Closer Examination

While the ear tips that ship with the ThieAudio Origin may not have changed, the cable is certainly different. This cable, called the ThieAudio EliteNoire, debuted with the Origin and has since been listed separately for $139. It looks far more premium than that price tag, and honestly is on par with some of the more expensive such glossy plastic sheath cables from the likes of Effect Audio. It uses two thick strands with silver-plated 5N (99.999% pure) and 4N (99.99% pure) oxygen-free copper conductor—a total of 161 20 AWG wires in a Litz 2 shielded configuration and insulated with black/blue soft PVC sheathing. This color scheme continues with black hardware with some blue accents, as seen above, as well as a decorative meteor shower-style illustration on the metal splitter. While it looks nice, I find the cable to be on the stiffer side and resistant to re-shaping. It does not kink easily at least, but the retained memory and the glossy finish usually aging poorly over time leaves me with some apprehension. On the other hand, I see people really liking how this cable looks and sounds to them, so this could be a subjective take. The EliteNoir is a modular cable, and it ships with just the connecting end on the source side with four pins and an alignment hole in the plastic beneath the metal hardware. This means the modular connectors employ a friction fit only as opposed to those which also have a locking mechanism, be it via a thread or a push-lock. Push in your preferred termination—I have the 4.4 mm balanced option here—and you are good to go. I wish the cable cinch was more functional, however, as it can fall back down and not remain in place. The two strands past the splitter then head to the IEM end where we have pre-formed ear hooks with the usual kind of see-through plastic cover which is thankfully not distracting. There are L/R markings on the recessed-style 2-pin connector housings to help identify the left/right channels, respectively, and the metal plugs on either end are gold-plated for oxidation resistance.


ThieAudio typically uses resin shells on its IEMs and the Origin is no different with a 3D printed black resin material that then gets extensive polishing. The shells are on the larger side of average, and employ an ergonomic shape to help them more easily fit in the ears. The faceplates are where things get interesting though. ThieAudio offered custom faceplates (and shells too) with the Monarch MKIII, and we see some of this return with the Origin. While the black shells are a fixed option, you have a choice of 15 faceplates—the default ones seen here and then 14 others available if you go for the custom design for an optional extra. You can see photos of my Monarch MKIII review unit for an example of what the $150 "Disco" faceplate looks like, for example, with the "Butterfly" also costing $150 and the other 12 at the +$100 increment over the base charge of the IEMs. This allows end users to have the ThieAudio Origin in a design more to your preference thus, although it does make things harder to identify if you have different IEMs with the same faceplate—very much a first world problem. Whatever you end up going with, the faceplate is cut from a large sheet of the chosen pattern, shaped to size, glued to the shells, and may or may not have a resin pour on top depending on the option.


Here's a closer look at the stock faceplates, which give me a space vibe—perhaps that meteor shower on the cable has put this in my head—with the black base and then waves of different colors/clouds as well as point light sources. Whatever this may look like to you, know that these are hand-painted and thus no two faceplates will be identical. There is a general trend of colors and positions to still make the two sides look similar enough though. It's not going to appeal to everyone and that's where the other faceplate options come in, albeit at a price. The ThieAudio logo is present on both sides at an angle and doesn't become a distraction, but it might depend on the faceplate chosen. From the side we can see these are relatively thick IEMs with a slight bump at the top that will either fit in the ear comfortably or jut out of it and make for a less comfortable fit. The 2-pin connectors are fairly recessed here, albeit not to the point where the cable will be fully inserted. There's a filtered vent on the bottom for the dynamic driver, with the top allowing a sneak peek at the branded bone conduction driver—I've come to associate BCD drivers being located on the inner side where the shells fit into the ear, so this might have a different effect in the Origin. That inner side instead has the product name, serial number, and L/R indicators. We get a steel nozzle that's fixed on to the resin shells and juts out at a slight angle. The nozzle is 6.25 mm at the very end where it gets wider and 5.4 mm elsewhere. This does mean it's not a great fit for those with smaller ear canals and the thicker shells can be an issue for those with smaller ears/concha in general. There is a metal filter on the end of the nozzle to help prevent contaminants from entering the acoustic chamber.


Fitting the stock ear tips is easy enough because the bores of these ear tips are sized for the thicker nozzle, which can make it slightly more restrictive for you to tip-roll. The photos above show both types of ear tips—silicone and foam—in size M installed on the ThieAudio Origin, with the retaining lip on the nozzle helping keep them in place. You should try the different ear tips to get the best-possible fit and perhaps affect the sound signature too, and keep in mind that both ear canals won't necessarily have the best seal with the same size or set, either. The next step is to re-connect the cable by carefully identifying the matching channels and orienting the ear hooks around your ear when connecting the IEMs. Doing so is simple, as you just push the 2-pin connectors in place and they remain there via a friction fit, with the recessed connector also helping to an extent. The end result is a predominantly black set of IEMs with blue accents on the stock faceplates and cable hardware, and a few other colors strewn around.