TRN BAX Pro Review (2) – The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be
The TRN BAX PRO were provided for our reviews by the manufacturer and we thank them for that. You can get them from TRN Audio.
For a $400 phone, build and looks are unimpressive—plain design, visible seams and really unsightly screws on the top casings. Easy to drive and unfussy about source. However, these might be the most tip-dependent IEM I’ve yet sampled—with the stock silicons they image well and show a high level of transient speed, but sound clinical, bass-shy and overbright to the point of shrillness.
Changing to dense, large-size foams improves matters remarkably—the BAX sound warmer, richer and much more impactful at the low end, albeit at the expense of some high-end microdetail. Instrument placement in any formulation is very accurate and soundstage wide and enveloping; with the foams these take on the scale and physicality of good closed-back cans.
The tuning switches are a mixed bag—in the first instance they’re ridiculously small and hard to engage. As Jürgen notes (review here), most of the modes add an artificial shoutiness, but I found the Low Frequency mode to be a step up from the default tuning—it adds smoothness, bass depth and quantity.
These would be a great pickup at $200; at $400 the comparable Senn IE models have a more natural-sounding timbre, while the slightly pricier I/O Volare gives you a more liquid, cohesive presentation. That said, the BAX is a big-sounding piece and I’d proudly insert these into my regular rotation.
