Tranya Nova and Tranya T6 Reviews: Very Good Earbuds That Left Me Scratching My Head About Design, Pricing and Marketing

Tranya Nova and Tranya T6 Reviews

I must profess that the arrival of the Tranya Nova and Tranya T6 earbuds left me a bit bemused. The Tranya T6 presents as an elegant, even beautiful pair of earbuds. The matt rose gold case broadcasts quality and attention to detail. Open the case, and a pair of shiny, but not gaudy, earbuds peer out from their tiny enclosure with the color scheme perpetuated throughout the design. The case sits discreetly, well balanced and receptive to USB-C charging.

The Tranya Nova headphones arrive in a rather cheap-looking black plastic case. The rounded design leaves the case with no stable surface. Charging the Tranya Novas requires placing them on their front or back and inserting the USB-C cable in the bottom of the case. The generic black case opens to equally generic Apple AirPod Pro derivative earbuds.

The design choices befuddled me. The more elegant aesthetic design belongs to the less capable Tranya T6. The Tranya Nova sports Active Noise Cancellation. Both offer Qualcomm® aptX™ for owners with aptX-compatible devices. The Nova also includes Qi wireless charging. While the Tranya T6 lists for $119.99 on the Tranya website, it only lists for $59.99 on Amazon. The more sophisticated Hybrid ANC Tranya Nova earbuds list for $69.99 at Tranya and also $69.99 at Amazon after applying a $10 coupon. Amazon often offers additional discounts, as does Tranya. Note that prices will likely change regularly on both sites.

The pricing information suggests first that Amazon is the place to buy Tranya earbuds and that the Novas probably carry higher manufacturing and licensing costs, despite their boring design. It’s clear that Tranya doesn’t have its own design language, which is too bad. The Tranya T6 earbuds upscaled to touch controls, ANC, and ideally, Qi wireless charging would make for a much more appealing package than the one they phoned in with the Nova.

I make these critical remarks because the T6 earbuds clearly demonstrate that Tranya employs a first-tier design team somewhere in their midst. It’s too bad they weren’t unleashed on the Tranya Novas, which, on the company’s website, looks to be their new flagship offering.

Specifications

Price

I have already expounded on the price. Depending on the current Amazon deal, the two earbuds offer near parity. If you require ANC, then the Tranya Novas make sense. They also offer a few other electronics upgrades like Qi charging, Bluetooth 5.3 and more microphones. The listings below reflect the latest Amazon pricing.

Sound

While the Tranya Novas offer a slightly crisper, perkier sound, the Tranya T6 earbuds also offer excellent sound. The lack of ANC on the T6s reduces their utility in noisy locations and for travel. As I have stated before, I remain amazed at how companies like Tranya offer such good audio from earbuds that they can afford to sell for less than $70 (currently at Tranya, $80 at Amazon). I do receive earbuds that are not worth their price. The Nova and T6 earbuds are both worth their price of acquisition.

Calling

The calling features inherited from Qualcomm on-chip audio processing and noise reduction on both earbuds offer excellent sound, though the Nova’s six-microphone system provides superior signal input.

Battery life

Both earbuds offer all-day listening with a variance of an hour. The Tranya Novas prove superior, given their fast charging and Qi wireless feature, but the T6s do run an hour longer without a boost.

App

The Tranya App does all the things expected in an app, including touch or button control assignment, firmware updates, and an equalizer. I like to keep my equalizer flat as I use Apple’s sound sculpting. I appreciated Tranya’s Guest mode that allows app use without a password.

What could be improved

I ran this review as a comparison. I think the biggest improvement needs to come from Tranya’s marketing and design teams. I have already mentioned the pricing issues. Consistent pricing across platforms (Amazon and Tranya) and rationalized pricing based on features would make the product lines more easily evaluated by consumers. I also had to do a lot of work to find specifications. Tranya needs a standardized specification list that they use for all products, and they need to check for discrepancies in their marketing narratives related to specifications. The T6 drivers, for instance, are listed as both Wool composite and graphene.

For the design teams, I would love to see Tranya adopt a design language, so their earbuds look like they came from the same company. Their packaging shows a step in the right direction as the unboxing experience is relatively shared—unfortunately, too, is the excess of plastic wrapped around the box.

Tranya Nova and Tranya T6: The bottom line

Tranya makes good earbuds. It’s pretty clear I’m fond of the T6 design, but the touch controls, ANC, and wireless charging make the Novas the better earbuds despite the less-than-inspired design.

Tranya provided the Tranya Nova and Tranya T6 for review. Images courtesy of Tranya unless otherwise noted.

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