Pros
Price to performance is through the roof
Instrument separation is top notch
Balanced sound
String instruments excels
Treble done well
Cons
Metal shells would be my preference for a planar (nit picking)
Not for bass heads
ARTTI REVIEW
I am an audiophile from sunny South Africa. This T10 was send to me as a package together with the R1 which is now one of my favorite earphones by the way. The guys on the official page was very helpful and I had my package in no time. I receive no compensation for this review and all my opinions are my own and should be taken as such.
Specs
Model: ARTTI T10
Driver Configuration: 14.2mm Dual Magnetic
Circuit Planar Driver
Acoustic Duct: Carefully Selected Acoustic Damping System
Cavity Material: PC Engineering Plastic + UV handling Technique
Faceplate: 6063 Aviation Aluminum Alloy CNC Carved Decorative Plate
Cable Material: 4-Core 216 Strands * 0.05mm Australia High-Purity Copper Silver-Plated Wire
Cable Length: 1.2m
Cable Connector: Standard 0.78mm 2-Pin
Cable Plug: 3.5mm/4.4mm Plug (depends)
Storage Box: Hard Bulletproof Cloth Velvety Storage Box
Ear Tips: Silicone Tips
Impedance: 16.5Ω±1% (@1kHz)
Distortion: ≤1.5% (@1kHz)
Sensitivity: 96dB/mW (@1kHz)
Frequency: 20Hz-20kHz
Unboxing
For its price the T10 comes in a medium sized cardboard box with another white cardboard wrapper it slides into showcasing a photo of the T10 on the front. Open the box and the first thing you see is a black sponge hosting the two monitors. When you lift that up you are greeted by a very retro denim looking case which I love by the way as I am a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy. You will also find the two sets of silicon ear tips and the usual paperwork like the instruction booklet. I am happy with the packaging and can’t think of anything that I would have liked ARTTI to ad at this price.
Connectivity
I connected the T10 with its 3.5mm to All my cellphones like Huawei P40 Lite, Oppo A78+ and the three LG V-series phones so you can basically connect it to any 3.5mm female jack on laptops, computers, Headphone amplifiers, Tablets etc. I also connected it to a 4.4mm balanced port via a Nicehck Fourmix cable and that gives you the freedom to connect it to any Dac/amp and I did with EPZ TP20 which I could connect to the Hiby M300 or my laptop. I also connected it for some critical listening to my Astell & Kern AK70 MKII.
Look & Build
This T10 sells for R1300 in South Africa and I think we can call these the Mike Tyson of In-ear monitors. Not so pretty but punches so hard against its competitors. The cable is on the light and thin side but I liked it a lot with its gunmetal and silver strands. The silver metal connectors looked on par with the price and the cable is specified as to be made from Australian High purity Copper which is silver-plated. The plastic earphone shells are nothing to write home about and I would have preferred a metal shell but that is just my personal opinion. The fit in my ear was great and no complaints there. The 14.2mm planar driver is the main star of this show and I don’t know how the ARRTI tuner managed this amount of performance out of that driver. The tips for me are a compromise between wide and Narrow bore and I was very satisfied as they produced a very balanced sound with a bit of treble magic on top.
Sound
I am not a treble lover at all but the T10 ads a little bit of sparkle to the treble that makes it really enjoyable. I discovered this while just doing some casual first impressions the first day with T10 and scrolling through my favorites folder on Tidal which contains a mix of genres of songs that I like. I use it usually to get a feel for the tuning. I have a song in there Coldplay- Adventures of a lifetime which has a lot going on top and I got one of those “hey stop this sounds good moments”. On many monitors the treble can be screechy but with T10 it sounded just right. The treble is also non fatiguing as I used these for three weeks for many hours on end. Using them for critical as well as casual listening.
I found myself listening to Jazz and music with lots of bells and little whistles and triangles and it is because the instrument separation is so good on the T10 that you can appreciate all those little instruments that are sometimes overlooked and overshadowed by the bigger instruments. I found these so good with percussions that I listened to Jazz Variants by the O-Zone Percussion Group twice. Also due to the fact of the treble I mentioned which makes those highs very sparkly. If you are into details like that I can Highly recommend any Pink Floyd album and you will be positively impressed.
On Wildfires- Sault I got acquainted with the softer side of T10 and man did it reproduce that song with so much finesse. The soft deep bassline in the background came through so nicely. I can imagine myself sitting in a nice little Jazz bar and sipping on a nice scotch with this song playing live.
I do not recommend these for Metal genre but if some of your favorite bands have some songs where it is a bit more mellow like Rammstein- Seeman where the main focus is more on Till Lindeman’s voice and you get to appreciate his vocals that is sometimes drowned out by the other instruments while the song is more of a ballad than a hardcore metal song. I chose Seeman as I knew the T10 has great instrument separation like most planars I have listened to does. When an in-ear monitor has great instrument separation, I always try and pick a song that I have listened to many times and try to listen if I can hear anything new like a sound or word I have not heard before on the song. It’s much like watching a moving over and over and you notice something you have never seen before. The T10 and the song did not disappoint and I heard a distant sound almost like bird sounds but very far in the distance. I am pretty it’s a keyboard effect or something but that was a pleasant surprise.
Having learned what type of genres I would associate with the t10, I looked up some 80’s and 90’s rock. Taking me back to my high school days here in South Africa where schools would hold a dance called a “sokkie” and they would play close dance songs in between almost like the prom in America but a lot less formal. You were always the main man if you could manage to kiss a girl in front of all your mates and also branded as n loser if the girl rejects you. I popped Def Leppard- Love bites on and it took me back to high school and one night me kissing a very beautiful girl in front of all the much older than me guys who liked her. Thank you to the T10 for taking me back to one of the best days of my life. Everything sounded amazing. The drums had enough weight and punch. The electric guitar was out in its own space shining like my ego that day. Jaded by Aerosmith started right up my ally with that drum roll in the beginning and Steven Tyler’s High Pitched voice coming screaming in. Depending on what genres you like the T10 takes you back there with such enjoyment and I was playing air guitar while writing my review notes.
If you are into foot tapping while you are listening to music get yourself a pair of these T10 Planars and search Beatles- Get Back and Credence Clearwater Revival- Suzie Q. I haven’t heard Get Back sound this good like when I used to listen to my Red Japanese Toshiba Press Beatles album on vinyl. There is an analog tone to the sound that I love. When started with Credence Clearwater Rival- Suzie Q and those first notes hit I immediately stopped the song and searched Credence Clearwater Revival Greatest Hits on Tidal and I was occupied for the next hour and that says a lot because I am one of those audiophiles who don’t like to listen to a whole album and I skip through songs a lot. I am sure there are also fellow audiophiles out there who does this. So when a well recorded album meets these T10’s then guys like me pay attention.
I did most of my listening having the T10 powered by EPZ T20 coupled to Nicehck Four mix cable which is quickly becoming one of my favorite cables. You will not get the sound you want as an audiophile just by plugging this into your phone. So please have a headphone amplifier if you doing 3.5mm cable or please get the 4.4mm balanced if you use a Dac/amp with balanced output. The T10 will thank you with beautiful sound if you give it enough power. I have found this to be true with most Planar earphones. Even on my Astell & Kern Ak70 MKII and the T10 stock cable I had to kick the volume dial up to 110 and with your normal easy to drive monitors I normally listen at 85 to 95.
I will not recommend them for bass heads as for me these are more midbass focused and as I went through my EDM playlist I realized that the bass is very controlled almost to clean if I can explain it like that. Make no mistake, these T10 go deep when needed but they lacked rumble for me. So you can blast some EDM tunes on these but do not think you will get ear canal shaking rattle and thunder. I am not saying these are bass light and if you are an audiophile you would know what I mean by tight controlled bass. However, if you are into EDM music that feature trumpets like Timmy Trumpet then you might be pleasantly surprised as to how the sparkly treble compliments the bass and you just want to turn the volume up and start jumping around on Timmy Trumpet- Freaks. Also on Trance music like Omiki- NaLe all the animal sounds in the background is so nicely brought to the front by the planar driver and when that midbass kicks in if you give the drivers enough power they respond to every back and forth command from the amplifier.
Conclusion
This is my second in-ear monitor I am reviewing from this brand ARRTI and I have to say I am really impressed and can definitely state these are your sit down after a long day and just pour yourself something and listen to some Blues or Jazz type of in-ear monitors. Who do I think should buy them? Well everyone who has hard days at work and want to unwind obviously. Not for bass heads and totally for music lovers. The price vs performance ratio is astronomically in the T10’s favor so it’s a big “Yes” from me.
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