Tin Audio T2 Pro vs Tin HiFi T3: Comparison Review

We independently review all our recommendations. Purchases made via our links may earn us a commission. Learn more ❯

Both IEMs look great and are budget friendly. But which one will be a better fit for you?

Tin HiFi T3 (L) Tin Audio T2 Pro (R)

Tin HiFi (formerly, Tin Audio) is one of those chi-fi brands that garners polarising views from different camps of audiophiles. Those who love them dig the looks of it and the great sound quality that you get for a budget IEM.

When you are attracting attention, you get the haters. They bring out the frequency response graph and starts mocking the roller-coaster lines of the upper treble. Literally unlistenable!

In this review, we will be taking a critical comparison between the Tin Audio T2 Pro and Tin Hifi T3. We have even included sound demos recorded off a binaural microphone so that you can get a relative performance comparison.

Packaging

How do you know if a particular chi-fi brand is doing well?

You look at its packaging.

The packaging doesn’t guarantee sound quality but it reflects the vision and the budget of the team behind it. They obviously had done their market research and understand the game to stand out among the overly-saturated budget range.

Right from the packaging, you can already spot the first improvement of the T3 over the T2 Pro. The T3’s box has a cut-out window to confidently show off the chiseled metallic driver units.

Good first impressions were made on both T2 Pro and T3.

Tin Audio T2 Pro



Tin Audio T2 Pro

“A V-shaped sound signature is appealing to the masses and the “fun-ness” is evident in the T2 Pro.


Technical Specification

  • Drivers: Dual Dynamic Driver (DD) – 10mm Woofer + 6mm Tweeter
  • Frequency Response: 12 Hz– 40 kHz
  • Impedance: 16 Ohms
  • Connectors: MMCX
  • Plug: 3.5mm TRS
What We Like 😍
  • Fun sounding
  • Handsome driver chassis design
  • Comfortable and fit well
  • A tough cable that looks great
What We Don't Like 🤢
  • Too aggressive sounding compared to the T3
  • Sticky foam ear tips

Tin Hifi T3



Tin Hifi T3

“It knows my ears crave for some fun times. But not in a wild, reckless manner. The combination of T3’s 1DD + 1BA combo helped dial down the aggressiveness and kept the overall balance more in check.


Technical Specification

What We Like 😍
  • A more controlled sound quality than the T2 Pro
  • Handsome driver chassis design
  • Comfortable and fit well
  • Excellent foam ear tips
What We Don't Like 🤢
  • The cable aesthetic is not my preferred type

Comfort and Fit

T3 (L) T2 Pro (R)

The nozzle of the driver unit is relatively short. But with a slim driver chassis, it is easy to push in the IEM into the ear canal to get a good seal and fit.

I wore them both for 4 hours straight and it did not cause any discomfort to me.

Build Quality

Eartips

One thing that I dislike about the T2 Pro was their foam ear tips. It came pre-installed on the driver unit and it has this sticky texture when touched. It was gross. I threw it out in a heartbeat. This could be due to it being pre-installed and having the foam ear tips exposed to open air.

The T3 does not come preinstalled with the foam ear tips. It was instead kept in a tightly sealed ziplock along with the other ear tips. This time, the foam ear tips didn’t felt as gross. Suspicions confirmed. I was slightly disappointed that the T3 went with the grey foam ear tips instead of their iconic blue foam ear tips of the T2 Pro.

Cable

Both IEMs have a detachable cable that comes with MMCX connectors and terminates with a 3.5mm TRS plug. The T3 cable has inline mic which I’m probably never using in my life but if you need to pick up a phone call, I guess that’s handy.

The T3 went with a thicker gold-and-white braided look for their cable, which to me looks really fugly. It has a cinch which is great and all but Tin Hifi, in an attempt to maintain the thicc look, decide to make it obnoxiously big. The entire look of the T3 cable is just not great for me.

The T2 Pro’s thinner cable is more elegant and has definitely made it easier for me to store the IEM in the carry case. Perhaps Tin Hifi knew that its T3 cable is hard to manage, it included a velcro strap to tie your IEM up neatly.

There were some debates on whether you should wear the T2 Pro over-the-ear or just cable down. The T3 made sure such silly arguments does not happen by having memory wire attached to the driver unit.

Driver Chassis

I will say the driver chassis of the IEM is as handsome as you can get but I like minimal look of the T2 Pro more than the T3. The driver shell is made from CNC-machined metal.

Both are equally lightweight at 4g per driver.

Sound Quality

Setup: Spotify Premium > MacBook Pro > IEMs

In terms of sound signature, they are on par with each other. A V-shaped sound signature is appealing to the masses and the “fun-ness” is evident in the T2 Pro.

Hence, why would Tin HiFi break something is not broken? The T3 maintains the same type of sound signature albeit with some slight tuning difference in the lows and highs.

Sound demo is not an accurate representation of the actual headphones. Use them for relative performance comparison.

Low

The bass on both IEMs is not too shabby. The reproduction has a good amount of attack and is rhythmically satisfying. However, the punchiness or impact of the bass is quite average. It is nothing like what high-end IEMs like the SE846 can deliver but it’s enough to get your head nodding… gently.

The difference between T2 Pro and T3 for the bass is the pitch articulation. The T2 Pro is like the 5-year-old kid that seem way too eager for his Christmas present and when Christmas strikes, you see him ripping boxes faster than Hugh Jackman on X-men.

For fast and bassy songs like “Dreams” by Adventure Club, the T2 Pro sounded boomier and the amount of bass is slightly overbearing.

On the other hand, I feel the T3 has more control. It maintains the excitement of the bass without enveloping the musicality of the song.

Sound demo is not an accurate representation of the actual headphones. Use them for relative performance comparison.

Mids

The mids are pretty decent too. In the lower mids, the vocals have less presence and don’t sound that intimate to me but for upper mids, vocals are more full-bodied.

Both T2 Pro and T3 performs equally for the mids.

High

Critics of Tin Audio love to bring out the Frequency Response Curve of the T2 Pro and T3 to illustrate how terrible the treble response is. Personally, I feel it is a bit of an exaggeration. The perception of sound quality is not highly biased to every individual and there is no one chart that can define the sound quality accurately for everyone.

The treble of both IEMs performed decently to me. For EDMs like “House Work” by Jax Jones, the treble is energetic and I don’t hear any sibilance in the upper treble region. It does lack some details and for upper treble, it sounds bright.

Just like the bass, the T2 Pro is slightly more out-of-control than the T3. The treble is evidently more forward and less airy on the T2 Pro than the T3.

Sound demo is not an accurate representation of the actual headphones. Use them for relative performance comparison.

Which one do I like more?

Tin HiFi T3
Tin HiFi T3

During my first few rounds of auditions, the more exciting sound signature of the T2 Pro had me choosing it over the T3. But as I listened more in detail and switching to song tracks with greater complexity, I started to appreciate what the T3 is giving me.

It knows my ears crave for some fun times. But not in a wild, reckless manner. The combination of T3’s 1DD + 1BA combo helped dial down the aggressiveness and kept the overall balance more in check.

Overall, I will pick T3 as my daily driver over the T2 Pro.

Conclusion

Should you upgrade to Tin Hifi T3 if you have a Tin Audio T2 Pro?

As a Tin Audio T2 Pro owner, I don’t think the T3 did enough to convince me to fork out ~$70 to buy another pair of IEM for slight sound improvement and a different look.

Tin Audio T2 Pro fans might prefer the more aggressive sound of the T2 Pro.

Is the Tin Hifi T3 worth buying?

At a >$50 price range, the T3 teetered into an awkward zone where an IEM cannot be universally declared as a budget IEM.

However, if you take into the sound quality, combined with the build quality, I will still recommend the T3 as an amazing choice for a pair of starter audiophile IEM or anyone who is looking for an IEM that can be their daily driver.

💬 Conversation: 6 comments

  1. I’ve enjoyed listening to my T2 for some time now, it’s the IEM I reach for when I listen to artists such as Mark Knopfler, Abbey Lincoln or John Gorka. But, I’ve wondered how much I am actually missing each time I read reviews of the T2 Pro and T3. I suspect not an amount that warrants an upgrade, and I think your review hints this too. Thanks for this well-written comparison.

  2. I believe a review requires the reviewer to share with others what their basis of comparison is. Unfortunately I have yet to find a headphone that competes with my audiophile home system (well maintained premium audiophile components for analog world from mid 80’s)for imaging and accuracy. In fact, I have been completely amazed by the Vizio 5.1 system I bought for $159 at Costco last year that in my bedroom sounds amazing with great soundstage, imaging, and sweetness with accuracy. So I an not adverse to giving a review without letting cost be a bias.

    I just got T3’s yesterday. I use them with stock iphone 6+ audio set with equalizer off. I use streaming from Spotify at highest quality settings. Results rather amazing for something in this price range. These are my second IEMs. I had LG730s for years as something just for portable sound while exercising and Bose 25 while traveling. Now the LG730s sound like airline earphones and the Bose still sound great with comfortable sound and detail but not the detail of the T3. BUT it took me hours to figure out how to position them and which ear tips to use until I heard some base. I found I had to rotate them in my ears until it seems the cable coming from 45 above horizontal worked best. I also found I needed deep insertion to get base and the slightest movement could affect the sound balance significantly. But in the end I found them a joy. The cables are a little out there but their limpness and “stickiness” seem to keep them in place without resistance. They do have a curve set for over the ear. I found the left plug in cable very hard and almost returned them fearing breakage. This it seems the connector quality is still a challenge for TIN.

    After wearing for a few hours there was ear fatigue and I still need to experiment with the ear tips as I do not feel I have found nirvana yet. I also found that what you listen to on these make a huge difference in satisfaction. Busy rock with lots of highs are irritating. Mild jazz, folk, indie, etc are wonderful and the sound is so clear and accurate that I can hear the bow vibration on a friends cello recordings and the pick on her husbands guitar (Acoustic Eidolon) like I have never heard on a recording but know it from real life in the front row 6 feet away! REAL!

    So give them a try and suggest you stay away from real complex music with a lot of saturated highs.

    TIP: May be my imagination but these got sweeter and smoother with some time on them…one hour was noticeable…so leave them playing on their own at normal volume for a day or so…they do seem to “break in” OR maybe I just got patient and gave the a chance.

    1. Thank you for that comment about the break-in period. The break-in period is interesting, as test samples (from a friend) have already been used, so may sound different than ones newly purchased.

Leave a Reply