Tangzu Wan'er Studio Measurements and Impressions

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Thrown-forward headstage that's more defined on either side than in the center, but with good imaging. Somewhat of a bit of romantic decay to things, which is more to my preference. Bass is still more elevated than I'd like but it's less egregious in the low bass than the Zero:2 was, but the treble on these is pretty unrefined and may need a more sedate sounding source or even EQ to fit a lot of folks. These seem sensitive to impedance, things sound a bit hollower out of a 1.2R source than out of a near-0 ohm one, but I'm unsure. The mids are richer-sounding than on the Salnotes which does somewhat offset how abrasive the upper octaves can be, but if you don't mind how a lot of biodyna designs can be pretty unrefined-sounding up top these will be tolerable (but still noticeable). Very pretty, I like the aesthetic considerations they took, but the build quality is about what you'd expect for $21 (which is what these retail for).

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Full disclosure, a friend of mine was sponsored by Tangzu and asked to talk about these new Wan'er Studios on stream. Since they knew I was an audio gear nerd I was dragged on to chat about them as well. I did NOT get a free pair of IEMs from Tangzu like they did, and because I would rather have my SBAF account deleted than just rattle off manufacturer specs and act like a proper sockpuppet I used my own money to buy a pair the same day I learned about the upcoming event so I could give them some time to settle down and show what they're actually capable of. Besides, with the Crin x Salnotes Zero:2 gone I was needing a pair of IEMs that I wouldn't cry over if they got lost or stolen while I was out and about in less-nice neighbourhoods.

I wasn't the biggest fan of these fresh out of the box, so I left them running overnight out of my desktop stack at uncomfortable but not immediately deafening volumes playing a lot of more aggressive metal albums and video game OSTs (Cyberpunk 2077 has a lot of low bass-heavy tracks and quick transients that less resolving transducers seem to smear easily; Slayer, which I got into thanks to Psalm raving about them so much, is... Slayer. lol).



The break-in process improved these pretty dramatically; prior to burning them in my very first impressions were that the low bass was oddly unfocused with the bass drops on Daft Punk's Doin It Right sounding oddly bifurcated-- rather than that third bass drop washing over me like it normally does, it sounded like the bass was coming from two very distinct points to my left and right. The uppermost octave was also dead-- not merely lacking in extension but almost like it was aggressively pushing down treble information and homogenizing things (Van Halen - Runnin' with the Devil). Background clarity wasn't all too good either but hey it pushed things pretty far out into the headstage for a pair of IEMs which was neat. After a bit more than 24 hours of constant music playback the air frequencies were less stifled, but things do still sound a bit muted in the topmost octave. The sibilance and tizz region did grow more refined, but I've been hoping that they'd continue on that trend as I kept using these. It's been a week of pretty heavy use I'd say at this point and it's not quite happened.

I used both my FiiO BTR7 in high gain running as an LDAC receiver and my desktop stack (the Modi Multibit 2 into either the Magni Piety, Magni Unity, or MCTH) to glean these impressions. While I did own a Salnotes Zero:2 a while ago, I since gave them to my kid brother so will be having to compare them purely from memory; I still have the ER2XRs and the Andromeda 2020s on hand, neither of which are much a fair comparison really but hey it's something to talk about. Throughout this comparison I'll be using the large-size wide bore tips that come with the IEMs, the ones with yellow cores.

Just off the cuff I find these more to my preferences than the Zero:2s. That's not to say I think these are perfect, FAR from it! The voicing is obviously not up my alley inasmuch as I can tolerate the ER2XRs with a deeper fit for lower-level listening on quiet days. I identified a sort of "teethy" sounding narrowness to vocals earlier on (Gorillaz ft. Stevie Nicks - Oil), and listening to them now that's still not fully gone away, and while these run a "studio" moniker the bass is still more elevated than I feel it ought be to earn the right to call itself that. To its credit, it's not as alarmingly elevated as the bass on the Zero:2s are-- I did sort of eventually adapt to the Salnotes when I forced myself to run them for a while, but I still occasionally got headaches from how much bass those pushed; compared to them, the Wan'er Studios are more tasteful in how they present the bottom octaves.

Quick FR comparison between the Salnotes Zero:2 (RED) and the Tangzu Wan'er Studio (GREEN). I think my SPL calibration was bollixed earlier this year (the Zero:2 measurements are from March) because I remember I was just barely avoiding clipping, but yeah just ignore how dirty the bass on the Wan'ers looks here, there'll be a less scuffed measurement later on.

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The Zero:2s also seem to resolve more information I seem to recall, mainly by virtue of them being significantly drier-sounding IEMs relative to the Wan'er Studios. I do think that the Tangzus have a bit more of that romantic decay thing going on which could put some people off it (and does seem to belie its self-identification as a studio thing). Still, I don't think it goes much overboard, something like the Klipsch HP-3 or the TH-X00 were still worse about that sort of romantic decay and I love those headphones.

Speaking of biodynamic drivers: I was supplied with a media kit for the Wan'er Studios and learned that these actually use... a PET diaphragm. Haha. The interesting thing to me was that unlike a lot of other manufacturers who chase thinner and thinner diaphragms, often to deleterious effect with respect to my preferences (COUGHhfmCOUGH), these apparently have an even thicker diaphragm than what came in the original Tangzu Wan'ers which could explain why these have somewhat of a protracted decay to them. These also run a dual-sided N52 magnet array which I've never heard of being a thing, makes it seem like a fun cross between regular dynamic drivers and vintage orthodynamics with thicker diaphragms almost? It doesn't have that really beautiful sort of fun tape saturation effect that my dBel-modded YH-100s do as things approach 0dBFS, but I suppose that's not a bad thing.

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Despite not quite matching the Salnotes in terms of raw resolution, I maintain that the Wan'er Studios eke out a lot of information e.g. when plugged into the Magni Unity set to medium gain; this is definitely not a fair comparison because the Sennheisers are open-backed headphones and I live in a noisy spot, but I had never so easily noticed the background voices right after the first stomp-stomp-CLAP on Queen's We Will Rock You before catching them on the Wan'er Studios the other day where it almost seemed shoved in my face. It could be that I was just cranking volumes a bit more than usual which was then aided by how they actually seal pretty decently. I still think the Andro 2020s and definitely the ER2XR attenuate more outside noise though. Can't remember how good the isolation on the Zero:2 was but it was likely better just going off how I definitely remember it being a better overall fit for my ears.

The headstage is a bit grey still even after having run them in for about a week now, but it's no worse than the Andromeda 2020s in this respect. It's not quite three-blob, but stuff to either side still feels somewhat more defined. Close-up sonic elements in a less busy mix e.g. vocals in Nina Simone's Feeling Good are a bit expanded and diffuse but instrumentation placed further back into the mix feel much better delineated and more convincingly presented. Me being the headstage nerd that I am, it's hard to say that I hate these. They're notably better than the ER2XRs in terms of presenting a forward-projecting stage but they still fall far short of the Andromeda 2020s; the Campfire IEMs are more evenly-rounded in stage dimensions and diffuse in their presentation of sonic elements, which does offer a nice sort of illusion of things being "in real space", large and present out-of-head albeit through somewhat of a haze. The Wan'er Studios shrink those sonic images a bit, but everything's a bit easier to pinpoint. It reminds me a bit of the Klipsch HP-3 in this respect so I don't think it's a bad thing at all. Those TSHH-TSHH-TSHH bead sounding things that move quickly from left to right in the opening of Alt-J's 3WW actually sound like they move more smoothly from left to right in front of you on the Tangzus than the Andros because of that narrow focusedness.

I do think that these generally do very well with nuanced recordings e.g. Sinatra's Only the Lonely. Subtle dynamic gradations do seem a bit overly pronounced which might be why I was remembering the Klipsches just now, but honestly if you find BA timbre tolerable this isn't too egregious in how it sort of simplifies microdynamics. It actually manages to draw me into older Mo-Fi and Capitol recordings which implies some amount of x-factor in spite of the lack of refinement up top. At the very least they don't abruptly truncate decays like the Klipsches did, which was one of the things I most misliked about the HP-3s. I've been on a Simon and Garfunkel binge all of today and I'd say that plays well to the Tangzus' strengths. On that note though, the sibilance on The 59th Street Bridge Song actually makes me wince still— properly sizzly with the BTR7, that. Need to revisit with the desktop stack perhaps.

UPDATE: I'm now revisiting it on the MMB2>Piety (low gain) and nope it's more tolerable but still sizzles something fierce.

I've said before that while I respect what the FiiO BTR7 manages to do, the treble on it is just a bit too much for me in general. Specifically paired with the Wan'er Studios there's a bit too much snap on the percussion towards the end of Linkin Park - The Catalyst with the massive buildup towards the climax of the song coming off as slightly too hollow. Keep in mind though that my point of reference is an Andromeda 2020 with even thicker mids over stock configuration owing to a cable swap. The desktop stack (MMB2>Piety>HD600 with VERY worn ~8 year old pads, these are essentially supra-aural headphones at this point) does admittedly also have a bit of upper mid aggression, but it's a different sort of manifestation thereof that I find more tolerable than the Wan'er Studios. At first I thought that the drums charging in at the beginning of Nirvana - Breed just lacked a meaningful sense of body on the Tangzus, but plugging them into the MMB2>Piety stack (low gain, I can just barely get tolerable volumes without engaging digital attenuation) instead of the BTR7 restored that.

Gotcha, so the difference in sense of body might be an impedance curve thing or just the BTR7 sounding the way it does. Haven't been able to find impedance v frequency measurements of this thing yet.

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Treble on the Tangzus is generally sizzlier than on the HD600, but while still elevated per my preferences I thought that it had a reasonable amount of texture to the upper octaves at expense of them coming across as somewhat overly pronounced, nowhere near as smeary and indistinct as how I heard it prior to burning them in. To my ears the treble on the Andromeda 2020s is more muted and tolerable with somewhat more or comparable treble refinement (the Andros are an all-BA design after all) and better resolution during busy passages from their being a multi-BA affair. That said, I do tend to prefer how dynamic drivers handle treble information and the HD600s do stomp the lot of these in terms of presenting well-textured treble without coming across as etched or fatiguing (all comparisons here made with the Magni Unity across various gain settings: high for the HD600, medium for the Wan'er Studios, and low for the Andromeda 2020-- take that as you will). I don't think I ever bothered being as thorough in my evaluation of the Zero:2's treble response because it was just more fatiguing to listen to at anything above low volumes, but the Zero:2 might have been less abrasive in the treble as I didn't have specific problems with anime music there.

Funny thing to me is that of all the gear I have access to, my favourite chain for the Tangzus was the Modi MB 2 feeding the MCTH. It takes a lot of my complaints about the treble harshness and ameliorates them, making the overall voicing much more bodyful and taking the edge off the overly snappy upper octaves. I also really like the wider, more evenly spaced stage I got off this combo. It should be pointed out that I could hardly tell any differnce between the Modi MB2's OS and NOS modes on the Tangzus through the MCTH, though it's equally possible that I'm just not in a mood to catch minutiae just now. Other than the treble brilliance, I prefer OS mode on the Piety still. Just be careful if you're feeding your inner weeb and listening to something with a lot of brilliance like Tomoko Kawase (as Tommy heavenly6) - Pray or Aya Hirano (as Haruhi Suzumiya) - God Knows; these recordings both definitely lean into the whole "beautiful female vocals" thing and have a complementary order of treble shimmer. I'm getting older as are my ears so they're not as sensitive as they used to be, but I get the feeling that I'd have wanted to rip my ears off if I still had my Modi 3+ and used it in place of the MMB2 in this chain.

It was surprisingly easier to follow the bass on Nirvana - Lithium as it went down low with the Andromeda 2020s which was a bit of a surprise to me because I'd always figured that BAs weren't really all that great for low end reproduction, but I do have to remind myself that as much as I romanticise the gold Solaris's subterranean low-end extension, I did readily acknowledge that the Andromeda at least had a much easier time decongesting busier passages and wasn't too shabby at actual pitch differentiation. I'm no bassist but do love me some good rumble. Compared to the Campfires the low almost seems to be pushed back considerably into the mix when the bass starts digging down deep. To the Tangzu's credit the ER2XRs do much of the same here, but I do think that the Etymotics are overall just less overbearing in the low end inasmuch as I do prefer the Wan'er Studios in many other respects by comparison. The bass on the Etymotics just also sounds slower by comparison, such that busy passages e.g. the rapid bass thuds on Mitski - Happy sound like blended mush relative to either the Tangzus or the Andromedas. Funnily enough, how the Wan'er Studios best resembled how the HD600s out of the MMB2>Piety stack rendered it. The very low bass rumbles towards the end of Linkin Park - Wretches and Kings was a bit overly exuberant on the Wan'ers, you could tell it was straining a bit and losing some cleanliness, but again it was at least at a more sensible level vis-a-vis the Zero:2s which I recall made my eyeballs ache playing that back.

I also ought point out that I think the upper mids on the Etymotics are no more aggressive to me than the Wan'er Studios, but I'd be remiss not to point out that I use the large triflange eartips with the ER2XRs and shove them in deep enough that I actually feel the top flange being nudged when I move my jaw-- that's likely as sedate as the ER2XRs are ever going to sound. The treble is another matter altogether though-- the Wan'er Studios are not the last word in refinement but the ER2XRs have always had a bit of a narrow hotspot to me despite them being generally dark in the upper octaves, and especially with the cheap cable swap in (because again, proprietary keyed MMCX connectors are evil) I just find the hashier parts of the same Mitski song mentioned above to be more difficult on the Etys compared to either the Andro 2020s or the Wan'ers. Unfortunately, I don't have specific recall of how this song sounds on the Zero:2s.

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I recall the Salnotes being significantly better in terms of ergonomics and build quality than the Tangzus, at least for my ears and to my hands. Where the Zero:2s sat very comfortably and securely in my ear, the Wan'er Studios were a bit less perfectly sculpted to my conchae. They're also just larger pieces that don't sit as securely-- they don't quite fall out of my ears when walking, but neither do they really feel like they're vanishingly comfortable as some other IEMs I've used before have felt; the Andromedas do just nearly vanish when I figured out tips for them. The Tangzus also just seem light and insubstantial, hollow feeling compared to how I recall the Zero 2s feeling. I've never owned the original Tangzu Wan'ers but I have heard a lot about their build quality not being quite up to snuff, so that's something to look out for. you can see in the photo just below this how the faceplates have already picked up a few microscratches; granted I haven't really been babying these, but I've not even had them a week yet. This is just $21 though, which undercuts even the Zero:2s.

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They do look very pretty though. I'm normally a dark-mode-everything sort but I just really vibe with the design of the white version of the Studios, they're reminiscent of a very nice old teaset a grandma would have tucked away for Very Special Guests, and I am very much a sentimental sort.

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The cable that comes with the Wan'er Studio amusingly reminds me of the older ALO Audio MMCX Litz cable I have on here, terminated in 4.4mm, right down to the memory wire earhooks. albeit the sheathing doesn't feel quite as premium to me-- it's hard to explain but the Tangzu cable has some of that sticky, tacky feeling to it that I really disliked from the Tripowin Perles cable I got on sale a while back. I do understand that not many folks are fond of memory wire and prefer preformed earhooks, but I don't have a deep-seated loathing of them as many others seem to have. I think the primary complaint is that, if you toss the IEMs in a bag and let the memory wire get smooshed about, they can be hard to get back into desired shape?

These use a 2-pin QDC connector. I don't actually get the hate for MMCX but maybe I've just been lucky. I have no personal bias for or against each connector style, I just wish that the whole IEM space would settle on a single standard. The stock cable slides neatly and firmly into place, I presume it's the power of friction and hopes and dreams and anime keeping the connection secure.

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Full disclosure I just wear my IEMs around my neck when out and about, tucked into the inside pocket of a jacket (because I almost always wear layers because I hate my body hah. I've never really had to worry about memory wire earhooks deforming, but maybe I'm just lucky that way; I appreciate how they can be sculpted to better fit the contours of my ears. This is a minor thing but I really like how the cable that came with the Tangzus is 1.4m long instead of what looks to be the industry-standard 1.2m; that extra 7.8in of leeway is much appreciated for when I have these plugged into the desktop stack or when I want to route the IEM cable through my back underneath my jacket.

As promised above, here's FR of the Wan'er Studios. Channel matching isn't perfect, but honestly this isn't something that playing with insertion depth can't sort, and it is difficult getting repeatable IEM results on the MiniDSP EARS when you can't just shove things all the way in e.g. with the Solaris or Andro 2020-- the more voluminous body of the Wan'ers is a pretty big bother here.

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Nothing much remarkable about distortion here, it's remarkably low. The Zero:2s had a bit less low bass distortion. Only left channel here because there's some shenanigans going on with the distortion measurements generated by the MiniDSP EARS's right channel:

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CSD for the Wan'er Studios shows a couple points where there's pronounced ringing at around 4.3kHz and 12.8kHz which could explain why I found the upper mids oddly "teethy" sounding, and the air frequencies sharp as a freshly honed Japanese blade.

Again though these are just results off a MiniDSP EARS so take nothing in the treble at face value. (EDIT: modified colours to better represent relative levels)

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Impulse response is interesting to me. It looks about normal from a distance if you squint your eyes but there's a definite sawtooth pattern to things that I thought was the MiniDSP acting up until I remeasured the Andro 2020s and the ER2XRs and found things were as usual with them. Could this be somehow correlated with the hazier front staging and the harsher treble response (excepting that 12.8kHz peak)?

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Looking at spectrograph readings where everything's normalised though, you can see that the very low bass on the Zero:2s takes longer to fully decay than that of the Wan'ers. That could help explain why the Zero:2s made my throat ache a bit, on top of the low bass just being that much more elevated.

TANGZU WAN'ER STUDIO:

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SALNOTES ZERO:2:

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ERRATUM: I wasn't getting a good seal on the MiniDSP EARS rig it seems and bass in the FR was underreported. The current set better tracks with my impressions. Changed in the above post: L/R frequency response, distortion, impulse response, CSD, spectrogram, and comparative FR against the Salnotes Zero:2.


Quick addendum in another post cuz I just realised I could try something (also: if you read the OP right as I posted it, I cobbled that together from notes on my PC and phone so it wasn't fully coherent and saw some weird stuff in measurements-- some changes and clarifications made across several edits)-- found a worn out pair of Campfire Marshmallow foam tips. Slapped them on the Tangzus and my complaints about overly enthusiastic bass and sizzling treble are now remedied. The low end's actually now a bit lean for me but it's a preferable tonal balance overall. That could just be because I need to find a bigger size tip though, doesn't feel to me as if I'm getting a perfect seal.

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Pretty cool, it seems the jagged impulse can be tamed with more absorptive tips. Here's the Wan'ers' IR with the foams:

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CSDs with the foam tips bare out that the low ringing is still present, and yeah these are still a bit hot in the upper mids for me (update, this better reflects what I hear, even longer ringing, maybe becuase of reduced acoustic impedance from foams?):

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Lastly, spectrogram (bass decay is comparable to the silicone tips):

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ADDITION, copying some impressions of the Wan'er Studios with Tangzu's own posh Sancai tips (Balanced ver) over from the IEM tip thread:

Comparing the "Balanced" Sancai tips to the stock wide bore ones that came in the box, the treble is lower in level which does help mitigate some of my complaints of excess brightness, albeit there's still just a sense of unevenness to things that stands out if you're listening to treble balance. The stage on the Tangzus is deeper with a bit more clarity between images, but said images feel a bit thin by comparison with there being a pronounced hollowness where I'm used to hearing richness on the Sennheisers and Andros. The one major downside is how there's just a LOT more mid-bass bloat relative to the stock wide-bore tips. I can see a lot of folks liking this sound profile but it's not much for me. Saving grace is that it's still nowhere near as fatiguing as the bass on the Zero:2s was. EDIT: seems these lose bass bloat over time similar to the Azla Xelastec. Bass levels are much more palatable to me now, and the sound's overall more refined. Still loses energy in the bottommost octave and devolves into farts, never mind what frequency response says.

I do now prefer the Sancai tips to the stock wide bore ones that came with the Wan'er Studios, but it's not a unilateral improvement for the reasons abovementioned. Ergonomics remain better but I do still have my concerns about the tips' longevity given their similarities to the V1 Azla Sedna Xelastec tips. Will update if anything happens, but for now I'm just knocking on wood and hoping they hold up for at least a few months per pair. They're in better shape five days later than the Xelastecs were, at the least.

Here's how the Sancai tips (YELLOW) measure on these IEMs compared to the stock wide bore tips (BLUE) on the MiniDSP EARS rig. My apologies to the frequency response absolutists, obviously the differences in the high treble account for all my perceived differences [sarcasm]. I do see that there's a bit more midrange, a bit less upper treble, and a smidgen more at 3kHz, but these are within inter-measurement variance:

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Impulse response on the Sancai might look slightly more controlled than on the stock tips but really it's still just jagged. Really wonder what aspect of how they sound might correlate with this? CSD looks about as bad as on the stock tips, really, maybe even worse with the decays. Low bass with the Sancais seems oddly... more rectangular? Might imply a bit more bleed into the low mids
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Great example of a high signal / noise post.

Many others here have also been improving the forum S/N such as
@Vtory
@Erroneous
@yotacowboy
@Priidik
@earnmyturns
@Clemmaster
@insidious meme
@roshambo123
@rhythmdevils
@purr1n
@ChaChaRealSmooth
@shotgunshane
and many others that I am not remembering off the top of my head.

 

Dammit Bob, I don't take compliments well and am teary eyed. Thank you. Also reminds me I forgot to add other measurements for the Sancai tips. It was really noisy when I made that fr trace. Will update post 2 in a bit when I'm back at PC.


EDIT: Updated.

 

Random acts of kindness increase the fidelity of life for both the transmitter and receiver.