DIVINUS OSTIA: Sacramental TWS Wonder

Hello mates and welcome to my another edition of IEM reviews in my blog, And this time is quite different as I will do a review on a TWS IEM device.

TWS earphone devices are type of wireless earphone that uses the Bluetooth connection for calling and for casual listening. TWS devices are very convenient nowadays as we live in fast-paced lifestyle that demands more flexible time-setting management and more easing access on functionality. But I have this notion before that all TWS couldn't match up their wired one counterpart especially on audio quality and rendering lossless quality tracks (Standard Bluetooth Connection can only process and has transfer rate between 192 -320kbps, and it is indeed a lossy one). It doesn't even enter in my thoughts to purchase a TWS earphone as I am a Hi-fi portable audio enthusiast and collected some of the good quality Wired In Ear Monitors for my listening experience until someone offer me to test out their product and do a review on it.

Even when I received this product, I'm still skeptical on how does it sound like as I lower my expectation due to that I've tested some TWS IEMs and I don't like they were tuned until this TWS IEM really disprove my lowered expectation, from a doubter into an impressor.

Presenting the OSTIA, The first product offering from DIVINUS, a new audio company based in South Korea which they promise to deliver a matured tuning TWS IEM that even an experienced audio enthusiast will be pleased its sound quality. Its retail price is US$69/£50 and its available on their website and some retail e-commerce stores.

DIVINUS OSTIA's driver set-up is a single-proprietary dynamic driver. It was christened as DV1 developed by DIVINUS themselves as they claimed that it provide better dynamics to on frequency range and lesser distortion rate in both pair of this set. Its shell housing has a good quality polycarbonate material with matte-finished texture that ensures a good protection for its complex parts inside. Another thing that this set was rated with IPX7 which means that it has good resistant and protection against water. It has a sensitive touch MFB button on each side of this set for basic command like play, stop, next, back, pause, activate voice assistant and call functionalities. There is  also a LED indicator for pairing connection and battery indicator. A small capsule shape polycarbonate black charging dock is included on this set with 4 (four) horizontally-placed LED dots at its base which is quite diminutively compact and light to put it in pocket and can be carried easily as it has a leatherette lace strap to tie it on other things.

The packaging box is a colour black box sleeve with a print of the red OSTIA font and a picture of TWS themselves. The contents inside are in orderly organise manner, and these contents are the TWS IEM inside of a charging dock, extra eartips, a very short USB Type-C cable and some paperworks, Divinus is kind enough to include some goodies like an extra memory foam eartips (Small, Medium and Large) and sound filter (3 pairs) which are sold separately.

The size of OSTIA TWS is on medium size scale that it really fits snugly into my ear. External sound from surrounding was totally block as it was isolated well in my lug holes. It is really light as I didn't encounter any discomfort and soreness in the concha are. DIVINUS does really do some research in anatomical differences of ears to provide good fitting on any ear types in every possible means.

Here is the most part of the review and  what is tuning of this set. I perceive the sound signature of this one is a balanced, U-shape tuning due to some ample bass boost, linear mids and an slight elevation on treble.

LOWS/BASS

The bass quality is more on the punchy side with immersively impactful, moderate sustaining transients on dynamics and has good reach on depth as you will discernly hear that rumble on its low end of the spectrum, it really adds up a good element on with the sufficient mid-bass texture to more authentic and natural, It has a very miniscule amount on bass bleed as I encounter it on some tracks but  I still rate in moderately high score. Im really impress on how the bass kick sounds as it is really thudding and got some good pounding and the growl and raspiness of bass guitar especially on bassists that were using a slapping techniques on their tracks.

MIDS

I can assurely say the quality of mids here are clean, pristine and mellow, the vocals are push a little bit forward due to the added warmth and crisp on it. Voices quality of each respective gender are  well-rendered in both resolution and clarity. The instruments either they are percussion, wind or rhythm sounds natural and distinctly have good timbre quality on each respective musical implement.

HIGHS/TREBLE:

This is indeed has smooth treble characteristic on its frequency range spectrum. It is one of the most balanced treble among the TWS earbuds/IEMs that I've tested as it has a good sense of airiness as it has sufficient extension reach. There is certainly some peaks on upper mids but it doesnt appear to sound harsh nor shouty, I didn't encounter any sibilance. I like how crisp and swishing of the hi-hats sounds natural and the crashing of cymbals has a good extension and satisfactory shimmering decay.

SOUNDSTAGE AND IMAGING:

The size of soundstage is on above average dimensions with good depth and average height. It has fairly accurate pinpointing of placement of instruments and vocals. The separation has sufficient spacing to be determined on each part of  instrumentalists' cue.

To sum up my review here, As I stated here before that I viewed TWS earbuds are inferior and cannot deliver a good fidelity that I'm looking for but DIVINUS OSTIA did actually nailed its tuning and prove my doubts on TWS in general are wrong. This IEM definitely managed to deliver a good matured tuning and balanced coherent tonality as DIVINUS promise to their potential customers.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Model: Divinus Ostia

Drivers: Dynamic drivers

Impedance: 16 ohms

Battery capacity: 410 mAh

Charging time (case): 2 hours

Charging time (IEM): 2 hours

Bluetooth version: 5.0

Bluetooth codecs supported: AAC, SBC

Bluetooth profiles supported: A2DP, AVRCP, HFP

Bluetooth range 33 ft (10 m)

Water resistance: IPX7

Weight (case): 39.1 g

Weight (IEM pair): 8.4 g

Dimensions (case): 2.3 x 1.5 x 1.2 in (5.86 x 3.86 x 3.07 cm)

Dimensions (IEM): 1 x 0.87 x 0.55 in (2.65 x 2.2 x 1.4 cm)

PROS:

- Light and compact TWS earbuds.

- Satisfactory build quality.

-  Adequate included accesories inside the packaging box

- Intuitive overall design ergonomics.

-  Overall smooth and relaxed sounding for long listening session.

- Balanced sounding which is quite a feat for a TWS earbuds.

- Quality Bass that bassheads will be pleased and put up a smile on their face

- Technicalities are competent enough on this set.

- Water resistant and protection.(at last I can listen to music even in rain or shower)

CONS:

- Limited to SBC and AAC codec only.

- No APT-X, No APTX-HD and LDAC support for higher wireless fidelity (yeah,  this codec is proprietary)

- Fast-Charging (subjective).

- They should include the sound filter and memory foam tips inside the box.

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

Alison Krauss -When You Say Nothing At All *

Jade Wiedlin - Blue Kiss**

Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks **

Mountain - Mississippi Queen *

Queen - Killer Queen **

Guns N' Roses - Patience *'*

Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven '*'

Sergio Mendes- Never Gonna Let You Go '*'

Pearl Jam - Daughter **

Roselia - Hidamari Rhodonite *

Assassin - Fight (To Stop The Tyranny)*

Celtic Frost- Visual Aggression *

New Order - Blue Monday *

The Corrs- What Can I do (unplugged version) *

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Voodoo Child *

The Madness- Buggy Trousers *

Metallica - One **

Mariah Carey- Always Be My Baby *

Destiny's Child - Say My Name *

X-Japan - X *

Mozart - Lacrimosa *

New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Dvorak- Symphony 9 " From the New World." *

Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold (Sting cover)*

Michael Jackson - Give In To Me *

Exciter - Violence and Force *

Aaron Lewis - Am I The Only One *