Posted by Pros: Comfortable, very comfortable
Great mids and the sound we’ve come to expect from Tanchjim
Non fatiguing treble for long listens
App that works on iOS and Android
Cons: Sub bass is lacking but seriously it’s an open earbud so that shouldn’t count as a con
Mic can falter in noisy environments
In my eternal quest for a way to listen to music in situations that also require me to be able to focus on sounds coming in from outside led me to the Tanchjim Revo, that Tanchjim was kind enough to send over for a review.
I had previously looked at the Soundpeats uu2, a clip style TWS as my saviour for these situations but now I have these so lets dive in.
With the Revo, Tanchjim goes back to its design roots, that the Bunny G had deviated from. Clean white box and a smooth pebble of a case. With a charging cable in the box. The case itself is white and slippery as hell but at the same time very opulent looking and feeling. Within are the 2 over ear/around ear/open style TWS/earbuds – I honestly do not know what’s the politically correct term for them but I also think that’s not relevant and what is important is how they sound and feel.
The Revo(s) are incredibly light and weigh next to nothing and have a thin ergonomic stem that sits securely around the root of the ear with the actual sound making apparatus covering the ear canal.
The overall fit and feel is quite unobtrusive and it is often possible to forget you have one on till someone gently taps you and asks you about the new audio gadget you are using now that looks cool. And then you have the opportunity to wax eloquent about Tanchjim, Asano, Revo and DMT drivers till they leave you alone and you can get back to listening to music.
From a tech spec standpoint, Tanchjim may have pulled a rabbit out of their rather vast repertoire of hats and created an oval/race track shaped 18x11mm dynamic driver that works better than 2 10mm dynamic drivers, that and some nifty tech that I don’t quite get and their website is in chinese and I did try to decipher it and I couldn’t. But the jist of it is this – the driver and the implementation works to give a good listening experience despite it being an open earbud and since it’s meant to be used in activities, and potentially louder volumes, it adjusts and adapts the sound to be as natural as possible despite the volume.
That being said, let’s dive in.
With open earbuds, bass is always a tough implementation to crack. Between loss of sound to the lack of a seal, the significant distance from the eardrum and the masking from ambient sounds, the bass is really hard to perceive as well as it would be with an IEM. The Tanchjim wizardry does reasonably well in the mid bass department with kicks and bass notes making their presence felt. I spent a whole afternoon listening to Jamiroquoi and for sure the drums and bass were there enough to groove to. I did miss the punch and physicality of a dynamic driver in an IEM but that’s like saying I miss feeling the wind on my face while driving with the windows up. There’s no point. The two are not the same or comparable.
The mids and details are quite up to the mark and I think where the Revo really scores is doing the Tanchjim thing with vocals. The vocals are as always front and centre and male and especially female vocals sound really engaging and natural. For an open earbuds, where things can slip very easily to sounding tinny, a little adjustment to get the earbud exactly in the right place (after which it actually doesn’t move!) and the Revo shines. And in a super unusual move I played a long lost Bollywood playlist – Mohit Chauhan’s Masakali from Delhi 6 and Benny Dayal’s Bang Bang sounded almost as much fun as they would otherwise sound on my bluetooth speakers. Treble is also done well with no harshness and sibilance, but with enough presence to make the music not seem flat.
The driver implementation and design is fascinating since the Revo NEEDS to stay a little outside the ear canal to actually use the air around it to its advantage and sound the way it does. Doing something silly like adjusting the drivers closer to the ear canal actually makes it sound tinny and lose the low end. Once you get the sweet spot, keep it there and you’re golden.
Tanchjim has an app that works on both iOS and android (unlike the DSPs on Ola 2 and Bunny G) allowing for EQ adjustments including presets, PEQ, and community presets. It also allows for customization of the touch controls on the right and left buds. The microphone is reliable and does what it is supposed to do in moderately noisy surroundings but will struggle in really loud or windy situations. To be fair either use your phone, text, or get out of there if you want to speak to someone.
Coming to my specific use case of wanting to listen to jazz while I perform surgery and yet have surrounding awareness, the Revo works despite adding to the number of things on my ear (glasses, mask strap) largely due to how light it is and how thin the stem is. Apart from that use case, the Revo has the uncanny ability to make one forget that it even is sitting on the ears. And play music for up to 9 hours at a moderate volume before gently reminding you that it needs charging.
Plus it’s so pretty!