7Hz Timeless II Planar-Magnetic Earphone Review – Ordinary Life

The $229 7Hz Timeless II were kindly supplied by Linsoul for my review. You can it here. In the meantime, I have sent the Timeless II to Biodegraded in Vancouver, British Columbia, for a 2nd review.

Introduction

7Hz came out of the woodwork 3 years ago with the Timeless upon the recommendation and promotion of a YouTube influencer. This unleashed a bandwagon of planar magnetic earphones by many companies.

The Timeless actually left such a good impression with our team that we produced a whopping 4 reviews of this single iem. I was never a big fan as the earpieces did not agree with my concha, which means, they were not comfortable to me.

Many companies tend to upgrade their products from time to time (in order to sell you the same thing several times over). In this case, it took rather a long time for this to happen. Rumour has it that there were some serious problems to be resolved. Spoiler alert: I am not sure that this lengthy development produced the expected result.

Specifications 7Hz Timeless II

Physical Things and Usability

In the box are the earpieces, 4 pairs of tuning filters, a modular cable with 3.5 mm single-ended and 4.4 mm balanced plugs, 3 sets of eartips, a VERY heavy-duty metal storage box reminiscent of my friend’s cat urns, and the paperwork.

The braided cable is rather attractive, its pvc jacket is not particularly pliable, which results in zero microphonics. The earpieces still remind me of landmines, they are very similar to the original Timeless with the biggest difference being the faceplate texture.

Tonality and Technicalities

There are 4 kinds of tuning filters included, 2 golden ones and 2 silver ones. One set of gold/silver looks like conventional filters, and the other set of golden/silver filters looks very unconventional, like the love child of a tongue piercing and a knight’s helmet. I first measured the frequency responses of the 4 included filters, and decided on using the normal-looking silver filter. The other three have a too spicy upper midrange for me.

Of the included tips, only the largest yellow ones worked for me. I listened with my iPhone SE connected to either the AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt or the EarMen TR-Amp.

What sticks out upon a first listen is the low end: the bass digs deep into the sub-bass. Gone is the mid bass hump of the original Timeless which I found irritating. The low end is thumpy, thick, slow, and hence not particularly tight. Sadly, I find the low-end rather ordinary, as it sounds similar to so many budget KZ earphones I have tested. I’m sure that you can tighten the bass lines when fiddling with eartips.

Vocals, male and female, have a good presence, they are well rendered in 3D space, and are the star of the mix, at least as long as the rubbery bass does not smear into them. Treble is well resolving, well etched out, but a bit robotic (as with most planar-magnetic earphones).

Soundstage is rather narrow but deep, because of the loose bass. Another artifact of the low end is a lack of resolution when the stage is crowded with musicians. I find that the sound lacks sparkle, it is rather blunt and not the most dynamic either.

Concluding Remarks

There is nothing really wrong the Timeless II, it is a well made and decent sounding earphone…but I apply the $229 asking price for scale. However, for somebody who has auditioned so many in-ears, it is somewhat uninspired, particularly from its ordinary bass and questionable fit. You may think differently, and so will hopefully co-blogger Biodegraded. I will send him these for his opinion.

Until next time…keep on listening!