Tipsy TM1: A Merry High TWS IEM

Tipsy has made a grand entrance in the market of truly wireless earphones with its latest product TM-1.  Like the other products of Tipsy, TM-1 has an elegant design and a superb look-feel and exceeds the expectation of a wireless musical earphone. It comes with a stylish charging box that complements the earpieces perfectly and provides an extraordinary battery backup at this price range. TM-1 provides a rich listening experience along with flawless voice calling and is available in two attractive colours - Pearl Grey and Coral Orange.

Features:

Unit: 8mm type diamond nano diaphragm dynamic unit
Bluetooth chip: Qualcomm QCC3040
Bluetooth version: Bluetooth V5.0
Audio decoding: SBC, APTX-TM, AAC
CVC call noise reduction
Smart touch control and Wireless Charging
IP54 dustproof and waterproof

Packing List:

TWS Earphones, Charging Case, Earmuffs, Service card, Manual, Charging cable

 

Disclaimer:
I have received Tipsy TM1 review circle sent from the brand itself in exchange of honest reviews. All impressions of sound are subjective to my own listening and my sources and is based on my experience with TWS earphones of similar hardware configurations and price range.

Sources: 

For this review the unit has been paired to :

1. Vivo X50pro (AKM - AK4337A): using APTX HD
2. LG V30+ (ESS Sabre - ES9218P):  Forced used AAC (Quality emphasized)
3. Dell Inspirion 7000 Series Laptop: Default Windows 10 Bluetooth drivers

Pros:
1. Musical Sound Signature
2. Punchy bass and Sparkling Highs
3. Good Imaging and Clarity
4. Premium looks and feel
5. Very Comfortable and light weight
6. Wireless charging and excellent battery backup
7. Low latency/APTX
8. Quality Microphone 

Cons:

1. Background Hiss during idle mode
2. Tricky to pair master-worker earpieces
3. Touch Control can be laggy at times

Highs: 

Brilliant details and sparkling highs which one notices straight out of the box. There is no sibilance or harsh tones at any point of time. Treble response is well extended, and airiness is all around the headroom. The lower treble felt bit elevated whereas the higher region seems getting rolled off and thus creating a wonderful treble response with no sibilance or harshness altogether with crispier details when required. The overall presentation in terms of treble response in tracks like “Quartet:I” by John Cage and “Born, Never Asked” by Laurie Anderson. Moreover, I enjoyed the song “Rehna tu” by AR Rahman a lot on these as of the airy crisp detailing of all the falling droplets, cymbals, bells, whistles and other instruments.

 

Mids: 
The mid spectrum reproduction was on neutral side and was very much engaging. The lower mid spectrum does feel bit elevated giving very nice presentation to instruments like guitars. There were various tracks on which the mids felt very much engaging and complemented the elevated treble and bass regions.

The male vocals have a depth to them and came out very well while listening to “Superman” by Ronan Keating, there was a nice depth in male vocals, the guitars were engaging and doesn’t fail even a single moment to give a soul to the song. Similar impact was there while listening to “Beautiful loser” by Bob Seger, the male vocals were deep and were complemented by forward guitar, airy cymbals and punchy drums.

The female vocals on other hand sounded very pleasant. Be it the voice of Taylor Swift in the song “You belong with me” or Daiyan Trisha singing the cover of “Memories”, the vocals were sweet and complemented with elevated bass and treble but was very clear and without any sibilance.

 

Lows: 
The Bass response of TM1 is very punchy and felt bit elevated specially towards the mid-section of bass which resulted in quite a nice presence factor in all instruments in lower frequency range. The earphones although struggles a bit in sub-bass region but responds well to equalizers. I enjoyed listening to my favourite bass-oriented track i.e. “Tokyo Drift” by KVSH, the bass was tight and precise.

Soundstage: 
TM1 felt average in terms of soundstage. It is quite wide but lacks verticality. Tested tracks like “Hello” by Neelix , “Dream Catcher” by Bassnectar and on all of them the verticality was completely missing but they do shine out in other aspects like detailing, imaging and presentation of bass and treble and overall experience despite of lack of soundstage felt very much engaging.

 

Detailing/Imaging:
The TM1 offers accurate imaging and very fine micro detailing amongst all the TWS pair I have used so far. The separation between all the instruments is phenomenal, I have never imagined any TWS pair capable of such refined presentation. While playing Speechless by Naomi Scott- all the instruments were well placed, be it the drums, pianos, violins, cymbals etc. everything was distinguishable and accurate. I must say imaging is the best aspect of TM1.

 

Connectivity:
The range on these earpieces is excellent, I have faced no interruptions or jitters at any point of time, although the initial pairing of earpieces can be tricky as of master-worker sort of algorithm between right and left earpieces but once paired successfully the reconnection is buttery smooth and earpieces get pair themselves in no time once the box is opened.

There was no lag while using OTT application like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime on phone/laptop. Also, the response time while playing games was very good.

The overall battery backup was also substantial. During my listening session, the battery last for about 5hours on the earpieces while using APTX at about 60% volume. TM1 support both wireless and wired charging via USB-C.
 

Call Quality: 
I have faced no issues in receiving or making calls via TM1 both on 4G and other VOIP applications. The microphone quality is top notch and offer quite good noise cancellation. The touch controls do lag sometimes but that’s not much of a showstopper.

Comparisons:

Tipsy TM1 vs Jabra elite 65t:

I use Jabra elite 65t mostly for calling purpose. The microphone quality is quite similar, Noise reduction is although better with Jabra 65t. The other downside that have been observed was the gesture and feedback part which sometimes feels buggy. Also, as already discussed. the initial pairing is bit tricky on Tm1 but once paired successfully the operation is perfectly smooth. Also, there is no haptic feedback mechanism to gesture control in TM1.
 
Now coming to sound quality, this is where TM1 stands out from Jabra elite 65t in every single aspect. Also, it fits well and has very less weight which makes it comfortable for even long durations. Plus, it supports wireless charging along with APTX HD Bluetooth formats and have better battery performance. Overall, I would personally recommend Tipsy TM1 over Jabra elite 65t and other TWS earphones at similar price range.

 

Final Verdict: 
Tipsy TM1 is quite a beautiful pair of TWS IEMs with a powerful battery box at a very decent price segment. These earpieces are super comfortable and looks quite elegant in ear. It has been tuned very well. The soundstage, detailing and clarity are exceptional as per the price range. The bass and treble response is very refined and bit elevated which gives a nice musical presentation with beautiful mids and good separation. The call/mic quality is top notch. In the nutshell, it is a very versatile pair of TWS earphones with low latency and best suited for music, movies, games and calling giving a perfect price to performance value giving latest features like APTX, wireless charging and nice battery backup.