We have an idiom in Turkish, “wolf in sheep’s clothing” we say. This is exactly the case with TRN’s latest T300 TWS.
A simple white box, just 3 pairs of silicone ear tips inside, which didn’t work for me at all for sealing and fit, a Type-C to USB short charging cable. That’s all you get. The charging case is made of plastic with a battery-level LED when you open it, which we used to see on much cheaper TWS products from China. The IEM is made from polycarbonate, soft to touch plastic, which I actually like. 5 grams each as weight, so very lightweight.
I could buy something like that for about 1/3 price, TRN T300 is around 70$, you might probably think at the first sight.
But when you put the T300’s in your ears, play your first test track the wolf comes out from cheap-sheep clothing and starts to howl, in a good way of course. Later with the sound quality.
TRN T300 houses one 8mm dual-magnet dynamic driver and two custom 30019 balance armature drivers, it’s a hybrid earphone. The ergonomics is very good because of the design and the fit is above average. I’m listening for some test tracks right now and barely feel them in my ears, so very good for long listening sessions. Compared to Kinera BD005 Pro and Kinera Idun in the photo.
Speaking of long listening times, one of the very few downsides of T300 is only 4 hours battery life. This is on the low side in 2021 standards. The 600 mAh charging case can store up to 72 hours of battery life thanks to the Qualcomm QCC3046 chipset. Battery life may be important for some users so keep that in mind. For music lovers like me, it’s not a big problem.
TRN T300 supports wireless charging or wired charging through Type-C. Sadly there is no fast charging option. Both the case and the earphones take up to 1.5 h to fully charge.
As for Bluetooth codecs, T300 supports AAC, SBC, and Apt-X (24bit/48KHz). During my testing never had an issue with connectivity, going to the kitchen for my next cup of tea, the range is very good.
Bluetooth 5.2, latest in technology, but is very new, not many sources support that. Only if you are of few users of Qualcomm Snapdragon 768G, 865+, 870 and 888, Huawei Kirin 985 5G, 9000E 5G and 9000 5G, or Samsung Exynos 981 and 2100 SOC based smartphones owners.
Touch controls, you can’t do anything touching one time either left or right. 2 times, 3 times, and even 4 times for volume control, or long-press. It would have been better starting from one-touch up to 3. And there is no dedicated app for T300. An app from which we can change touch controls or even having an EQ would be nice.
Last but not least TRN T300 also supports IPX5 waterproof rating, so all boxes are checked in terms of specs.
Dire Straits – Private Investigations is my number one test track. The part after around 4th minute, where bass guitar starts, with light cymbal notes behind, and the acoustic guitar joins them, then the drum kick, xylophone takes the stage and goes on with the acoustic while the bass note continues with them along. Then electro guitar with high notes, the piano joins with high notes too, what a symphony! This part of the track is also my “sibilance-shouty” test of any earphone. TRN T300 passes this test successfully with a shockingly good soundstage. The detail, layering is not the best, but very good, unexpected from this price range and being a TWS.
Kaz Hawkins – Because You Love Me, again, an amazing female vocal not every earphone can pass, forward, just as it should be, and not biting your ears in any moment with an amazing electro guitar solo at final.
The bass on the T300 is a story of its own. Probably the wolf itself. Tight, full-bodied, not muddy at all. It’s like every range of the low notes presented very well, right in place, and kicks really good when needed. And with the very good soundstage levels of T300, every level bass notes are fun to listen to, no matter which tracks you throw at it.
Male vocals are not shining as female vocals, they are a bit laid back, but in the range, not ruining the show.
I listened to many IEMs in the past months, as a part of training my ears for this hobby, TRN T300 surpassed many wired examples with its fun factor.
I would like to thank HiFiGo for providing this review unit, it’s been a good and honest journey.
PS: This was an audio review of TRN T300, I did not test its noise-canceling capabilities or phone call quality, etc.