Twistura Woodnote IEMS Review – Wood Diaphragm Plays A Natural Sound
Twistura Woodnote is a $159 USD pair of IEMS In-Ear Monitors with a Revitalized Wood Diaphragm, 10mm dynamic driver at the core, customisable sound via filters, and a professional tuning for a natural balance. Today we will review the Wood Note and also compare it broadly to the market.
Introduction
This is our first in-depth written review exploring a Twistura pair of IEMS, but I can say that they are available for purchase on Linsoul, as well as Amazon and other Chifi sale channels. Twistura is an upcoming company focusing right now on the entry-level market.
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Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/4gnK5t4
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c35bSBZP
Build Quality – Design
Twistura Woodnote is considered the current flagship for the company and they built it around a 10mm dual cavity dynamic driver, with a revitalized wood essence diaphragm. This sounds similar to paper cone drivers seen in other IEMS, but it is slightly different as this one uses natural wood fibers combined with a suspension edge.
Twistura built an easy to replace filter for the Woodnote, and that is used to fine tune the sound. Twistura also employs a Guided Ventilation System with multiple vents and CNC aluminium shell for the best sound possible. Cable is a mixed alloy, including Alloy Copper, OFC, Silver Copper and Graphene Copper. You can also replace the jack on the cable, and Woodnote comes with both 3.5mm and 4.4mm jacks. Technically, Woodnote has an impedance of 18 OHMs, SPL of 108 dB, and uses an earphone connection of 0.78mm 2-Pin for the cable.
Subjective Usage
Wearing the Woodnote results in no wearing fatigue, no driver flex and no void, but the seal is not the most secure one as there’s a lot of ventilation and they don’t have a strong sealing factor. You will notice that they feel and sound a bit open, although passive noise isolation is good, between 20 and 25 dB of passive isolation.
I found that the fitting is medium – deep and Woodnote is natural for the most part, but I more often feel like there’s not enough seal than with most IEMS. CAble quality is excellent, it is modular, and there’s no microphonic noise with the Woodnote.
Sound Quality
Pairings – I have paired the Twistura Woodnote with multiple sources and since I can use a 4.4mm balanced jack, I did use it for most tests. The source list includes FiiO K17, Argon Audio SA-2 Amplifier Driven by FiiO Warmer R2R, Acer Nitro 18 AI Laptop (with 3.5mm adapters), iBasso Kunlun, FiiO Snowsky Echo DAP, Orchard Audio Valencia driven by Musician Pegasus III and Luxsin X9.
Twistura WoodNote is incredibly sensitive to source noise and hissing, and besides the usual hissing, it can even render some odd sounds like a digital sine wave even with DAPs that usually have no issues with noise. This being said, for some reason this is not a problem with some Entry-Level DAC AMPS, but there is no pattern. I would recommend using the source you have and ignoring the hissing, since at this price range you are not likely to have a DAC AMP that isolates source noise well. To get loud, it eats quite a bit of power, and for some reason likes as much as some over-the-ear headphones.
Overall Signature – WoodNote is a balanced-warm sounding pair of IEMS with a smooth vocal, smooth texture and smooth general sound. This works really well for some styles like pop, jazz and sometimes classical, but technical resolution is not the highest and this does not work that well for rock and metal where Woodnote feels too romantic and lacks the aggro edge needed to render girth and textures of guitars and drums.
Bass – Bass starts at around 35 Hz, but is the groovy type that is warm and creates most punch and strength around 50 Hz and upwards towards 130 Hz, creating a warm, somewhat bloomy bass tone that gives music a boom and a bit of darkness. This actually influences the midrange slightly and Twistura did not try to avoid the boom and bloom in the upper bass and mid bass for sure.
Voicing And Midrange – Vocals are slightly dark, there’s more male voice in the mix, so you can expect male led songs to sound more vivid, more personal, more present, while female voices sound emotional and smooth, but are lesser in amount and presence, which makes female voices lack a bit of impact. This extends to songs with a thinner or tenor male voice, which have less presence than low pitched male voices and deep bass vocals.
Treble – Top end extends to about 11 kHz, but it rolls off starting with 6 kHz, where it does not have a substantial peak either, so treble is just generally very relaxed, smooth and slightly muted, creating a relaxed, and easy to enjoy sound. This type of sound lacks the attack and aggro that you’d normally have with rock and metal tracks.
Dynamics And Textures – Dynamics are relaxed and there’s only a tiny amount of dynamic compression, but in general loud is loud and quiet is quiet, yet the tendency is for everything to sound a bit quiet at all volume levels. Textures are always smooth, very smooth, which likely indicates a slow driver speed and a low technical edge, more of a romantic sound that focuses on fluidity and sounding a bit wet rather than dry and analytical.
Loudness Saturation Gradient – Wood Note is enjoyable at all volume levels, more so at higher volumes for me, because I listen to a lot of rock and I like the more aggressive impact, but it is generally not meant for rock, it will be similar at all volume levels and has a low distortion, being able to achieve 120 dB with minimal to no audible distortion.
Soundstage – Staging is wide, with a good space between instruments but a weak separation, as they all blend together. This is characteristic of the non-technical tuning and WoodNote sounds exactly as you’d expect from a pair of romantic, smoother sounding IEMs.
Value – Conclusion
Value is good, as Woodnote comes with modular cable, modular filters, and also a nice transport case, and feels well-made. If anything, it is a bit non-technical for the audiophile market, but it is enjoyable, warm and fun.
With all of the brighter sounding IEMS on the market, you have many options, but WoodNote sounds like a wooden instruments, more romantic, more boomy and warmer, with a smooth treble, smooth textures, being enjoyable for most styles, and having little dynamic compression, which makes it enjoyable if you’re looking for this style of sound.
PROs
- Romantic and smooth sound
- Good comfort with no driver flex or void
- Good cable that is modular
- Top value if you want a romantic sounding earphone
- Nice transport case included in the package
- Wide soundstage that blends instruments together in a large space
- Strong male voice, a rarity for chifi entry-level IEMs
- Good balance for relaxed sonic styles
- Not fatiguing, it actually sounds relaxed
Cons
- Not analytical and not ultra revealing
Product Link
Amazon – https://amzn.to/4gnK5t4
Aliexpress – https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c35bSBZP
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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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