Tin HiFi (formerly, Tin Audio) is one of those chi-fi brands that garners polarising views from different camps of audiophiles. Those who love them dig the looks of it and the great sound quality that you get for a budget IEM. When you are attracting attention, you get the haters. They bring out the frequency response graph and starts mocking the roller-coaster lines of the upper treble. Literally unlistenable! In this review, we will be taking a critical comparison between the Tin Audio T2 Pro and Tin Hifi T3. We have even included sound demos recorded off a binaural microphone so that you can get a relative performance comparison.
Packaging
How do you know if a particular chi-fi brand is doing well? You look at its packaging. The packaging doesn’t guarantee sound quality but it reflects the vision and the budget of the team behind it. They obviously had done their market research and understand the game to stand out among the overly-saturated budget range.
Right from the packaging, you can already spot the first improvement of the T3 over the T2 Pro. The T3’s box has a cut-out window to confidently show off the chiseled metallic driver units. Good first impressions were made on both T2 Pro and T3.
Tin Audio T2 Pro
Technical Specification
Drivers: Dual Dynamic Driver (DD) – 10mm Woofer + 6mm Tweeter Frequency Response: 12 Hz– 40 kHz Impedance: 16 Ohms Connectors: MMCX Plug: 3.5mm TRS
Tin Hifi T3
Technical Specification
Drivers: 1 DD and 1 Balanced Armature (BA) Driver Frequency Response: 10-40000Hz Impedance: 16 Ohms Connectors: MMCX Plug: 3.5mm TRS
Comfort and Fit
The nozzle of the driver unit is relatively short. But with a slim driver chassis, it is easy to push in the IEM into the ear canal to get a good seal and fit.
I wore them both for 4 hours straight and it did not cause any discomfort to me.
Build Quality
Eartips
One thing that I dislike about the T2 Pro was their foam ear tips. It came pre-installed on the driver unit and it has this sticky texture when touched. It was gross. I threw it out in a heartbeat. This could be due to it being pre-installed and having the foam ear tips exposed to open air. The T3 does not come preinstalled with the foam ear tips. It was instead kept in a tightly sealed ziplock along with the other ear tips. This time, the foam ear tips didn’t felt as gross. Suspicions confirmed. I was slightly disappointed that the T3 went with the grey foam ear tips instead of their iconic blue foam ear tips of the T2 Pro.
Cable
Both IEMs have a detachable cable that comes with MMCX connectors and terminates with a 3.5mm TRS plug. The T3 cable has inline mic which I’m probably never using in my life but if you need to pick up a phone call, I guess that’s handy. The T3 went with a thicker gold-and-white braided look for their cable, which to me looks really fugly. It has a cinch which is great and all but Tin Hifi, in an attempt to maintain the thicc look, decide to make it obnoxiously big. The entire look of the T3 cable is just not great for me. The T2 Pro’s thinner cable is more elegant and has definitely made it easier for me to store the IEM in the carry case. Perhaps Tin Hifi knew that its T3 cable is hard to manage, it included a velcro strap to tie your IEM up neatly. There were some debates on whether you should wear the T2 Pro over-the-ear or just cable down. The T3 made sure such silly arguments does not happen by having memory wire attached to the driver unit.
Driver Chassis
I will say the driver chassis of the IEM is as handsome as you can get but I like minimal look of the T2 Pro more than the T3. The driver shell is made from CNC-machined metal. Both are equally lightweight at 4g per driver.
Sound Quality
Setup: Spotify Premium > MacBook Pro > IEMs In terms of sound signature, they are on par with each other. A V-shaped sound signature is appealing to the masses and the “fun-ness” is evident in the T2 Pro. Hence, why would Tin HiFi break something is not broken? The T3 maintains the same type of sound signature albeit with some slight tuning difference in the lows and highs.
Low
The bass on both IEMs is not too shabby. The reproduction has a good amount of attack and is rhythmically satisfying. However, the punchiness or impact of the bass is quite average. It is nothing like what high-end IEMs like the SE846 can deliver but it’s enough to get your head nodding… gently. The difference between T2 Pro and T3 for the bass is the pitch articulation. The T2 Pro is like the 5-year-old kid that seem way too eager for his Christmas present and when Christmas strikes, you see him ripping boxes faster than Hugh Jackman on X-men. For fast and bassy songs like “Dreams” by Adventure Club, the T2 Pro sounded boomier and the amount of bass is slightly overbearing. On the other hand, I feel the T3 has more control. It maintains the excitement of the bass without enveloping the musicality of the song.
Mids
The mids are pretty decent too. In the lower mids, the vocals have less presence and don’t sound that intimate to me but for upper mids, vocals are more full-bodied. Both T2 Pro and T3 performs equally for the mids.
High
Critics of Tin Audio love to bring out the Frequency Response Curve of the T2 Pro and T3 to illustrate how terrible the treble response is. Personally, I feel it is a bit of an exaggeration. The perception of sound quality is not highly biased to every individual and there is no one chart that can define the sound quality accurately for everyone. The treble of both IEMs performed decently to me. For EDMs like “House Work” by Jax Jones, the treble is energetic and I don’t hear any sibilance in the upper treble region. It does lack some details and for upper treble, it sounds bright. Just like the bass, the T2 Pro is slightly more out-of-control than the T3. The treble is evidently more forward and less airy on the T2 Pro than the T3.
Which one do I like more?
During my first few rounds of auditions, the more exciting sound signature of the T2 Pro had me choosing it over the T3. But as I listened more in detail and switching to song tracks with greater complexity, I started to appreciate what the T3 is giving me. It knows my ears crave for some fun times. But not in a wild, reckless manner. The combination of T3’s 1DD + 1BA combo helped dial down the aggressiveness and kept the overall balance more in check.
Conclusion
Should you upgrade to Tin Hifi T3 if you have a Tin Audio T2 Pro?
As a Tin Audio T2 Pro owner, I don’t think the T3 did enough to convince me to fork out ~$70 to buy another pair of IEM for slight sound improvement and a different look. Tin Audio T2 Pro fans might prefer the more aggressive sound of the T2 Pro.
Is the Tin Hifi T3 worth buying?
At a >$50 price range, the T3 teetered into an awkward zone where an IEM cannot be universally declared as a budget IEM. However, if you take into the sound quality, combined with the build quality, I will still recommend the T3 as an amazing choice for a pair of starter audiophile IEM or anyone who is looking for an IEM that can be their daily driver.
