Where to start? This is a special IEM. Not because it’s the best I have ever heard (although its up there) but more because of so many dimensions this set of earphones excels in. I purchased these because I heard good things from people I trust and I was interested in listening to these myself.

The box/packaging is very “formal” and down to business which I like. I will say that when I saw the cables it came with I was surprised, in a bad way. The cables are not very nice, both 3.5mm, one with a mic. I expect the cable it came with in a under $50 set, not these. So right away I was worried that I was not going to be impressed, I mean lets face it these are $269 (as purchased) and for that price you expect more.

But much to my surprise they sounded good. I let them play laying on my desk for about 20 min a loud volume to break in the Dynamic driver a bit. Side note, if you need to let a DD “burn in” for more than 20 minutes then something is wrong, really 5 minutes should be good. Your just getting the driver moving and loosening its coil.

I immediately heard some very refined bass and mid’s. I threw an Amy Winehouse song on that was recorded at the BBC live. Many IEM’s cannot play this well, it sounds like crap on them. But some, with excellent tuning around the mid’s and good stage can make this song really stand out, and the TANCHJIM’s delivered. Next I tested for detail and treble with several Jazz songs I prefer, Diana Krall Live in Paris, John Coltrane & Thelonious Monk – A Love Supreme and of course Hotel California. The detail retrieval was very good. The separation in these songs was also very good, above average for sure. But the tuning was fantastic, songs sounded very 3 dimensional no doubt due to the timbre and stage these deliver. I could easily place instruments. Symbols sounded “just right” with the seemingly right amount of roll-off and decay. But vocals are a treat on these. Diana Krall’s musky voice was a very powerful experience to hear on these earphones. The one song that gave me any problem was Metallica – Ride The lightning, In some of the hard hitting guitar riffs that included detailed drumming it seemed separation fell apart a bit and things blended together more than I would like.

Though with that, these have been my daily drivers (until a recent acquisition of the Fearless Tequila) but I still have these on my desk and listen to them often. They have a sound that makes me want to listen to them rathe than finding a reason that I have too. I will be keeping these for sure and they are currently in my top 3 all time favorites.

They can be easily driven with a Phone but for sure they shine with a good DAP or AMP. I tested with, RME ADI-2, FiiO M11 Pro, FiiO BTR5 and an Iphone.

Cables aside I can easily recommend these as a “buy”.

The Fearless Audio Tequila is here and I really love it. This is a keeper for me. I really couldn’t find anything wrong but of course I have to nit-pick a little; I would like the stage to be bigger, it was good but a little bigger would have been nice. Would like a little more sparkle at the upper end. Bass is huge improvement over S8Z

Imaging is very good, separation is excellent, really excellent. Mid’s, Highs, bass all in the right place with good tone. Voices are very, very. very realistic. Consistently  I could really feel the emotion in the songs, it really moved me. I really need to emphasize this, every song I played sounded “epic”. I could feel the singers or the musicians “intent” or emotion in the song. It was a very profound experience. Yes it sounds like I am hyping these but truly this was my experience. The timbre was the best I have come across, better that the Audiosense AQ3 or T800. The fantastic timbre and imaging created a very 3 dimensional sound experience where I felt like I was right there with the performers.

Against the Tanchjim Oxygen it had much fuller sound, better separation and the stage was a little better on the Tanchjim. Tonality was also better. Details were good without being overwhelming. These are substantially better than the S8Z. Depth back to front was good, side to side depth felt a little narrow.

You can see I liked these as i tested an unusually large number of songs. I really couldn’t help my self, I loved the sound. But I also wanted to make sure I was really understanding these.

These are a shining example of how a manufacturer puts there best foot forward. The IEMs are “beautiful”, the packaging was excellent and very “polished”. The cable is excellent. You can see the internals through the clear resin body and you can easily see that there are special brackets made that support the BA and the DD inside. The attention to detail and craftsmanship is outstanding. To date these are the best sounding and most well made IEM’s I have tested and owned.

I will be keeping these..

Definite recommended buy. Nothing at this price competes, at all. These are an easy recommend.

Song List (Song list is in this order: Artist – Song – album)

Aha – Take on me – MTV Unplugged session: clarity, stage  and vocals amazing. Timbre of Piano excellent (most have hard time with piano)

Alexis Cole – Alone together: Symbol is excellent, voice excellent

Amanda Martinez – Tomalo – Amor: her voice was excellent, guitar sounded excellent and all the “volumes” that is the tome across the board was even and good. Man, guitar strums that scraped the Guitar body sounded so real!

Truth about Charlie sound track – De cara a la pared: Rain in beginning very defined, detailed.

The go Between’s – Love Goes On (remastered): clear, guitar strings easily defined, Tonality fantastic.

Eagles – Hotel California (DSD) Remaster – Guitar picking very clear and defined, timbre excellent. Bas very good and clean, no muddy run over. REALY CRANKED THSES UP WITH NO DISTORTION OR SIMBELENCE. Symbols in background detailed and clear

Rodrigo y Gabriella – Metavolution -Metavolution: Bass greatly improved over S8Z  could really feel the emotion of this song.

Miles Davis – Someday my prince will come: Piano timbre excellent – Horn good too. Clean and detailed.

Justin Le Blue -all songs – Blue: compared directly against the HSN I40 as these sound great on this song, the Tequila’s were better hands down.

Glenn Campbell – Gentle on my mind – The capitol years: Sounded epic, no more to say. Well guitar picking was so detailed and timbre was excellent

The CCA CA16 is a definite recommendation by me. For the advertised price of $59.00 you can’t really go wrong with these. I like high end IEM’s and have some very expensive ones in my stable. But I really love finding an IEM that is “inexpensive” but still sounds expensive (just like anyone else I guess). These fit that bill.

These have 1 Dynamic Driver and 7 Balanced Armatures. The shell is well made and attractive. It fits well in my ears and is comfortable. The cable is thin and “janky” (is that really a word) but did not tangle easily and sounded just fine, no need to change it unless your a cable monger like me.

I did find out that these are very amplifier specific. My initial listening and testing was on the Monoprice Monolith Portable THX amp. And all that was great, clear, clean, excellent bass, good imaging decent stage and generally good timber. But when I switched to the FiiO M11 Pro they changed. The sound was “veiled” and not as clear. Some of the “emotional” connection I had with some of the testing songs was lost. Weird? I also heard the sound change with the FiiO BTR 5 and the EarStudio. I understand these are different devices and different circuitry so for sure there will be slight differences but the difference between the FiiO and the Monoprice was huge. I can only guess that the Monoprice has significantly more power output and this affected the driving of these IEM’s. I have not tested on a phone so I can’t tell you how that sounded.

So on the FiiO I would change my review to “good buy at $59.00 but does not play up against more expensive IEM’s”. On the Monoprice, the same except “definitely is worth more and plays up to more expensive IEM’s”.

The BGVP ArtMagic VG4 is an IEM that I had several subscribers ask me to review. I also saw some other reviews that peeked my interest. So I plunked down the $229.00 at Penon Audio and ordered them. I was excited to try them out and so I ripped them out of the box and plugged them into my Monoprice monolith THX Portable Amp (what a mouthful) and started listening. I was surprised, they have a unique sound signature. It was very clinical but still sounded good.

These IEM’s have 4 BA’s, Sonion and Knowles, and no dynamic driver. I had a hard time reviewing these. I was trying to come up with what it was that was unique about them? What was that weird sound signature that I couldn’t place? I liked them but they had a different sound than other IEM’s. To be honest this is a trait I look for, something different, but it has to make me happy, excited, want to keep listening to songs that I love. This is where things got dicey. I didn’t like all genres of music on these, mostly guitar, some vocals, symbols and snare drums (so Jazz). They have great detail. The decay in the high frequencies is also very good making things like guitars notes and symbols sound realistic. But thin in the bass area, no real punch in bass drums. No vibrations in Upright Bass found in a lot of Jazz. But more than that they were very “clear” and “technical”. I know many love that sound signature but not me. I like clear and even a little technical but also warm. I want to feel the singers voice and the emotion in it. I couldn’t get that from these.

So I have rambled enough, my final opinion is this; for $229.00 I cannot recommend. They need to drop the price to $120 or below, and or, go back and re-tune these. The accessories are great, nice case, beautiful cable and a nice selection of ear tips. The IEM’s are well made and attractive and they fit my ridiculously small ears well. But the price is too much for the sound.

The Jade Audio EA3 is a “sub-brand” produced by FiiO. I will start with “I really like these, for the price”. These IEM’s have a great sound to them. Very good bass or low end frequencies. Mid’s are present and vocals sound great. High frequencies are reproduced well, decay from symbols and such is excellent. The timber is good, not as good as some higher end models but that is expected. Stage is OK but totally acceptable. Separation is good. Imaging is OK not great. The bass is very strong, these are great fir rock’n’roll or hip-hop. The bass does seem to be “muddy” in some songs that do not have a “tight” bass such as electronically reproduced bass songs.

The cable is very nice for the price, thin but does not tangle easily and works well. The included case is sufficient. The selection of ear tips included worked great for me and I didn’t have to dig into my supply to enhance the sound. For $39.00 (as tested) these are a definite buy. These compare to much more expensive IEM’s for sure.

Songs used that stood out:

Cecilia Strange – Bridge. Really here the decay of upper frequencies in this song, which was good.

Camila Cabello – Crying in the club, Bass was great. Singers voice was good with great detail and body.

SOS Band – (whole album). This is a good example of electronically produced bass that sounds good.

The BLON 05, I had high hopes. But no luck. Don’t get me wrong it sounds good fpr the price. It just doesn’t have that special magic they captured with the BLON 03. They fit great, much better than the Blon 03. The cable is better. The case is really beautiful (much more in person) and the price is still reasonable at $42.00 as purchased. The highs or treble was good, they have a clarity about them that is pleasing to my ear. The mids are a bit thin and the bass is also thin and not in the same league as the Blon 03. Look, 4 years ago at this price these would be a steal. Today they are above average at this price point but they are not “stars” like their predecessor. If you have stuck in this price range then I can recommend these, but if you think you are getting a set of IEMs that punches way above their price point then no I cannot.

Listened on FiiO m11 Pro, Monoprice THX – optical from PC

I found that these were detailed, really good treble, good mids, great bass and good sub bass. The mid’s were excellent to my ear vocals were not out of place or forward. Treble was excellent, very detailed. I would say these have a reference sound to them with a slight elevation in bass. To my ear they were great, I really enjoyed listening to them. In fact i would say these are better than the Mangrid Tea. They have the same detail in the treble regions and smooth but clean mids. Their bass was better, tighter with no booming. I guess you could say that these were clearer than the Mangrid Tea, like someone took the Mangrid Tea and lifted the veil from it. Which I didn’t really know was there till I listened to these.

Link to IEM on Penon Audio: https://penonaudio.com/isn-audio-h40.html?search=isn%20h40

Tracy Chapman: Very clear and reference sounding with near perfect bass. Best I have heard that track sound yet. Stage was excellent.

Lady Gaga – Joanne: Guitar was great, clear, realistic and detailed. her voice was beautiful. Very melodic and not technical. Mids excellent and bass.

A-Ha  MTV Unplugged – Take On Me: 

Portishead – Mysterions:  Very clear and reference sounding with great bass, very tight and clean. Detail was very good.

Portishead – Sour Times: Sounded awesome,nothing more to say. 

Rodrigo Y Gabriela – Hanuman: 

Alexis Cole – A Beautiful Friendship:

R.E.M. – Try Not To Breathe: Voice was crazy clear, background guitars sounded in the right position and the timbre was excellent.

Miles Davis – Someday my price will come: Detail was excellent, separation. Treble was excellent especially symbols and snare brushes.

Miles Davis – Teo: Drums and snare were crazy good. trumpet was spot on. The highs, mids and bass were fantastic. The stage was the best of all the songs, felt wider than some headphones I have tried.

Cecelia Strange – Bridge – Saxophone felt like I could feel the wind vibration of the instrument but with Mangrid tea still sounded very good but didn’t get that same experience

Listened on the FiiO M11 PRO. Volume at 35%

Second session on FiiO BTR5

WTF as stated in the title..I was not expecting these at all. The treble produced by the Piezo electric driver is friggen unbelievable. I could hear things in my library of music that I have never heard before. No kidding, there are songs that I am “intimately” familiar with. I heard sounds in them that I have not heard before. I compared to my other most resolving set the fearless S8Z, these are more resolving. Check my song notes below to find out more. But in a nutshell; Treble is fantastic one of the best I have heard. Mids are really good I could listen to Norah Jones all day. Bass was OK, it was present and tight. I felt sub-bass was missing but the treble and mids made up for it and I really wanted to keep listening to everything I tried.

I tested with many tips, all of the included ones, Foam, Reference and Atmosphere (whatever). The reference ones did give me the most analytical sound, the atmosphere just kind of took the edge off and the foams worked well, good bass and treble. I ended up with a pair of stiff black rubber/silicon tips that are much like JVC Spiral Dots and that seemed to give me the best Bass response.

Comes with a small but good sized case that works fine and has a zipper so you can safely carry in your pocket. It also comes with a very, very nice cable. Tips are OK but you will probably want to look elsewhere and do some testing with different types.

These are highly resolving IEM’s. They will bring out all the good in the music and all the bad, no way around it. For me these are keepers.

Songs that I used to test and my notes:

Amy Winehouse – Know You Now: Bass OK (these are slightly V shaped) Treble and detail “fantastic”. Stage was wide and imaging was really good. Vocal were just about right (for my taste)

A-Ha MTV Unplugged – Take On Me: Voice was “excellent” you could hear the vibrato in his voice and it sounded like I was there in the room.

Portishead – Dummy Album: Listened to the whole album, brought some details I didn’t know were thee.

Alexis Cole – A Beautiful Friendship: Symbols at beginning and snare drums, treble was not forward but yet so well reproduced and reveling that I was amazed. Her voice was also great, and the stage was good.

Metallica – Ride the lightning: What the hell the guitars were crazy detailed. I loved this song on these, I did feel that more bass would have been better.

Norah Jones – the entire come away with me album: The whole album because I could not stop listening. Everything was perfect for me on this album. I would not change anything.

Pink Floyd – On The Run: The lady announcing the gate status over the PA system, I could hear every word. It was clearer to me than any other set I have listened to.

Beyonce – Lemonade Album: Listened to the whole thing, bass was not where I would like it but details and mids were great.

Lady Gaga – Joanne:  Great detail and space at the beginning and throughout the song.

Eydie Gorme – Los Nosotros:  Her voice was excellent and smooth they also brought out every bad recording spot in the song.

Listened on the Monoprice Monolith Portable THX. Volume at -26DB with FooBar set at 90% volume.

Second session on FiiO BTR5 – For whatever reason the BTR5 sounded much better, I almost think there may have been a break in issue at first. Still did not sound as good on my other DAP’s. I guess the BTR5 has the “Magic”

Over all I cannot recommend unless your someone that likes a very V shaped tuning. Here’s why; for the price of $119.00 as I purchased them you can get the Voyager Legacy which is less V shaped, has better upper range reproduction and better Mid’s. Bass is about equal. The cable is better on the Legacy by a mile and this set has no case? Why no case at this price point? I could understand it if these were really outstanding and the “case” could be made that all the R&D and production cost went into tuning and components. But I just don’t see it. Don’t get me wrong, these sound good but over all cost weighed against the competition doesn’t add up.

Songs that I used to test and my notes:

Amy Winehouse – Know You Now: Bass good (these are very V shaped) Treble and detail “high”. Stage was tight. Vocal very back as to experience with other IEM such as Urbanfun, Mangrid Tea, Sony 800ST

A-Ha MTV Unplugged – Take On Me: Voice was “shout-y” and it seemed off compared to many other dynamic drivers, while the music was at a very reasonable and comfortable level the vocals were hurting my ears. Listening on the FiiO BTR5 things sounded much better, vocals were smoother and didn’t hurt.

Robin Trower – About to Begin: Because of V shape sounds good right out of the gate, Rock was meant for V. 00:55 (from end of song) symbol crash. Treble was hurting my ears.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela – Hanuman: Sounds good, these are good for guitar. Treble is good, bass is great. stage is tight but sounds good. Imaging decent. Sounded fantastic on the BTR5

Alexis Cole – A Beautiful Friendship: Symbols at beginning and bass drop, treble very present. Vocals back a bit and her voice sounded a little thin. Much better on the BTR5

Sade – Smooth Operator: Detail at beginning great, voice very clear, bass fantastic. Vocals back a bit, seemed like they were getting lost in the Bass/Music on this song very V shaped.

The new packaging is much better and actually fits the contents. If you order the original you know what I mean by that. The sound is fantastic. It competes with much more expensive IEMs and I am highly confident in that statement. I tested it against Mangrid Tea, Fearless S8Z, Blon03, Shozy B2, and others. I did have an issue of the left channel cutting out. I swapped cables but still had the issue. The right MMCX connector snaps in “crisply” but the left one “mushes” in. So I believe that in manufacturing they are damaging the left connector somehow. I would contact before you buy and ask that they (Linsoul) tests before they ship to you.