Recently, I found myself down a rabbit hole into the world of in-ear monitors—the elder sibling of headphones. Like many music aficionados such as myself, I was sceptical, to say the least. My daily audio devices were a new-gen AirPods Pro, a JBL Tune 770NC, and a Marshall Major III. The latter has been with me since 2019, going strong. It is to these heavyweights—both priced in the ₹15,000-25,000 range—that I introduce the humble IEM priced at just ₹2,499, the Headphone Zone X Tangzu Wan’er S.G 2 Type‑C.
I got the gorgeous blue one, the limited-edition model armed with a single dynamic driver. The idea was to get into it. Why, you might ask? Well, around two years ago, I was in the recording studio of a musician friend of mine, and he offered me one of his rather pricey IEMs to "check out this track". The rest was history.
Given that more advanced IEMs give you a much flatter tuning and place detail over everything, Wan’er S.G 2 gives you a much warmer, bass-forward, vocal-friendly IEM.
The Type-C meant I did not need a separate DAC dongle, but that also comes with a little bit of a decline in quality. Yet, it is still leaps and bounds above any other retail headphones under ₹15,000. And for a commuting music lover like me, that is where it hit the mark!
Design and build quality
The distinct "regal blue" design is always a head-turner. The finish features gold inlays on the faceplates with royal Jaipur-like heritage motifs. The shells fit snugly, and even after wearing for 3-5 hours straight, I did not feel any pressure on my ear—thanks to the soft Sancai eartips, and you get six of them in the pack. Inside each shell is a single 10 mm PET dynamic driver, tuned in the way I described a little earlier in this review.
But let us be honest, this is a lifestyle-friendly entry-level audiophile IEM rather than a studio monitor. Keeping that in mind, the build quality is solid for the price.
The shells also come with a 0.78mm 2-pin connector, which can connect to any OFC cable. The pack already includes a silver-plated OFC cable, which is a major step up from the usual headphone ones.
My Type‑C variant integrates the cable, microphone and one-button remote directly into the cable, and I found this very convenient. Of course, this also meant that my cable is not replaceable by me, the same way a detachable 3.5 mm cable is. So, that is one thing you need to figure out while picking which connector you want.
Check your music settings before listening
While it is a pragmatic choice for the Indian market, which has shed the 3.5mm jack in most smartphones, this plug-and-play device only shows its magic once you play some high-resolution music.
For instance, on Apple Music on an iPhone, you need to go to the phone settings, go to Music > Audio Quality > switch on Lossless Audio and then change the format to Hi-Res Lossless (ALAC up to 24-bit/192kHz). On Android, the same setting is in the Apple Music app itself. I’m guessing similar settings are there for other music apps like Spotify. For me, both these options were already enabled on my iPhone and Pixel, so all I had to do was put my go-to favourite track I knew every groove of, and then hit play.
And boy, it was glorious. To think this level of quality came from a sub-₹2,500 device still surprises me. It has been a month since I got the Headphone Zone X Tangzu Wan’er S.G 2 for myself, and it has become my go-to flight and train journey companion.
Now for the bad: Whenever you plug this into your phone, it starts off with a small analogue "thud" sound, especially on the iPhone. Be careful while plugging it in since its minimum volume is a bit high. I keep listening in the smallest few settings. I also missed tinkering with equaliser settings but that is more a feature than a bug.
For me, this was a great starting point to owning an IEM. If you want to listen to music under a ₹3,000 budget and are looking for good plug-and-play wired headphones, forget the regular retail headphone brands and just go for this—eyes closed. But if you are a purist, I suggest the 3.5 mm variant paired with a Hi-Res DAC.
