Specifications
Manufacturer: Hum
Driver Type: Dual Balanced Armature (Knowles CI & ED)
Frequency Response: Unknown
Sensitivity: Unknown
Accessories: CX1 Cable, Pelican 1010 Hard case, Sleeves(small, medium, and large), ear wax removing tool
 
Summary
Design: Neat and beautiful inner structure
Finish: Superb
Tone: Warm overall, but depends on music
Soundstage: Average or less
Treble: Smooth and shattered
Midrange: Fast response. smooth and deep like creamy cheese. bold and clear vocals.
Bass: accurate response. Rich but not exaggerated. Low cut
Cable: Sound is changed a lot in case of switching cables. If you like the original sound, do not change the cables.
 
Balanced Armature drivers in high-end In-Ears.

1. The more drivers an in-ear has, the more benefits there are

 
Earphone manufacturers mount many BA(Balanced Armature) drivers in a small unit to improve the quality of earphones. It is way much better to output audio signal at whole frequency range separately through several drivers or sharing the drivers in terms of expression and resolution.
 
For this reason, manufacturers have made efforts to add more drivers in In-Ear Monitors. It hasn’t been long since IEMs have 3 to 4 drivers each sides. however, It is really surprising that IEMs have more than 10 drivers these days. Of course, the number of drivers is not the only criterion for evaluating IEM’s performance, but IEMs are often rated according to the number of drivers and the IEMs which have many drivers are called ‘high-end’. Therefore, the number of drivers are the touchstone of IEM’s performance and an important factor in determining the price.
 
Pristine

1. Dual Driver High-end In-Ear Monitor

 
HUM, based in Hongkong, launched custom IEM, Pristine. Pristine means ‘very clean’ and ‘primitive’. It launched custom version first, and universal version later. Pristine’s cables are detachable, and you can choose between MMCX or 2-pin connector. The one I used most for this review is universal and MMCX version. Accessories are a Pelican 1010 hard case attached to a faceplate with HUM’s logo on it, sleeves which comes in small, medium and large and earwax removing tools. In case of custom version, no sleeves with the package. Thus, more simple.
 
Pristine’s official price in Korea is $1475.26. Sounds like high-end IEM? However, It has only two BA drivers. You probably wonder about this, because there are a lot of high-end IEMs which have many drivers. This is closely connected with company’s development philosophy.
 
HUM
Humming, Less is more.
 
The word ‘HUM’ is from ‘humming’. Pervasion, a digital audio player introduce the company to audiophiles. Pervasion has dynamic sound and special line-out volume control knob, whose name is perfectly matched by its performance.
 
HUM, founded in 2015, launched only three products: Pervasion, Pristine and CX1(cables for Pristine). HUM said it focus on the product’s quality and performance rather than expand its line-up. You can see its slogan ‘Less is More’ in Pristine.
 
The most important thing is internal stability

1. Approach to Hi-Fi Audio with two drivers

 
The first thing you notice is wires inside the transparent bodies when you see Pristine. The wire is 99.99% stranded Litz copper. It is designed to reduce the skin effect and proximity effect losses in conductors used at frequencies up to about 1 MHz. It consists of many thin wire strands, individually insulated and twisted together. Although the wire is short because of the small bodies, Hum produce it with great care.
 
(* Skin effect is the tendency of an alternating electric current (AC) to become distributed within a conductor such that the current density is largest near the surface of the conductor, and decreases with greater depths in the conductor. Suppose you are eating spaghetti riding a roller coaster. You can find noodles in your face. Skin effect is like that.)
 
If you look around, you can find many components except for drivers. From film/laminated capacitor to resistance, finest components fill the inside to refine and deliver audio signal reliably. From a common sense point of view, those are a little excessive for only two drivers. However, HUM used biggest and finest components as much as they could, so the two drivers can provide the best performance. It’s like Hi-Fi speakers which use biggest and finest components as long as small enclosure permits. Pristine showed distinctive features with their effort to obtain quality.
 
(*The function of capacitor - A capacitor stores electrical energy in an electric field and then provide steady amount of energy. When drivers try to make sound, they need different energy. Capacitor provide right amount of energy when the drivers need it. Other benefits are fixing sharp signal.)
 
Design & Cable
 
Pristine’s shells are transparent. Except for HUM’s logo, There’s nothing. Nevertheless, The components and wires inside complete the design. The name of the cables is CX-1. Wires consist of the same material as Pistine’s. They are quite heavy and smooth, which provide comfortable fit and resistance to tangle even without ear guides. The cable is terminated with Oyaide’s solid right angle plug. The identical colors for indicating hot and cold is hidden inside. 2-pin connectors are engraved outside, and it’s neutral cable so that you can connect it to anywhere without changing Pristine’s signature sound.
 
Smooth and various sound

1. Listen to a variety of music to appreciate Pristine’s worth. It’s sensitive to sources, devices and background.

 
Pristine has smooth sound, and it is good long-term listening IEM. Hum have not said publicly, but Pristine has high sensitivity which is good for high performance without turning up the volume. This high sensitivity is disadvantage in listening through 배경이 어지러운 기기, but you can hear every bit of details if you use a device like AK380. Pristine is heavily dependent on songs and devices. You can hear great sound, or old and clogged sound depend on devices and songs. I recommend to use as many devices as possible.
 
Pristine’s sound is hard style to pin down. If you listen to bright music, it sounds bright and warm, but heavy and foglike sound in dark songs. It has heavy and huge volume in mid-high, sometimes could deel masking on vocal and clean and warm sound on instrumental. If you are interested in purchasing Pristine, listen to your existing music randomly before you buy it. It is always pleasant to rediscover some music which is left behind, and Pristine makes you can discover those.
 
High-resolution and special texture

1. Less is more

 
Pristine only has dual drivers, but features higher resolution such as IEM which has many drivers. It catches every bit of details and separate frequency band well with fast response. In fact, IEM which has more than 10 drivers might be better, but you can’t even imagine Pristine has dual driver by just listening through it. Hum haven’t said it publicly, but the two drivers completely make separate sound. The capacitor, resistance and wires inside work well together to make great sound. To tell the truth, the number of drivers is not the most important thing to make high resolution sound. Pristine teach you well-tuned drivers are the ones you need to consider first.
 
Deep Soundstage with reverberation

1. Reproduce soundstage without making any adjustments.

 
Pristine doesn’t have wide soundstage. It reproduce reverb and delay which added intentionally, but doesn’t extent the soundstage artificially. That means it shows wide soundstage widely and narrow soundstage narrowly. For listeners who want wide soundstage such as K3003, Pristine might satisfying. However, Pristine reproduce soft sound on the whole, like drinking a cup of café latte, and the reverberation is like the milk and coffee smells when you finished the latte.
 
High-mid

1. Clear and soft upper midrange

 
Pristine has the best midrange I have ever heard before. Fast, accurate, and soft. It also shows punchy sound and bold voice, which means highest quality you can get from earphones. It even feels like listening from high sensitivity speakers with really special sound texture. Soft but husky. This stands out at treble, attenuation occurring at 16~17kHz, shattered on high range rather peaking. It makes attacking sound bold like high-hat at treble. Just think about thicker steel plate.
 
If you prefer clear-high range which is like Final audio labs, FI-BA-SS, Pristine might sound like degradation phenomenon which occurs at low-resolution music. Meanwhile, if you prefer to listen to comfortable treble, Pristine would be great for you.
 
Bass

1. Fast response and tranquil reverberation

 
You can still get the chunks and steady sound compared to IEMs which are usually used for monitoring purpose. Well, it depend on music, but except for little emotional resonance, Pristine makes solid sound. It also reproduce what music exactly has. Although it feels like you can’t hear the low-end because the volume of low-end is not loud enough, bass response on the whole is does not affect other frequency band. At lower frequency, the sound rapidly fade out. You might misunderstand that you can’t hear treble and bass depend on the devices you use. That is the reason why I emphasize on the sources.
 
In-Ear Speakers

1. High-end IEM that has signature sound

Pristine’s name comes from the will to deliver ‘raw’ sound, the music itself. But Pristine sounds different from other IEMs. Some people say they can’t hear treble and bass, meanwhile, some people say soft and warm sound.
 
Pristine has basic that high-end IEM should have included. However, it depend on what kind of IEMs you have used before Pristine and depend on music and devices. It could easily lead you to think Pristine is hard to be paired with other components, but with this much high-end product, it’s really fun to find perfect-match devices. Pristine is worth so much time.
 
Pristine reminded me of Shure SCL5 while listening. Therefore I listened SCL5 with 2 big BA, resistance of cable splitter, capacitors, again. It was not that splendid compared to IEM today, but still attractive.Pristine and SCL5 have only one thing in common, which is dual drivers, but the reason why Pristine remind me of SCL5 is that both are really attractive IEMs. Pristine has its own iconic sound like SCL5, which has been discontinued long time ago but still remembered. If you tired out Pristine, you wouldn’t want to look at any other IEMs which have more than 2 unit!

Summary
- Merlin : Merlin(Empire Ears/Earphone units) + Rowan(Effect Audio/Cable)
- Empire Ears Spartan’s base tuned
- 4 balanced armature drivers(1 high, 2 midranges and 1 bass)
- Gold plated copper is used for Rowan cables
- Wide soundstage and great punchy sound
- Unique voice texture and outstanding upper midrange
- All-round In-Ears, but especially great with songs focused on vocals
- Similar sound balance with Arthur, the other Effect Audio x Empire Ears Collaboration In-Ear.
 
You probably have seen a word ‘Collaboration‘ often in Sportswear or fashion industry. ‘Collaboration’ is that two other brands produce and design products together to generate significant synergy. It is a good marketing tool for companies to promote two companies at the same time to the customers who only knew one company before, and many companies use this magic trick a lot.
 
You can also see collaborations between earphone companies and a fashion companies. For example, Sennheiser produced some products with Adidas, and AKG released new models which Quincy Jones participated in. In short, it is easy to see collaboration works in head-fi worlds.
 
Effect Audio is a company producing CIEM. It produced Merlin, universal type earphones with Empire Ears. Empire Ears’s earphones met Effect Audio’s cables. I want to say they are meant to be together.
 
 
Effect Audio, providing Empire Ears, Vision Ears and Custom Art(CIEM companies) to cables, is located in Singapore. It pursue ‘every units has to have right cables.’ As a result, it boost its popularity, thanks to finest wires and components giving unique personality to products. Plus, it responses fast to the customers.
 
Effect Audio released new project with other CIEM brands. The first collaboration product was Genesis, which is the result of the collaboration with Jomo Audio. Genesis was a limited edition and sold in Japan. After the project, It released another project. Empire Ears was the partner.
 
Empire Ears is IEM manufacturer, who launched 14 BA mounted ZEUS. It was famous for the largest number of drivers. In fact, Its name was Earwokz ,but it changed its name to Empire Ears.  It has large fan base due to unique nozzle design and high-resolution sound. ZEUS used many drivers so that deliver rich low midrange and fit to Jazz or Soul. Although it is CIEM brand, its main products were universal line-up then.
 
 
Effect Audio released Arthur, collaboration product with Empire Ears. It named its product after Arthur from ”King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.” What’s more, the cable’s name is Excaliber!, and Arthur has 14 BA drivers. You all might know it is the name of King Arthur’s sword. Arthur is introduced to Korea as well. Customers really surprised about the price and magnificent sound which earphone can’t reproduce usually.
 
Merlin is the second collaboration IEM. The name, Merlin is a sage who assist Arthur in ”King Arthur in his Knights of the Round Table.” Also, the cable’s name, Rowan, is the cane’s name which Merlin had. Merlin has 4 BA drivers and based on Spartan of Empire ears. It was newly born IEM with the Rowan cable and collaboration between the two companies.
 
Merlin’s package is finished using plain black compared to Arthur’s shinny silver. A hard pelican case comes with it, and Comply foam sleeves, Spin fit, two pouches, and cleaning kit are also included. Most of the accessories have Empire’s logo on them, so it looks like Empire Ears’ products.
 
 
Merlin has small units. One for high, two for midrange and the other is for bass, total 4 drivers. Therefore, even if you have small ears, it would be comfortable for long time listening. The universal one has unique nozzle, which is straight and well finished. It means Merlin is comfortable IEM with any types of sleeves. The color of the units is clear purple(it almost looks like blue), and the faceplates have marbling on them. Distinctive faceplates are produced in limited quantities, and the pattern is changed. If you want this faceplates, go get them fast!
 
 
Rowan, Merlin’s cable, has 28gauge gold plated copper wires, Oyaide’s plug, Eidolic’s splitter, and in-house 2Pin connector. The ear-guides fit on the ear shape without any tube or wire and the  insulator is soft and flexible. Furthermore, the gold plated silver copper cable looks gorgeous. It looks more gorgeous than Arthur’s Excalibur.
 
 
Sources for this review was AUNE M2, IPhone 7+, iMac+Apogee One DAC, Sony WM1A, and many different devices with wide range of music. Standard comply gave punchy and solid sound extending high, while bass was not booming. Thus, I could listen analytically. On the other hand, Spin fit gave wide sound stage and well-detailed vocal’s texture. In general, Spin fit delivered more unique sound, so I decided to start listening for review with Spin fit.
 
 
Merlin has high sensitivity. There were no problems with DAP or IPhone 7+, but It’s quite sensitive for Audeze’s Deckard, stationary type amplifier. I recommend to use noise-canceling sources to enjoy the texture of midrange and wide sound stage. In fact, it is related to rough texture on midrange. It need to be burned-in for a certain period time after open the package, therefore you should burn-in your product at least for 20 hours. It will be interesting to listen to how Merlin change its sound. Impedance is 20ohms, therefore, you can use smartphones or any kind of devices.
 
 
Merlin sounded splendid. It produced wide sound stage and three-dimensional sound. Bass extended horizontally, and midrange extended back and forth, which all made wide sound stage. Dynamics and sense of volume were great too. Details were also fantastic. These features stand out with vocals with long take and lots of reverbs, sounds attractive high density vibe and reverb like aroma.
 
I felt rough texture, but not rough in some sense, which made breathe, throb, husky voice doubled. All mixed well with the wide sound stage. As a result, music was greatly delivered. In addition, Violins and pianos sounded fantastic. Arthur, 14 drivers mounted IEM, produce Merlin-like sound as well. However, Arthur has 6 drivers for midrange compared to Merlin with 2 midrange drivers. It is truly surprising that 2 drivers can reproduce this splendid sound. Arthur has similar sound to Merlin( but more expensive). If you can’t afford to Arthur, Merlin would be the great choice.
 
This signature of sound reminded me of some headphones. It means Merlin has unique and rich sound. Merlin and Rowan is well matched for this great sound. If you connect Merlin or Rowan to other devices, it wouldn’t deliver unique and rich sound. I have asked SY before, the president of Effect Audio, “what is Effect Audio’s philosophy”, and he answered “We make perfect cables for each units using finest materials. That is our philosophy.” Effect Audio proved it through the collaboration with Empire Ears. In conclusion, you have to connect Rowan cable to Merlin units to enjoy rich texture of universal IEM Merlin.
 
 
The unique sound Merlin reproduce increase user confidence, and shows absolute reliability. Effect Audio seems to have plans to collaborate with other companies in the future, and I am already looking forward to it.