MEGATech Reviews: Tunai Piano Ceramic Dual Driver Earphones

When I’m working from my desk, I’m generally partial to over-the-ear style headphones. I find that they generally provide fuller, richer sound, and they tend to be more comfortable over the long haul. That being said, I’m not a fan of their added bulk when I’m out and about, especially when it comes to traveling. For times when I want something much more compact but still with great sound quality, I turn to something like the Tunai Piano audiophile earphones.

The Tunai Pedigree

You may or may not already be familiar with the Tunai brand. For my part, I’m much more familiar with their line of Bluetooth adapters, having reviewed the Tunai Clip and Tunai Firefly in the past. But they’ve also got other products, like the decidedly affordable Tunai Drum ($32.99) earphones.

The Tunai Piano, in some sense, is an upgraded take on the Tunai Drum. It’s being positioned as a more premium set of earphones with dual drivers to satisfy even the most discerning of audiophiles. You’ll notice that they are physically a little bit bigger than more compact earbuds; this is necessary to accommodate the larger drivers. The angled design also means that you’ll get fuller, punchier sound as the audio is directed straight into your ear.

Tunai Piano Package Contents

The actual earphones themselves come with an in-line microphone or remote. In this way, it’s clear enough that they’re designed to be used primarily with your smartphone, so you can use them to take calls and such at your leisure. In addition to the earphones themselves, you’ll find three additional pairs of ear tips (small, medium and large), so you really shouldn’t have too much trouble finding one that fits your ear size best.

There’s also a handy carrying pouch included in the box. The outside is a sort of faux leather material, while the interior is like a soft cotton. Don’t expect too much in terms of padding, which reduces bulk but also doesn’t offer much in terms of actual protection.

I personally found the pouch to be unnecessarily large; it’s a little shorter and a little wider than a standard playing card. It could’ve been half the size and just as useful. If it had an extra pocket to store the additional ear tips, perhaps we could justify the larger size.

Fit and Finish

When you look at some of the fancier headphones out there, you’ll find that manufacturers tend to go with some more premium materials to differentiate their products from the more affordable counterparts. The cables are braided or fabric or Kevlar-wrapped or something. That’s the not the case here.

The cabling on the Tunai Piano is your standard issue rubbery plastic material. It doesn’t feel cheap, by any stretch, but it certainly doesn’t feel premium either. I will say that there is a touch of added stiffness that might help to combat tangling, but that’s about it.

The 3.5mm audio connector is gold plated and you’ll notice that it’s at a 90-degree angle. This is largely a matter of personal preference, but given a more mobile-centric approach, I think this makes more sense than if it were a straight shot.

As far as the actual earpieces themselves, as mentioned, they’re a little larger than what you’d get with cheaper earbuds, but they’re hardly huge either. You get the mirrored silver finish with the L and R indications, but I almost wish those indications were a little more obvious. I guess I’ll get used to which bud goes in which ear over time.

To my knowledge, the Tunai Piano comes in three different color variations, but these variations are rather subtle. The review unit that I received is this sort of rose gold color, but that color only covers about a third of the driver unit. The rest is white. This makes for a more understated, classy appearance, I’d say.

Sound Quality

Tickle me impressed. To test the audio quality on these earphones, I ran through a number of songs across a decently broad range of genres. I reveled in the synthpop of Gunship, the hard-hitting rhymes of Eminem, and the vocal prowess of Christina Aguilera. The Tunai Piano was able to provide enough oomph for the bass, yet remain balanced for rock and pop.

When you put on a cheaper set of headphones, the bass is usually weak, the high-end gets really shrill, and everything distorts at higher volumes. I didn’t really experience any of that here. I will also say that I’m not exactly listening to higher-quality lossless audio or anything like that either, but there is a marked difference between even streaming audio (through Google Play Music) and watching a YouTube music video.

MEGATechie Awesome Audiophile or MEGATechie Humble Headset?

I think Tunai has really nailed down a great sweet spot with the Tunai Piano. These are certainly a sizable step above cheaper, $20 to $40 headphones that play sound and that’s about it. At the same time, they’re not at all trying to compete with the ultra high end either. Instead, these earphones fit pleasantly into that middle ground where they can compete easily against $100+ alternatives.

The kicker is that Tunai is targeting a $59.99 MSRP for the Tunai Piano. That’s really affordable and well worth the money. However, they’re not yet available on the mass market. Instead, they’re set to launch an Indiegogo campaign soon, so you’ll need to keep tabs on the official product page for updates. And if it’s going on Indiegog, it probably means you’ll be able to pick up a pair for less than $60 too.