Table of Contents
Disclaimer
You shouldn’t buy timeless if:
- You don’t like planar timbre;
- You’re a slam slave;
- You’re an a VERY BIG soundstage slave;
- You’re VERY sensitive to treble (more than me);
- You like more anemic bass.
You should buy timeless if:
- You never heard a planar and you’re curious about;
- You already like planar timbre;
- You are a detail slave;
- You like elevated bass/treble;
- You prefer less neutral tunings;
- You have an amp that can push it;
- You wanna play with or test hybrid tubes;
- You’re a Tea Cult member.
With that out of the way, it’s pretty obvious now that if you fall under the first category, you can stop reading now.
If you didn’t, I will still give you more reasons to demote you:
- Timeless is effecient but still needs power. All my thoughts were wrote using XD-05 Balanced, Topping NX7 and Xduoo MT-602. It won’t sound as good with lower power sources so you’ve been warned. I will test with Qudelix 5k once I get it on the following days;
- Fit, comfort and isolation are great for me but, as always, YMMV;
- You might need to tip roll. I’m using CP100 large at the moment, but I’ll tip roll a bit later. Sounds good with foamies for those out there that love those;
- QC gamble – It’s still chifi after all and you’re for sure gambling given the reports out there. Proceed with caution. I got 2 units (one regarding first revision and the 2nd one is the newer one) and both sound pretty much the same, but still a gamble;
- The most important reason: You don’t have 200$ right this moment. If you don’t, stop reading here.
You still reading this? Well, you’ve been warned.
Tuning
First of all, if you didn’t, you should watch Crin’s unboxing video, as I literally had the same reaction. You can also check his review video 2 more than you should be reading this post.
Everyone loves something about their favourite IEM – there’s just something that connects with you and just does it right, like some other can’t. I could just ramble about EJ07, RSV and Mangird Tea all day, but that’s not why we are here. We’re here to ramble on 7hz Timeless and what do I love in it, since it got the 5th spot on my current colection.
So, what do I love on Timeless? It’s resolution capabilities. It took me 10 seconds to literally go dumbdumb during my unboxing – 5 seconds for my brain to adjust and get a chill and another 5 seconds to drop my jaw as I’ve paid less than 200usd for these. What in the actual hell is this? This is a glitch in the system, a bug in the matrix. It shouldn’t sound this good for this price range – and I’m glad that it does.
Elevated mid bass that only flattens @ 500hz and some treble elevation is one of the worst characteristics to my preferences but, somehow, someway, these still sound much better than they graph and I’m guessing it’s due to the planar driver – this tuning on DD would be likely to sound way different.
I’d described them as a bass boosted neutral or warm balanced with mids feeling a bit forward.
Bass will be a bit different than the usual DD bass, as it is very fast (almost like a BA) but still has some pounch and texture to it. Mid-bass is more preminent than sub-bass and is most likely to be the star of the tuning show. Kick drums and bass guitars are there, some warmth and note weight are given on the way.
Mids have detail and feel organic, altho the planar timbre is different than we’re used to. They are close to your face but not enough to blur everything else. They never felt thin or shouty, which I really really appreciate.
Treble has some elevation to it and I can imagine it being fatiding to very sensible people, but I didn’t found it that much. Extension is well done, help with some separation and a more airy presentation, helping the not so good stage depth.
Techs
Timbre is planar: Either you like it or you don’t. You won’t know it until you try it.
Stage is not wide, lacks depth but has some height. I’d describe it as a cube in front of you, and you’re watching the show touching the glass. Since it has some air and separation, I can let this one pass and doesn’t make me feel claustrophobic. During my testings, I felt the transducer tried to compensate some lack of depth with separation through heights, which is strange to some and hard to describe, but it is what it is. Depth is the weakest link on this set and affects some of the separation and imaging as well.
Imaging is fine, as you can point where stuff comes from, but the lack of stage depth seems to deceive it. It’s not pin-point accurate like EJ07m, but you get the idea. This is felt the most on busier tracks, because during tracks like Yosi Horikawa’s Crossing, it passes with good colors.
Detail is very good and over the roof for the price bracket. It’s insanely resolving for the price, as I said above. The real star of the show and the best trait of this pair.
Veredict
I didn’t found a single problem with the tuning. Sure, I still would prefer it somewhat closer to my target (less mid-bass and treble elevation), but there’s moments where you have to realize when something is great, even if it’s not the closests to your preferences, because might be to others. To me it feels slightly different than my usual go to, so I enjoyed that. It treated vocals very well and the elevated pinna gain helped the mids presentation that I value a lot.
The real handicap of this set is on stage depth. If you can live with that quirk, this set is a no-brainer in my opinion. It’s resolving capabilities are punch way above it’s price range, making me wonder the price brackets of this always evolving market, as we shouldn’t be paying for tuning but only for techs.
I feel I’ve been rough on my words through all this post, making most people doubt about the purchase, as I know this has been a polarizing set, but this should make up for it:
In my opinion, this set is very close to Mangird Tea on my preferences, doing some stuff better and some stuff worse. Given so, the ranking on my list will most likely be very close. It’s the first IEM under 300 that makes me question it so, credits where it’s due: 4.5/5.
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