Introduction

Binary Acoustics is an IEM brand based out of China that seemingly launched in 2017 and has primarily catered to the domestic market. I say seemingly because I had never heard of this brand until recently as it pertains to the product in this review and its website also looks to have been created recently. Indeed, it's a fairly generic website without any information about the brand and some placeholder text for everything except on this particular page. In Binary Acoustics' defense, that page is really why most people are on that website in the first place since today is all about the Gizaudio x Binary Acoustics Chopin—a newly released set of IEMs developed in collaboration with Timmy from Gizaudio, who also helped come out with the LETSHUOER Galileo we saw before.


If you do look at other Binary Acoustics releases, you would note the relatively unique shells of the Chopin do seem to be that brand's forte. The Chopin, clearly named after pianist/composer Frederic Chopin, goes for a clean and industrial design but aims to tug at your emotional strings with its tonality and sound presentation. This is a hybrid set of IEMs using a 1 DD/3 BA driver configuration and aims to "sound correct and complement different genres of music well." Thanks to HiFiGo for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp, as we begin our coverage with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Packaging and Accessories

I do like the product box for the Chopin with its gift-box style appearance. On the front is the product name and the two brands involved along with an audio visualizer still evoking music even before you have opened the box. There is a factory provided frequency response curve on the back—nice to see this always, although some information about the coupler/measurement standard would have been nice—and products specs in a table alongside. Lift up the cover to see soft lining and foam for added protection of the contents which ship in three separate compartments. Two cardboard accessory boxes on the right have clear markings to indicate what is inside, including a quick start guide and a cleaning tool.


I will say here that perhaps Hifigo and others involved could have done a better job informing reviewers about the fact that the ear tips which come with retail orders of the Chopin are, thankfully, different from what we got. I have here three sets of generic silicone ear tips in sizes S/M/L which is meager in itself compared to what we see usually. Making it worse is the part where these are quite stiff but you can rest assured as the Chopin actually ships with far better, more expensive ear tips. Pre-orders, which I understand have already sold out, were provided DIVINUS Velvet tips in the same three sizes whereas everything thereafter ships with my personal favorite Softears Ultra Clears. The Chopin also goes for a practical carry/storage option with a hard case that has a branding sticker on the front and a sturdy locking latch. Inside is a soft foam lining to protect the contents and the IEMs themselves ship inside individual soft cloth pouches. I would encourage Binary Acoustics to tighten these pouches more though since one of the IEM shells was loose inside the case when I opened it. But overall I am more than happy with what the paying customer will receive.

Closer Look

The cable that ships with the Gizaudio x Binary Acoustics Chopin is.. fine. It looks nice with the silver-plated oxygen-free copper conductor braided in a Litz configuration and giving you four thick, tightly wound strands but doesn't shape up easily and retains some cable memory each time you unfurl it. Once it's opened up and in use, it's not going to bother you though so this isn't a deal breaker by any means. It begins with your choice of either 3.5 mm TRS single-ended or 4.4 mm TRRS balanced connector headed to your source on an aluminium housing that gets the two brands engraved on the native finish. The metal hardware continues throughout to maintain this silver aesthetic and the white strain relief is a nice touch too even if it does feel far too long. The splitter and cable cinch both work quite well and the other end has pre-formed ear hooks that terminate in two 0.78 mm 2-pin connectors that have translucent plastic housings with a very subtle L/R marking to indicate the left and right channels, respectively. This is the only place where I thought more metal housings with an easier-to-identify marking would have raised the accessories bar further. The various metal plugs are gold-plated for oxidation resistance.


If you were thought IEMs were getting too flashy then the Chopin might well be for you. It's a clean industrial look with monochrome colors courtesy the black 3D printed resin shells and the stainless steel face plate that wraps around the side before being glued in place. The use of a pseudo audio analyzer spectrum to contain the branding within is a neat touch and the IEMs themselves have an angled teardrop shape to them. The spout, if you will, is where you will see a cutout for the cable connectors with the rounded housing the front and back vents for the drivers. The body may look bulbous but it's still fairly ergonomic in the back where it goes in the concha courtesy a short curvature for the shells leading up to the nozzle which itself is angled conservatively inward and measures in at 6.25 mm in diameter at the end, 6.80 mm at the lip. There are two places that the ear tips could theoretically stop at although realistically you would push the ear tip bore all the way in. I don't have the actual stock ear tips for the Chopin here so you can just imagine how they would fit over this nozzle. The three driver sets each have acoustic tubing leading into the nozzle and thus we have three small holes here with the one accommodating a Knowles damper. Installing the cable is simple enough with the pre-molded ear hooks that go over the ears and L/R indicators helping identify what goes where. Push the 2-pin connectors into the IEM connectors as seen above until they fit in place via a friction fit. The other end then goes to the source of your choice—I went with the Questyle M15 and the Cayin RU7 for most of my testing.

Fit and Audio Performance

Seen above is the right side of the Gizaudio x Binary Acoustics Chopin installed in an anthropomorphic pinna that does well in showing my own experience with these. I have average-sized ears and typically use size M silicone tips. I was about to complain again about the stiff stock tips but that's not relevant anymore given you will be getting the Softears UC tips with Chopin orders going forward. That should help nicely since there is a good amount of leeway in the insertion angle of the nozzle and those softer, more malleable tips will help make for a more comfortable and secure fit compared to these stiffer ones that I would have told you to replace as soon as possible. With that accounted for, I don't expect people to have difficulty fitting the Chopin owing to the rounded bottom section fitting nicely in the concha and the top already angled to nicely fit the pre-formed cable hook around and over the ears. These are also light at ~6.5 g each side so there shouldn't be physical fatigue either. The only thing to note is the shells have a soft touch texture that seem to like fingerprints and finger oils more than I would have preferred, so handle them with dry hands and wipe them regularly. As mentioned before, the Chopin uses a hybrid driver configuration using an in-house developed dynamic driver and three balanced armature drivers in a 3-way crossover. The lower frequencies are handled by a relatively small 8 mm dynamic driver using a ceremet composite (ceramic + meta) diaphragm. This leads to a single custom BA driver for the mids and a composite dual BA driver for the treble. The Chopin is quite easy to drive with a low rated impedance of 12 Ω and average sensitivity of 122 dB/Vrms (103 dB/mW)—you will be fine with a decent dongle itself, let alone a more powerful portable DAC/amp.


Testing was done similar to all other IEMs, such as the recently reviewed 64 Audio Volür. Seen above is the measured frequency response for both channels of the Chopin, which I've plotted again the Harman 2019v2 in-ear target given how it seems to have been an inspiration here. We see excellent channel matching on this pre-production review sample which will hopefully be the case with all retail units too. The second graph plots the average frequency response of this set against a new target that's based on a more scientific methodology involving a -10 dB tilt (-1 dB/octave) applied to the diffuse field target for the newer, more reliable B&K 5128 but then compensated for my exact 711 coupler instead. Do scroll down to the targets in my database linked above and see the new 5128 section to the left where you can click on the yellow question mark for a brief primer. The bottom line is this target is closer to what many people are likely to prefer out of IEMs and headphones alike. I have chosen to plot this graph with the frequency response normalized/compensated to the target to make it easier to see where the Chopin deviates from this target and, in turn, also visualize the various elements of the Chopin's tonality—elevated bass, slightly recessed mids, relatively smooth and extended treble.

Binary Acoustics claims the bass to be strong, punchy, and exciting without sacrificing the midrange clarity. I'd agree with most of this, even if I have to once more clarify this is not my preferred tuning at all. The Harman in-ear target is too bassy and has lean lower mids followed up shouty upper mids for me, and I dare say for most people too. It's also overly smoothened in the treble to really say how that target is intended to be, and there have been quite a few IEMs released recently going for this tonality to make it harder to distinguish one from the other. The Chopin does deviate to an extent by adding more mid-bass which does add a further 1-2 punch to bass guitars and drums but doesn't solve my issue of the bass being overly loud without being as detailed in return. I suppose if you wanted to feel like you were in a nightclub and the speakers were inside your ears then sure, get the Chopin.

The mids will be divisive and, as with pretty much every such tuned set, the lower mids come off slightly lean. But the Chopin does feel like it has slightly more body overall to be less egregious in this regard and then does offer a clean presentation for most instruments where I started to appreciate the set more. Imaging is precise enough despite some brass instruments feeling slightly hazy compared to piano keys and strings. This does affect soundstage to an extent where it felt artificially wide in some cases and appropriately so in others; there's not much to talk about soundstage depth or height here. Male vocals also felt like they took a backseat to instruments and then female vocals were overly forward to the point of making some singers shouty to me. If you are a fan of Asian pop music then perhaps this will be just right but not so much for me. It's not a fatiguing set though and I'd argue this does work nicely for classical music too with a relatively smooth treble. Harps and cymbals sound just right and it helps present a fairly natural timbre too.


The obvious comparison to make here is the recently released Truthear NOVA which goes for a very similar tonality. It's also a hybrid set following the Harman target—even more closely, as seen above. I'd say the biggest issue for the Chopin is it released not only so close to that of the NOVA but also after the NOVA came out to where people who were in the market for Harman set already would have had their needs met. The NOVA also being 25% less expensive doesn't help either, although I would argue the Chopin looks cleaner and is more comfortable in the ears. If you wanted more mid-bass and slightly less lean mids then the Chopin can do the job too. It's a trade-off in most other categories though, so get the Chopin if you feel the overall package makes more sense than the NOVA. There's also the $55 Truthear ZERO:RED, another collab set, which goes for a far more amenable tonality as far as I'm concerned. The provided 10 Ω impedance adapter can give you that bass quantity with a warmer sound and far more agreeable ear gain. But the Chopin easily wins out on detail retrieval and comfort while also getting close to that sub-woofer feeling in the ears as it is. It feels like a more mature take on the ZERO:RED, although it does cost significantly more! Once I saw how the Chopin deviated from Harman by adding in some more mid-bass, I had to pull out the more expensive XENNS Mangird Top which I am a fan of. This is also a hybrid driver set with a very similar tonality, although it also showcases exactly what I meant about the Chopin having quantity over quality—especially in the bass. The XENNS Top presents nuances and layers much better, especially when it comes to showcasing trailing ends of tones, and doesn't feel as lean to me as the other such Harman-ish IEMs on the market. I'd say that if you bought the Chopin and wanted more of that style then certainly consider the XENNS Top but otherwise the two aren't really direct competitors.