THE PLUS:
-Above average soundstage
-decent layering capacity
-decent macro resolution
-nice male vocal
-deep bass extension
-nice oversized carrying case
THE MINUS:
-sloppy mid bass that lack punch
-blunted micro resolution
-unbalanced treble
-thin dry mids
-light note weight
-lot of instruments sound off tone (poor timbral balance)
-lack of bite and snap
-uninspired and uninspiring tuning
TONALITY: 7.5
TECHNICALITIES: 7.5/10
CONSTRUCTION: 7.5
SOUND VALUE: 7.5/10
TRIPOWIN is a chinese earphones company that gain popularity with their tuning collab with BGGA (Bad boy Good Audio review). The Mele and Olina were their best seller. As well, before these, the TC-01 dynamic driver IEM gain good praise and recognition. Personally, I’ve just try 3 IEM from this company, the TP10 (5BA’s which was plain horrifious), the LEA (great for 20$), and the Olina (excellent for 100$).
After the overwhelming Olina success, let say the expectation are high for this new budget IEM.
The Cencibel is priced 50$, its a single dynamic driver with graphene diaphragm promising high resolution sound with singular musicality.
Let’s see if these IEM could stand out is most overcrowded IEM market ever, the sub-100$ offerings.
CONSTRUCTION
Basic plastic construction with beautifull sparkly back plate. Light and comfortable with short and big nozzle. Not impressive nor disapointing. 2pinc connection is secure.
Cable is of basic quality but not that bad. Surely basic copper 4 cores cable.
Packaging is a bit rough….its a cheap box with a very BIG carrying case, which is a plus I guess since you can fit alot of gear in this. It doesn’t feel of prime quality, yet it’s OK and nice addition. Their only 6 pairs of silicone eartips, which i test and feel it doesnt offer best result.
SOUND IMPRESSIONS
Overall TONALITY is what i would call smoothly brigth balanced U shape to vivid L shape neutral. It’s one of those tonal balance that is both safe and energic, with nothing that stand apart yet have a focus on upper mids and mid range presence. Here most part of dynamic energy come from pina gain and low and upper mids range, but bass too have thick resonant slam and treble, while understated, have energic crunch and dry sparkle to it.
The bass is hit or miss depending of music style, it benefit sub bass line, rumble and sens of slam over proper fully rounded and well define punch, the bass is just a hint slopper, it try to embrace dry mids but tend to veil it a bit instead. This do benefit male vocal which they present in full bodied way. It’s not a very gast or tigh bass, texture is a bit dry-grainy and it doesnt wow by both quantity or quality, its there when needed too as we say. Extension dig deep and deliver good bass line articulation, should it be acoustic or electric bass, it’s well textured and have this vibrant extension to it with the lead grip of instrument playing. This make the Cencibel rather decent for rock and jazz.
The mids are quite lean, thin in body but bright in presence they are clear enough but dry and not very natural in timbre. Male vocal as said, are less recessed than female vocal, they are well restitute but nothing lush or particularly appealing to my ears. Lower treble being more softed to avoid sibilance, the female vocal tend to feel overly tamed in dynamic, lack openess and full pitch. These make overal mid range sound a bit fuzzy, bordely shouty in amplitude imbalance for some vocals or instrument, so this is the type of IEM that have mids that can make me lower or down the volume in certain music passage. It’s not very good sign imo. It have something to do with mid treble imbalance. Saxophone for example can go shouty easily and lack density and air in body, so shouty dry here, while piano have blunted edge in definition, lack of fowardness and note weight, feeling more recessed than both bass and percussions sometime. Violin too will sound scooped in lead attack and definition edge. So, let say this isn’t very versatile mid range and more appropriate to pop music in wide sens of the word.
Now, the treble too is both safe and dualistic in it’s approach, some zone being darker than other it will tend to highlight presence of some instruments to the detriments of other.Percussions, acoustic and electric guitar tend to be favorites instrument of the Cencibel, while not perfect, they tend to have more crunchy and abrasive attack and fuller presence than violin, saxophone or clavichord. Snare too have energy and snap. Here we have hint of brilliance too, that can add exciting micro details or percusions emphasis, yet doesn’t produce natural resonance or sparkle which seem scooped to avoid splashyness of cymbals crash etc. Yet, safe as said, but this do affect tone correctness of numerous instruments, all acoustic ”strangely”. So, this isn’t a harsh treble even if smoothness can have it’s shouty moments. Its not clean nor airy nor perfectly resolved since in fact micro resolution is darker than macro resolutionb which restitue a simplified version of you music with extra fake resolution trick to it.
SOUNDSTAGE is quite wide and open, yet lack deepness. Imaging feel a bit blurry and lacking in precision as well as proper clean separation. Layering is a bit better.
COMPARISONS
VS MOONDROP CHU
Cencibel is more V shape, have more recessed mid range and less clean and detailed resolution. CHU bass is notably more rolled off in sub bass and less punchy in dynamic, but cleaner and more textured as well as less prompt to slight mids veil. Cencibel bass have more slam, rumble etc but less edgy definition. Mids are darker with the Cencibel, its more lean and recessed, timbre is a bit warmer and less dry than CHU. Treble is more detailed and clean and full with the CHU, its better balanced too but not as sparkly and resonant, it feel a bit overly softed in edge while more lively with the Cencibel. Lower treble gain is higher with Cencibel, and more prompt to timbral or tonal imbalance and shoutyness. Soundstage is notably wider with the Cencibel, while way deeper with CHU. Imaging is superior with the CHU since it doesnt scoop as much part of sound info, yet, layering feel a bit more compressed and less holographic and open.
All in all, the CHu sound more refined, mature, neutral and technical but less dynamic and fun than Cencible. Performance wise, it’s hard to applause the Cencibel here since both resolution and attack control (especially bass) is inferior compared to a 20$ IEM.
VS REECHO SG-01 OVA
These 2 are rather similar, but OVA is warmer and more laid back V shape, smoother in upper mids and more balanced in treble. So, Cencibel feel a bit more W shape in dynamic with more boosted sub bass making the punch a bit less well rounded than OVA. Cencibel sound cleaner and more open, while OVA is thicker as a whole. Bass is more textured with OVA, more punchy too and better define in kick drum-mid bass impact but less resonant and rumbly. Mids are a bit fuller and thicker with OVA, they have more note weight and sens of density, they are less dry in timbre and female vocal are notably less recessed. Treble is crisper and sparklier with the Cencibel, their more air on top and sens of openess as well as greater amount of details. Soundstage is both wider and deeper with Cencibel. Imaging while on part for static instrument positioning is better in layering with Cencibel.
All in all, this time the Cencibel is the technical performance champ yet not as cohesive in warm balance than OVA.
CONCLUSION
After my positive reviews of both Tripowin Lea and Olina, the bar was high for the Cencibel, too high in fact and I can’t say they impress me in any way.
Its one of this IEM that seek too much compromise yet want to deliver an exciting sound nonetheless.
The Cencibel seem to hesitate to be warm, dry or bright, U or V or W shape in balance, edgy or smooth in attack, to the cost of a fully cohesive tuning that will offer versatility and sens of fullness in musicality.
Its a jack of all trades, master of none without any glory to it since it’s not neutral.
Both Olina and Lea being better than the Cencibel, it’S hard for me to suggest it since im certain it will get lost for good into immense sub-100$ IEM ocean.
Seem like Tripowin throw a bottle in the sea with this one, perhaps it will appeal to somebody other than me.
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PS: I want to thanks Linsoul for sending me this review unit. I’m not affiliated or compensated for writing this review. As always, i’m 100% unbiased with no adds, no affiliated link, no $ involve including on my official website.
You can order the Tripowin Cencibel for 50$ here:https://www.linsoul.com/products/tripowin-cencibel
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