TinHiFi C5 Space Review (2) – Backwards Towards The Future
For only the second time since the pandemic I saw a movie, Oppenheimer, in an actual theater (on my first foray I fell asleep halfway through Top Gun: Maverick). Very, very disappointed—one big explosion framed by three hours of not-very-snappy talk. Like Roger Moore, Cilian Murphy looks good in a suit but is kind of a blank slate, and no one in the audience cheered at the end.
So while I was admittedly in a bad mood when I reviewed the C5 Space, I honestly didn’t like these. I hear them as mid-focused, which pushes vocals forward. However, they have a conspicuously rolled-off high end and a lack of lowend body and presence–there’s some subbass throb but a big dip in that 50-200 Hz region; unlike Durwood (review here) I don’t hear much upper bass. Detail is lacking, especially at the high end, and percussion misses snap and sparkle. Tonally slightly bright and free from harshness or sharp edges, but like Tin’s prior T2 and T3 models, these sound lean and lacking in drive and realism.
The C5 are inoffensive overall, and might appeal to fans of unadorned vocal and acoustic fare. However cheaper units from TRN, Blon, Final et. al. present more information and fuller sound. Not recommended.
