tanchjim is known for their vocal centric tuning. Origin is a great bet, tanchjim fission is there as well for something cheaper but still very capable
I went with the tanchjim fission to mix a livestream. Have been happy so far. $130 USD
The tanchjim Nora are marketed as a set of “professional” IEM to mix with. No personal knowledge there. $110 USD
The tanchjim bunny are said to be much like the fission while only being $20 USD. No personal knowledge there.
I own etymotic er2se and find them too uncomfortable to bounce in and out of, I have to work the live room then get away from stage volume throughout my shows…..
I may or may not have a predilection for single driver dynamic sets! If you need a dac amp for this use, consider a Qudelix 5k. It can be Bluetooth for convenience and also USB for critical listening.
I'd say go with Tanchjim stuff — Nora, Fission, Bunny, Origin, Force... they all have a fairly neutral-ish tonality.
In my opinion, they’re a safer recommendation than the Hexa. The Hexa is really divisive — people don’t seem to agree on how it sounds. Maybe it’s the odd hexagonal shell shape, but there’s a lot of variation in impressions. Nobody agrees on the sound. You got like 75% of people saying it has no bass and 25% saying it has the perfect amount of bass. Quite a number of people (myself included) just don’t like it.
Go for Tanchjim instead. You really can’t go wrong with Fission. It's very very close to the Tanchjim Origin which is an awesome IEM.
DX1. Gives me Hexa vibes. It's just as soulless as the Hexa and with no toe-tapping but quite accurate. It's like the Hexa with a smidge more soundstage, just a smidge. I returned it that very day.
Aside from that go for the Tanchjim Fission which is pretty much (apparently) the same as the Tanchjim Origin. I have the Origin and legitimately view it as an upgrade over the Hexa in every single way.
Nice writeup, I just disagree with "sole objective winner", since at the end of the day these are your subjective impressions.
I had the Kima 2 which I sold for the Fission, which was sold to get Pure, then sold cuz of BA timbre to get the Nora, and now I'm selling the Nora to get another Kima 2 cuz none could beat it's musicality. I had **the one** right from the start... Give it a shot if you want something warm but brighter than Pure, not dry like the Fission, and natural timbre.
Look at Tanchjim lineup. From Zero Ultra to Bunny to Fission, and beyond you won’t go wrong. Similar tuning, just more refinement as you go up in $$$. Tanchjim have their own tuning in the lower midrange to bass.
**I THINK I MIGHT JUST HAVE A SINGLE DD KINK.**
I recently bought the **TANCHJIM FISSION** and here is my impression/review about them.
[ACCESSORIES PROVIDED ALONG WITH THE IEMS.](https://preview.redd.it/06fnob3lhsyf1.jpg?width=4624&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b37a6f6bb6a4e88868a83a4d44ac9fbb324b8f9)
**UNBOXING AND ACCESSORIES:** Out of the box we are greeted with a **carrying pouch** (*although being water resistant, the case is dogshit and flimsy af, do youself a favour and get a separate hardcase to store your iems*), 3 pairs of **both wide bore and narrow bore eartips,** an **awesome cable with 4.4mm, 3.5mm and a freaking usb-c DSP swappable termination** and **a screw driver like thing used to rotate the tuning knob**( I will talk about this tuning knob further in the review) and **3 tuning nozzles** named as silver, copper and ttitanium. TBH only the copper and titanium do some changes to it, silver is the same as copper, they just threw the silver so that you can use it as a replacement i guess.
[TANCHJIM LOGO SHOWING AN ANGEL](https://preview.redd.it/y7tua7f4qsyf1.jpg?width=4624&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a91aee5eacf369cdbfd28308a54ae3bbcafd6684)
[TUNING NOZZLES](https://preview.redd.it/tehamv0olsyf1.jpg?width=3378&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51d22b119fd0079bed232329bd9ace6bb1eb84a3)
Let me **warn** you guys about the termation. This thing is very very tight, mofo left an indent on my fingers when i tried to swap it, LMAO.
**BUILD QUALITY AND COMFORT:** I love you tanchjim! for making an IEM that has a metal shell, other brands if you are watching this review then please ditch hollow resin shell and shift to metal.
Coming onto the build of the IEM, it is made up of anodized aluminium and this is extremely resistant to scratches, even the glass on the faceplate is surprisingly scratch resistant.
Talking about the comfort, these iems are on the smaller size and they fit my ear pretty good. The venting on the iem is also pretty good and since it doesnt use any kind of Balance armature driver so that also helps to remove pressure build up. I never had pressure build up issue with the FISSION. Mind you that I have been using them for 8-9hrs daily so I think most of you using this will not face pressure build up issue.
ACCESSORIES USED: Tanchjim fission (ofcourse lol), fiio ja11, apple DAC, spotify/youtube music ( I call lossless audio bullshit), 3.5mm termination along with the cable provided in the unit.
**SOUND AND TUNING:**
[Just some random shot I took while listening on the fission.](https://preview.redd.it/yzzjndsbmsyf1.jpg?width=2443&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=975d603b1aa1e7c00b3660be959598ff33993d07)
Fisson comes with shit ton of tuning option because of the additon of DSP,NOZZLES and that TUNING KNOB.
*NOZZLES:*
As I mentioned earlier, copper nozzle and silver are pretty much the same and only difference would be that the copper nozzle is a *bit* lush, just a tiny amount which is not noticeable unless you focus hard, the titanium nozzle however makes the sound a bit grater like, by grater like I mean that it makes it a bit harsh and peaky.
*TUNING KNOB:*
The fission comes with a tuning knob which changes changes the tuning of the iem, specifically the bass region, by altering the capacitance that the Dynamic Driver is connected to. It lets you use 4 tuning namely pop, default, natural and monitoring. Except for default mode all of them are lean in bass. *The default mode with copper nozzle is close to tanchjim's inhouse tuning so I use it with this combo.*
*DRIVER TECH:* Some say that it has the same driver as the TANCHJIM ORIGIN but it is not, rather it uses the same technology called DMT 5 which was used in the origin. I have not used the origin so i cannot compare them but afaik this graphs similar to the origin, very similar, though you should never judge an iem only based on the graph, it only reveals 30 percent about an iem.
*DSP:* The dsp is decent, and comes with peq feature but I dont like using this dsp cause it takes out the resolution of the iem and makes it feel low quality. I recommend not using apple dongle also. Pair it with fiio ja11 or something like that as it performs well with some power provided
***Lets talk about the tuning now:***
***SUB BASS and MID BASS:*** Talking about the sub bass, you might think it is lean and shit, *if* you are a graph sniffer but you know what a well tuned dynamic driver can do? Good quality low end!, I was anticipating the fission to be bad in this area but it is good, really good, one of the best under 150 dollars imo. It never overdoes the sub bass and provides enough rumble(though not insane rumble) to transition smoothly into the MID BASS region.
Mid Bass on fission is *wonderful, excellent, high quality, detailed , thumpy, velvety and textured.* **FISSON IS A MID BASS FOCUSED SET.** You know when reviewer say that an iem has less quantiy and more quality bass, most of the times it means that it has shit bass and the reviewer is trying to mask the issue of that iem, but incase of fission this statement is true. The midbass is so coherent and textured, I have never heard an iem under 150 dollars that can bring out the velvet like texture in a bass but fission does that very very well. And the mid bass is not even bloated idk how. Most iems don't transiton well from mid bass to midrange,vocals and often tend to mask them, fission completely avoids that issue and has well separated midbass and sub bass from rest of the music while still being coherent. **EVEN THOUGH IT IS SINGLE DD IEM**( i will keep rephrasing this).
***MIDRANGE AND VOCALS***\*\*:\*\* As i mentioned above, the transiton from midbass to midrange is smooth , very smooth infact, **MIDRANGE AND VOCALS TAKE THE STAGE.** The string plugs on guitars have that reverb, the violin play, the breath of the singer is just so smooth, and it does it in a way where vocals and instrument are brought forward without being peaky and sibilant, it is very smooth. I was listening to Sway by michale buble, and there is part where the voice reverbs, most iems dont do that well and do not bring it to your notice but my god when i was listening that song with fission i was like **WTF!, THIS SONG HAD THAT REVERB!?**. If your song is sibilant it will let you know but it will do it smoothly. If you like vocal focused song, you have got yourself a treat and Some **WTF!** moments. Vocals on these are angellic and natural.
***TIMBRE AND TREBLE:*** Ok guys enough praise, i have a bit of qualm in this region, I wish the timbre was a bit thick and warm, it is still very good but if it were just 3-5 percent more thicker and warmer, it would be destroying iems in the 200-300 dollars ballpark region. Treble is smooth and not peaky, but i advice you not to listen to it at high volume as it can become a bit smeary, at mid volume it is the smoothest treble under 150 dollars, even smoother than some high end iems lol.
**OVERALL tuning:** IDK why some reviewers called it neutral warm, i felt like it has a **clean, natural and neutral tuning with both a hint of brightness**( *more bright than warm though the ratio of brightness to warmth would be 60:40* ) **and warmth**, i know i sound crazy but it is somehow warm and bright at the same time.
**SOUNDSTAGE AND IMAGING: Another WTF!,** I was blown away by how controlled the soundstage is on this iem. It feels like an orchestra but not artificially wide that it would make the instruements, sound disoriented. See SIMGOT, you dont need to make your iem harsh and thin to achieve good soundstage. Imaging on this is insane, dude! it is so accurate like how **tf!,** First time I put it into my ears I was surrounded by instruments on my left, right,front,back, above and below. The palcement of the instrument is developed so nicely. If you ever game with them, you might be banned as these are basically wall hack LOL!. **EVEN THOUGH IT IS SINGLE DD IEM.** This thing puts some hybrid to shame because of how natural and cohesive the imaging is done on this iem.
Feel Free to ask my any questions regarding this set. This is easily a well tuned set, i would even call it class leading, regardless of the pricing.
*BTW, if someone got a pendant of the angel in the tanchjim logo then please let me know where can I buy it.*
Damn bro, you and I have the same experience. I recently got my first studio headphones, the akg k553 MKII, and I was pretty disappointed, I have owned iems like aful explorer,the tanchjim fission, tangzu xuan NV, truthear gate and pure.. allmost all of them sound better than headphones, it is pretty weird with headphones, they don't sound "refined and smooth" and come out as hollow, with iems the sound comes out to be more alive and it is just more smooth in the treble, I don't know how to describe it in words( I am not good with English). Imaging is a lot better in iems for me.
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