Introduction
Style over substance is a phrase that I think quite suitable in the current Chi-Fi audio scene. Frequently, we’ll see a great looking IEM but only with a sub-par sound performance. Nonetheless, maybe not today because Tanchjim, a well-regarded China-based audio company mainly focusing on the IEM market due to their highly praised tuning style from their legendary Tanchjim Oxygen, have recently released the 2021 version of the Hana. At first glance of the Hana 2021, we have the combination of gold, white and shining steel enclosing a single dynamic driver inside, what more do you want? Oh yes, the sound, sorry, the sound. Right, with joking aside, is the verdict here could be style over substance once again or perhaps could be both style and substance for the Hana 2021? Hopefully you get what I mean, enjoy the reading.
Packaging & Accessories
A little disclaimer here, my unit is a review unit therefore I am not able to confirm if this packaging that I received will be 100% similar with the real unit. Tanchjim Hana 2021 comes with a simple and small cube shaped box. In front, we have the name and image of the Hana, while at the back, we have the specifications and drivers’ illustration. Inside, there are few compartments that include the IEM itself and basic accessories such as a nice looking white colored leather with zipper storage case, 3 pairs of different sizes of treble and bass enhancing set of eartips, some backup filters, some warranty documentation and product certification, a waifu card, and a 3.5mm 2-pin cable. The design and color choices of the packaging and accessories are incredibly nice to my eyes however, I did expect a bigger or better packaging presentation with more accessories included at this price range.
Design & Build Quality
The Hana shell is made of 316L stainless steel cavities in which the inner cavity has an elegant rose-gold color meanwhile, the front panel area is filled with white porcelain imitation enamel paint. Personally, the color combination is right up to my taste. The design is fairly small but with the typical short nozzle like on the previous Tanchjim IEM such as the Oxygen. In my ears, the nozzle did feel a little short but nothing too extreme. With many aftermarket eartips nowadays, eartip rolling should give you the solution. During the Hana evaluation, I mainly used Azla Sedna Kotori Kowai Edition, Radius Deep Mount, or the E-Pro Horn eartips. However, the stock eartips were perfectly fine in terms of fit, comfort, and sound quality. Both types of eartips do their job well, Bass Enhancing and Treble Enhancing eartips do increase the bass and treble of the Hana sound, respectively. Inside the shell, Tanchjim uses Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) as the diaphragm and ensembled it in a dynamic driver form called 3rd Generation high-magnetic flux DMT technology. Finally, the cable provided is a high-purity oxygen-free copper (OFC) cable coated with a special material that is said to effectively reduces high-frequency loss and truly restores rich details in the music. Fancy stuff here. Anyway, the cable here is probably one of the nicest stock cables that come with an IEM in my experience. The cable is extremely soft and light and most importantly looks really nice.
Functions & Specifications
Shell Material: Stainless steel with 2pin connector
Driver: Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) dynamic driver
Impedance: 32Ω
Sensitivity: 110dB
Frequency Range: 8-50kHz
Cable: 4 core high-purity OFC cable with 3.5mm termination
Retail Price & Where to Get
This unit is a review unit tour provided by HiFiGo. So ,big thank you to HiFiGo and Bryan Liew for including me in this tour. The Tanchjim Hana 2021 can be purchased for $179.99 from their official website here:
(1) Tanchjim New Hana 2021 Dynamic HiFi In-Ear Monitors — HiFiGo
Source Pairing
- Windows 10 Laptop > Realtek HD Audio 3.5mm output > Tanchjim Hana 2021
- Sony NW-ZX300 (Walkman One Neutral) > Fiio AM3D > Tanchjim Hana 2021
Test Tracks
Tonality
Looking at all the graphs floating around the Internet, Hana 21 has an almost Harman Target tuning which is simply a slightly V-shaped signature to my ears. The tone here is relatively neutral, Tanchjim is targeting this IEM to be smoother sounding than their OG Hana and I can see that this IEM is tuned towards being almost neutral in presentation. Judging from my experience with similar sound signature IEM e.g., Moondrop Aria 2021, these types of tuning might be perceived as “boring” or “dull” to certain individuals. Just a humble suggestion, try turn up the volume a bit more to make it sounds a little bit more fun and V-shape (thank Fletcher-Munson curve later). However back to the Hana, the bass is actually quite more forward, so the bass here is definitely more fun than what I expected. Mids are typically Harman-liked, little bit recessed, but rose back at the upper-mid up until the treble.
Bass
Bass of the Hana is quite interesting to be discussed here. Subbases has their presence but don’t really rumble to the core of the earth or anything. For my taste and preferred songs, the sub-bass is perfectly fine and sufficient enough. Most basses in a record are centered around mid-bass frequencies anyway. Mid-bass like I mentioned before, it is quite boosted than what I expected. In most modern pop or mainstream songs, Hana can actually sound bassy to my ears sometimes. Exploring further, the Hana has middling bass resolution and clarity which might result to slow and blunted mid-bass impact to some extent. Fortunately, it is far from being muddy or congested when transitioning to the midrange. Overall, the bass of the Hana can be described as slightly forward with a neutral and non-aggressive behavior.
Midrange
Midrange of the Hana is generally good whether tonally or technically. The tone is neutral but slightly thin due to the lack of gain in the lower mids. Meanwhile, the upper mids are slightly boosted which provide some brightness and clarity especially in high pitched vocal. To find any bads in this section, I listened to Michael Bublé and Cécile voices, and their vocals were lacking in “body” and were little bit “aggressive”, respectively. I may be exaggerated with that lower- and upper-mid imbalance but again, the midrange performance is generally good. In Fanfares and Flowers, there were a lot of acoustic instruments and multi layered vocals being played and the Hana is capable to extract those midrange tones beautifully. They are tuned to be neutral and safe to be honest, so blast that volume up for maximum dynamic range! Okay maybe not that loud.
Treble
The original Hana was reported to be treble-oriented but also fatiguing IEM. Here, I can only report that the Hana 21 has a smooth, non-fatiguing, and harsh less but also with a well extended treble and air. However, I have to say that there were some unnatural shimmers in cymbals strikes sometimes, likely due to over boosted between the 10kHz to 20KHz frequencies. Having said that, air is extended naturally since most of the records I listened to have a sense of “openness” to it. Going back a little bit in the mid-treble between 6kHz to 10kHz, there weren’t any sibilance that I could detect but in fact, here the Hana has plenty of clarity which is good for vocal vividness. Overall, the presentation of the Hana’s treble is forward but remains smooth.
Soundstage & Imaging
Sound staging performance of the Hana is excellent considering this is a single dynamic driver IEM. Horizontal stage plus its stereo imaging is superbly stretched slightly out of my ears. Depth staging is also very good, bass kick and slams are solid and have their own depth. In this section, I played Maroon 5 old albums namely, Songs About Janes and It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. The experience was just sublime, Adam Levine voice and his band instruments sounded airy and open with a great imaging performance. The only downsides here are the vertical soundstage height and the slightly blurry instrument’s pinpoint imaging at this price point. I guess I should remind myself that this is a single dynamic driver IEM, not a multi BA or hybrid drivers IEM.
Separation & Timbre
Another impressive attribute of the Hana is the instrument separation or the layering capability. I would say that the layering is not going to make you jump from your seat or anything, but it is a solid one. Everything is very well controlled, orchestral instruments in Pirates Of The Caribbean Medley (Live In Prague) by Hans Zimmer although not separated surgically, the bassline rumbles, the snares panning, and the strings were still be able to be extracted well enough from that live recording. Moving on to resolution, Hana 2021 is probably one of the highest resolution single dynamic driver IEM I have ever tried (judging from my limited experience). Detail retrieval particularly macro details are more prominent than micro details, macro texture of every instrument are excellent especially at higher volume. So, this is definitely not a micro detail monster but rather an IEM that is focused more on being a musical and natural monitor. Dynamic is also pretty good, not excellent, every instrument has their own space and can be differentiated by quite a black background. Transient speed is the only weakness for this LCP dynamic driver in order to compensate for its organic and natural timbre performance.
Drivability & Synergy
With impedance of 32 Ω and a normal 110 dB sensitivity, Hana’s LCP driver ironically demands a tiny bit more of voltage input or power requirement to push the volume up normally, compared to some other single DD IEMs although it runs just fine with either smartphone or laptop. Having said that, current drive is also usually important for a DD IEM like the Hana, in order to maximize the transient potential of the driver. Consequently, the Hana does sounds slightly better with better source and amping. In terms of synergy, it depends on what the listener wants because I found that there are many ways to match the strength and weakness of certain frequencies of the Hana with different flavors of the sources. For me, I would prefer a source with a linear bass with fuller midrange source to balance that Hana’s slight boosted mid-bass, thin midrange, and bright treble. Different strokes for different folks’ situation here, I guess.
Comparison
Fiio FD3:
Fiio FD3 is one of the latest single DD line-ups from Fiio boasting a DLC coated diaphragm with price tag around $110. In short, FD3 has much more aggressive V signature, a little bit more recessed in the upper mids and much more boosted bass and treble. Sub-bass of the FD3 digs deep about the same as the Hana, meanwhile mid-bass is much more boosted on the FD3 which I found to be already in the territory of muddiness, however it is not quite because the bass resolution is superior and faster in transient compared to the Hana. FD3 bass department have more details, clarity, and authority, with more controlled speed and transient. Midrange of FD3 appears to be quieter because of the more recessed upper mids region, consequently making the vocal more backward in position. Lower mids favor the FD3 more, male vocal sound much more manly and heavy. Treble of the FD3 has more clarity due to much more boosted likely around 6kHz to 10kHz. This may give the illusion of more details in the FD3. Also because of this, certain instruments such as cymbals and hi-hats have that but hard to notice odd splashy and slight unnatural timbre, as well as prone towards sibilant. In terms of resolution and soundstage, FD3 is a surprisingly capable IEM despite being much cheaper in price, probably around the same level as the Hana. However, Hana has a little bit better instrument separation and layering as well as imaging capability. One thing I found was the Hana can be pushed to higher volume since it is less sensitive and tuned a little bit safer while the FD3 couldn’t or otherwise your ears may get irritated with that harsh treble.
KBEAR Believe:
Pure Beryllium coated diaphragm, discontinued, and was priced at around $180 similar to the Hana, the once controversial KBEAR Believe is currently considered as a rare gem to some people. In terms of tonality, Believe has much warmer, laidback, and thicker sounding. Everything sounds much more relaxed and backward. On the bass, sub-bass is deeper on the Hana but mid-bass is a bit more emphasized and thicker on the Believe. Midrange of the Believe is much fuller sounding and not so recessed as the Hana while upper-mids are more aggressive or hotter on the Hana. Both IEMs have pretty much similar treble tuning except that the Hana has a bit more air at the top. Technicalities wise, I was having a hard time differentiating them both because they pretty much have similar resolution, soundstage, imaging, and layering. Timbre is also similarly natural, perhaps a bit warmer on the Believe. One thing though, the Believe requires a lot more power for it to sound actually good, so there’s that. Depending on your taste and preference, both are great IEMs in my opinion.
For Who?
Tanchjim Hana 2021 is an IEM suitable for single DD lover and someone who prefer to have some aesthetic value to their IEM looks. I have to be honest the design of the Hana is just lovely and pretty to my eyes. Focusing more on sound quality, Hana is suitable for someone who want something that is natural and musical but at the same time having the characteristic of a somewhat neutral sound signature. If you have the cash, I think this is a solid IEM.
Conclusion
Tanchjim Hana 2021 is simply a stellar in their design and at the same time a very solid IEM in terms of its sound quality. Of course, Chi-Fi markets will always be saturated and competitive in terms of price war and performance, but I feel like Tanchjim is able to put the Hana in the center of the spotlight for a great sounding single DD IEM. It is a nicely tuned monitor in order to find that balance between a fun and neutral signature, as well as successfully avoiding any harshness to the tuning which will eventually become a solid choice for most genres of music. To be a lot more critical, I cannot give the Hana 2021 a perfect score since there are still some imperfections in the tuning and technicalities as well as for their asking price but anyhow, considering it comes with a solidly aesthetic design I can still recommend it for a single dynamic driver IEM.
(4 / 5)
