iBasso IT01x

Sound Analysis.

I analyzed IT01x sound performance paired up with DX300 and LPGT sources while playing a variety of test tracks, such as Agnes Obel “The curse”, Sandro Cavazza “So much better” (Avicii remix), C-Bool “Never go away”, Ed Sheeran “Shape of you”, Alan Walker “Darkside”, Galantis “Hunter”, Iggy Azalea “Black widow”, Indila “Boite en argent”, Dua Lipa “Love again”, Counting Crows “Big yellow taxi”, David Elias “Vision of her”, and Michael Jackson “Dirty Diana”. I let IT01x burn in for about 3-4 days before I started with my sound analysis.

I found IT01x to have a mildly U-shaped sound signature, leaning more toward W-shaped, with a natural detailed tonality, elevated deep sub-bass and rounded mid-bass, natural smooth detailed mids, and natural treble sparkle. To my ears, the upper mids have a slightly pushed back presentation which tilts the signature toward a mildly U-shaped sound. And while IT01x is a single DD design, it sounds almost like a hybrid with a coherent tuning of multiple drivers covering the entire frequency range, kind of even reminding me a bit of their IT07 flagship.

In more details, bass goes down deep, with an elevated sub-bass, not overwhelming but nicely textured, beefing up the bass foundation with extra body and weight. Mid-bass is rounded, with an average attack and decay, and a good control without bleeding into lower mids which are neutral. The neutral nature of lower mids helps to keep bass separated from upper mids which are detailed, natural, a little laidback, not too aggressive, positioned slightly back. In upper frequencies, 01x is peaking around 5kHz, giving the sound its finesse and clarity without sibilance or harshness. Treble has a good extension, natural clear sound, and moderate sense of air thanks to a peak around 12kHz.

The soundstage is wide, above average for sure. It is not super wide or deep, or holographic. This is a natural round soundstage with a decent imaging, positioning sounds a little closer to the center. Don’t expect 3D imagining, but I had no problem separating and pin-pointing instruments and vocals in songs during my testing. It is a smoother tuned IEM with a natural tonality and smoother top end, so don’t expect a high level of layering and separation with air between the layers, but the technical performance was definitely above the average.

I’m not planning to have a separate eartips pair up section in this review since I found most of the stock and some aftermarket eartips to sound very similar with IT01x. The only difference I noticed was narrow bore eartips yielding elevated bass impact, while everything else with wider bore opening sounded quite similar.

IT01x is another example of well-tuned EDC (every-day-carry) IEMs that works with many genres of music. The deeper bass is great with natural instruments, and also perfect with EDM tracks. Mids are not as forward, but they are clear, natural, detailed and work great with any vocals as well as natural and synthesized instruments. And the treble rounds off the tuning for fatigue-free listening during extended sessions.

Cable pair up.

This is not my typical cable pair up comparison since I don’t have as many mmcx connector-based cables and IT01x already comes with a nice one. But I was still curious to try them with iBasso own new “purple” cable I received along with IT07 for testing, and also their own CF01 TWS adapter.

CB16 (purple, silver-copper alloy) – here I went from 3.5mm (stock) to 4.4mm BAL and with DAPs I used for testing this improved the soundstage width, though improvement is not necessary cable related but rather BAL port of the source related. Another thing I noticed is that upper mids came more forward, bringing the IT01x signature from mildly U-shaped to balanced W-shaped.

CF01 (TWS) – similar to IT00 pair up which I use with CF01 most of the time, IT01x soundstage expanded, becoming much wider and taller, and the sound became more transparent, less colored, a little brighter and more revealing. It was a good pair up if you don’t mind a little reduction in sub-bass and mid-bass, would like a more revealing tonality, and craving the wireless convenience of TWS.