Recording - March 2016 - 52

I've talked a lot about the in-ear monitors sold by Glasgowbased RHA in recent years. The MA Series, with its distinctive
Aerophonic design-a conical enclosure, like a trumpet bell in
reverse, to focus sound into the ear canal without reflectioninduced distortions-represents the best sound I've heard in an
under-$200 earphone in a very long time. Even the MA300,
which sells for under $30, is a fantastic in-ear.

mic on the right channel cable. (Note that RHA also makes the
T20, with a standard TRS miniplug and no remote or mic.)
As on the T10i, the enclosure connects to the ear tip via a barrelshaped tuning filter that unscrews from the enclosure for easy swapping. There are three color-coded filter sets: the silver Reference
ones for the flattest response, the bronze Treble ones for a slight
boost above 3 kHz or so, and the black Bass ones that boost
everything below about 800 Hz. Which of these you'll want to use
most often is a matter of taste; the Treble filters were a hair shrill for
my ears, but the Bass filters gave a bit of added weight to the lows
that gave a more balanced representation of my reference tracks
than the Reference filters, at least to my ears. I used the Bass and
Reference filters for pretty much all of my listening sessions.
As is common with higher-end RHA in-ears, 10 different ear tips
are provided: small, medium, and large soft-silicone tips with stiff
sleeves, two sets of moldable closed-cell foam tips, and medium and
large dual-flange soft silicone tips. The 10 tips and four filters that
aren't in use at any given time are stored on steel cards that fit, with
the phones and a clothing clip, in a leatherette zipper case.

RHA Audio T20i
A dual-concentric driver... inside an in-ear monitor? You heard right

In our August 2015 issue we reviewed the T10i, a first model
in a new series of in-ears with a more familiar form-fitting enclosure and over-ear hooks for secure placement. As nice as it is
(and it's really nice), it didn't quite dislodge the MA in-ears from
their place as my favorite non-custom in-ears... and then RHA sent
me the T20i, and things suddenly got very interesting indeed.
Inside and out
The T20i follows the same general design lines as the T10i
(and many in-ears by other makers), with drivers designed to
fit unobtrusively in the ears, held secure by moldable over-ear
hooks. Beyond that general shape, though, there's very little
resemblance to other designs-including the T10i, when you
look inside and see how the T20i makes sound.
The heart of the T20i is a new dynamic driver called the
DualCoil. It consists of two voice coils on the inner and outer edges
of an annular (ring-shaped) magnet. The inner coil reproduces lows
and low mids, the outer coil handles the high mids and highs, giving a frequency response of 16 Hz to 40 kHz (no tolerances
given). In-ear monitors with multiple balanced-armature drivers have
been around for years, but I'm not aware of anyone putting two
coaxial dynamic voice coils in an in-ear monitor before this.
The enclosures themselves are made of injection-molded
stainless steel and give the impression of being basically indestructible. The over-ear hooks are simple to fit, and give a reliable, comfortable wearing experience without pinching or slipping. A flexible multicore cable ends in a gold-plated TRRS
miniplug, and there's a standard Apple 3-button remote with
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RECORDING March 2016

Plan to give yourself a lot of time trying different ear tips for the
best and most comfortable fit. I'm notoriously hard to fit for in-ears,
which is why I value my custom molded in-ears as much as I do,
but after some experimentation I found a set of ear tips that were
comfortable, sealed well, and didn't irritate me after long use.
In use
I don't know what sort of magic is being done in the
DualCoil design, but these are some really fine in-ears. I used
them to listen to high-resolution audio through the H2 Designs
MIYO interface; they offered clarity and detail aplenty, and
with a 16Ω impedance, they got plenty loud on just about
every headphone amp I tried with them. The treble extension is
enough so that 24/96 audio comes through beautifully, and
bass is solid but not overhyped like that of so many other inears. Even with the Bass filters in place, there's never too much
low end to be believable.
No, I wouldn't try to mix on these in-ears; the frequency response
above 2 kHz is too peaky. But for tracking and editing, they work
really well; if you can't afford custom-fitted in-ears and want a truly
portable listening system for composing and field recording in
noisy environments, you could do a lot worse than the T20i.
Price: Model T20i (as reviewed), $249.95; model T20 (without remote/mic), $239.95
More from: RHA Audio, www.rha.co.uk

http://www.rha.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - March 2016