Audio tekfusion twinwoofers

harshit143 · Apr 20, 2012

http://www.flipkart.com/tekfusion-twinwoofers-in-ear-headphones-black-chrome/p/itmd6z7qynbsu483?pid=ACCD6Z7PBRYWTMGA&_l=rNOfRA_2s1pRNn46QI4BxA--&_r=nKNzB0mgBZ+SiJu6tTGVpw--&ref=6996eb8e-91a6-4090-b1a1-d030c0098a43

Today i checked the reviews of these IEM's. Its surprisingly 5/5 rated IEM's. I am inclined a bit towards buying them, but, want to know if someone from this community, some audiophile, tested them and can guide me if they worth buying?? I also want to know for what these are best for(highs,mids,lows,soundstage).

esanthosh · Apr 20, 2012

I have placed my order. Should be getting it tomorrow / Monday. It will take a little more time for my review to come up since I intend to follow the 4-5 hrs x 10 days burn-in guidance given on their site and see if it makes any difference.

Sarath_ · Apr 20, 2012

I recently coaxed a review out of a online friend. I'll link it when I find a pc.

Sent from my LT15i using Tapatalk

gulati.ishank · Apr 20, 2012

Well this is the review #[member='Sarath_'] is talking about.

http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/audio/155730-tekfusion-twinwoofers-complete-review.html

imoen · Apr 20, 2012

received my pair. currently using Sony MDR-EX082 (since past 3 years).. on first listen of the TW it is like listening to music in the shower or bathroom. bass is more to my satisfaction on the MDR-EX082. Maybe they need a burn-in, but as others have said they sound like YUCK on first listen.

so i have just set them aside for burn-in on the player. hope to give some positive feedback later.

my experience with IEMs is limited. EP630, Soundmagic PL-11 (or 21 cant remember) EX082 and now these. The Soundmagic (without burn-in) sounded better than these TWs. Unfortunately the SM cables were very weak so decided against going for SM again.

Sarath_ · Apr 20, 2012

gulati.ishank said:
Well this is the review #[member='Sarath_'] is talking about.

http://www.thinkdigi...ete-review.html

Yeah that's the one. Since esantosh has taken it upon him to review them, wait for a more comprehensive review. I can almost feel the IEMs tremble in fear at that news

harshit143 said:
. Its surprisingly 5/5 rated IEM's.

A lot of people are WOWed! at 1k upwards IEMs since they mostly have only (probably) heard bundled ones until then. I was also drooling over my Senny CX 180. I think that's the reason for the high rating. But I have seen some people unhappy with them too, might be a burn in issue, so awaiting further feedback. The author of that review was really impressed by them.

esanthosh · Apr 20, 2012

Sarath_ said:
Yeah that's the one. Since esantosh has taken it upon him to review them, wait for a more comprehensive review. I can almost feel the IEMs tremble in fear at that news

They better be ready for a spanking of the cynical, insatiable "audiophile" kind

.

Seriously though, the only thing TW has to tremble about is the competition in the price range. SoundMagic ES18 already sounds nice for it's 400-500 price range. I wonder how TW would fare against it.

Sarath_ said:
A lot of people are WOWed! at 1k upwards IEMs since they mostly have only (probably) heard bundled ones until then. I was also drooling over my Senny CX 180. I think that's the reason for the high rating. But I have seen some people unhappy with them too, might be a burn in issue, so awaiting further feedback. The author of that review was really impressed by them.

I get the same feeling. As far as I've read, many flipkart reviews are from people who are hearing a decent IEM for the first time (and hence some reporting fit issues, no bass etc., as well). I've read only a few reviews (including the review linked) that are from people who have heard other IEMs. Besides that, there is power of suggestion and expectation bias when there are so many positive reviews. Naturally, some people who let their expectation build up too much (irrespective of whether it's Rs. 1200 or $1200) would be disappointed. For some, it may not be to their taste. There's no telling until we hear it ourselves.

jacobz300 · Apr 22, 2012

imoen said:
received my pair. currently using Sony MDR-EX082 (since past 3 years).. on first listen of the TW it is like listening to music in the shower or bathroom. bass is more to my satisfaction on the MDR-EX082. Maybe they need a burn-in, but as others have said they sound like YUCK on first listen.

so i have just set them aside for burn-in on the player. hope to give some positive feedback later.

my experience with IEMs is limited. EP630, Soundmagic PL-11 (or 21 cant remember) EX082 and now these. The Soundmagic (without burn-in) sounded better than these TWs. Unfortunately the SM cables were very weak so decided against going for SM again.

I think i disagree. I own the Soundmagic PL11, which have a very cheaper build compared to the Twinwoofers. And i think the only reason you may seem to find them sounding better is because they come factory burned-in. Thats what i guess is the situation.

I think some companies, like sennheiser and like burn-in their iems before they ship it, while others like Tekfusion, JLabs and the like, don't. That is the reason why even JLAB has a burn-in guide, among other competitors.

SONY? I think sony doesn't know about iems yet

i mean they may know but - give me a break - that is not their focused work, so you will always get other companies producing better sound that sony with many aspects. Again, i think the reason why you think your sony sound better is because you've used it for 3 years, which is pretty much a long time and it has been burn-in for its life time! I myself have never used an iem for that long hehe

I think Twinwoofers may been new but they compete heavily with other low-mid range iems from skullcandy, philips, sennheiser, and soundmagic and the like that range within a price braket of (1K-2K)

sandeepsachin · Apr 22, 2012

ok. Got to test the tekfusion yesterday . Frankly,after having read all the reviews at flipkart, i was disappointed to say the least . mainly because i was expecting them to sound a lot airy , wide and open. but they sound congested . i have heard the mee electronics m6 and although i hated them for being so tinny, they did sound a lot open . so that's a tad better i would say. sound clarity of tekfusion is phenominal for the price.. the bass is also a selling point. there's plenty of it and its punchy too. i was expecting the bass to be tighter but i guess thats too much to expect.

#[member='jacobz300'] how do the tekfusion compare to pl 11 . i own pl 11 too but just wanna get your views too

jacobz300 · Apr 22, 2012

sandeepsachin said:
ok. Got to test the tekfusion yesterday . Frankly,after having read all the reviews at flipkart, i was disappointed to say the least . mainly because i was expecting them to sound a lot airy , wide and open. but they sound congested . i have heard the mee electronics m6 and although i hated them for being so tinny, they did sound a lot open . so that's a tad better i would say. sound clarity of tekfusion is phenominal for the price.. the bass is also a selling point. there's plenty of it and its punchy too. i was expecting the bass to be tighter but i guess thats too much to expect.

#[member='jacobz300'] how do the tekfusion compare to pl 11 . i own pl 11 too but just wanna get your views too

These were my impressions when i first got them. They sound rubbish at first, trust me. The airiness and "oppenness" will come. You just have to be patient with these babies. I think the PL11 is good, has good bass, but again, the level of details is nowhere near the Tekfusion. People make a big mistake of thinking that bass is all that matters in an iem. If you ever heard klipsch x10, you may say they have great bass, but again you might start saying that the bass in the sennheiser street series is better than klipsch x10, which is almost 10 times the price. Well, if you trust me, bass is not everything that matters, its the details which the Tekfusion has done it!

I personally don't bother with people's reviews, because personally, i love the Twinwoofers for two reasons - great sound and great service from the company. I had some issues with sound which were solved by the company. Why do you think people would go for a company like boss which may have inferior sound (say bass-wise) compared to others? Its because of service, not the sound a lone. Anyone can produce great iems with great sound, but the trust and service has to be there, which i think tekfusion provided to me!

esanthosh · Apr 22, 2012

jacobz300 said:
I think i disagree. I own the Soundmagic PL11, which have a very cheaper build compared to the Twinwoofers. And i think the only reason you may seem to find them sounding better is because they come factory burned-in. Thats what i guess is the situation.

I think some companies, like sennheiser and like burn-in their iems before they ship it, while others like Tekfusion, JLabs and the like, don't. That is the reason why even JLAB has a burn-in guide, among other competitors.

I can already imagine huge factory room full of burn-in equipment at Sennheiser

. Wonder then why people mentioned that IE8, which is at the higher end of the price bracket requires 300 hours of burn-in! I highly doubt any company would waste time on burn-in compared to sending out another batch. Unless you know something I do not about Chinese factory practices, I would stick to the line that no company wastes time on burn-in.

jacobz300 said:
SONY? I think sony doesn't know about iems yet

i mean they may know but - give me a break - that is not their focused work, so you will always get other companies producing better sound that sony with many aspects. Again, i think the reason why you think your sony sound better is because you've used it for 3 years, which is pretty much a long time and it has been burn-in for its life time! I myself have never used an iem for that long hehe

That is a sweeping generalization. I have no idea about their lower priced offerings. But, they do know how to make good IEMs based on what they did with EX-600/800ST/1000. Sony is a giant with more misses than hits, but they do know their stuff and they do spend lots on R & D.

Secondly, you are clearly placing huge emphasis on the process of burn-in compared to the individual's experience, signature preferences and musical tastes, fit and seal, environment they are in, mood swings and so many other ifs and buts that can affect the perception. When I bought the EX-1000, I sent it to Joker for review. Like every IEM he reviews, he was thorough with burn-in. But, when I got it, I was not as impressed despite the burn-in. Slowly with time, it became my favorite IEM. Burn-in, IMHO, may be one of the factors, but psycho-acoustics plays an even more important role.

What matters most to each and everyone is the underlined portion in your next post.

jacobz300 said:
I personally don't bother with people's reviews, because personally, i love the Twinwoofers... <snipped>

sandeepsachin · Apr 22, 2012

#[member='jacobz300'] did you get smaller eartips in the package? the one's that came by default on the iem are too big for me

#[member='esanthosh'] what's the proper burn in procedure? a one time continuous playback would harm the drivers? or do i cycle the burn in for 4-5 hrs a day with different types of music

jacobz300 · Apr 22, 2012

esanthosh said:
I can already imagine huge factory room full of burn-in equipment at Sennheiser

. Wonder then why people mentioned that IE8, which is at the higher end of the price bracket requires 300 hours of burn-in! I highly doubt any company would waste time on burn-in compared to sending out another batch. Unless you know something I do not about Chinese factory practices, I would stick to the line that no company wastes time on burn-in.

That is a sweeping generalization. I have no idea about their lower priced offerings. But, they do know how to make good IEMs based on what they did with EX-600/800ST/1000. Sony is a giant with more misses than hits, but they do know their stuff and they do spend lots on R & D.

Secondly, you are clearly placing huge emphasis on the process of burn-in compared to the individual's experience, signature preferences and musical tastes, fit and seal, environment they are in, mood swings and so many other ifs and buts that can affect the perception. When I bought the EX-1000, I sent it to Joker for review. Like every IEM he reviews, he was thorough with burn-in. But, when I got it, I was not as impressed despite the burn-in. Slowly with time, it became my favorite IEM. Burn-in, IMHO, may be one of the factors, but psycho-acoustics plays an even more important role.

What matters most to each and everyone is the underlined portion in your next post.

I realize sony does produce some top of the line stuff as well, i think i was mis-calculating there. But as you know, everyone has different taste, so you can go for whatever you like.

sandeepsachin said:
#[member='jacobz300'] did you get smaller eartips in the package? the one's that came by default on the iem are too big for me

#[member='esanthosh'] what's the proper burn in procedure? a one time continuous playback would harm the drivers? or do i cycle the burn in for 4-5 hrs a day with different types of music

yes, they do. In fact i use the smallest pair because my earcanals are tiny

esanthosh · Apr 22, 2012

#[member='sandeepsachin'],

There are various schools of thought on that. As far as I know, there's no agreed 'correct' procedure. I would just list a few

a) Use noise files and silence in a loop. The theory is that Pink noise has all the frequencies and would stress the driver. I think this method is supposed to break the driver early.

b ) Use primarily bass heavy music

c) Use normal music in a loop. Several variations exist

Run the loop continuously for 50-100 hours at the same volume. The volume should be kept at your normal listening level.
After some initial use, do an overnight burn-in. Keep the volume at your normal listening volume + 3/4 points on the source.
Similar to [1], but increase the volume as time goes by. Let's say the volume is kept at 10/30 at first, increase it to 12 after 50 hours, 14 after 80 and much louder for the last 10 hours.
Variation of [2]. Normal volume for the first 90 hours and then increase volume to the loudest you can hear + some more for the last 10 hours.
Run in spurts. The time used can be 5-15 hours per day.

d) Listen normally.

I have personally followed all variations in [c] and rarely [d] for RE-0. Since Tekfusion recommends a particular method [c-5], that's what I intend to follow for the TW. For the recent soundmagic IEMs I got (E10, ES10, PL11), I just followed C-1 which is easier.

krisballa · Apr 22, 2012

IMHO as #[member='esanthosh'] said earlier all those reviews on Flipkart are from first time listeners to a decent headphone. I have bought these a month ago. Used for more than 200 hours. At first these sounded not so good, but after the burn-in they showed some improvement in sound. Things I have observed are:

1) Ear tips provides tight seal

2) Bass is tight and punchy

3) Build quality is not that good, I have returned my pair after observing there was some cut at the Y joint (Please check yours also) Tekfusion replaced my pair with a new one. In new pair I have observed that there is some problem with L & R printing as I was hearing sound that should come from left ear plug are coming from right ear plug. So I have to switch the ear plugs between my ears. i.e. "L" into right ear & "R" into left ear

. I have already notified this to Tekfusion.

4) Soundstage is not that wide. All the sounds I'm hearing are in my head only .. not like Klipsch Image S4 which has far more wider soundstage.

5) Have good sound separation.

6) Mids are good but I found vocals & highs sounded harsh sometimes.

I have used the TW with Fiio E7 connected my Nokia N8 using USB OTG. I liked my S4 and SM PL21 than TW.

Note: I have not reviewed any IEM before, above points are as per my personal taste

imoen · Apr 23, 2012

jacobz300 said:
SONY? I think sony doesn't know about iems yet

i mean they may know but - give me a break - that is not their focused work, so you will always get other companies producing better sound that sony with many aspects. Again, i think the reason why you think your sony sound better is because you've used it for 3 years, which is pretty much a long time and it has been burn-in for its life time! I myself have never used an iem for that long hehe

ok, Sony only invented the Walkman. and they have been pioneers in portable headphone *design* in the 80s dude. those foldable headphones and their old Fontopia Mega Bass IN-EAR (at the time, in-ear was different) headphones rocked!!! so i would definitely say that pedigree is there.

anyways, i didn't like the sound of the EX-082s at first either. But all other IEMs at the time broke and didn't feel like spending money. Glad i didn't because i really like what they have become.

TWs are sounding better.. maybe 10 to 20 hours of burnin. bass seems to have come out of hiding a little bit. lets see. clarity is pretty good though. high can be too sharp depending on the music. sometimes its ok and sometimes...

jacobz300 · Apr 23, 2012

imoen said:
TWs are sounding better.. maybe 10 to 20 hours of burnin. bass seems to have come out of hiding a little bit. lets see. clarity is pretty good though. high can be too sharp depending on the music. sometimes its ok and sometimes...

Looks like a love/hate r/ship

Good 4 u

Mine sound like totally different after 46hrs burnin. If you do a difference between first time and now, you'll think they are two diff IEMs

Bass just got better and tighter than before. Maybe you should try reducing the highs' in the eq and see what happens.

esanthosh · Apr 24, 2012

This is a slightly weird tuning, different peaks and valleys from what I hear normally. Let's see if tip rolling and/or a fine spanking of EQ gets them straightened up.

Don't think I'll write more about them till the burn-in is finished and review is up.

#[member='jacobz300']

What EQ settings do you use? And what is your source?

Any others tried this with an amp? Yep! That's a serious question.

krisballa · Apr 24, 2012

#[member='esanthosh']

As I mentioned earlier I have tried the TW with Fiio E7 & Nokia N8 with all enhancements set to off. And Laptop -> Winamp (no eq) + Maiko WASAPI Plugin -> E7 -> TW. All those points I have mentioned in my previous post are after listening with these combinations.

jacobz300 · Apr 24, 2012

esanthosh said:
This is a slightly weird tuning, different peaks and valleys from what I hear normally. Let's see if tip rolling and/or a fine spanking of EQ gets them straightened up.

Don't think I'll write more about them till the burn-in is finished and review is up.

#[member='jacobz300']

What EQ settings do you use? And what is your source?

Any others tried this with an amp? Yep! That's a serious question.

I'm using sony ericsson w8, with poweramp app. I've put my EQ to dance mode. Bass mode is also good, but i don't prefer the Treble + Bass settings because to me, treble ruins some songs that don't have bass in them. Sometimes for custom eq settings, i reduce the mid-ranges to my preferences, and cut down on the treble slightly. I think after you burn in, you'll hear more airy bass.