If I say that a headphone has made it onto my gift recommendation list for family and friends that is undoubtedly a high compliment The TANCHJIM RITA a newly released Bluetooth headphone is precisely such a model and I gave that verdict without hesitation after listening to it at the exhibition It is well known that TANCHJIM products generally set the benchmark in the industry for industrial design build quality and aesthetics But beneath their anime style brand exterior lies a deeply science HiFi oriented brand and one with taste at that Independent R&D and rigorous data measurement have always been at the core of their philosophy You do not actually think they sell products just by putting Asano Tanch on the packaging do you So beneath the stunning exterior of the RITA the internal engineering is actually what deserves more attention and do not underestimate it just because of its affordable price
I will skip over the unboxing details The main accessories include a carrying pouch and the corresponding cables including a USB charging cable and a 3.5mm analogue cable The 3.5mm cable also comes with a microphone and inline remote control which actually surprised me because with most Bluetooth headphones when used in passive mode via a 3.5mm connection brands typically only provide a standard cable without a microphone rendering the voice function useless Some manufacturers have even removed the 3.5mm option altogether So RITA really nails this detail and it might be the first Bluetooth headphone I have used that comes standard with a microphone equipped analogue cable When I mentioned this to the TANCHJIM R&D team they looked genuinely surprised thinking this should be standard practice across all manufacturers This shows that the TANCHJIM team are first and foremost proper users themselves who know how to consider things from the actual user experience perspective
The RITA is predominantly white in colour making it look stylish and elegant at first glance and upon closer inspection the build quality is equally impressive rivalling that of flagship models from major international brands The surface features a soft touch coating that feels smooth and skin friendly and the overall body lines are gentle and soft while the exposed metal brackets on both sides of the headband add a touch of modern and technological appeal In terms of design direction I do not think TANCHJIM tried to make the shell particularly compact as the outer ear cup bulge is quite pronounced To compensate they incorporated curved lines to reduce the visual bulk and the headband itself was deliberately made slimmer otherwise the overall silhouette might have appeared somewhat heavy The RITA does not fold but the ear cups can be laid flat for storage in the carrying pouch which does not take up too much space during travel though it will not fit into a small chest bag or the pockets of a winter coat Perhaps for the sake of visual simplicity the physical buttons on the RITA are unmarked but there is virtually no learning curve The independent buttons are for power on off and noise cancellation mode switching while the three buttons on the other side are clearly the traditional media control cluster for volume and play pause with long press functions for additional basic operations
In terms of wearing comfort the RITA gets some things exceptionally right while also having a few minor shortcomings The strengths are the softness of the ear pads and the padding at the centre of the headband both of which feel very comfortable and the overall clamping pressure is well judged Even with a wide head circumference and glasses I did not feel any excessive pressure or tightness and the lightweight design is well executed However the seemingly large shells may have more internal space dedicated to housing components rather than ear cup volume as the depth and internal space of the ear cups are not particularly generous For those with prominent ears the ear cups may not feel fully enclosing while for smaller ears they are certainly more than sufficient So it may not achieve near universal fit like major brands such as Bose but it is roughly on par with the comfort levels offered by Sony Bowers Wilkins and Sennheiser For me personally I can wear it comfortably for about two to three hours before the cartilage starts to feel sore though my case is quite extreme and not representative of most users I remain a loyal user of the QC45 for long haul travel When compared horizontally to competing products within and below the 500 yuan price point I would place the RITA comfort at the top tier not to mention its advantages in aesthetics and build quality
I am personally very satisfied with the noise cancellation performance of the RITA including the natural tonal accuracy in transparency mode which was already evident in the earlier MINO In terms of noise cancellation depth although Mr. Dou s measurements show that its data performance does not match that of some mainstream smartphone brand in ears or most over ear headphones do not have a clear advantage in this area especially in the lower midrange the real world perceived noise cancellation still provides sufficient quietness for daily commuting The passive isolation from the soft ear pads and good seal also lays a solid foundation High frequency noise with directional characteristics is adequately filtered and fixed frequency low frequency noise such as aircraft engine rumble is also sufficiently suppressed Vocal noise cancellation however is more limited but this is a challenge faced by all manufacturers at present so it is hardly a flaw In short you can trust the noise cancellation depth of the RITA and many other headphones in this price range which has improved qualitatively compared to a few years ago far from being merely symbolic but genuinely usable And the transparency mode is a small highlight of the RITA delivering clear tonality with comfortable detail and energy
The RITA is equipped with a 40mm PET beryllium coated diaphragm dynamic driver You might wonder why the driver diameter is not larger for a headphone of this size but as can be seen from the official exploded view a significant amount of internal space is occupied by the battery and analogue components In Bluetooth headphones the analogue components are nearly as important as the driver itself for sound quality though earlier solutions were not as mature The poor sound quality of Bluetooth headphones in the past was not the fault of SBC or AAC just as plugging an HD800 into an iPod Shuffle and getting poor sound has nothing to do with the bit rate of the music files The driver itself uses TANCHJIM s mature in house DMT5 architecture featuring a large magnetic circuit high efficiency and ample dynamic headroom while the rigid beryllium coated dome also provides excellent resolution and high frequency extension It also incorporates an independent acoustic chamber derived from the ECHO The measurement data is as impressive as ever with distortion as low as 0.039 at a standard 1kHz 94dB SPL and distortion across most of the frequency range remaining below 0.1
On the sound quality front LDAC naturally provides sufficient baseline information but the RITA is not a technical performance focused model in terms of tonal character Its resolution is delivered in a subtle and refined manner offering excellent overall relaxation across the frequency range with imaging that is clear yet carries a slight sense of softness rather than highlighting definition of note outlines or treble sharpness to accentuate resolution In fact many Bluetooth headphones apply some form of boosted gain in certain frequency bands but the RITA presents a well balanced and natural overall frequency response without catering to the consumer market with overly exaggerated bass and of course they do not need to since users looking for specific tonal variations can customise the sound via the TANCHJIM App With the growing maturity of their community there are already a wealth of presets available including official offerings and even different game specific EQ presets The RITA places greater emphasis on bass elasticity and the decay after sub bass extension is restrained yet the bass itself has a moderate amount of body and slightly full imaging that does not feel thin The soundstage is a pleasant surprise Setting aside Bluetooth considerations the closed back headphone design itself presents inherent challenges and in this regard the RITA excels in both lateral width and vertical height while the depth though limited is by no means completely flat
In terms of vocal presentation if I were to draw a reference from their earphone lineup it sits somewhere between the Origin and Force It is not entirely the vintage dynamic driver character nor purely a digital sounding style The tonality is neutral and clean with a slightly refreshing quality but the generous sense of relaxation gives vocals a slightly fuzzy textured quality with good breath extension It handles both lyrical vocal tracks and more rhythmically driven material with equal competence The sibilance is more smoothed over and refined compared to their wired earphones and the same applies to the treble character The treble of the RITA is exceptionally smooth and non aggressive with hardly any piercing edges or excessive energy The advantage of this approach is that it remains forgiving with poorly recorded or low bit rate sources but it may leave some feeling that the treble lacks a certain HiFi intensity and focus The upside however is that the treble resolution is actually quite good Soft though it may be it does not smear the details or roll off the high frequencies artificially and the ultra high frequency extension is present unlike the blunt cut off found in most Bluetooth products This is a very healthy tonal presentation overall
Finally two strengths and one minor drawback First battery life With noise cancellation turned off it can achieve up to 92 hours of playback and TANCHJIM has never been known to exaggerate specifications Even at half that figure it would still be more than sufficient for daily use With noise cancellation enabled it still delivers around 51 hours Second the sound quality degradation when noise cancellation is engaged is well controlled with no significant loss of openness or severe high frequency distortion an area where even some well established brands have struggled The trade off between noise cancellation depth and sound quality is a common limitation of dual feed microphone designs making RITA s ability to balance both aspects one of the best in the Bluetooth headphone category One area I find slightly disappointing is call performance in noisy environments TANCHJIM appears to prioritise environmental noise suppression which results in a rather processed and smeared vocal pickup Some other manufacturers manage to keep voices clear but at the cost of letting more background noise through This may be related to cost constraints and is something I hope can be improved in future iterations Another area for improvement would be increasing the internal ear cup volume in the next generation
In the Bluetooth headphone space TANCHJIM is undoubtedly a newcomer Having only previously made desktop DAC Amps the RITA is actually their first ever over ear headphone product and it already delivers a well rounded and pleasantly surprising performance This is the result of a combination of their industrial design capabilities in house driver technology refinement of the Bluetooth solution and the maturity of their App based community ecosystem I can confidently say that its 399 RMB price tag offers far greater value than many wired earphones at the same price point When you hold it in your hands experience the build quality feel the noise cancellation and listen to the sound you will most likely find yourself thinking that it might have been priced too low
Source: Li Ling Jia Qi
