Introduction

The world of personal audio—especially as it comes out of Asia these days—is so rapidly evolving that one can hardly keep up with new product releases and even brand names. So I can not fault you for not knowing anything about Truthear, which is a brand that only just came into the public eye a week or two ago. Indeed, it is a new brand that seemingly came out of nowhere and is already grabbing a lot of eyes owing to multiple things executed well simultaneously. For one, the brand partnered with SHENZHENAUDIO, which is among the largest Chinese audio distributors today. Second, it worked with manufacturing partners that established brands such as MOONDROP and FiiO used themselves. Third, they knew marketing was key and came up with a multi-fold strategy to have a fairly unique debuting product. All this has led to the Truthear ZERO, and thanks to SHENZHENAUDIO for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp!


The full name of these in-ear monitors (IEMs) is the Truthear x Crinacle ZERO, and this is one of the few times a reviewer collaboration has been more than just a tuning tweak of an existing product. Crinacle has been involved in several such collabs over the past year+, including the Eclipse (with FiiO) and Midnight (with SeeAudio) we have covered before. There's also a new budget-friendly planar IEM with 7Hz that I am testing as we speak, and I generally appreciate the guy's tuning while also recognizing that each of the previous two reviewed products were fine but not essential/must-have by any means. Would this time be any different, given also the brand involved is a mystery in more ways than one? Let's find out in our review today as we begin with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

Remember that multi-fold marketing strategy I mentioned on the previous page? The female anime character on the product box trope has become increasingly popular—and divisive—for IEM brands in particular, and Truthear decided to go all-in from the start here. There's also the company logo on the front along with Crinacle's logo to help confirm his involvement, and the product name is seen at the bottom along with the salient dual DD driver feature listed alongside. On the back we see a factory frequency response curve published, and this is a trend I can certainly get behind. Product specs and company contact info help complete the tour as we see the use of a two-piece packaging with an outer white sleeve over an inner black box that has again the company logo and product name on it. The entire package came sealed in a plastic wrap to keep things tidy and prevent the inner box from sliding out accidentally on its way to you.


The inner box also goes for a two-piece construction with the lid lifting off to reveal a set of stacked contents inside. This begins with some paperwork inside a cardboard brochure that also has the same artwork on the other side, and we get here a warranty card, an owner's manual going over the use of these IEMs, and a weird note/bookmark that simply says "Install Guide" but doesn't really have one on it. The IEMs are placed inside a hard stacked foam layer with compartments cut to snugly fit the individual shells and also have room to help extract them out, with the other accessories found in the compartment below.


The carry/storage case that comes with the Truthear x Crinacle ZERO is made of faux leather—likely polyurethane—and uses an interesting pouch-style design that I have not seen before in the IEM world. It can be somewhat cumbersome to place things into and take them out owing to the smaller opening relative to the outer dimensions, but on the flip side it folds into a smaller wallet-style case that is easier to carry with you. The black exterior is stitched well and has two buttons to help secure it when closed, and we see it contains the IEM cable inside to begin with. Underneath the case is a thick cardboard sheet that has the various ear tips placed individually and makes it easy for users to spot and remove the ones they want to use.


Truthear provides here two types on silicone ear tips in sizes S/M/L each, and these differ primarily in the opening of the inner bore that can affect the presentation and soundstage slightly. I also noticed the wider bore tips were rounder and slightly more malleable owing to the thinner flange, and your mileage may vary as to which type gives you a better fit/seal even outside of the different sizes. In addition, we also get a single set of medium-density foam ear tips in size M.


At this point I would already be on the next page examining the cable closer, but then Truthear decided to double up on the artwork and include an IEM display stand with the review sample. This optional accessory is called the Truthear Virgo and sells for $5 on top when purchased along with the IEMs as a limited promotion. It comes with its own artwork, because why not, and ships in three acrylic pieces inside a nice carry pouch. Peel off the protective plastic on either side of the three pieces, stack them up as seen above, and now you have a fancy IEM stand to show off the Truthear x Crinacle ZERO (or anything else) if you so desire.