Bricky Quick impressions about the Wan'er I got last week. First off, the box art is refreshing in a sea of waifus. This is an artist's rendition of Shangguan Wan'er, the Tang dynasty's first and only female prime minister. Shangguan is shortened to 'S.G' as it's a mouthful.
In the box there is a wipe, six pairs of eartips (S/M/L narrow bore for more bass, S/M/L wide bore for more balance) and a 0.78 2-pin cable with unbalanced 3.5mm termination. The boxes are oversized to better present the box art.
Then we have the IEMs themselves. Their FR graph is in an earlier post and I can definitely hear it. There's a slight focus on vocals which is great for me as I use them for podcasts and calls, in addition to music. There's enough bass to keep most happy but I found the decay a tad slow, perhaps due to the driver using a PET diaphragm. I was also able to make it produce artefacts during songs where sounds phase in and out quickly. The driver can't keep up with the changes and so I could hear subtle crackles, but those didn't interfere with the music.
My recommended pairing is with a neutral or neutral-bright source. For me, either the Avani (ALC5686) or Abigail (CX31993) respectively. I chose Avani as too much clarity is lost with Abigail, given this isn't a highly resolving set as it is. My HiBy FC3 only makes the bass problem worse as it colours sound a tad warm.
I would recommend this set for general use as the tuning's pretty safe and, for $20, it offers great cost-effectiveness. The aforementioned distortion is an edge case and isn't an issue 99% of the time. With the Shimin Li ($35) and Zetian Wu ($130) receiving upgrades, maybe this will get one sometime to improve the driver while offering better technicalities. I'd certainly buy it again.
Speaking of the upgraded Shimin Li, that's what I intend to get next. It launches March 10th but I may be able to get it early~
