TGR 0 Report post Posted May 4, 2008 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sghound 0 Report post Posted May 4, 2008 nice review & pix. does it say anywhere in the manual about the diameter of the drivers? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stereo_Electronics 0 Report post Posted May 5, 2008 Got one myself, 2 months later one side became softer. I still have the piece in my store. Not bad for a cheap earphone except the bass is rather lacking IMO. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stereo_Electronics 0 Report post Posted May 5, 2008 nice review & pix. does it say anywhere in the manual about the diameter of the drivers? 10mm mylar drivers, 16ohms, 90dB. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sghound 0 Report post Posted May 5, 2008 Got one myself, 2 months later one side became softer. I still have the piece in my store. Not bad for a cheap earphone except the bass is rather lacking IMO. seems like Mainland still got a long way to go for reliability. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TGR 0 Report post Posted May 5, 2008 it's 11mm, according to the specification. Stereo, I am not sure about your piece, but it;s going pretty good here, if you have tried TC20 before, it beats the 20. I got my fellow singaporean friends to try it too, they are all happy with it.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest dragonboy Report post Posted May 5, 2008 I've got both the T20 and T50 on my business trips to China. Real Cheap! Yup, T50's a lot better than the T20 in bass, vocals and resentation. But I didn't bother to post coz both the earphones got softer on the left side after less than 2 months of careful usage. Didn't expect them to be very robust, that's why I had given them a lot more attention than any of my other earphones. Still Dead. Reminds me of the mylars, boy! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
[J]-ohn 0 Report post Posted May 6, 2008 it's 11mm, according to the specification. Stereo, I am not sure about your piece, but it;s going pretty good here, if you have tried TC20 before, it beats the 20. I got my fellow singaporean friends to try it too, they are all happy with it.. I've ordered 3000 pieces for corporate gifts for my company last month and now as I'm referring to the T50 spec sheet provided by OVC China, it's 10mm, very common for manufacturers to create a different specification so as to sell better. Durability is an issue but not an issue when it's free. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TGR 0 Report post Posted May 6, 2008 I've got both the T20 and T50 on my business trips to China. Real Cheap! Yup, T50's a lot better than the T20 in bass, vocals and resentation. But I didn't bother to post coz both the earphones got softer on the left side after less than 2 months of careful usage. Didn't expect them to be very robust, that's why I had given them a lot more attention than any of my other earphones. Still Dead. Reminds me of the mylars, boy! hahaha.. i think it;s getting softer now... not sure psychologically or for real.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stereo_Electronics 0 Report post Posted May 6, 2008 hahaha.. i think it;s getting softer now... not sure psychologically or for real.. lol, e-mail ovc and see if you can get an exchange. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TGR 0 Report post Posted May 6, 2008 lol, e-mail ovc and see if you can get an exchange. will just call them la.. email damn slow..and i think the customer service here sucks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest dragonboy Report post Posted May 7, 2008 hahaha.. i think it;s getting softer now... not sure psychologically or for real.. That's what happens to my T50 /T20 and mylars.... one side slightly softer. After 1 month, it goes significantly softer. Eventually they just die on one side or they still maintain the soft tone on one side. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TGR 0 Report post Posted May 8, 2008 i wonder is it the driver problem? or the cable problem Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest dragonboy Report post Posted May 8, 2008 i wonder is it the driver problem? or the cable problem Not likely to be a cable problem when it gets softer.... Most probably the fitting of the driver is loose or driver is faulty. I tried change the plug.... didn't help. Sorry, Bro! That's how the China earphones work. Even the Mylars have this problem. Nothing new. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
