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

Packaging and Accessories

If you've seen any of my recent ThieAudio IEM reviews then this unboxing experience will seem familiar—at least initially. The product box is taller than average and has a decorative black sleeve cover. On the front is the ThieAudio logo and product name with a render of the default design and the driver configuration mentioned below. We see the product name and a truncated brand logo on the back in addition to contact information for ThieAudio and associated certification logos. Product specs are seen on one side, with the other having a sticker that contains the serial number of your particular set. You can then slide the cover off from the top or bottom—thankfully ThieAudio seems to have listened to the complaints about the sleeve cover being extremely tight on previous boxes—to see a black cardboard inner box with the ThieAudio logo on it. This box opens the same way as previous ThieAudio sets, except everything is oriented 90° from before such that it is far more stable and is presented better in my opinion. There's a thick foam sheet inside with a soft velvet contact surface, and we see machined cutouts to host the case on the left with the IEMs and attached cable neatly tucked away in the right.


ThieAudio has finally updated its accessories thus, including the storage/carry case that is no longer the large, flattish hard case from before. Instead, we get a round puck-form factor case in blue and with a soft Alcántara exterior. The ThieAudio logo is glued to the top in shiny letters and the exterior surface seems durable enough, even if it is likely to get dirty quicker than the older, more practical case. You can remove the lid to see a fairly deep case that has plenty of room for the IEMs and cable inside, but not much more than that. As it stands, we see the other accessories packed inside, included a branded microfiber cleaning cloth to help keep the IEMs looking pristine. We also get two modular cable plugs in the form of single-ended 3.5 mm TRS and balanced 4.4 mm TRRRS terminations, again with ThieAudio branding—I'm sensing ThieAudio may be taking cues from ASUS when it comes to putting its logo everywhere it can. This continues on the two plastic pouches for whatever reason, and here we see the included ear tips that come with the ThieAudio Origin. Unfortunately, these remains the exact same as what we've seen with ThieAudio IEMs for a few years now—silicone and memory foam tips in sizes S, M, and L, there was clearly an opportunity here for ThieAudio to add more given this has been one of the more consistent complaints over time. More options would certainly help too, given those silicone tips are stiffer than I'd personally like, and have had some fit/seal issues for others.


The last thing to do here is to detach the cable from the IEMs for a closer examination. ThieAudio continues to use the popular 0.78 mm 2-pin terminations, so all you need to do is carefully pull the connector out of each side. Don't wiggle horizontally much lest you bend the thin plugs, and now we are ready to check out the cable and IEMs separately on the next page.