TIN HIFI C5 Review – PLEASANT FILLER

Last updated on February 24th, 2024 at 05:48 pm

Tin Hifi, the brand based out of China is a well known brand among audiophiles and even a new person who entered this hobby would know their infamous T2. Tin products are very peculiar and they do have a good reputation in the market since most of their products never cease to amaze the consumers.

The T3 Plus being my most favorite, the brand recently launched a new IEM with a configuration of Square planar driver and a balanced armature in a budget segment which looks pretty interesting on the papers. In this review let’s check out how good this is against the competition.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Driver Unit: Planar & BA Drivers

Interface: Gold-plated 2Pin 0.78mm connector

Cable: 1.25m Silver Plated Copper Cable

Impedance: 9Ω±15%

Max Power: 5mW

Frequency: 10-20000 Hz

Sensitivity: 101±3dB@1kHz 0.126V

Microphone: No

DISCLAIMER:

This unit has been provided to me by the team Tin HiFi in exchange for my honest opinions about the product. The whole views are based on my observations with this product hence it might differ from person to person.

SOUND:

The sound profile of the C5 follows a nice balanced signature. This IEM adopts a hybrid driver configuration where there’s a 10×10 Square Planar Driver and a customised balanced armature driver. These two drivers have a nice coherence thus delivering a pleasant filled beautiful balanced sound.

BASS:

Even though they lack the dynamic driver the SPD driver does the magic here. The planar low end is something where that’s more addictive and much more controlled, mature compared to the dynamic driver’s low end. The same planar characteristics can be observed here in this C5 where the bass is very nicely controlled and mature. The quantity is on the precise side delivering adequate thump and rumble to the needed tracks. The quantity is much enough in giving enough warmth and fullness to the tracks.

The sub bass digs deeper and provides those subtle rumbles when the tracks call for it. The mid bass is mature and tighter thus no sort of bleeding is seen in the mid section. These characters of the bass in the C5 helped in delivering a nice cleaner bass rather than a bloated response. The C5 is unforgiving for poorly mastered tracks hence it shows the low end roughness in those tracks upfront.

Overall the bass in the C5 may not be a bass head certified but this bass is really addictive in the long run due to its quality rich, less fatiguing, smoother, and controlled and a mature bass response. Bass kicks in when the track calls and doesn’t compromise on the overall cleanliness of the track.

MID SECTION:

The mid section is melodious and smoother. No harsh unwanted spikes thus making the longer listening a peaceful and fatigue free session. Talking about the tone and timbre they are surprisingly neutral. Despite the usage of a BA driver the tone is kept as neutral as possible. No metallic or dry sense is observed due to the presence of BA. 

The vocals are nicely kept in the front stage thus the podcasts listeners and the vocalists would love this IEM a lot. The instruments in the background are nicely represented without any congestion. The hybrid configuration helped in taking off each frequency separately making the imaging and layering an easy task. 

The lower midrange is kept as clean as possible yet having that adequate warmth and the fullness. The male vocals sound sublime with a pleasant enough tone to them. The upper mid section is controlled yet has that nice elevation making the female vocals breathe some air and making the instruments shine.

TREBLE:

The treble section is neatly carried out by the BA presence delivering some impressive details out of the track. The treble is nicely extended so no early roll off is seen. The brightness in the top end is adequate enough to provide a nice open sound. The shimmer and brilliance is present and is good enough. The cymbal crashes and the trumpets do sound nice since the timbre is neutral and not affected by the presence of the BA. 

The detail retrieval is adequately nice and when enough power is feeded to the C5 the abilities to retrieve the details gets much improved. The electric guitar strings shine well with that neutral tone without any colouration. The treble section has enough room for air hence the sound the C5 produces is more open and transparent and more importantly an uncoloured presentation.

TECHNICALITIES:

STAGING: The staging is pretty wide in the C5 thus paved the way for the instrument placements which never felt congested. The height is pretty adequate with enough headroom. The depth sensation in the staging is present and not overly done.

IMAGING AND LAYERING: Since the staging is wide and has a cleaner presentation overall the imaging felt no difficulties. These instruments are neatly layered out with precise placements of the instruments in the presentation. The transient response felt smoother and staging is pretty holographic.

VERDICT:

The C5, latest offering from the house of Tin Hifi is a value for money package with an interesting hybrid combination of Square planar driver and a balanced armature driver. The tuning is done well with an excellent balanced profile and the construction is no slouch at all where it is fully made out of aluminium shells, it comes with 2 pin connector and a nice SPC stock cable.

The sound is balanced with cleaner presentation overall. Talking about each frequency response, the bass here is adequate, much more controlled and mature compared to competitors in this price segment. Cleaner bass yet has that needed fun out of the tracks. 

The mid section is melodious and smoother with engaging vocals since it takes a nice front stage. The upper mid section is neatly elevated without any unwanted spikes making the female vocals shine. The podcasts listeners and vocalists will definitely love this IEM for sure. Has no bloat in the mid section making them appear cleaner overall.

The treble section is nicely tuned with a precise amount of brightness to extract the details out of the track. The cymbal crashes have precise timing of attack and decay. The shimmer and brilliance are on spot making the C5 to sound more open and transparent. The micro details are neatly extracted out without showing any hindrance. 

Overall the Tin HiFi C5 has a mature tuning with excellent coherency between the drivers making them more controlled, coherent and dynamic enough. The C5 is definitely a “PLEASANT FILLER” among the competitors in this segment and it’s going to be my primary pick under 80USD.

PROS AND CONS:

Pros:

1. Controlled and Mature Bass (Typical Planar)
2. Resolution and Micro Dynamics
3. Faster Transients
4. Neutral Tone (Despite BA presence)
5. Transparent Treble

Cons:

1. Unforgiving for Poorly mastered tracks

This Review is Written By KATHIRAVAN.C

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I’m Kathiravan from Tamilnadu. A budding audiophile here with high love towards music and audio equipment. My first experience of enjoying the hifi audio came when I started to use budget chi-fi gears and now it came all along the way of reviewing the gears with high end stuffs. I love reviewing audio products.

Shubham

This content is collaboratively crafted and vetted by Shubham, a Mechanical Engineering specialist. His passion for unraveling the intricacies of machinery and consumer electronics mirrors his avid interest in gaming. With his wealth of expertise, Shubham adeptly navigates readers through the complexities of audio, home appliances, and everyday products, guaranteeing a smooth and enjoyable shopping journey. For every product you read about on this site we do rigorous research and testing behind the scenes to bring you the best value for money options. For any query directly reach out to me at my personal Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/shubhamgarg8024/