestion is ever determined by instruments proximity. |
| Driveability | Tough. Forget a phone, forget any entry level DAP. The absolute minimum requirement to let P1 shine is 200mW@32Ohm. |
Physicals
| Build | Very solid full metal housing, offering a very convincing durability sensation |
| Fit | The triangular shaped housing, its modest size and the very long nozzles make it very easy to score a good and solid seal almost effortlessly, no matter which kind of eartips are applied – with the sole exception of stock “short + wide bore” silicon ones which are hilariously too short, so much so that the housing nozzle can easily protrude out of their front opening totally screwing the sound. |
| Comfort | Extremely comfortable even for protracted sessions |
| Isolation | Average at best. The housing is not large enough to fill the concha compeletely which is good for comfort but obviously suboptimal for isolation, which is also not helped by the presence of a front and a back vent. |
| Cable | Per se, it’s a nice quality 5N OFC and copper alloy cable, if only not a masterpiece in terms of braiding. Too bad that it’s offered only in 3.5 single ended termination version, which is an obvious myopic choice considering P1’s significant power requirements. I instantly swapped it with a good balanced-ended one, while dedicating it to my T4 pair. |
Specifications (declared)
| Housing | Full metal, very elegant shape and mirror finish |
| Driver(s) | 10mm planar magnetic driver |
| Connector | MMCX |
| Cable | 5N OFC and copper alloy, 3.5mm single ended terminated |
| Sensitivity | 96 +/- 3dB |
| Impedance | 20 Ω |
| Frequency Range | 10Hz to 40kHz |
| Rated Power | 10mW |
| Package / accessories | 3 pairs of narrow bore silicon tips, 3 pairs of larger bore and shorter silicon tips, 2 pairs of foam tips, velcro cable strap, leatherette coffer, 1 shirt clip |
| MSRP at this post time | $ 169,00 |
Other opinions & considerations
As many following my Notes know already, I don’t believe in “all rounders” and P1 is definitely not going to change my mind.
It excels – and phenomenally so – in delivering a supremely refined and relaxed acoustic experience. Every segment of the spectrum is rendered in an expertly micro-calibrated way: nothing is lush, nothing is too thin, rythm sections are rendered almost “gently”, although each single beat – bass and highs alike – is there and at the right time and evidence for me to feel it.
Solo or small group classical music – especially strings and pianos -, classic jazz, songwriters, folk & similia are at their top on P1. On a higher level, P1 is the right companion when I am in a self-centered, balanced mood, I am not looking for extra energy to input or expel through music, and I want to have music flow all around and through me effortlessly.
Once I managed to solve all sibilance issues by adopting SpiralDot tips, the sole small personal brush stroke I sometimes want to give P1 is a slight raise in low-bass (low-midbass + sub-bass) presence. Here’re the values I apply:
Preamp : -4dB
Lowshelf: +2dB 80Hz Q:0,64
Lowshelf: +4dB 150Hz Q:1,1Wether I want to apply this or not essentially depends on the track or the genre really calling for it, then I do it liberally as such amount adds some welcome warmer body to the overall presentation while keeping P1’s low-bass inherent nature intact: superfast, unbloated, unbleeding.
Comparisons
| | TIN P1 | final E1000 | TIN T4 | Shuoer Tape |
| Driver(s) | Single planar magnetic | Single Dynamic Driver | Single Dynamic Driver | Single DD + Electret tweeter |
| Tonality | Slightly warm neutral | Bright neutral | Slightly-bright neutral, engaging dynamics | Warmish V-shape |
| Bass | Flat mid and rolled off sub. Planar superfast transients. | Flat mid and rolled off sub. Dry, fast and punchy. | Modestly elevated mid and sub. Fast, clean. | Very elevated, fast, clean sub. Less elevated, clean, fast, lean mid. |
| Mids | Planar fast transients, extremely clean and detailed. Male vocals better than females. | Somewhat forward, textured, almost purely neutral sounding. Both Male and Female vocals nice and musical. | Clear, natural sounding and flat. | Recessed but well detailed. Female better than male vocals. EQ correction is well received. |
| Highs | Airy, clair, extended, sparkly, super crisp and fast. Sibilance if present can be removed with the right tips. | Prominent, quite articulated, not hugely extended. Some rare sibilance. | Clair, quite extended, well articulated. May feel excessive at times. Unfrequent light sibilance removed by tips or deeper insertion. | Elevated, almost bright, high texture, quality and details. Sibilance tameable by tips selection. Zing on top octave reduced by cable selection, removed by EQing. |
| Soundstage | Above average size, clarity increases the sensation of space | Very sizeable, wider than deep | Above average | Big, around the head |
| Imaging | Intimate but never congested. Consistent. | Precise and consistent | Above average, consistent | Very well distributed, and consistent |
| Details | Not too many per se, compensated by crystal clarity | Average | Above average | Top notch both for quantity and quality, both in trebles and sub-bass |
| Separation | Perfect layering give the impression of good instrument separation | Average, no congestion | Average | Very good layering and separation |
| Driveability | Serious amping required | Average. A good phone is enough | A phone is OK | A phone is hardly enough. Amping required if EQing is applied. |
| Fit & Comfort | Almost perfect | Extremely easy fit, subjective comfort | Fit might be an issue for some. Comfort is OK when fit is easy. | Fit is a win or lose. Comfort is OK when fit is easy. |
| Other notes | Super refined, silky, lovely sound coming at a relatively cheap purchase yet high amping cost | Almost-reference flatness and ease of use at a supercheap price | Reference neutrality with a hint of brightness, with overall above average technicalities | Spectacular and hyperdetailed bass and treble rendering |
| Economics | $ 169,00 | $ 24,00 | $ 109,00 ($ 79,00 deals) | $ 128,00 |