twister6
Android Expert
This is a Review of Macaw GT100s in-ear headphones.
http://www.macaw.cn/, available on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Macaw-GT100s-hifi-earphone-silver/dp/B00YMMB3E4/?tag=vectron00-20 and http://penonaudio.com/Macaw-GT100s
Sub $100 headphone market has been heating up for the last few years with a lot of very impressive releases, even priced as low as $10-$20. And it seems that a number of manufacturers continue to push the envelope, trying to introduce products with not just a great sound but also an upscale design and accessories. I just had a pleasure to test one of such products that literally left me in disbelief that it cost only $69. You probably already know what I’m going to say next – we are dealing with another Giant Killer here! As you can see, I'm very excited about this new GT100s headphone model, and here is why.
I usually start with a packaging description, but have a little confession to make. Often when I receive a new pair of headphones, I take the box apart to play around with a product first, and then put it back together to take unboxing pictures. As soon as I looked at the plastic box GT100s arrived in and saw a walkthrough guide with 8 detailed pictures of how to take it apart, I knew I probably won't be able to put it back together as neatly, and started to click those pictures away! It's clear this company put a lot of thought into the design, accessories, and even unique packaging with plastic stands/holders to keep GT100s shells up on a display level.
Beside unboxing instructions on the back of the box, there was also a message of “The first inverted dynamic driver earphone”. I thought I read this claim before from another headphone maker, but it doesn’t really matter since I usually don’t pay too much attention to marketing hype and rely on my own eyes and ears to judge the product. Careful examination of the spec also revealed a few clues, including a lower sensitivity at only 100dB which means it will require some boost in volume to drive them.
Unboxing.
Taking the box apart was fun, and once I was finished with GT100s and all the accessories out in the open, I quickly realized that based on just looks it punches way above its price point. Another conclusion I drew right away was about similarities with RHA T10i headphones, in terms of nearly identical bicolor hybrid silicone eartips (S/M/L with a black core), a metal holder fitted with 2 pairs of foam (non-Comply) eartips, and a stainless steel narrow plate with 2 sets of high quality screw-in filters. These were definitely NOT a filler or a budget accessories thrown in together to make it look like a premium product.
One accessory that stood out for me was a neat leather case that looked like a wallet. It had a nice quality soft leather with a wrap strap going all the way around where you just tie it to secure case closed. It even had a little round button emblem in the corner which comes apart when you unscrew it, probably symbolizing a nature of replaceable filters. This is not a hard case, but considering tough build quality of these IEMs – you don’t need too much protection.
Accessories.
Looking closer at the design, the first thought that popped into my head was: DITA! I know it’s crazy to compare $69 pair of GT100s to $650-$1k pair of well known flagship IEMs, but a nature of a solid stainless steel shell build, curved molded strain relief attached to it, circular stainless steel y-splitter – all that reminded me a bit of scaled down DITA the Answer. According to Macaw, they used a MIM - metal injection molding production technique, coincidentally found on RHA T10i as well, which begs a question if Macaw could possibly be their OEM?
Starting with a gold plated TRRS connector plug, it has a short and slim metal housing with a trimmed strain relief; housing is probably a bit too short for big sausage fingers. Cable has TPE rubbery coating which unfortunately is a bit stiff and has a memory effect. It’s not too thick or too thin and not springy, but memory effect is there. Y-splitter has a neat little round “tablet” shape, and right side of the wire going to the shells has a similar diameter in-line remote with a trimmed strain relief on each side.
That GT100s remote was definitely something I couldn’t keep my hands off. There is a mic pinhole on a side, but the button is actually the whole tempered glass piece with a logo inside of it. It’s a single universal button for Play/Pause/Call and skip music with double click. Call quality was good and I enjoyed using the button to control my FiiO DAPs supporting in-line remote operation.
This tempered glass round button with Macaw emblem inside of the remote is nearly the same (just a mm or two less in diameter) as tempered glass pieces on outside of the headphone shells. The shell has a brushed stainless steel finish with cable attached to a curving molded strain relief that naturally goes around/behind your ears and nearly eliminates the microphonics. At the base of the cable connection, there is a stamped L/R marker, and in the center of the shell there a pinhole port to pump the air out from their single dynamic driver.
For sure, the highlight of this design is a removable filter, and trusts me – it’s not a gimmick. I did recently reviewed KZ ED9 with interchangeable filters, but what you see here is a lot higher quality with a more robust design, down to a rubber gasket to keep it tight without coming loose/undone when you replace eartips. Typical of interchangeable filter theme from other manufacturers, you have a default neutral silver filter, a treble enhanced gold filter, and bass enhanced black filter, and as confirmed later – all with an added contribution to a sound shaping.
One biggie I have to point out, and this could be a deal breaker for some people, GT100s are heavy. Solid stainless steel design with a tempered glass inserts does come at a price of additional weight. Just for the reference due to all metal-build similarities, DUNU Titan1 shells weight 8g while GT100s is 16g, double the weight. If you take into consideration a shallow insertion fitment, limited mostly by the length of a filter/nozzle, you really need to be careful with a selection of eartips in order not only to fine tune a sound but also to keep these earpieces tight in your ears. It’s not the end of the world and I got used to it after awhile, but I did have to go through a number of eartips settling on either T500 Comply or original UE900 large size. I wasn’t too fond of included foam tips because they were soft, and Comply offered a firmer expanded fitment. I also had success with Titan large eartips (hybrid tips you can find cheap on Lunashops), but for me personally UE900 eartips were the best due to a firm large rounded cap. Also, with a larger eartips and a tighter seal, I experienced a little bit of driver flex in my left earpiece when using UE900 tips, while Comply was fine.
http://www.macaw.cn/, available on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Macaw-GT100s-hifi-earphone-silver/dp/B00YMMB3E4/?tag=vectron00-20 and http://penonaudio.com/Macaw-GT100s
Sub $100 headphone market has been heating up for the last few years with a lot of very impressive releases, even priced as low as $10-$20. And it seems that a number of manufacturers continue to push the envelope, trying to introduce products with not just a great sound but also an upscale design and accessories. I just had a pleasure to test one of such products that literally left me in disbelief that it cost only $69. You probably already know what I’m going to say next – we are dealing with another Giant Killer here! As you can see, I'm very excited about this new GT100s headphone model, and here is why.
I usually start with a packaging description, but have a little confession to make. Often when I receive a new pair of headphones, I take the box apart to play around with a product first, and then put it back together to take unboxing pictures. As soon as I looked at the plastic box GT100s arrived in and saw a walkthrough guide with 8 detailed pictures of how to take it apart, I knew I probably won't be able to put it back together as neatly, and started to click those pictures away! It's clear this company put a lot of thought into the design, accessories, and even unique packaging with plastic stands/holders to keep GT100s shells up on a display level.
Beside unboxing instructions on the back of the box, there was also a message of “The first inverted dynamic driver earphone”. I thought I read this claim before from another headphone maker, but it doesn’t really matter since I usually don’t pay too much attention to marketing hype and rely on my own eyes and ears to judge the product. Careful examination of the spec also revealed a few clues, including a lower sensitivity at only 100dB which means it will require some boost in volume to drive them.
Unboxing.
Taking the box apart was fun, and once I was finished with GT100s and all the accessories out in the open, I quickly realized that based on just looks it punches way above its price point. Another conclusion I drew right away was about similarities with RHA T10i headphones, in terms of nearly identical bicolor hybrid silicone eartips (S/M/L with a black core), a metal holder fitted with 2 pairs of foam (non-Comply) eartips, and a stainless steel narrow plate with 2 sets of high quality screw-in filters. These were definitely NOT a filler or a budget accessories thrown in together to make it look like a premium product.
One accessory that stood out for me was a neat leather case that looked like a wallet. It had a nice quality soft leather with a wrap strap going all the way around where you just tie it to secure case closed. It even had a little round button emblem in the corner which comes apart when you unscrew it, probably symbolizing a nature of replaceable filters. This is not a hard case, but considering tough build quality of these IEMs – you don’t need too much protection.
Accessories.
Looking closer at the design, the first thought that popped into my head was: DITA! I know it’s crazy to compare $69 pair of GT100s to $650-$1k pair of well known flagship IEMs, but a nature of a solid stainless steel shell build, curved molded strain relief attached to it, circular stainless steel y-splitter – all that reminded me a bit of scaled down DITA the Answer. According to Macaw, they used a MIM - metal injection molding production technique, coincidentally found on RHA T10i as well, which begs a question if Macaw could possibly be their OEM?
Starting with a gold plated TRRS connector plug, it has a short and slim metal housing with a trimmed strain relief; housing is probably a bit too short for big sausage fingers. Cable has TPE rubbery coating which unfortunately is a bit stiff and has a memory effect. It’s not too thick or too thin and not springy, but memory effect is there. Y-splitter has a neat little round “tablet” shape, and right side of the wire going to the shells has a similar diameter in-line remote with a trimmed strain relief on each side.
That GT100s remote was definitely something I couldn’t keep my hands off. There is a mic pinhole on a side, but the button is actually the whole tempered glass piece with a logo inside of it. It’s a single universal button for Play/Pause/Call and skip music with double click. Call quality was good and I enjoyed using the button to control my FiiO DAPs supporting in-line remote operation.
This tempered glass round button with Macaw emblem inside of the remote is nearly the same (just a mm or two less in diameter) as tempered glass pieces on outside of the headphone shells. The shell has a brushed stainless steel finish with cable attached to a curving molded strain relief that naturally goes around/behind your ears and nearly eliminates the microphonics. At the base of the cable connection, there is a stamped L/R marker, and in the center of the shell there a pinhole port to pump the air out from their single dynamic driver.
For sure, the highlight of this design is a removable filter, and trusts me – it’s not a gimmick. I did recently reviewed KZ ED9 with interchangeable filters, but what you see here is a lot higher quality with a more robust design, down to a rubber gasket to keep it tight without coming loose/undone when you replace eartips. Typical of interchangeable filter theme from other manufacturers, you have a default neutral silver filter, a treble enhanced gold filter, and bass enhanced black filter, and as confirmed later – all with an added contribution to a sound shaping.
One biggie I have to point out, and this could be a deal breaker for some people, GT100s are heavy. Solid stainless steel design with a tempered glass inserts does come at a price of additional weight. Just for the reference due to all metal-build similarities, DUNU Titan1 shells weight 8g while GT100s is 16g, double the weight. If you take into consideration a shallow insertion fitment, limited mostly by the length of a filter/nozzle, you really need to be careful with a selection of eartips in order not only to fine tune a sound but also to keep these earpieces tight in your ears. It’s not the end of the world and I got used to it after awhile, but I did have to go through a number of eartips settling on either T500 Comply or original UE900 large size. I wasn’t too fond of included foam tips because they were soft, and Comply offered a firmer expanded fitment. I also had success with Titan large eartips (hybrid tips you can find cheap on Lunashops), but for me personally UE900 eartips were the best due to a firm large rounded cap. Also, with a larger eartips and a tighter seal, I experienced a little bit of driver flex in my left earpiece when using UE900 tips, while Comply was fine.