Tin HiFi, the brand based out of China is a well known brand among the Audiophiles for their exquisite sound signature. The Planar drivers earphones being their flagship series, the P1, P2 already got their own place in the market for delivering impressive sound but the con is that they need demanding power. To correct that, the P1 Max has been developed to run in a more efficient way and in this review let’s check out the impressions out of this product.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Driver Unit: Φ14.2mm Planar Magnetic driver
Sensitivity: 98±3dB @1kHz 0.126V
Frequency Response: 10-20kHz
Impedance: 16Ω±15%
Rated Power: 5mW
Max Power: 10mW
Max Distortion: 3% @1kHz 0.126V
Interface: Gold-plated 2P connector
Plug: 3.5mm gold plated plug carbon fibre tube
Table of Contents
DESIGN AND FIT:
The whole construction is made out of resin rather than the aluminium used in the predecessors. However the construction felt more premium in the hands and felt sturdy enough. The 2 pin connector area is nicely flushed within the body. The fit and the isolation that these provide is excellent and the stock tips do go hand on hand with it.
The stock cable is well shielded and constructed with nice metallic coverings over the connector, splitter and termination area. They do give that premium feel on the hand.
SOUND:
The sound profile of the Max is now more mature and at the same time this provides the adequate fun that most of us expected from a planar IEM. The sound is more on the balanced aspect with natural and smooth tonality. The bass is warm enough with bodied mid range and smoother treble yet bringing out those essential details. In the following sections let’s discuss in detail.
BASS:
The planar bass is always a special one since they have that nice sub bass reach without intermingling with the mid bass region. Difficult to attain it from a dynamic driver which is being attained in this planar. The sub bass reach here is good and does provide that nice satisfying rumble in the low end. The mid bass is pretty warm enough and full bodied making the kick drums and bass guitars sound more fuller and thicker.
The separation and the control of bass in the Max is nicely done with adequate speed. The attack and decay of the bass notes appears pretty precise enough. The mid bass region feels well separated out from the clustered instruments thus the dynamic range feels wider. The mid bass being pretty warm and bodied enough the sub bass sometimes gets lost. For the most part people wont complain about its sub bass rumble but as per my taste they felt slightly lacking in some tracks where the mid bass takes the centre stage.
Overall the bass is just as precise as a planar driver would deliver. The control, speed, separation and the warmth at a very sweet spot while the sub bass reach alone is slightly lacking as per my taste. The rumble is quite present but its not that evident is some tracks. But as an overall package the bass is presented well here
MID RANGE:
The mid range is good as well with nice natural tonality with smoother and forward vocals. The tonality felt natural with the nice realistic timbre of the instruments. The vocals are presented well and forward thus the vocals felt more engaging. The lower mid range felt nice and thick due to that warm and bodied mid bass section. The male vocals felt nice and fuller making the tracks to be more engaging. The upper mid section is nicely extended without any sibilance making the female vocals sound more crispier and lively enough.
The detail retrieval in the mid section is good enough bringing out all the essential minute instruments. The acoustic guitar strings and the piano notes felt nice and fuller with natural timbre, thus no sort of metallic taste was observed. The separation felt much better in the Max where there was a good amount of space in between each layer. Due to this nice spacing the presentation felt wider and big enough allowing the staging to be pretty grandeur.
Overall the mid range is more natural in terms of tonality, fuller vocals thus a nice engaging experience. Well separated instruments with great layering. The detail retrieval looked much nicer, the staging felt big enough to make the presentation look grandeur.
TREBLE:
The treble section in the Max is more on the smoother and non fatiguing side rather than being more shouty. The treble felt much more mature with nice cymbal strikes and detail retrieval. The cymbal crashes felt livelier with more precise attack and decay. The trumpets sounded well with nice richness and crispness. The sibilance is kept under control thus providing a nice longer listening session without causing any fatigue.
The treble also felt smoother rather than being grainy hence the instruments sounded very pleasing. The separation in the treble end felt much better with more presence of air in the top end. The staging being wide enough the presentation felt nicer and bigger.
The shimmer and brilliance in the top end felt great with a good amount of brightness to the whole presentation. They never appeared dark nor too bright; rather the adequate brightness helped the Max to deliver an impressive treble response.
TECHNICALITIES:
STAGING: The staging is quite good here with a nice sense of width and height overall. The depth presentation is done well too due to that nice engaging bass response. It could have been better if the sub bass reach was even deeper. Due to this bigger stage presence the separation felt much nicer here and this presented a nice sense of spacing in between depth of layers.
IMAGING: The imaging is quite nice here with precise placement of the instruments in the background. The layering is done well with great separation in between each layer. The transient response felt pretty smooth and neat.
Detail retrieval and the track separation felt nice with above average technical abilities. The 14.2mm planar driver really delivered some impressive technical aspects here without causing any fatigue in the longer listening sessions.
VERDICT:
P1 Max, the latest offering from the House of Tin HiFi is the successor to the already well known P1 and the P1 Plus. The Max is developed in order to make this more efficient in terms of driving them. The P1 Max surprisingly can be driven easily via smartphone and generally that’s not recommended since if you want to unleash the full dynamic potential it’s better to switch to a separate dac amp or DAP.
Design wide they are pretty neatly done now with resin construction overall rather than the CNC machined aluminium in their predecessors to reduce the cost. The construction is very sturdy despite the use of resin here. The 2 pin connector area is provided here for easy cable swap and the fit this provides is very good. They provide very good isolation and the stock ear tips do provide nice stability in the ears. The stock cable is pretty good with a copper coloured accent. The connector area and the termination end are stainless steel and overall they feel very premium on the hands.
Coming to the sound, they just deliver what the planar should do. The bass here is nice and thick with adequate warmth. They are full bodied, well separated, precise speed etc.. The sub bass is good and provides that satisfying rumble but could have been better. The Mid range is nice with natural tonality, great separation, nice and forward vocals, adequate stage presence. The treble section is more mature with null sibilance, above average detail retrieval and a smoother presentation with precise amount of brightness and shimmer in the top end. The 14.2mm Planar did deliver some impressive technical ability in terms of imaging and staging.
Overall, the P1 Max is a well executed Planar package. Has a great design and sound and now in a very affordable price range with easy driveability. People out there interested in trying out “THE REAL PLANAR EXPERIENCE” in the budget range? Then this is the one to get!
PROS AND CONS:
Pros:
- Richer Mid Bass Presence
- Tonality
- Engaging Mid Range
- Sweet Percussion Notes
- Design and Fit
Cons:
- Sub bass Presence (Subjective)
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.
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Shubham
Shubham Garg (Editor Shubz.in) is an engineer with a specialization in Mechanical Engineering from AKTU, Uttar Pradesh. Being a mechanical engineer he has always loved to learn the inner working of various machines and consumer electronics. He regularly tests various audio, home appliances, and daily use products, to provide the best advice to readers. He is a wizard that can make your shopping easy, saving you time and stress of figuring out what to buy.
