iBasso IT03 – A New Era – Highend Signature at a Killer Price
IBasso IT03 In Ear Earphone
$259
Pros
- Excellent closeup vocals,
- Deep textured bass
- Astounding price, Elegant design, Great fit,
Cons
- Need a decent source synergy
- Tip selection/fit is essential for getting strong soundstage and mids
Sound Signature:
What will hit you first when you listen to these dark jewels is the deep bass range, especially in the low end. There is no distortion and the bass is beautifully textured. It provides a nice rounding to the music. There is no masking and its not overly dominant, it just maintains its tightness without feeling too snappy or clipped. It works very well with fast paced tracks and has the right extension depth to not overshadow the music. It seems to effortlessly navigate even complicated energetic tracks.
The next wow factor for me was how vocals sounded. They are smooth and intimate with a real close feel. Live vocals are natural sounding and really give you the gig/venue feel for higher resolution recordings.
The emotion and soul of the singer is done justice. I’m mainly into instrumental music but really got drawn in to listen to a lot more vocal tracks than I do ordinarily because the vocals are so well portrayed with the IT03.
Soundstage could do with a bit more wideness on some tracks for my musical preferences and I feel if the mids were a little fuller/warmer it would be a positive addition to this earphones wide repertoire.
EDIT 12/012017: Applying the Tips much deeper on the nozzles – resulted in better soundstage and mid range depth
On my pre-burn-in listen I was a little concerned that the treble sparkled at the higher ranges and felt sharp on occasion but this changed over the burn period.
It now feels much less peaky and all round has smoothed out. As a result longer listening sessions are much more non-fatiguing now.
Instrument separation/layering is clear and maintains the overall cohesion and musicality across the ranges.
It has a precise but not clinical take on detail resolution especially on energetic tracks.
There is a nice sense of space and a slight airy open feel to the resolution, something that really grows on you.
The level of quality for this very fairly priced IEM is extremely impressive and if you didn’t tell me how much it cost I would have guessed more than twice the price.
iBasso looks very well placed to capture this price range audience and the higher end market will buy these also as these are such a great deal.
I can see this IEM selling fast and I am very interested in what iBasso can achieve for future higher end earphone releases.
