Due to my study coursework, camping in library all the long, I have to sacrifice my desktop setup and move to portable set-up instead, but the price of a decent portable setup cost a bomb. Small tiny IEM, and a portable amp, for the price I am paying for it, seems like it really cannot match the benefits that I got to enjoy. I got introduced to this cheap but DARN GOOD sounding Chinese made IEM, OVC TC20!! I am sure most of you who are into portable set up might have heard of this. Brought in by Jaben Network and it changes the perspective of value to money in IEM world, what a revolutionary product.
I used TC20 for a while, and the sound quality and the physical quality was such a huge difference that it spoilt after 2-3 months. I think that’s the reason that Uncle Wilson from Jaben stop carrying the product and replace the low-end segment product with Crossroad Mylar series. I used the new crossroad Mylar One for a while, and the same quality problem persists, but there’s slight improvement.
New Discovery: OVC T50
I am currently doing my internship in Shanghai, and surprisingly I found out there is a shop selling OVC product, and gosh, the current top of the line product T50 is just selling for RMB179 each, gosh!! That’s SGD35.80!! Less than 40 bucks!! So I just grab one and try it out.
Built quality
The OVC T50 is much better than TC20 physically in everyway! The earpiece casings are made of metal, something like aluminum or alloy, compared to the flimsy plastic we find in TC20. The diameter of the housing is bigger; I suspect that the driver used is bigger too. Besides, I noticed there’re 2 holes at the front and the back of the driver housing, I think that’s used to increase soundstage, just like the hole in the newer Crossroad X3i or something.
The cable of the old TC20 is totally disastrous, it gets curled up easily and it transfers microphonics. The wire of T50 is better, at least can match up to those Sony or Philips commercial earphones, and it is a huge improvement over old models.
Lastly, I think the next important thing is the 3.5mm Stereo jack, if this is not properly made, it will just spoil everything when it is not properly plugged in to the jack, and sometimes will have sound, sometimes one side has and the other not. The new one is pretty alright, quite decent for its price. Take a look at the photo and judge yourself.
Forgot to add on, it comes with few color to choose from, blue, red, gold, black and white.
Packaging
The packaging is quite simple; everything is housed in a simple plastic case (looks really cheapo from outside). Opening it out, you can get the earphones, a gold color pouch, 2 pairs of rubber tips of different size, a roughly made bone shape cable organizer and a piece of warranty card.
Sound Quality
Due to my cheapo setup, what I used to test is just an IPOD Video 30G, and a heavily modded DIY USB DAC connected to my trust worthy Apple Powerbook. Burn in time: less than 50 hours.
What’s Good
The Soundstage
This is one of the best improvements I have notice, compared to TC20 or the Mylars. This might due to the bigger driver housing and driver (11mm compared to TC20’s 9mm), that it can expand the soundstage wider than normal small tiny housing. When I was listening to Celtic music, which supposed to give the kind of flying, floating feel, it just sounds like as if I am wearing a clip on or full side earphones. However sometimes, it can be too expand that it lose focus, and inferior in 3D spatial imaging.
The Bass
Oh Baby!! The bass is just there, not deep, but massive .. weighty.. lots of it.. yet not boomy. What I can say is this is the traditional strength of OVC phones. The wonder of mylar diaphram? I tested the bass using a Chinese Di Yin Pao (direct translation, bass bomb) track, and the bass was shaking in my ear. Lack of depth is a problem; I suspect that might due to lack of proper amplification.
What’s Bad
Earphone sealing
The earphone seal is very bad compared to the UM or UE’s IEM. It can just merely block some noise away, slightly better than earbuds. The rubber tips are not very effective seals. I think I would have to apply Heady’s mod (from sgheadphones.net) to improving the sealing.
The Highs
It is somehow just rolled off on the top, and can’t really achieve the “crystal clear†sound that I love with my previous darling the SONY SA5000. The highs simply got chopped off at some point, not really obvious, but quite a serious problem for really high end user.
What’s so so….
The Mids
The mid is slightly recessed but not a big issue here, using an amp should be able to cure this problem, bring up the vocal and sweeten it a bit with some electric current juice. How my conclusion comes about is, the Mids improve when I playing the same music on my DAC compared to IPOD. My DAC has 2 output opamps driving the earphone, supplying about 70mA max each channel. We assume that DAC doesn’t play that much role here.
Conclusion
At RMB 179, I don’t think I can find any close rival at the price range. I am just simply enjoying the sound of this cheap stuff can bring, may be 70% of the sound quality at 30% of the price of next best product. Without burning a big whole in my pocket, I simple love OVC and love MIC product.. I will dig out more good deals to share with you guys while I am here in China.
Old Model : OVC TC20
