Introduction

Anyone who has been interested in in-ear monitors (IEMs) for personal audio over the last few years has likely heard of ThieAudio. While the likes of MOONDROP and FiiO get more attention when it comes to Chinese audio brands, at least partially owing to the vast number of products released each year, ThieAudio has been slowly building up its status to be in contention with much larger companies, including Western brands which have been around for a lot longer. ThieAudio is a house-brand of Linsoul, one of the largest audio retailers today, and operates out of dual offices in Chengdu and Shenzhen in China. I visited Linsoul's office in Shenzhen while I was there attending a show, and had a chance to try out some upcoming products and recent releases. Earlier in the summer, Linsoul/ThieAudio also participated in CanJam London where once again there was one particular set that got my attention more than most others. This just happens to be the subject of today's review—the ThieAudio Origin.


While the ThieAudio Monarch series might be what the brand is most known for, a quick look at its product lineup shows the team there is skilled in putting out far more, including headphones. There are all-balanced armature sets, including the V16 Divinity that remains one of my favorites, we've seen single DD sets, with plenty of hybrid (DD + BA) and tribrid driver (DD/BA/EST) configuration sets too in a wide price range. The ThieAudio Origin adds to this by being the brand's first quadbrid set, in that it uses four different driver types. More exciting is the part where the fourth driver here is a bone conductor, and not the thing you might be thinking of either. You see, bone conduction drivers (BCDs) have often been used in open-ear TWS earphones that don't go in the ear at all, but there have been more specialized IEM BCDs used to enhance the user experience by providing an added sense of tactility. This is usually seen in very expensive IEMs, yet the ThieAudio Origin costs well under $1000. This also happens to be my first BCD IEM product review, so let's thank Linsoul for providing a sample to TechPowerUp and begin with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications