TRIPOWIN Leá Review

The TRIPOWIN Leá can be considered to be one of the more outstanding IEMs for its performance in the sub 30USD line. Some people even consider it to be a budget KATO because of the frequency response.

Personally, I was initially interested in this set purely because it is said to be a balanced tuning IEM. As I never owned any before, I wanted to try it out and see what's the difference between that and a standard V-shaped IEM (and funnily enough I'm using an XBA-A3 daily now as a personal endgame)

Saving time with the technical things aside, let's just jump into this review.

*I will not be talking about the unboxing and accessories but I will be talking about the cable in the following section*

BUILD & FIT

The headshell is built with a metal construction, painted black with a dull finish, and with the Tripowin Logo embossed into the faceplate. Weight of the Tripowin Leás, unlike the BL-01, do not really pose a problem and cause any form of fit discomfort for me personally after wearing it for about 2 hours.

The nozzle is quite long and the fit requires you to push the IEM quite deep into the ear canal to get a good seal. Personally, I would say if you never tried an IEM that requires deep insertion, this is probably the only thing you need to get used to (the feeling of something in your ear canal).

I usually don't talk about the stock wire but...This thing is atrocious.

The cable is said to be an SPC, but just doing simple cable rolling with 3rd party cables (we'll get to that soon) makes it sound so much better and also fit better. The cables are horrible in terms of fit where without the external ear hooks, it keeps dangling randomly and is so rubbery and elastic, I just can't use it without hating it. TRIPOWIN, y'all make nice cables, why aren't you doing this to the Leá?

SOUND

Sources used :

Foobar2000 -> JCally JM20 Dongle DAC (CS43131) -> S.M.S.L. SH-6 Amplifier -> Stock cable -> Tripowin Lea with Final Audio Type E eartips

Audio Technica LP120XUSB (AT95E Cartridge) -> S.M.S.L. SH-6 Amplifier -> Stock cable -> Tripowin Lea with Final Audio Type E eartips

In general, the TRIPOWIN Lea is a neutral/balanced-ish IEM with slight warmness to it. In terms of the internet which associates it a lot to the KATO, and to that I say : Yes, but actually no.

BASS

• Using the KATO as a reference, its the same in terms of the amplitude of bass

• Subbass on the Lea is on the quiet site, not overwhelming nor underperforming

• Midbass is decent for its performance; kicks sound thumpy but seems to have a shelf to not let it punch as much - can we say its polite?

• Bass notes have decent note definition and resolution

• No signs of bass bleed

MIDS

Keyword : Warmth

• Midrange can be considered to be the highlight of this pair, with perfect balance of everything and not make certain elements too in-your-face

• Vocal tonality sounds natural enough albeit in general sounds warm, any cases of sibilance is non-existent

• Plucked strings sound strong and lean, yet does not feel fatiguing nor too aggressive, a perfect balance for long listening

• Upper-mids retain their character for the most part, but sometimes sound a little lackluster, without complete resolution of the sparkly bits where its supposed to be sparkly

Personally, I find the midrange to be very enjoyable but after the moment I've started to use TOTL, I've noticed the Lea's mids in certain cases sound more warm and less resolving. But overall I still highly enjoy this pair mainly because it's relaxed enough and there isn't so much detail retrieval (in cases where i listen to music to sleep)

HIGHS

• Treble sounds as presenting as the mids, giving them equal footing in the mix

• Percussion sounds natural bin terms of the timbre but lacks resolution in certain areas

• The treble extension roll off is quick, which makes listening to stuff such as guitar shreds amazing, as each notes sound as individual as it gets, without any muddiness in between

• Reverbed artifacts and foleys are somewhat recessed in the mix, but does not take away too much in the immersiveness

• Cymbals and rides sound quick but sometimes a little bit lacking in the harshness we all like from drums

TECHNICALITES

Let's just put this out here first since we're talking about technicalities : the Lea will not be as good as the KATO. It sounds almost similar in terms of overall signature (albeit for me KATO sounds more V-shaped), but the Lea loses in every technical aspect from resolution to dynamics to seperation. There's a reason why the Kato is almost 10 times the price of a Lea. But realistically speaking, it doesn't lose by a lot, maybe like what 1440p is to 720p in videos

The Tripowin Lea has decent soundstage and dynamics for its price, personally I would say falls slightly behind the BL-01 in this case. The only time it falls behind is when I listened to tracks that are really too busy with multiple elements going off at once, and thats when things started to sound too busy.

Detail retrieval would probably be again just shy of the same calibre of the BL-01, offering great presentation of guitar licks and piano strokes to the mix.

CABLE ROLLING

The Lea is also the one IEM that kinda (fortunately but unfortunately) dragged me into what has to be the most gimmickiest (but really not) part of the audiophile territory. The Lea can be considered to be a very sensitive IEM where I changed the stock cable to the NICEHCK C8-1 8 which is a mixed silver and copper cable, and this is what I have to say :

• Subbass presence is elevated by a significant amount

• Bass notes have more definition and sound more lively

• Midrange's warmth is gone and sounds more neutral

• Details on the uppermids and treble sounds more resolving with more sparkle and brightness

• Overall? I can say with a cable change, this sounds more like a KATO, with less resolution

I've also tested the Leas on a third party SPC cable and it certainly made everything into more neutral bright than anything. But cables are a different topic altogether so let's save it for another time

tl;dr : Leas can sound better with a cable change, preferably with a mixed cable

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you want to try a balanced IEM, this is the way to go for a cheap entry into this type of tuning. Certain friends of mine say this tuning is slightly boring and they pretty much prefer other IEMs such as the CCA CRA or even the BLONs, but I beg to differ. A balanced tuning also has its quirks such as being able to bring out the most out of everything in the mix without subduing anything.

Listening to too much V-shaped IEMs sometimes just give me more appreciation to balanced IEMs - where if you remove the emphasized bass and in your face treble, you realized there's more to the song than that.