TFZ — short of The Fragrant Zither — probably the most productive IEM brand from China. Lots of interesting models for different taste and wallet. Looking at the lineup — it seems that TFZ is mostly concentrated on dynamic models and rarely uses other types or drivers or its combinations. Focusing and mastering a chosen technology is the source of success of TFZ series, no matter the price brackets. My experience with this brand covers King Pro, Tequila, No.3, X1, X1E and My Love IEMs. Either of those deserves an «A» score or solid «B», at least. Only No.3 have some controversial results but its successor — TFZ No.3 Ti — got very warm welcome from the community. Hope that I’d get a chance to review it one day but today’s topic is Secret Garden HD — 12mm single dynamic driver IEMs packed in the most comfortable custom-type shells.

TFZ Secret Garden HD technical specifications:

• Driver type: 12mm double magnetic circuit graphene driver
• Impedance: 30Ω
• Sensitivity: 108dB mW
• Frequency response range: 5Hz — 40KHz
• Audio jack: 3.5mm, straight, gold-plated
• Cable connectors: 2-pin, 0.78mm

TFZ Secret Graden HD available at PenonAudio store

Packaging, design and build quality:

Secret Garden IEMs come in pretty small square-shaped box that states main technical specifications at the back side. Traditionally for TFZ — prints include shiny part with brand logo.

Box compartment is divided into three layers: top insert holding IEMs, box with cable in the middle and storage case with the additional accessories at the bottom.

Box contents:

• Secret Garden HD IEMs
• audio cable
• 6 pairs of silicone eartips
• 1 pair of memory foam eartips
• storage case
• user manual

Storage case is pretty standard — this design is shared across many brands, the only change is the brand logo at the top cover. Concerning the spread, there should be a third-party vendor that designs, manufactures and supplies such accessories to diferent companies. But the design is good — plenty of space inside and secure lock mechanism.

In overall, the design of Secret Graden HD IEMs is very close to be perfect. Unibody shells are made of acryl. Transparent front exposes aluminum inserts underneath with tiny but accurate brand logo and model name. Inner parts contain serial numbers in gold.

The rest of the shells are glossy black except for the compensational opening at the top edge outlined by decorative aluminum rings.

Sound output nozzles are protected by aluminum grills. Cable port bases are made of transparent plastic and rise above the surface for ~1.5mm. This serves a role of the additional protection against cable connector bending and breaking off.

Stock cable is thick, made of 4 twisted lines in black silicone braid. 3.5mm audio jack is packed into aluminum housing and ends up with pretty long bending protection. Y-splitter is made of black plastic and also contains TFZ brand logo. On the opposite side, cable ends with flexible transparent earguides and plastic housings of IEM connectors. Mic effect is absent.

Fit:

Once again — I think that this type of «custom» shells is the best current option mass market has to offer. Secret Garden HD might look bulky but the fit comfort and feel are excellent, thanks to that custom shape and flexible supports.

Sound quality:

Tested with Hidizs AP80 & HiBy R6Pro DAPs

Lows and midbass:

Main strength of Secret Garden HD IEMs is the amount of textures those IEMs are capable to resolve in lower region together with the accurate and weighted delivery. Depth of bass is not outstanding but the accuracy and detalization are both very satisfying. Lows are not overpowered or overemphasized — just the right amount. Separation from the other ranges is also good and bass always stays perfectly legible. Midbass portion sounds powerful and natural with enough volume and pleasing tightness while reproducing drums. Some rare harsh peaks are spotted in certain compositions, while in the most of the others — everything is perfectly controlled.

Mids and vocals:

Mids are a bit laid back in comparison to lows and treble while staying pretty thick and showing very small gain advance on female vocals and upper portion instrumetns. Seems that the «HD» suffix stands for increased treble that would create the additional (artificial) clarity and resolution on mids. Yes, the resolution is pretty high, especially on female voices, strings and bows but the negative outcome is the presence of screaming notes at higher volume levels. In general, this won’t become a problem unless a person is too susceptible to this range or the track is originally recorded with the excessive gain on treble range. Other than that — natural sounding, warm and thick mids with good «mellow» effect, pleasing for the genres like blues, jazz, soul, vocals, etc.

Treble:

As already been stated — treble is a bit more accented here in comparison to mids and sound on the same level as lows. With slow music genres everything is good — clarity, airiness and detalization are high, making sound picture complete and mature. Although, going higher on volume or switching to instrument-saturated music treble would expose some flaws — sounds start to mix together and to cast the excessive influence on upper portion of mids which leads to screaming notes on female vocals and some instrumetns.

Soundstage:

Secret Garden HD IEMs demonstarte good layering and instrument separation in lows and mids while treble is playing a distuctive role at higher volume and brakes the whole perception. With blues, jazz and slow rock everything stays fine — moderate soundtage with defined width and depth… trying metal or orchestra — hard to build the imaginary stage due to mixing of the instruments.

Sound in overall:

Sound of TFZ Secret Garden HD can be described as slightly V-shaped, with defined, texured and shaped bass, laid-back and mellow mids, slightly accented and well extended treble. Particularly good for slow music genres with limited amount of instruments. Tend to mix sounds at higher volumes.

Comapred to LZ HIFI A6Mini:

LZ A6Mini are hybrid IEMs based on single dynamic + piezo driver that adds the resolution and clarity to the sound. In fact, the sound of A6Mini is more detailed and crisp on treble, also forcing mids to sound more thin and vivid. The main advantages of Secret Garden is the texturing of lows with more accurate delivery. And much better fit.

Compared to SHOZY & NEO CP:

CPs are pure armature dirver IEMs with exceptional resolving potential in mids and treble parts but limited extension on bass. Secret Garden HD are more capable in terms of lows (more powerful and natural), midbass (more natural) but lack the extension and accuracy on treble. Both sound quite balanced, mellow and thick.

Compared to Moondrop Kanas PRO:   

Kanas PRO staying one of the best IEMs concerning its price. I would say that Secret Garden cannot move Kanas from the pedestal in terms of sound quality but definitely much better in terms of fit. Sound os Kanas PRO is more mature, with better layering and separation and showing no tendency to mix instruments.

Conclusion:

TFZ Secret Garden HD — another example of how the name resembles the sound quailty and purpose of IEMs. «HD» suffix clearly states the accent on treble that increases the perceptible resolution but skewes the entire balance towards V-shaped sound. Secret Garden in its name remids of quiet and slow music those IEMs are really better off with. Any slow genre with limted amount of instruments sounds smooth, natural and mature. Blues, slow rock, jazz, soul, launge — this is the genres perfectly reproduced and which TFZ Secret Garden HD are recommended for.

TFZ Secret Graden HD available at PenonAudio store

One of the best thing about modern HiFi market is that new companies and new brands are appearing quite often. At first, there are nothing but doubts whether the new player is worthy to try, but on the other hand — such tendency would push the market further. Moreover, new brands are likely to put more efforts into their initial product in order to bite some market share right from the start.

There is not much of the information about Anew brand. We were not able to find their official website or any additional information about their current product on sales except for the rumorses posted on a dedicated HeadFi thread

«So I did some digging and this apparently is not their first model they produced, and it comes from a former lead sound engineer from LZ» — by yearzero user on HeadFi.

Input from Emelya on HeadFi (Thanx, man):

«As far as I understand ANEW brand appeared in 2017 and now offers 3 models of earphones: U1 (TSH-AF518 in Japan), 1 nano-tube driver; C1 Classic (Lucky 7 Original), 2BA+DD; M1 (Maru 7) 4BA+DD. Manufacturer is Dongguan Shengyan Electroacoustic Technology from Mainland China (has its own site and contacts). According to this review ANEW earphones designed in cooperation with Japanese team (LZ branch?) and distributed mostly in Japan and Taiwan.»

Even its box doesn’t shed more light — it only states the company name behind the brand — Rui Sheng Audio Technology Ltd. So, either the company has just decided to go with sales overseas and would develop their media presence soon, or this is totaly Asia-oriented brand with some sales through international shop like PenonAudio.

Anyway, today we would try to answer the question whether their new product Anew U1 is worth of our attention…

You can purchase Anew U1 at PenonAudio store

Anew U1 technical specifications:

• Driver: 10mm dynamic driver with carbon-nanotube diaphragm
• Sensitivity: 108db
• Impedance: 32ohm
• Frequency response range: 20-20KHz
• Total harmonic distorsion: < 0.2%
• Cable: 1.2m, silver-plated copper cable, 4 shares braided
• Cable connectors: MMCX
• Plug: 3.5mm gold-plated, TRS

Carbon-nanotube diaphragm…, mmmmm — sounds intriguing… Hope that this would do any good to the resulting sound quality. We’d investigate on that a bit later.

Packaging and box contents:

Pretty neat packaging. We like the white box color with minimalistic approach: only brand logo imprint and company name. Nothing else.

The rest of the infromation is provided on pretty large user manual included in the package. Apart of that, the box includes:

• Anew U1 IEMs
• cable
• 7 pairs of silicon eartips
• 3.5mm plug protector
• cable velcro strap

No special revelations here. Unfortunately, there is no storage & carrying bag or case.

Materials, design and feel:   

Not really sure about the materials used but Anew U1 IEMs look very attractive. It is pure white with glossy finish and red brand logo under thin layer of lacquer at the top.

Looks like the shells are unibody which makes them very stiff and eliminates any kinds of part friction noises in future. Output nozzles are made of aluminum covered with non-detachable filter grills. There are additional phase inverter openings on the sides also covered with aluminum grills. They are outlined with red and blue which are used as right and left indicators. In overall — very attractive design and unusual color choice.

Cable plays a huge role in making a good impression about Anew U1 IEMs. Both — design and sound quality wise. It is silver-plated copper in transparent braid, twisted, with gold-plated 3.5mm audio jack| MMCX connectors and aluminum plug|connector housing. It also incorporates such elements as: earhooks, red and blue side indicators, aluminum Y-splitter with brand logo and bend protection.

Moreover, one rare but important detail here — cable plug and MMCX connector housings can be disassembled — parts are threaded. Therefore, we can even think of fixing the cable if something went really wrong.

Anew U1 fit is not perfect but more or less comfortable. It is really subjective and not this much universal as we’ve seen in Kinera IEMs, for example. The right choice of eartips plays very important role here while trying to get the best fit and outer noise isolation. Thanks God, MMCX connectors allow IEMs to turn around the center point and we wouldn’t have to heat up earguides in order to give it the appropriate initial direction and angle. The good news are that there are no extra sounds produced by the construcition or separate parts and noise isolation is very good. No discomfort during long listening sessions… shape and weight are pretty good.

Sound quality:

Our testing equipment: Hidizs AP80 DAP, Hidizs AP200 DAP, Hidizs Sonata DH1000 DAC&AMP.

First of all — about carbon-nanotube diaphragm. We see lots of companies experimenting with modern materials while trying to build a potentially better dynamic driver. This fight goes on not only among the manufacturers of IEMs but also on such markets as  studio|home HiFi|HiEND audio. All of those companies are trying to acquire the best material in terms of frequency response range, reaction speed, weight and driving load… Not sure what did Anew mean by carbon-nanotube (carbon fiber?) but hope that the advantages of the sound quality of those particular dynamic IEMs originate from the use of such material.

Another thing is the burn-in process which is described in the user manual. Anew talks about 100-200 hours of mid-level volume pink noise in order to disclose the full potential. We’ve done the required but were not able to spot the difference. Either we are getting old or, perhaps, only the precise measurement equipment would be able to register such, if any…

Bass and lows:

Excellent. One of the best IEMs among all that we’ve tested so far. Deep bass presence is at the sweet spot — not distructing other frequiencies, with very good shape and amount. The best characteristics of it — the resolution. U1 IEMs are capable not only of delivering bass at appropriate level but also of reproducing its details and texture. We rarely see such careful tuning of bass section nowadays.

Midbass is nothing to complain either. Full-bodied, powerfull, fast. Articulation and speed are very good. Drum sections sound precisely and very engaging. Such IEMs are definitely a good choise for any kind of genres with lots of drums and bass. We think that Anew U1 large compensation openings and driver cavities are perfectly calculated resulting into such pleasing lower registers reproduction.

In overall bass doesn’t lead the entire scene, it is served delicately and just to the point it should be. Its texturing would satisfy the most demanding audience.

Mids and vocals:

Again — everything is good here. This section doesn’t get too much of attention, neither it is laid back. Very good balance with other frequency ranges and no obvious coloration. Older rock songs with tube amplifiers get the proper warm treatment and modern genres don’t suffer either and get shiny and crisp if played so. Joe Bonamassa vintage tube-amplified Gibson or Jean Michel Jarre synthesizer — all get the appropriate treatment. Very universal tuning for any kind of music. Vocals sound clearly and naturally. No problems with excessive lisping. Resolution and amount of details are on very high level concerning the dynamic nature of these IEMs.

Treble:

If you thought that this section would talk about «tar tar in a jar of honey» — you are wrong. Moreover, this is the most impressive part of Anew U1 IEMs — despite using the dynamic driver treble section sound like if we are dealing with balanced armature here. Resolution and amount of details are great but at the same time do not produce extra sibilances or noise. Seems that people in Anew done the impossible — tuned treble so that U1 are able to compete with armature IEMs but didn’t allow any further negative and natural repercussions. Perfect job here!!! And again — treble is in good balance with the rest of frequency ranges. In contrary to many of hybrid IEMs it doesn’t add cool, sparkling or icy colorization to the tonality. Just the proper amount of treble brought to a splendid level of details.

Channel separation and layering:

Layering of instruments is good. There is no feel of promiscuity or overemphasis on certain frequencies that would obscure the details we would search for in our testing material. The only small notice is moderate channel separation resulting into a bit less then usual distance between the instruments in binaural recordings. It doesn’t mean that the disctance is small but some latest IEMs on our tests showed some more instrument distribution on vertical and horizontal planes and were closer to full-sized overheads in this regard. Their multi-driver structure and slight desynchronization helped to acquire better feel of channel separation and layering…

Sound in overall:

Anew U1 could be described as universal IEMs, with balanced gain distribution across AFR resulting with slight tendecy to brighter side due to excellent mids|treble resolution and amount of details. There are no obvious peaks or overemphasis making U1 the right choice for colored audio sources or any kind of music genres. Universal nature and excellent resolution are the main advantages of Anew U1.

The most important and what impressed us the most is the fact that U1 IEMs is balancing on the edge of delicate, intimate, warm sound of dynamic drivers and precise, sharp and detailed delivery of armature rivals. We know people, same as we are, who would stick to dynamic drivers for their advantages but at the same time would regret the lack of treble details and their extent after listening to armature IEMs. Anew U1 would be a perfect choise to end this struggle.

Compared to Magaosi K3HD:

Magaosi K3HD are hybrid IEMs that naturally leads to more sharpness on mids and treble with much brighter tonality. It’s sound is V-shaped with recessed mids. Noise level is much higher due to higher sharpness on treble and lows lacks the amount of presence and details. Anew U1 are superior in terms of AFR balance, thicker mids and warmer tonality. Treble and mids resolution a bit hanging behind but are much more controlled and more pleasing to listen to for a longer period.

Compared to Kinera IDUN:

Kinera IDUN exhibit good AFR balance and much higher amount of details on treble and mids. Moreover, their physical fir is almost perfect. Anew U1 have something as a setoff: warmer and thicker delivery of midsand vocals, more intimacy in sound, better lows and mid bass. And all of that with more than expected level of details.

Compared to Earnine EN1J:

Earnine EN1J are totally focused on the mids and vocals leaving the rest out. Those are very interesting IEMs for musicians and can deliver good and warm sound despite its armature nature. But Anew U1 do exhibit more balanced AFR, better presence of lows and treble. The resolution is equal or even exceeded EN1J tuning approach.

Conclusion: 

We get back to what we have started this review with — we should always welcome new brands because they would motivate new spin of competition for every market player. Apart from that, newcomers would often try to bite some market share by introducing their best products at the lowest price point. This is true for Anew — we strongly believe that U1 IEMs are much underestimated in terms of price/sound quality ratio. We can’t think of any other dynamic rival that would come even close to the level of U1. Even hybrid or pure armature IEMs with a slightly higher price and created by the most respected brands would suffer from less balanced AFR. But Anew has gone further with their dynamic driver and managed to come very close to the main technological advantage of armature technology — exceptional resolution and high amount of details. In addition to that, U1 definitely outperforms many IEMs in bass and midbass section.

Our warm greetings to Anew U1 and all the best wishes. We hope that all of their future products would maintain the same approach: delivering great sound quality that is totally exceeding the budget!

You can purchase Anew U1 at PenonAudio store

EARNINE is most known for its previous product EN2J with two balanced armature drivers design and which has got lots of warm mentions by different audiophile geeks and reviewers. We didn’t have a chance to try those out and starting our journey with this brand from their mid-budget offering — EN1J. Those are based on more expensive precedessor with logical and inevitable simplifications in terms of technical design and materials used. Anyway, this doesn’t mean a simple degradation of sound. In fact, EN1J got its own well-developed sound signature and would stand on par with their rivals in class.

You can purchase EARNINE EN1J at PenonAudio store

EARNINE EN1J (TE100BB) technical specifications:

• Driver type: 1 x balanced armature
• Sensitivity: 104dB ± 3dB at 1KHz
• Frequency range: 20Hz to 20KHz
• Impedance: 38Ω ± 20% at 1KHz
• Max. input: 10mW
• Cable: twisted, 1.2m
• Plug: 3.5mm, 24K gold-plated, L-shaped

Additional information quoted from PenonAudio store:

• Adopt own developed full arrange balanced armature driver

Succeeded in development by repeatedly failing and challenging for about two years by the in-house development team. Full range BA is a basic model of EARNiNE that covers broadband.

• Adopt twisted cable

Although it is a basic model, it is very important to prevent touch noise firmly and it was possible to minimize it by adopting a twisted cable.

• Noise isolation design

By design that fits the structure of the ear, I was able to concentrate more on music than suppressing noise from the outside.

Having signle balanced armature driver usually leads to compromizing on a frequency range unless there were additional efforts made about the driver itself or special chambers to compensate the possible shortcomings. Jumping ahead we would say that EN1J are subject to focus on certain range more than the other but still exhibit good sound picture in overall.

Packaging and box contents:

Our usual statement about the large box for IEMs of this size is that it is a nightmare for logistics and good initial impressions for the owner. Box is big with good glossy picture of the product, gold brand name and item name inprints and lots of technical data.

Good to have this exploded diagram on the back — creates a feel that EN1J belong to the professional field. Besides, the box tells us that this product is made in South Korea which is kind of rare nowadays.

Box contents are regular:

• EN1J IEMs
• Carrying and protective case
• 3 pairs of silicone eartips (S|M|L)
• 1 pair of foam eartips (M-size)
• user manual
• warranty card

We would be very disappointed in case if the carrying case would not have been included into the package with $105 price…

Build quality and materials:

EN1J IEMs is fully made of plastic. The only aluminum elements are non removable nozzle covers (grills). Despite that the build quality is excellent.

Those are small IEMs with low profile, perfect parts alignment and neat brand logo inprints. Cable is a bit hard to bend which would lead to more touching noise but incorporates well-developed ear guides and bending protection at both ends. 3.5mm L-shaped connector housing is also made of plastic. In overall, the choice of materials is ok here, especially if to forget about the wide choice of much cheaper models from other brands that are made of CNC-aluminum and have lots of design findings… the reason not to complain much here is that the choice of materials would also influence audio quality. If EARNINE had chosen plastic as the most appropriate material and could deliver good sound — we can live with that.

One of the best part about this product is the fit: small size, perfect profile, variety of eartips, low weight and subjectively thin nozzles dedicate much to long lasting wearing comfort together with excellent outer noise isolation. One of the best IEMs in this regard so far. Spent at least half of the day with EN1J on and had no signs of pain or a will to get rid of it.

Sound quality:

Our testing equipment: Hidizs AP200 DAP, Hidizs AP80 DAP

Lows:

First listening session might end up with the initial impression that deep bass and lows are almost absent. Giving some more time for ears to adopt and lows become more apparent especially in mid and upper bass regions. Don’t expect too much of details here due to the lower presence but the shape and speed is on the appropriate level. Some compositions would surely lack the dynamics and «tight» feel in midbass resulting into more affiliation to a specific genres and creating less stress for the ears as the positive outcome.

Mids and vocals:

EN1J is the product for mids. This range has the best resolution, highest presence, the most natural sound and good articulation. It stands in front of other ranges and delivers the most of details. Moreover, EARNINE has achieved very important goal — to create a feel of gentle sound at the most emphasized one and throughout the entire frequency range. There is no excessive crispness or other disturbing overly bright sound properties that would make you feel tired. Same goes to the vocals — intimate, gentle and natural vocals that stand out of the entire scene and allow all other instruments to take their sweet spots at the background.

Treble:

Never though that balanced armature could be tuned to emhasize mids more than the treble. It definitely hangs a little bit behind the mids here. The most curious part is that despite more than average texturing and detailing — treble is not that crisp as seen in other armature IEMs and feels a bit muted. This helps to eliminate all possible hisses and sibilances — those are totally absent. Seems that EARNINE has chosen the approach to deliver treble very carefully and to keep it far away from overpowering. In overall, treble is well balanced with mids and totally enough for most of the genres, just the previous experience with BA commands us that there should be some more…

Channel separation and stage:

More than average. As mids play the central role here — vocals are brought to front, there is a feel of standing close to a singer. The rest of the instruments are located slightly deeper on stage with good separation from each other. There is no mess in the mix, all instruments are well shaped and have a good contouring. Monaural recordings exhibit distant horizontal and vertical placement with their precise locations.

Overall sound picture:

EARNINE EN1J could be desribed as mids-oriented, neutral and natural IEMs with a tendency to a bright side and lack of deep bass region. These are neither too crisp and too bright as many other BA IEMs, thus, free of such shortcomings as excessive noise, hisses and sibilances. The best experience would be using EN1J with dark or neutral sound source for genres like rock, jazz, blues, soul, etc. Finally, the best characteristics of sound is the feel of gentleness — neutrality multiplied by accurate tuning and keeping away from any peaks.

Compared to MaGaosi K3HD:

MaGaosi K3HD are hybrid type IEMs with the similar pricing. They have clear advantages / disadvatnages in direct comparison to EARNINE EN1J. Advantages are the materials used (CNC-aluminum), detachable filters and cable, better low bass and more detailed sound in overall. Disadvatnages are: more prone to sibilance and hisses on treble, more irritating sound during long sessions due to excessive amount of details, less comfortable fit.

We would say that MaGaosi K3HD is the best choice for energetic listening sessions and EARNINE EN1J is for getting some rest and meditation 

Conclusion: 

We definitely like EARNINE EN1J product and respect manufacturer’s approach towards tuning. Those IEMs might be used as precise monitors by mids-oriented musicians or by vocalists. For home use those would be perfect to relax with slow music or to rediscover new details in many favorite songs. Excellent fit and very good noise isolation would also help a lot to get the maximum of each audio composition!

You can purchase EARNINE EN1J at PenonAudio store