JBL TUNE 120TWS

Debated posting this but maybe someone will find it useful. I generally only use IEMs for isolation and convenience but I've had the pleasure of trying some nice affordable ones out, besides TOTL pieces. My baselines are the first-gen Galaxy Buds (which I gave to my one sister and recently borrowed to refresh my memory) and FIIO EX1s a friend sent me.

Dad's old cheapo IEMs died so mum opted to get him these a couple weeks back. My recommendations were a bit pricier and he's not picky about sound quality so I figured he'd want something just "good enough" for PUBG and internet vids. These were on sale for about ₱3,600 which isn't too bad considering they retail for ~$125/₱5,999 here. For context the first-gen Galaxy Buds cost ₱6,990 when they debuted a couple years back.

UPDATE: Spoiler-ed the initial impressions and updated after borrowing them again, allowing myself to get used to their sound.

This being a JBL product with "HARMAN" stamped right on the box you can guess what tuning I was expecting to hear when I put these on. Yeah it's pretty much what you'd expect, though I have to admit that measured treble sounded much more elevated than what I measured, lending further credence to the stance that FR doesn't tell the whole story. Just LEFT channel measurements below cuz I haven't yet bought new mics for the EARS (killed one mic while experimenting with damping).

TUNE120TWS = CYAN; Galaxy Buds (v1) = YELLOW


After spending more time with these and giving the diaphragms more time to settle the headstage is slightly expanded and vocals+instruments don't sound quite as flat, but closely-miced vocals still sound very much in my head; image delineation still poor relative to other IEMs I've had, comes across as if sounds are coming from a vaguely heterogeneous blob in the front stage, though there's at least some lateral extension now. Not much in the way of height cues.

The upper mids and treble are still moderately hot, enough so that vocal sibilants and the like make me wince slightly. Lower registers retain their muffled character, it's as if I were hearing things through the IEMs only not as greatly obfuscated since these have rather good isolation— do not wear these if you need to be aware of your surroundings.

Low end still lacks viscerality. Dirty rumble in bottom-most registers persists with that "lo-fi boombox"-ness but macrodynamics across the range are lacking— there's no real sense of tautness to percussion and consequent snap on my "good" recordings. Pitch differentiation isn't all that great, bass does come across as more one-note now that I've tried more familiar tracks, but notes in the low end manage not to blend into one another— Van Halen's Hot for Teacher's intro is portrayed well enough.

Backing vocals in pop tracks aren't quite subsumed in muck, in fact they're rather forward in the headstage. Female vocals in particular have more clarity, but this verges on "painful" with some less-polite recordings like my JPop collection (e.g. Critique & Curation, fhána), actually feels a bit grating despite the lack of texture.

The background is actually pretty clean with sterile pop recordings, but trailing decays from middle range on downwards sound truncated. Cymbals and hi hats have some splashy ringing that gets irritating at higher volumes, but at lower SPLs it's not horribad. Xylophone hits contrive to be both muffled and bright with how the decays higher up act.

There's less of that "hollow" sounding presentation overall now that the mids have filled out a bit more, but while the excessive clarity is great for dialogue and catching stray snippets in media, it's not ideal for lengthy listening sessions. The list price is more than I'd willingly pay, but in the context of what we paid (about $75) and the wireless convenience I'm pretty sure this will satisfy loads of people looking for consumer-tuning and okay-ish value.

Spoiler: initial impressions

These are just half-hour impressions going through random crud in my music library off my phone (local lossless files and YouTube Music Premium; Spotify is for Chads and Tidal is for 1%-ers ).

Headstage lacks lateral extension and is upfront in a weird way— almost seems like everything's mushed together front and center, and there's okay depth but vocalists often sound as if they're buried in my nasal cavity. Imaging is blurrier than my vision when I don't bother wearing glasses; I'm not quite blind in the one eye but anything further than half a foot away is indistinct, and that's about the impression I get when trying to delineate images in the soundfield.

This might just be the plasticky build colouring my impressions but it just sounds as if a tiny armature was shoved into a big ol' chassis; there's a distinct sense of sticky, tacky, reverb-y, chintziness to the low end that detracts from the amazing bass boost. Despite being elevated it's loose and barely has any texture (my notes say "rumbles like a lo-fi boombox, haha). No real sense of slam or impact.

Pitch differentiation is fine on moderate arrangements but fast bass solos turn into a homogenous mishmash of flubwubdub and backing vocals just get subsumed in bass when things get busy. Textures on subtle guitar work barely register and there's no snap to percussion, which was disappointing. The whole midrange just comes off as mushy and grainy, and it didn't take long to listen past the FR to tell that it's not just due to the recessed presence. Vocal overtones are hard and fatiguing with a mild honkiness, particularly on female singers. It somehow contrives to make pianos sound nasally, which is impressive.

The treble region is where my biggest complaints lie. I don't particularly mind that the midrange is recessed as my preferences already lean in that sort of direction, but hi-hats are just harsh and that 9kHz peak (or whatever it'll translate to on a more-representative measurement system) is definitely audible for string passages and shimmer effects and while it didn't make me want to rip my ears off it made for a fatiguing listen, never mind that I only spent half an hour max with these.

The overall presentation is hollow, like listening off-axis to tiny speakers in a big, untreated room, with added tizz and hash for fun. Emphasised overtones aside (or perhaps due to them) vocalists and most acoustic instruments all seem to lack body and presence in the headstage, and that weird reverby plasticky effect mushes things up well into the midrange where it manifests as a haze you're listening through.

In all, what's important is that my dad is properly smitten by these, some fit issues aside; he actually paused to appreciate the menu music on PUBG and had a big ol' grin on his face while listening— he said he'd never really noticed it before. Very happy for him, so hey feel free to ignore the above audiophool nitpicking.


NON-SOUND STUFF:

The earpieces are so insubstantial that I worry they might get blown away by a random gust of wind if I left them on a smooth, flat surface. Magnetised though, which is neat; they stick to one another weakly which could maybe come in handy, as well as stay firmly in their case unless you deliberately pluck them out, so some good comes of the light build. The bodies are friggin massive though, and the came-with ear tips have a crinkly, plasticky feel to them. Thankfully they take Final tips and don't have annoying proprietary nozzles like the AirPods Pro do.

The case is nice and hefty, and has subtle markings on the IEM mounts reminding you which ear pieces control what functions. The buttons are clacky and take a lot of pressure to actuate, which I HATED because my right ear is a bit weird and it took me a solid ten minutes trying to get a good fit only for a button press to undo the work invested. Also, even the tiniest bit of negative pressure effectively mutes them, only reinforcing my impression that these are weaker-sounding drivers.

It took me way too long to figure out that you had to take the right earpiece out and leave the left one in to enter pairing mode, but that could just be me. Pairing can take ages. Also, there are no proximity sensors on the units so they just keep playing sound even after you take them out— not good for battery life, which is allegedly mediocre but I didn't borrow them for long enough to test that out. I like that the case snaps shut with just the tiniest jostling, probably a good safety mechanism if it gets knocked off a table while still open.

There's been a couple occasions when playback would just stop for a solid second before resuming. Not sure what causes that but it does detract from proper listening sessions.

Miscellaneous pics of the IEMs and their case: https://imgur.com/a/NoKgRLe

More squiggles:

FR repeatability (two with borked seal and/or pressure):


Distortion (take with a grain of NaCl):


Step Response: