Reviewed by llysender from Head-Fi

I have a little more time to listen to the KongTong today at lunchtime.
The first 24-hour burn-in period is almost over.

I actually looked at the cable again and didn't see any markings, not even on the IEM itself, to indicate which is the right and which is the left.

When the ones from Kongtong were on, the right tip got stuck in my ear when I pulled it out.
I have now selected by size because I have different ear diameters, so I need size S for the right and size M for the left.

There wasn't much choice. I have brown on the left and blue on the right, no idea if there are any differences in sound.

I have just plugged the TRI Kongtong I2 into the D&A Alpha Pro, which is connected to the CD player. There is definitely a very big difference in sound between the Ify Hip Dac 2 and the Alpha Pro. The Ify is more immersive, goes deep, plays powerful bass and is generally crystal clear in every respect. The Alpha Pro DAC plays much more balanced and not as harsh as the Ify. It separates slightly better in certain areas. However, I must say that the Ify is connected to the stream from the source, while the Alpha Pro still plays with the CD player. Later, I will switch and run the Alpha Pro in the stream. After almost 24 hours, the TRI Kongtong I2 also sounds a bit more balanced; the slight peaks in the high frequencies that I noticed yesterday are already gone.

When I listen to the Kongtong connected to a very good source such as the Alpha Pro, which is very stable and effective in its structure and free of interference, it sounds really very good. In terms of presentation, I have to say that it is very profoundly clear and distinct. The Fugees album The Score shows very clearly how far it can go. I have never heard the album sound so good in its presentation.

Another very positive feature is that it doesn't sound thin at all for a planar IEM.
There's enough there for everything and it sounds very balanced.
In fact, the Ify Hip Dac 2 is crystal clear and more intimate in this respect, with a refined effect, but I find that a good source goes a little better in terms of breadth here.
At the end of the day, it's certainly a matter of personal preference for the listener, but I would say that DAPs sound a bit similar to the Ify here, especially more intimate in most cases. With great options at your fingertips.

I'll go one step further, which is already causing many people to scratch their heads.
But a CD player from the vintage era needs a DAC to sound good. My Denon CD player sounds a bit sharp and slightly shrill at the top end when connected directly to the amplifier via RCA. I now use the optical input of the CD player, which is connected to the Matrix Audio ipro Mini 2S DAC, and from there it goes via RCA to the D&A Alpha Pro, which has an RCA line-in to connect to its amplifier circuit.

If I connect the CD player directly to the Alpha Pro, I get more of the shrillness at the upper end from the CD player. That's why I use this combination, which is also magical from the D&A Alpha Pro because it has a line-in input. This gives me the source, the CD player > the DAC Matrix Audio > Alpha Pro amplification for the Iems connected to the Pentacon.

The combination gives me very clean and clear musical accompaniment that sounds very controlled and balanced across all ranges without any sharpness at the upper end.
This combination easily beats the Ify Hip Dac 2. It sounds very natural with the TRI Kongtong I2, wonderful left/right separation, and a kind of smoothness in the vocal range without any colouration or artificial additions. The timbre also seems quite fluid, but I need to listen to it a little more.

This is also because the Fugees album is a mix of live and composed music. I find it not quite ideal for recognising the timbre well as the instrumental part fits in. But it shows how authentic the Kongtong sounds. It's a very nice experience. It leaves nothing out and sounds realistic. You can really put it on and enjoy it while leaning back. I like it a lot, and I'm sure I'll like it even more when I find my Spinfits. The transparent ones that come with it also seal very well. And they sound good too. The first 24 hours with the Kongtong are amazingly good and it's child's play to listen to music with them. They immediately meet the demands of listeners like us. I'm amazed at how well it works. If you disregard the price, I would think that it can easily compete with a £500 IEM, provided it is also a planar IEM. In fact, I have had poorly tuned IEMs that only looked great.

Honestly I've havent have had such a wild ride with the sound changing over time ever since burning in KT88 tubes. While I havent really taken note of the knob positions I have noticed that over time the knob has been creaping up to maintain the same level of dyanmics as before meaning lower senitivity(or less V shaped sounding I guess). To be honest I can see why jaytiss compared the I2 to 7hz divine since the vocal body is quite abit pushed up(which is ironic because of the presentation there is this diffuseness to everything when on THX ampification)

This makes the TRI I2 TongKong really nice on slower songs like:

Makes everything very grand sounding and the quick attack and slightly slower decay gives everything this gravitas that the out of the box sound couldnt reproduce every though it was alot more exciting sounding. The interesting thing is that dispite the changes to the decay the timbre of everything still sounds very good which is amazing and that the texturing of the distored electric guitars are so good which is good because at lest for me planars have always suffered in the microtexturing department esp in the mids. This advantage also extends to all other mids focused instruments including vocals which makes any vocal focused songs a good fit for Kong Tong since all the vocal texture is on full display without emphasing any part of the vocals.

Then we have:

Whats up danger is nice as a test track for synth bass because its clean and has alot of EDM style bass notes to pick from. But this highlights a minor flaw of the Kong Tong that it cant really do subbass slam but does midbass slam really well. To be honest this isnt that important since for actual bass instruments they inherit the 100hz and up space for bass. Geneally the I2 can do all the different types of rumble with ease so the bass quality is top noch in that reguads and has the quanty as well. Wont satify bassheads that want burr anyday all day though.

Since I was having so much just listening to songs I thought why not bring out my test song for sibilance(since early fripside albums has a special place for how much 8khz is in their songs) also warning to lower the volume

Its sharp but not really earspliting priceing. Good that the Kong Tong showcases crappy masters for what it is without deafening people. Can approve.

Then we come to a really meme test song like AEON.CRUSHER for layering and how much abuse the driver can take

While the TRI KongTong I2 is able to keep up with the song this is where the rounding of the attack tip of transiants makes it really suffer. Overall TRI KongTong I2 while fast is not designed to feed so much infomation into your skull. With reguards to EDM something that is slower and more rythemic like trance is better suited but honestly Kong Tong does best with real instruments.

Also as a side note I pulled out draco to try and honestly with iems like Moondrop Lan II reference and TRI Kong Tong its way too slow and doesnt have the dynamics with the only upside being the more solid sounding less diffuse imaing but overall I find it difficult to rec now unless someone wants a thick sounding and really relexed but still upper mids forward iem.

OK got 70+hours in now. Honestly Any changes after 50 were too minor to hear and all the big changes happened in the first 10ish hours so running it overnight before starting to use it is recommended.

Pros
- No need to cable and tip roll (this was a particularly big issue in my friend group with the I3 MK3 needing to switch out for a copper cable due to how upper mid dominant the stock cable was)

- Big shoulder to shoulder soundstage with very good imaging

-Natural timbre when on stock clearion tips.

-Full vocal body excellent vocal extension

-Provides good slam and rumble and doesn't distort when boosted via EQ

-Very good and hooky yet still analog sounding.

Cons

-Need to deep fit and clearions are kind of big. Can get around by using Dunu S&S but strings become more diffuse sounding.

-Planar imaging. Everything sounds tall and thin.

-Low environmental noise isolation. Can be a good thing also since you still have awareness when out and about.

-not that important but microdetail is only soso and current under 100usd iems are more defined than the I2 and it doesn't help that has a smoothing effect to everything.

Overall I think still think that the TRI TRI I2 shines best with vocal focused music or music with a low number of instruments that are well defined like chamber or jazz music.

Interestingly I think the best part of the TRI KONGTONG I2 is outside of music and in movies and shows where it is very easy to track and saperate the people talking as well as sound effects being very exciting due to the bass and lower treble boost.

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