TForce Audio Yuan Li (Alpha released reviewer's edition) - The Emprah of Broad-rangers.

Balanced-neutral sounding audio afficionados, This is something  to look forward to. Introducing the Yuan Li, The first product release by TForce Audio, a new audio company that was recently established in China. It's pricing starts at US$119/ £85 but if you do preorder from online stores with official partnerships with Tforce Audio, you can get it for  US$99/ £71. Tforce Audio is made up of personnels who have years of experience in audio tuning and producing high quality dynamic drivers to other audio brands as this will be the testament of their product excellence. I've been waiting on them to release their very first product since I received some infos about this new company.

Yuan Li as the first product of Emperor series IEM of TForce Audio, Its namesake is based on Yuan Li, the first emperor of Tang Dynasty. We history buffs knows how cultural sophisticated the Tang Dynasty was and its contribution among the  world's advanced civilization.

 

Yuan Li has a single Dynamic Driver set up, It uses a proven and high regarded dynamic driver technology, a Diamond Like Carbon coating on the diaphragm to add rigidity and delivers a better lower distortion rate.

Since I only receive the reviewer's package of TForce Yuan Li. Its content are the IEMs, the gorgeous and luxurious looking faux-crocodile skin leather case, a pair of black memory foam ear tips.a three (3) pairs of wide bore tips white tips of different sizes , another three (3) pairs of narrow bore eartips of different sizes too and a premium golden brown 2-core 6N litz cable. (I'll be using a medium size,  black narrow bore ear tips in this review.)

The Yuan Li's shell is made of aviation- grade aluminium in a shiny polished finish that screams luxury and finesse. It has 2- pin recessed connector that it is more flexible and less hassle if you are planning to replace the stock cables with other cables. It has a vent hole near towards the nozzle to release an air pressure built inside to give a better "breathing" on its DD's diaphragm. The fitting of this set is somewhat a bit shallow in my medium-size ears but suprisingly it really gives good sealing and isolation within my lug holes.

When it comes to scalability, I gave it a fair score as Yuan Li are a little bit choosy on sources particularly on smartphones. LG smartphones with Hi-Fi quad DACs and older smartphones with good hifi DAC/amp doesn't have any trouble and can drive Yuan Li to its fullest potential. Even entry-level DAPs will probably drive this set well.  You need a DAC/Amp contraption like USB Dongles and miniature amps if your smartphones have a mediocre sound output.

Now I explained about this set's sound signature, it is "balanced-neutral"tonality with some boosted parts on bass region, linear and translucent mids and good shimmer treble.

I'll do the description on each characteristics of sound in different audio spectrum based on my hearing perception.

LOWS/BASS:

I have a great expectations on DDs when it comes to bass response and Yuan Li didn't failed me and I even more like on how its bass quality sounds like. Its is an impactful, sustaining and punchy as you will feel it density note. It has a good reach on sub bass as it will truly has that reverberate depth. Mid bass has a good texture as it bass kicks  will truly show its authoritative slam and growl  and roaring sound of a bass guitar. Despite of some boost in the lows, it doesn't smudge nor bleed on the other audio spectrum. It has good speed of transient on decay.

MIDS

As an audio enthusiast that loves a midcentric tuning. I should say that it as clean, well-textured and smooth sounding one. Male vocals sounds has a right amount on density note to sound well-rounded, rich and deep especially those have baritone voice, female vocals are even more pronounce as their vocals ranges are welll-define and scintillating. Vocals and instruments has a good distinction on one another as you can hear the disparate of each timbre. Acoustic guitar, piano and violin sounds more vibrant, rich and crisp as they really sound more life-like and very emotionally appealing to hear.

HIGHS/TREBLE

The quality of the treble is on clarity with a good sparkle on the brilliance part. I sense that it has upper mids peak to add its sound quality with more crisp and incredible detail retrieval energy for a dynamic driver. Sibilance is particularly  absent. There is a slight concern that in some tracks, the mix is a little bit excessive on being too gleaming that overly treble sensitive individuals might hear it as harsh but for me they are alright within my treble sensitivity threshold. This set has decent extension on airiness on presence. Cymbals , chimes and xylophones are somehow well-rendered but somehow feels a lack of shimmer especially on hi-hats.

SOUNDSTAGE and IMAGING

Soundstage is more on above average on width, more defined reach on depth and height dimensions. It has a decent enough of space on each instrument and vocals to be perceive has a good mark on separation. Imaging and layering is just decent as DD provided a more linear directional spatial cues and enough to perceive the placement of instruments and singers.

As I concluded this review, Yuan Li has a potential to be one of the best single DD in 2021 as it offers a hard to beat price ratio performance due to its fantastic choice of aesthetics  designs, well-crafted and selection of choice materials to  be use in crafting this set and good balanced- neutral tuning as they stay faithful to the design philosophy of Tang dynasty vibe. It is also an all-around IEM contender ready to be in a mano-a-mano bout with other competitors even in $200 price range.

PROS:

- Matured "balanced-neutral" tuning

- Being flexible and all-rounder to almost genre

-  Constructed from choice materials such as aluminium for its shell and high quality Litz copper for ita stock cable.

- Hard to beat pricing, lads!

- detailed and resolution retrieval capability is surprisingly good for a single DD.

- a proven high-quality DLC- Dynamic driver  technology for an articulate bass response.

-Coherency and tonality minded audio enthusiasts  will absolutely love this kind of tuning.

CONS:

- good luck on typical smartphones with mediocre implementation on audio quality.

- Scratch magnet in a long run.

-overly treble sensitive individuals might find it strident.

Some Tracks Tested: ( * = 16-bit FLAC, ** = 24-bit FLAC, *'* = MQA, '*' = DSD, *'= .WAV)

Marianna Leporace- If ( Bread cover) *

Debbie Gibson- Foolish  Beat *'*

Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks *'*

Santana - Europa *

Europe - Final Countdown *

Guns N' Roses - Patience *'*

Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven '*'

Barry White - Never, Never Ever Give You Up

Pearl Jam - Daughter **

Roselia - Hidamari Rhodonite *

Agent Steel - Bleed for the Godz*

Metallica- Fade to Black **

Camouflage - The Great Commandment *

Queen - Killer Queen **

Michael Jackson - Billie Jean *

Bad Manners - Just a Feeling *

Riot- Warrior *

Mariah Carey- Love Takes Time *

Layla Kaylif - Shakespeare in Love *

Stone Temple Pilots - Plush *

David Bowie - Heroes **

Prince - When the Doves Cry *

Exodus - Metal Command *

Nelly - Luven Me *

SPECIFICATIONS:

MODEL: TFORCE YUAN LI

SENSITIVITY：103.5dB

CABLE LENGTH：1.2m

IMPEDANCE：32Ω

PLUG TYPE：3.5mm

FREQUENCY RANGE RESPONSE: 20Hz - 20 kHz

TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION：0.2%

DRIVER CONFIGURATON: 1 (DIAMOND-LIKE CARBON) DYNAMIC DRIVER

PIN TYPE: 2-PIN CONNECTOR

For more infos and details, check out TForce Audio in Facebook:

https://m.facebook.com/tforceaudio/