Oriolus Traillii Titanium Review: The Irresistible Charm
Oriolus has done it again. After releasing Traillii, AKA “The Bird”, Oriolus has once again assured its rightful place of being one the most popular high-end IEM brands. I also remember being the first person to ever review the Traillii (at least in English) There was lots of backlash against the extreme pricing when Traillii was first released before, yet eventually, Oriolus managed to convince the industry through its iconic sound. Well, now Oriolus is back to surprise once again with another flagship earphone, the Traillii Titanium (Traillii Ti).
There is a behind story that once Traillii JP was officially released, Oriolus soon after began working on developing the new flagship that would succeed Traillii, yet they’ve failed as they possibly couldn’t come up with a sound that could surpass the iconic Traillii. Because of this, the Oriolus team has decided to instead create a product that addresses the drawbacks that Traillii had – which is the Traillii Ti, a Traillii that is done in perfection, in true form.
As mentioned in my earlier Traillii review, Oriolus is a brand that was created upon the collaboration of CN and JP, which means the line-up and product availability vary depending on which regional department created and designed a product. Traillii is created by the Japanese department, and the Traillii Ti is created by the Chinese department. However, Traillii Ti differs a bit more as this is only limited to 199pcs and is not exported to the international market. Well now that Oriolus managed to convince with the pricing of Traillii JP, they’re now setting the bar even higher. Traillii Ti is priced at about $8500. Let’s now see what this piece of pure money performs and compare it to Traillii JP.
The Unboxing Experience
Let’s start with the packaging. The packaging is very similar to Traillii JP, having a small paper box to house this expensive item. While the packaging may appear so poor, things get better once you open them up. Inside includes a genuine premium leather case that has the same form factor as the VanNuys IEM case that comes with Traillii JP. Yet the case for Traillii Ti is fully customized inside out.
The inside is now covered with smooth, fluffy leather material with leather space dividers and soft earpiece holders. The space dividers are detachable and are used to create room for secondary accessories (cleaning tools, eartips, etc.) to be stored together while not dinging the earphones.
Overhauled Earpieces, Inside Out
As the name says, Traillii Ti is an IEM that houses the sound of Traillii in a titanium body. However, changing the housing material isn’t the only difference. First, the internal network structure of the drivers has been modified and improved. The internals are replaced with a higher quality soldering and have also applied these soldering in a different way that benefits the sound (the details are not specified on how they’ve changed). The earpieces use a different chamber material as well as the shape. The internal wires have been upgraded too. Lastly, the length and shape of the bores have been modified.
Once you take a closer look you can tell the outer shape has also changed. The inner part of the earpieces (that touches your ears) now has a concave shape to provide a further ergonomic fit. I was able to tell the improvement of fitting in one go. The Traillii JP also gave me a fair fit for my ears yet its rather chonky body felt like they’re being slightly pushed away from my ears, so I had to use eartips that are slightly larger than my usual size. Unlike such an experience, I’m able to use my usually-sized eartips with Traillii Ti.
Traillii Ti has a matte silver surface for the earpieces. It may rather feel plain yet also has elegance due to its surface texture. Just like any other materials would, there are differences in quality even if they’re made of the same material. I’d say the same goes for titanium shells as well. Although I certainly can’t tell for sure about the quality just by touching them, I can tell the lushness of the shells in a roundabout way. The touch and texture feel oozes premium, telling me that these aren’t some cheap titanium materials. However, the significant clue that I was able to tell the quality of its titanium materials was through its sound. We’ll reserve that for later when we talk about sound impressions, however.
The Gold-Silver W89 Cable
The cable has also changed compared to Traillii JP. With the product name “W89”, this stock cable is made with gold-silver alloy applied with fabric shielding. The splitters are made with genuine wood and Pentaconn 4.4mm balanced output for the plug. Another significant difference that W89 holds from Traillii JP’s cable is the plating process of the 2pin connectors. The W89 cable is applied with additional plating for the connector pins to ensure better conductivity and sound quality. However, this is done so that it won’t cause strain to your IEMs, so no need to be concerned about damaging your IEMs or negatively affecting your user experience.
I suppose those who are interested in buying would likely own several flagship cables and would attempt to look for one that would match well with Traillii, I’d suggest pausing for a moment. The W89 cable indeed matches perfectly in sound signature as well as bringing out impressive sonic performance. Since Oriolus designed Traillii Ti to be the perfection of Traillii JP, this IEM is already as good as it is. Or it’s the true sound that Traillii Ti is meant to make. Though I understand we still like to test out different cables for unexpected possibilities. However, just be aware that you definitely don’t need to get a separate custom cable that is required for properly listening to Traillii Ti.
Next Page: Detailed Sound Impressions