TRUTHEAR x Crinacle ZERO Headphones Review

The TRUTHEAR ZERO have a smooth, teardrop-shaped design made from 3D-printed resin. They have a black base and a deep blue, iridescent exterior. They feature a detachable, braided audio cable, meaning you can swap them out based on your preferences. These buds also have a dual dynamic driver design, with one 10mm driver that reproduces bass frequencies and another 7.8mm driver that handles the mid and treble ranges. This combination ensures that mixes have ample boom in sub-bass frequencies while maintaining mid-range clarity and treble-range sparkle.

The TRUTHEAR ZERO have a comfortable fit. They come with a wide range of silicone and foam tips of different sizes. They're lightweight, and the cable wraps around your ears to provide a stable fit. While the shape is ergonomic and can give the impression of being molded to your ear, it's worth checking out the Razer Moray if you're looking for a more natural fit that will suit a variety of ear sizes.

These buds are extremely portable. They won't take up much space in your bag or pocket and come with a carrying pouch to store them when they're not in use.

The included pouch is of decent quality. It's made from faux leather with a velvety, multi-fiber material lining the interior. It doesn't offer much protection against drops or bumps but helps keep the buds from getting lost and prevents the cable from getting tangled. The pouch is secured via two clasps that don't feel as secure as a zipper design.

Their build quality is good. The plastic body and braided cable are of good quality and feel durable. However, the foam tips don't feel as high quality as the silicone ones. They also started to tear and fall apart after minimal use. If you prefer foam tips and have a pair you've used in the past, it could be worth switching out the default foam tips and using your own instead. The pins that attach the cable to the buds themselves are also prone to breaking if they're not properly taken care of. However, it's easy to swap out the cable for any other one with two-pin 0.78mm connectors.

These buds have a very stable fit. When using the right size tips for your ears, they won't move around too much during moderate head movements. The wrap-around cable design also helps keep them secured around your ear. It's possible to snag the cable on something while doing more intense movements, like headbanging, but the two-pin connector will detach before the buds get yanked out of your ears.

• TRUTHEAR x Crinacle ZERO headphones
• Detachable cable
• 3x sets of thick diameter silicone eartips
• 3x sets of thin diameter silicone eartips
• 1x set of foam eartips
• Documentation
• Carrying pouch
• Filters

The TRUTHEAR ZERO are designed to follow the Harman 2019 target curve for IEMs, so it also follows our Harman-based target curve well. Their exciting sound excels at reproducing rumbly low-bass and long, boomy kicks. It's likely due to the ZERO's dual driver design, with a larger dynamic driver responsible for the lows and a smaller dynamic driver reproducing mid and high frequencies. The entire treble range is also slightly over-emphasized, meaning the low-mids often sound slightly hollow compared to the exaggerated bass and treble.

These IEMs have outstanding frequency response consistency. Once you find a good fit with the right ear tips, you'll get consistent audio delivery across different listening sessions.

These in-ears have decent bass accuracy. The response is overemphasized across the entire bass range but features a particularly prominent peak in the mid-bass that adds boom and slam to bass-range instruments. There's also a slight roll-off in the high-bass, likely due to the crossover from the sub-bass driver to the mid-high driver. As a result, lower frequency sounds, like the kicks and bass synth in songs like Kaytranada's 10%, sound more punchy than boomy.

They have excellent mid accuracy, and the response is fairly neutral across the entire range. However, the lower part of this frequency range is slightly thinned out compared to the overemphasized bass range, meaning there's a minor loss of definition in guitar and piano chords. There's also a slightly boosted response in the high-mid that ensures vocals and lead instruments are intense and clear. In songs like Sunset by Caroline Polachek, the lead vocal is present and detailed, while the nylon guitar strums sound slightly hollow and muted in comparison.

The treble accuracy is amazing. The entire range is slightly overemphasized, and the additional treble adds a nice presence and sparkle to vocals. There's a small peak in the mid-treble that adds a pleasant sizzle to percussive accents like open hi-hats. However, this can also cause sibilants and cymbals to sound a bit piercing sometimes. Overall, the treble range sounds bright and detailed without being fatiguing.

These in-ears have very good peaks and dips performance, so they follow their own sound profile quite well. The largest peak occurs in the mid-bass, which adds boominess to kicks and the lower octaves of instruments. There's also a slight dip in the low-mids, likely when the 7.8mm driver is activated, and this causes snares to lose some punch. Finally, there's some general unevenness in the highs and high-mid that causes cymbals and sibilants to sound a little piercing, especially in busy mixes.

These IEMs' imaging performance is excellent. Our unit's L/R drivers are well-matched in group delay, phase response, amplitude, and frequency. There's a slight bump in the phase mismatch in the mid-mid that causes vocals and instruments to sound wider and more expansive on the right side, but this is difficult to notice using regular, real-life content. Imaging performance varies between units, but this is a promising sign that TRUTHEAR, as a relatively young manufacturer, may produce headphones with quality control and ergonomics in mind in the future.

These buds have a very bad passive soundstage performance, but this is normal, given their in-ear design. A hallmark of good soundstage is the ability to create an immersive stereo image that sounds like it's coming from around you rather than in your head. For this to happen, sound waves must resonate with your outer ear, which is impossible with a design that only engages your ear canal. As a result, these IEMs have a sound that's closed-off and unnatural. If you use these earbuds for gaming, you'll hear environmental sounds, like footsteps, to the right or left but won't locate them any more precisely than this.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is great. The response falls within good levels, even at higher listening volumes, and the resulting audio is clean and pure.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The TRUTHEAR ZERO's noise isolation performance is acceptable. These IEMs don't have an ANC feature, and their in-ear design means that any isolation is provided passively through the seal they create in your ear canal. They block almost no low-frequency noise, like engine rumbles if you're on the go, but they do a better job of cutting out higher-frequency sounds like office chatter and fridge hum.

These headphones have trouble blocking out the common sounds you'll hear daily. They can't adequately block out sounds like rumbly airplane cabins or busy streets. They also struggle to cut down the sounds of an office, like coworkers talking.

The leakage performance is superb. Most leakage is concentrated in the bass range, meaning audio bleed is full-bodied. That said, the amount of escaping audio is very low, and others won't hear what you're listening to, even if you listen at very high volumes.

These buds come with a detachable braided audio cable. There's no integrated mic, but you can purchase a cable with a mic separately.

These IEMs are compatible with PCs via their AUX cable. There's no mic, though.

These buds only support audio when plugged into your PlayStation controller's AUX port via the included audio cable.

These headphones only support audio when connecting their 1/8" TRS cable to your Xbox console's controller. If you want to send audio in addition to receiving it, you'll have to use an external microphone.