iBasso Jr. Cookie Ti IEMs Review – Sweet But Vocally Leading
iBasso Jr. Cookie Ti is a $179 USD pair of IEMs or In-Ear Monitors with a magnesium alloy dynamic driver at the heart and a super nice titanium alloy shell. Today we review the Cookie Ti and also see how it fits in today’s market, as it has key advantages relative to the market, including Dual HelmHoltz Resonators and a modular cable.
Introduction
While smartphone manufacturers keep struggling to create a proper titanium shell for their phones, which costs just one dollar, iBasso went ahead and made actual titanium shells for IEMs, which are far more expensive as they are super complicated to cut to size and machine to look this awesome. Yet they’ve done it, and still kept the budget of the Cookie Ti super affordable, so today we bask in the nice design and affordable price of the Cookie ti.
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Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/4t9MjPA
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3uxvZp1
Build Quality – Design
iBasso Junior Cookie Ti is a really interesting pair of earphones with a Titanium alloy shell, and magnesium-aluminium alloy diaphragm. This is rather special as both are expensive to produce and considered premium features for a product, but the good stuff does not stop here, as Cookie Ti also comes with multiple terminations for their cable, included a 3.5mm single ended jack, a 4.4mm balanced jack and a USB Type-C DAC with a built-in CX31993 DAC.
There are two finishes available for the Cookie Ti, Glossy and Matte, and those shells are made out of TC4 Titanium for both versions. Considering the super rigid driver, it will also be very fast and snappy, while being extremely light. iBasso makes sure of this by employing a strong 1.6 Tesla Magnetic Flux Dual Circuit, and using two helmholtz resonators on the Cookie ti to avoid the standing waves of just one resonator, yet take advantage of the damping that a helmholtz resonator renders.
Although part of the Junior line of IEMS, Cookie Ti comes with a 5N Mono Crystal Copper Cable with Litz Structure, using 0.78mm 2-Pin connectors at the IEM side, and a modular plug at the jack side. You will have superb codec support with the built-in DAC, which offers up to DSD128 and PCM 32 Bit / 384 kHz. There are two nozzles available in the package, each of which will change the sound slightly, with a gold plated brass and a stainless steel nozzle available for the Cookie Ti. Also quite premium, but we have 4 types of silicone tips, for a total of 12 pairs of silicone eartips, and judging by the frequency response render provided by iBasso, I’d expect Cookie Ti to be rather vocal in tuning.
Technically, Cookie Ti has a 10mm dynamic driver, and an impedance of 16 OHMs. Combined with the ultra high SPL of 112 dB, and a THD of lower than 0.5%, Cookie Ti should be super easy to drive, but we will see about that down below.
Subjective Usage
Despite the large shell size and somewhat heavy shells, Cookie Ti is very comfortable, sits nicely inside my ears, and the cable is a bit kinky, and does not straighten up right away, but it conducts zero microphonic noise being excellent for wearing ergonomics.
This is the only IEM I have right now that has a typeC DAC plug that you can just install if you don’t have any better options, and it has a fairly ok passive noise isolation, between 15 and 20 dB of passive noise isolation, which increases with the volume of music as the chamber pressurzies.
Leakage is minimal and fitting is medium towards deep, as Cookie Ti has a long bore that is mostly thin, but it works with all standard eartips. Included eartips are plenty, of a good quality and the whole IEMs feel very premium with the titanium shells.
Sound Quality
Pairings – To experiment with Cookie Ti Jr, I have paired it with FiiO K17, XL, Argon Audio SA-2 Amplifier Driven by FiiO Warmer R2R, Acer Nitro 18 AI Laptop (with 3.5mm adapters), Hiby Digital M500, and Luxsin X9.
As expected, it behaves quite naturally, being extremely easy to drive. This means that you will do just fine with mostly any source you might have around the house. Even the Type-C DAc included in the package will do just fine and it does not need a lot of power to get loud or sound good, but is somewhat sensitive to noise and being connected to something with too much power.
Overall Signature – Cookie ti sounds quite similar to its own graph, somewhat bright, somewhat sharp, but vocal and pleasing. It has a somewhat balanced bass, and although at times I feel like increasing the bass through increasing the volume, the loudness saturation gradient is fairly linear.
Bass – Bass starts at 20 Hz, but it has a neutral presence for the most part, being less in amount compared to the midrange and the treble, recessed, but high in quality, fast ant technical. It will be able to deliver on supremely basshead tracks, but it is not overly present, allowing Cookie ti to mostly be an airy and vocal pair of IEMs.
Voicing And Midrange – Speaking of the voicing, it has a sweet, emotional vocal range that emphasizes female voices a bit more than male voices, gives life and presence to violins, pianos and flutes, and creates a lot of detail in the upper midrange. It is perfect for ACG, Pop, EDM and most modern music. There still is plenty of energy for male voices, it is not thin sounding, rather it has more of an emphasis for female voices, which you can change with the filters and eartips to tilt the balance towards a bassier and heavier sound.
Treble – With a fairly energetic and airy top end, CookieTi is a nice IEM for cymbal crashes, as it does render them without a roll-off, but in a gentle and refined, silky texture. This means that you do hear everything as the driver is fast and technically capable, but it will not overdo things and won’t sound too bright.
Dynamics And Textures – Cookie Ti has a really wide dynamic range, and at times it has maybe a slightly too big of a range, as it can really play the quiet parts in a song too quietly, despite having a somewhat vocal tuning. Textures are fast, but smooth and silky, it is technical but not dry. The combo of high speed and silky textures makes it revealing without sounding fatiguing, which is a nice combo especially for this price range.
Loudness Saturation Gradient – CookieTiJr does not change the sound with volume, and at all volume levels you can expect a similar tuning and level of resolution as well as dynamic range. It handles high volumes well with very low distortion.
Soundstage – Soundstage is on the intimate side, because all forward instruments are very forward, as the vocal tuning brings lead voices as well as all other significant instruments forwards. This being said, the cymbal crashes and special effects extend significantly in the background, creating a 2-step layered stage with a very strong and bold, forward and a wide background.
Value – Conclusion
With a tag of 179 USD, Cookie Ti delivers a performance that far exceeded the price range, and it is very good as a package, has a nice travel case, USB DAC and a good selection of tips included in the package, along with a good pair of IEMS. Judging by the cost of the driver tech and shells, I don’t know how iBasso is making any profits on those as flagship smartphones are moving away from titanium because it is too pricey, yet ibasso makes full shells for their IEMS with titanium.
iBasso Cookie Ti does sound sweet, vocal and a bit smooth and silky up top, with a special side of separation to make them both technical and laid-back, they do reveal a lot of detail and feel nice inside my ears, being a fully recommended purchase if you’re looking for a bold and emotional tuning.
PROs
- Premium, flagship tier titanium construction for the shells
- Quality cable that does not conduct microphonic noise
- Easy to drive and comes with their own DAC inside the package
- Multiple pairs of eartips, each with a slightly different fitting and tuning
- Vocal tuning with a lot of details
- Very good resolution for the price range
- Bold vocal with present and extended but relaxed treble
- Neutral bass with a technical presentation
- Good for most music styles
- Snappy and clear
Cons
- A bit sensitive to source noise and a bit easy to overpower
Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/4t9MjPA
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3uxvZp1
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Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
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