Fit and Comfort

Now that we've ascertained that the Truthear SHIO is an excellent source to pair with IEMs and headphones, it's time to get back to the Truthear HOLA. Seen above is the right channel of the HOLA placed into an artificial ear mold with the included smaller bore size M silicone ear tip installed. I have average-sized ears, and the ear mold above represents my own experiences well enough as a proxy. Size M silicone tips are my go-to for testing, since foam tips are not included by some brands. The HOLA is a definitely improvement in fit and comfort relative to the previous two Truthear IEMs courtesy its svelter form factor and shorter nozzle that isn't as wide either. It fits a lot easier in the ears thus and I had no problem getting a deep, snug fit without being physically fatigued either. The shell curvature has several points of contact in the ear concha for added support, with the ergonomic shape working well. They also weigh less than average at ~6 g each and the ear hooks can be pressed down with the cable cinch to make for further contact and support—worst case, take a hairdryer to it and shape it yourself. An angled housing for the 2-pin connectors would have come in handy as a fail-safe should you have to re-form them. The overall excellent seal in turn means great passive noise cancellation to where I am plenty happy with the HOLA in this regard.

Audio Performance

Audio Hardware

Given the HOLA is a set of budget IEMs, it's not surprising to find out that it uses a single dynamic driver inside. But even here Truthear aims to do something extra by adopting a larger-than-typical size 11 mm dynamic driver using an LCP (liquid crystalline polymer) composite diaphragm that's become popular in the sub-$100 price range IEMs lately. It is associated with a polyurathane surround and typical Neodymium N52 internal magnets. There's no word on the voice coil used but Truthear is claiming the driver assembly to have ultra-low distortion relative to the rest of the competition. The HOLA has a rated impedance of a 28 Ω and a sensitivity of 120 dB/Vrms that corresponds to 104.5 dB/mW. This means that the Truthear HALO is easy enough to run off a decent dongle, let alone portable DAC/amps with more features and power output. The SHIO is plenty overkill in terms of power output thus—even off the 3.5 mm output in low gain mode—but it's clean sound output helps ensure the HOLA is putting out an authentic sound signature and the source is not holding it back.

Frequency Measurement and Listening

I will mention that I have a general preference for a warm-neutral signature with a slightly elevated bass, smooth treble range, detailed mids, and good tonal separation. I also generally prefer instrumental music over vocals, with favored genres including jazz and classical music.


Our reproducible testing methodology begins with a calibrated IEC711 audio coupler/artificial ear that IEMs can feed into enough for decent isolation. The audio coupler feeds into a USB sound card, which in turn goes to a laptop that has ARTA and REW running and the HOLA IEMs connected to the laptop through the Truthear SHIO in this case. I begin with an impulse measurement to test for signal fidelity, calibrate the sound card and channel output, account for floor noise, and finally test the frequency response of each channel separately. Octave smoothing is at the 1/12th setting, which nets a good balance of detail and noise not being identified as useful data. Also, the default tuning was used for testing, and no app-based settings were chosen unless specifically mentioned. Each sample of interest is tested thrice with separate mounts to account for any fit issues, and an average is taken of the three individual measurements for statistical accuracy. For IEMs, I am also using the appropriate ear mold fitted to the audio coupler for a separate test to compare how the IEMs fare when installed in a pinna geometry instead of just the audio coupler. The raw data is then exported from REW and plotted in OriginPro for easier comparison.


The IEC711 is such that you can't really compare these results with most other test setups, especially those using a head and torso simulator (HATS). The raw dB numbers are also quite contingent on the set volume, gain levels, and sensitivity of the system. What is more useful information is how the left and right channels work across the rated frequency response in the Truthear HOLA. The left channel was separately tested from the right one, and colored differently for contrast. I did my best to ensure an identical fit for both inside the IEC711 orifice, so note how the two channels are practically identical across the entire useful 20 Hz to 20 kHz range! The measured discrepancy from 5-8 kHz is at least partly a measurement artifact that comes out of matching the coupler resonance to 8 kHz, and in practice a proper deep fit had the resonance hit closer to 9 kHz on my coupler, at which point the two channels were closer to each other. I may have heard channel imbalance here if I was deliberately listening for it but there really wasn't enough to say conclusively to where I am plenty pleased with the driver matching done. This is admittedly one of the earlier production runs that might have been ear marked for reviews so keep that in mind. Measurements taken after 35 hours of testing, which included these playing a mix of various songs as well as white or pink noise and sine sweeps, showed no difference. There was no perceived burn-in effect thus, and none was measurable, either. The response with the anthropomorphic pinna in place matched the ideal scenario in the coupler extremely well too, which is an indicator of how good the seal was when installed in the artificial ear.


Here is the average frequency response for both channels of the Truthear HOLA plotted against my personal target taken from VSG.squig.link, which also gives you an idea of my personal preferences to better correlate any possible biases. The tuning of a set of headphones or earphones does not have to match my target as long as it is tuned with some direction, makes sense, and is executed well. After all, no one set will appeal to everyone, and having different options is what makes this hobby so interesting and hard to quantify. I originally measured the HOLA with the regular bore silicone tips but Truthear requested I also try the wide bore tips to see if there was any difference. I am somewhat glad they did because my overall experience with the HOLA matches the frequency response of the latter whereby we see an identical response all the way until the higher frequencies in the treble where the resonance energy of the tips differs. I did not notice that peak at ~13.5 kHz as seen in the blue line and indeed that means cymbals and harps do not come off harsh on the HOLA after all.

Truthear's goals with the HOLA is to have a punchy bass and a low, linear distortion all the way through. It also aims to follow the IEF in-ear target used by popular IEM influencer Crinacle but given a bass boost on top. I'd describe the overall sound signature of the HOLA as being more L-shaped instead given the slightly recessed mids and the treble response dipping down further than the IEF target typically looks like. Bass is the defining feature here with the relatively larger dynamic driver actually being on the dynamic and punchy side as opposed to not carrying much weight to the notes. It will work for electronic music too with the ample ~8.5 dB bass boost that has good extension all the way down to 20 Hz (and lower) although primarily I found it helping more with rock music as well as bass guitars. Drums are not as faithfully reproduced though with the beats feeling slower and not as impactful.

Male vocals might come off slightly warm—rap music from the likes of The Notorious B.I.G. play better than Kendrick Lamar, to give you an example. Instrument separation is fine but this is where you will definitely notice the HOLA is ultimately still a budget set wherein layering is poorly handled and picking up harmonics is not the easiest thing in the world. Female vocals were slightly hollow to me but this is ultimately down to your HRTF since the ear gain here was chosen to center around 3.5 kHz instead. I would probably say this might be the one weak point in tonality still. Imaging is adequate given the soundstage itself is on the smaller side of things. It's got decent timbre all the way through and the treble response is smooth, dampened, and overall just there. Not a set I'd choose for orchestral or jazz music in itself but then again the HOLA tries to be more an all round beginner set anyway.


There is so much competition in the price range the Truthear HOLA operates in that I can't even cover everything in two graphs. As such, I chose to go with some of the leading/newer contenders only, and please note that I do not have the 7Hz Salnotes Zero here that is another popular budget IEM. MOONDROP has quite a few entries to begin with in the form of the original Quarks as well as the Chu we saw before. Both are getting a DSP update wherein the cable terminates in a Type-C connector with an integrated DAC/amp which also deliberately tunes the IEMs digitally. The Quarks DSP is already here and one of the best tuned sets in itself. It has an in-line microphone, adopts a small bullet-style form factor for easier fit, and could have won the show had it not been for an inconsistent background hiss that takes away from the listening experience. I'll talk more about it separately another time, and perhaps the Jiu (Chu DSP) releasing after the lunar new year will fare better. FiiO, via its subsidiary brand Jade Audio, released the all-metal JD3 before that uses a more typical FiiO house sound. The company recently released the JD3 Black Edition which follows a more Harman-style tuning and also offers an in-line mic in addition to a handy Type-C to 3.5 mm TRRS adapter to make it a good beginner set. I'd say the JD3 Black Edition is worth considering too, but it's tonality is going to be less pleasing to the masses with a relatively shoutier upper mids and treble reproduction. All these other IEMs also have fixed cables that might be a deal breaker to some too.

The real competition, at least among the ones I have here, comes in the form of the TangZu Audio Wan'Er S.G. TangZu Audio is the same brand behind the excellent Zetian Wu full-range planar IEMs and I personally like the tonality of the Wan'Er S.G more than the HOLA given its ear gain almost exactly matches my preferences and there's some air in the ~12 kHz region for string instruments. It also comes in two color options that offer different designs and even transparency to look at the driver inside. The issue for me is the QDC-style cable is really not easy to use or work with and a replacement cable will put the cost closer to that of the Truthear ZERO. There's also the Kiwi Ears Cadenza I am testing at the moment which costs about halfway between the HOLA and the ZERO, and it's worth considering also given it comes in four colors/finishes and has slightly better resolution while still being tuned so well.