Hello,
Here’s my feedback about the purple after two weeks of use. I mainly used them plugged to my Earsonics Birdy and the Hidizs ap 80 for on the go listening sessions.
Design and fit
For those already knowing the Velvet design, but later the ES2 and ES3, those share exactly the same kind of shape wich is, to my ears, almost perfect in terms of fit and comfort. As usual, they are really well built and beautifull with the back transparent shell showing the red driver for the right side. In the front faceplate, you’ll find the adgustment knob letting you choose between bright, standard and warm mode.
Signature
I mainly tried one mode, the warm one, which was almost to my, ears, the most balanced. For me, the standard mode that I tried first, lacked a little bit of bass quantity and reminded me a little bit the first EM6. In warm mode, I found the sound to be extremely well balanced, lively, transparent, fast, very detailled but still musical…
Bass
Quantity bass ist o my ears a little bit less than a lot of ES IEM’s that I owned. They aren’t overpointed like in the EM32 (sub bass), they have less meat than the EM10 low medium, upper bass transition but they are incredibly controlled, tight, natural, detailled, layered with subtile texture, nice slam, lot of air, way more air than the EM10 and also quite nice rumble when music asks for it.
Medium
To my ears, it’s were they really shine, medium are beautifull from bottom to top… natural, very detailled, rich. Top medium/low treble transition is energic but never harsh, giving female voice, a very realistic sense of informations. Timbre are really beautifull, saxophones, guitars and piano are transcripted in a very cohesive, organic and natural way. This part of the spectrum reminds me a lot the Grace presentation.
Treble
Very sparckly, detailled, rich, well extended, never harsh, cymballs are so realistic, giving a sense of space due to the capacity of transcripting a lot of micro details. Cymballs in „straight no chaser“ from DR. Lonnie Smith „Evolution“ album is a pure pleasure…
Soundstage/imaging/separation/technicity
Soundstage is quite large and high but mostly very deep. There’s a real « out of the head » feeling, way more spacious than the EM10 that are more 2D. Here’ we have a really hollographic type of sound but in the same way, they remains coherent. Separation between instruments is just incredibly precise, giving a real « Z » axis feeling… a little bit like in the Isine20 IEM that I own… like an open back can, they manage to give so much micro space details. It’s one oft he strenght of this IEM.
Another strenght of this iem is the contrast capacity, there’s a lot of energy and dynamism giving a sense of life in every music playing through them… The IEM is really polyvalent and is capable to adapt itself with every kind of music.
In conclusion, the Purple reminds me a lot of the Grace, their technical capacity is evident and to my ears, they are superiors to the EM10 that I own that are more thick, giving a more « congested » sense of space… here with the Purple, we have the opposite, a very big space feeling but without sacrifying the richness of the timbre from bottom to top. The weel knob also let you choose a more bright or midcentric signature, keeping the overall tecnical capacity wich is a real « Plus » for those searching for this tipe of sound tonality. BRAVO EARSONICS !