Tangzu Chang Le review: No-good stock

This product was bought with my own money.

The Tangzu Chang Le is an all metal bullet-style IEM that retails at around 10-15usd. Similarly, Tangzu also has another budget offering at around 20usd with the Wan’er. This price bracket has been rife with decent and even good options over the past year, full of some variant of a V-shape tonal balance. This is no different, a striking V-shape in the form of a bullet-style IEM. All that’s left to be seen is if it’s just decent, good, or neither.

Build, Packaging, and Fit

The Chang Le comes in a nice box with basic inclusions. The box itself features some nice art as well. Inside the box, you’ll get two sets of ear tips along with the IEMs. The two sets of eartips include a basic while silicon set and a set which resembles the KBear/Accoustune 07 tips, hereby referred to as 07 tips. The 07 tips are also similar to those that came with the Wan’er.

The build itself is an all metal shell with back venting and a non-detachable cable. Interestingly, covering the back vent does nothing to the sound of the IEM. The fit itself was quite good for me. I mostly found myself using the M 07 tips or M Tri Clarion Tips. On the cable is a mic, and I don’t believe there is a version available without a mic.

Sound Impressions

This YT playlist is representative of the genres or types of music I listen to when coming up with a review (they are not the specific tracks I use for testing). Any listening was done with M 07 tips or M Tri Clarion tips.

The Chang Le initially impressed me with decent bass and forward vocals. For the price, I thought it was a decent V-shape. The more I listened to it, however, I found that I was mostly disappointed with the resolution and detail of the set. Overall I found it sounding compressed and just plain bad. Particularly on Part II by Paramore, most of the instrument sections sounded extremely compressed and lacking detail. Further more, it has lackluster treble performance and imaging.

 

Stock(red) vs No Stock Foam(Green)

Playing around with modding it, I found that just removing the stock foam under the filter in the nozzle did wonders for it. Overall, it sounds like a more emphasized V-shape. The bass was unaffected, but vocal clarity improved and there was some extra treble (not much thought). Furthermore, instrument detail was slightly better. If you think you can handle more vocal bite, then I greatly recommend this mod (it’s free after all!).

Vs. Hola

 

Truthear Hola (left) and Tangzu Chang Le (right)

 

The most obvious comparison, besides the KZ LingLong (which I won’t make a comparison with because I really didn’t like it and gave it away), to make would be with the Wan’er. However, everything I have to say about the Wan’er could also be said about the Hola, and I prefer the Hola. To put it simply, the Hola does everything better: Better bass quality, way more detail, and better accessories (plus a detachable cable). You might prefer the Chang Le if you want more forward vocals, but the Wan’er does something similar and better in my opinion. Besides that, it the Chang Le should only be considered if you can’t stretch your budget to 20usd or if you’re set on a bullet IEM.

Conclusion

 

The Chang Le is a decent IEM for the price. It gives a safe V-shape that most people ought to like. Despite this it has pretty bad technicalities before modding. It’s pretty comfortable and comes with some nice stock tips. It’s not a bad IEM, and I enjoy it quite a bit, but there's really no point in getting it if you can get the Hola or Wan’er.

 

Final Verdict: Meh