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Pros: Great unboxing experience with accessories
Comfortable shells
Excellent Cable
Nozzles for fine tuning
Cons: Fit can be a challenge despite small shells – tip rolling needed
Sub bass could be better
Lower mids appear recessed
Treble can get spicy for those who are sensitive.
Ever heard of the wooden car, with a wooden engine, and a wooden axle, and wooden wheels?
It wooden move.
There’s just so many wood jokes in my head but the monster with the 5 year old’s sense of humor has to be silenced for work.
sent over the Twistura Woodnote for review and it’s been an interesting day. This is a review unit and I get no remuneration but the joy of listening to new things and my thoughts and impressions are mine. All mine.
Twistura is a relatively new company that started off with some interestingly named IEMs that appealed to what little music theory I know (D major and minor) but when I heard they had released a wooden diaphragm DD IEM I had to kind of see this for myself and hear it for myself.
I like it when companies do something unusual and then also pack the box full of goodies that make unboxing all kinds of fun. Twistura is up there with Dunu in its accessory package and takes the cake in the unboxing experience. It’s in layers and I like layers. The IEMs and a case present themselves on getting the box open and then below that are 4 sets of eartips, each in a nice little case and then a level below that is a copper coloured, rather pretty, modular cable with some heft to it and it seems, at least as of now, well behaved and not mad tangle prone. And nozzles.
The shells themselves are really sleek and comfortable and made of aluminum. They seem to have a little rubber/silicone bumper at the bottom and I assume that’s to ease pressure off of the pinna if someone has really large ears but they fit me perfectly well and are super comfortable.
Now the Woodnote has a sensitivity of 108 dB and an impedance of 18 ohms. So they are a no brainer to plug into pretty much anything and will sound full. The innards of the Woodnote are interesting at least on paper. The diaphragm is made of.. Wood. Well fibres that have been shaped into “an innovative Wood Diaphragm Ball Top Composite Membrane”. Whatever that means. But it’s an interesting change from the current set of Beryllium, Graphene, DLC, and Titanium even. And there’s nozzles. Did I mention nozzles already? Yes? They are called standard, vocal enhanced, instrumental.
I got to put it through its paces with the audioengine hxl, hidizs AP80 Pro Max, and a hidizs AP30.
I had to pair them with final E types and velvet standard and narrow bore for the purpose of this analysis. Getting a proper fit and seal was a little challenging largely due to the shallowness of the iems.
For the most part the vocal enhanced nozzles seemed to work best for me. The standard being too bassy and muddled with details and the instrumental being the polar opposite with a little too much energy in the upper mids and treble.
Bass
The Vocal nozzle equipped Woodnote opens on a strong mid bass note. Tight punchy kicks and bass notes both synth and bass guitar make the low end a pleasure to listen to if looking for low end detail. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ by Michael Jackson has a syncopated kick and bass rhythm which is basically the song’s foundation and, to me, the most recognizable riff. The detail and texture on the notes is clear and has no decay and bloat and is a fun way of looking at bass. The sub bass is not the focus of this IEM with both Angel by Massive Attack, and Islands by XX being slightly less rumbly and droning than other single DD sets I’ve tried but the control over the midbass this IEM exerts more than makes up for the sub bass restriction, and the listening experience is engaging and detail oriented. Busy tracks on the Vocal Enhanced nozzles actually benefit from the better low end detail. YYZ by Rush and Got a Match by Chick Corea Electrik Band are a treat to listen to even higher volumes than usual.
Midrange
The upper mids take front and centre with the vocal enhanced nozzles. Making most acoustic instruments and female vocals rich and delightful. Male vocals are slightly recessed but do not suffer from lack of weight. The details again are clear and separation is well implemented and the tracks are well layered with no muddiness or muffling of details in the body of the song. Christie McVie’s distinctive voice shines on Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac. This nozzle makes nu metal and pop particularly enjoyable for me by taming both the booming bass and the harsh treble. Emptiness Machine by Linkin Park showcased pretty much everything this version of the band is great at – a tight rhythm section, angry guitar rhythms and Mike Shinoda’s and Emily Armstrong’s vocals working spectacularly together. We all miss Chester, but Emily is quite amazing.
Treble
The instrumental nozzles are a tad too spicy for me but the combination of the vocal enhanced ones with velvet standard tips pretty much tames most of the harshness. The Rumors (Fleetwood Mac) and Thriller (Michael Jackson) are fairly treble forward albums, while they are ok for the occasional songs, a long session did get a little fatiguing even with the combination above. But the preservation of details and air was worth it for individual tracks.
Stage and Imaging
The Imaging on the Woodnote is above average and it’s possible to place all the instruments in the sound stage. The stage is also similarly large without being cavernous or claustrophobic. There is a tendency to hear female vocals more prominently and up front and that’s really not a bad thing.
Final Thoughts
The Woodnote, unlike the Wooden Car, does move well enough. It allows for enough customization of the sound to be a crowd pleaser and any pro for one set of listeners is going to be a con for another and the nozzles will change those points enough to have them swap places. At its price point of as low as $129 on their website, at the time of writing this article, this is an easy set to recommend both for general listening and for analytical sessions as well. Yes it does not have the details of a kilobuck summit-fi endgame IEM and I think while there are significant diminishing marginal returns in this hobby, we should consider what we’re getting for the price. And appreciate the entire package, including a treasure trove of an unboxing, inoffensive sound for the most part and fairly good bang for the buck.
Excuse me while I find out the origin of that phrase.