1More E1010

Intro
The 1MORE E1010 is the current flagship of 1MORE and tries to convince with a 4-driver configuration (1*DD & 3*BA) and a warm, neutral tuning in the mids and highs, as well as with bass emphasis. Unfortunately, I have no comparison to its smaller brother (E1001), which is usually described as somewhat crisper and brighter in sound. But already by the presentation and haptics one has in the urine that one holds here a high-quality product in the hands, which is more competitive meanwhile also by its current price of 129 € (179 € UVP) and intervenes so into a strongly contested competitor field (BGVP DMG, IKKO OH1, CCA C16 etc.).



Handling
1MORE wants to make an impression with the packaging and its contents and they succeed. We have a wide selection of silicone tips, 3 different sizes of foam tips, an aircraft adapter, 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapters and a hard leather box that reminds you of a luxurious cigarette box, as which it also works very well. You can't deliver much more to assessors.

The in-ears are made of aluminium and feel very valuable. But here I find the cable choice a bit unfortunate. It has a pleasant haptic due to the sheathing and doesn't tend to knot, but it's not removable and a bit thin. You have to keep the L-plug in good condition, which provides more security when the player is in your jacket or trouser pocket.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the isolation. It is above average and shields you well. The wearing comfort is somewhat limited with smaller ear canals. The external shape of the ear doesn't play a major role here, as the E1010 (QUAD-DRIVER) follows a classic in-ear concept, but the sound tubes are very wide, as the 3 BA drivers are located there. I also had to resort to the smallest foam tips. Like the silicone tips, these are not so easy to replace, because you have to buy the right size and you can't reach for a standard tip with 4.5-5.5mm opening. On the right side there is a slight driver flex.



Sound
The E1010 didn't convince me at first time. The bass was too much in the foreground for me and not really to the point. The midrange was a bit dull. Only the highs had something special from the beginning, which I haven't heard yet.

The highs are very detailed and have brilliance. They bring a lightness to the day without emphasizing even the slightest sibilants and neither becoming sharp nor piercing. All that with a fine resolution and natural tonality. All kinds of percussion cymbals buzz through the air and fine micro details are easily uncovered. This can also be done by other in-ears in the price range, but usually it sounds more direct and harder and not so relaxed, which is absolutely a matter of taste. However, the more relaxed representatives don't usually have the transparency and depth, which really makes the E1010 stand out here, as it's really hard to find points of criticism regarding the highs.

While the mids sounded a bit dull and slightly coloured in the beginning, they quickly became brighter and more enlightened and after a short period of playing in, which especially benefited the bass, they became more and more convincing. On the one hand this has to do with the habituation to the signature, which goes in the direction of neutrality, similar to the Tin HIFI T2, which is much brighter and more direct, but in any case also with the daily form. Therefore I needed a long time to write this review, because I was always torn back and forth. So far, no in-ear has made it so difficult for me to form a clear opinion, because it hardly forgives the daily form. If you're fit and rested, the E1010 is really great in all aspects. But if you get a bit beaten after work and your ears get tired, the bass plays a bit too much in the foreground, which makes the neutral signature tilt. Brighter signatures are more forgiving of the current form. In and of itself, the mids, like the trebles, are very detailed and have a fantastic instrument separation. They are from the slightly darker side and don't bang the tonal facts directly into your face. They convince with an extended three-dimensionality, which is reflected in an almost deep as well as wide stage. So you have the feeling to sit in the middle of the room and get the smallest subtleties from everywhere without being served directly in the first row. That makes listening to music incredibly interesting. The mids could be a bit clearer, as they also lose their joy of playing a bit upwards.

The bass will probably divide the spirits. He has pressure and can maintain it far into the low-end. In addition it convinces with a mostly textured, organic representation of the low frequencies. Here you inevitably notice that the bass is reproduced by a dynamic driver. Sometimes it doesn't quite follow the mid and high frequencies, which consistently play out the speed of BA drivers. Nevertheless, it has the naturalness and dynamics on the plus side and the response is fast enough to accurately reproduce even fast bass passages. However, he likes to touch the midrange, which makes it warmer and gives it the feel of coloration. As already mentioned, this becomes much better with time. Nevertheless, the bass part is too much for me, which reduces the overall impression a bit. It can be a lot of fun, but with the E1010 I enjoyed music with less bass by nature, because the mids are more visible.



Outro
I think the E1010 is a good product, which also justifies the current price. But it doesn't quite correspond to my preferences, which are more in a lighter V-signature with more low bass than mid bass and foreward but peak-free mids. Details and an open, wide stage etc. are self-evident. The E1010 does damn much right and will offer many people the perfect and serious audiophile partner for everyday life. But my hearing experience is too inconstant with the E1010. Nevertheless, the highs got me and although the E1010 doesn't necessarily correspond to my listening habits, it is technically convincing, so the rating is quite benevolent. My taste is not the main issue here!



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1More Quad-Driver Review: Lustrous Looks, Lackluster Construction
1More isn’t exactly new to the audiophile world: they’ve had a couple very popular products in the past (most notably the Triple Driver). There was a large amount of feedback, some of which I gave myself directly to the company’s R&D team. However, it seems that the Quad Driver doesn’t make use of much of that advice, and in some cases, exists in direct conflict with it.

You can find the 1More Quad-Driver for sale here, for $200.

Disclaimer: This unit was provided to me free of charge for review purposes. I am not affiliated with 1More beyond this review. These words reflect my true, unaltered, opinion about the product.

Preference and Bias: Before reading a review, it is worth mentioning that there is no way for a reviewer to objectively pass judgment on the enjoyability of a product: such a thing is inherently subjective. Therefore, I find it necessary for you to read and understand what I take a natural liking to and how that might affect my rating of a product.

My ideal sound signature would be an extended sub-bass with a leveled, but textured, mid-bass. The mids should be slightly less pronounced than the treble, but still ahead of the bass. I prefer a more bright upper range.

Source: The 1More was powered like so:

HTC U11 -> USB-C adapter -> earphones

or

Hidizs AP100 3.5mm out -> FiiO A5 3.5mm out -> earphones

or

HiFiMAN SuperMini -> earphones

or

PC optical out -> HiFiMe SPDIF 9018 Sabre DAC 3.5mm out -> earphones

All music was served as MP3 @320Kbps or as FLAC.

Sound Signature
Initial Impressions:

The Quad Driver represents some parts of the sonic spectrum well but seems to ignore some others entirely. The midbass is excellently tuned, perfectly striking a balance between being present and being obnoxious. The treble is articulate, fast, and sparkly, but the mid-range is pushed back reasonably far back, with the exception of vocals. It’s a v-shaped IEM with a cohesive, but soft, timbre.

Treble: Songs used: In One Ear, Midnight City, Outlands, Satisfy

A major pitfall of the multi-driver scene is cohesion. The vast majority of IEMs on the market that make use of more than one driver suffer from a “disconnect” in the sound. It’s subtle, but trained ears seldom do miss it. The Quad Driver makes no such mistakes. The treble, in particular, is solidly extended and has no obscene peaks in the normally problematic 4–6KHz range. It has a slow rise in emphasis as you travel further up the frequency response curve which is probably responsible for the light and airy tone of the treble.

I am tempted to characterize the Quad Driver’s treble as “fairly unique”. It has a lot of resolution and presence but never becomes hot, overbearing, or washed out. High hats and strings take on a new energy to them. A good demonstration of this characteristic is the song The Sex is Good by Saving Able. The combination of high-quality mastering and recording techniques with the refined and well-behaved treble of the Quad Driver is something to behold. It pulls through a large number of so-called “micro-details”. You can even hear the faint buzzing of the E-string on the lead guitar against its fretboard.

Mids: Songs used: Flagpole Sitta, Jacked Up, I Am The Highway, Dreams

The mids are the weakest link in the Quad Driver’s formula. While it's understandable that a consumer V-shapes suffers from weak mids, it’s not acceptable for a $200 IEM to have such a soft timbre. Plain and simple, the Quad Driver doesn’t have what it takes to compete against other IEMs at this price, even those that have half (or even fewer) drivers. Guitars in Drop-C tuning sound muted, and drums sound clipped.

Vocals, however, sound pretty good. Both male and female vocals are weighted reasonably well, while male vocals take the lead in tonality. Both types have above-average intelligibility.

Bass: Songs used: Moth, Gold Dust, In For The Kill (Skream Remix), War Pigs (Celldweller Remix)

The Quad’s lower-end signature is more midbass-centric and makes good use of a 200Hz hump. Extension is ok but lacks the rumble that every V-shaped IEM at this price point, especially those with a dynamic driver should have.

Bass guitars are reasonably well articulated and have a good presence. They could use a little more solidity, but I think the fault there lies with the soft lower-midrange.

All that said, bass lines on electric songs are still satisfying and fun to listen to. I got a fair amount of impact out of Gold Dust and War Pigs. In For The Kill’s melodic bass line had a great body to it, but failed to create and rumble. This falls in line with the rolled off sub-bass I noticed earlier.

Packaging / Unboxing
As per usual, 1More hit it out of the park with their packaging. I did, however, notice that 1More did implement some cost cutting compared to the packaging of the Triple Driver, which is sort of strange given the doubling of the price.

Build
Construction Quality

One can easily summarize the build of the Quad Driver with one word: disappointing.

Let’s start with the driver housings. They’re made of a thin and light metal on the “bullet” part. The nozzles are made of metal too and have a well-machined lip. I couldn’t find any machining flaws on the driver, though the finish feels quite cheap to the touch. When compared to genuinely sand-blasted or brushed aluminum like that on the back of the HTC One M8 the difference is night and day.

Protruding out of the housing like a poorly-sized obelisk is a metal… tube? It certainly doesn’t count as stress relief since it doesn’t relieve any stress; it just takes up space. I’d love to see these reworked such that they provide some kind of mechanical advantage.


The filters are actually really nice. They are perforated with super-fine holes varying in size. They get finer the further out from the middle you get.

The cable is where I take the largest of issues. It’s garbage! This cable is literally made by the same crappy OEM as the one that comes with the $18 KZ ZST. Honestly 1More, slapping some aluminum components on a terrible cable doesn’t do you any favors. Here’s a picture of the ZST’s cable for reference:

But what’s so bad about this cable you ask? Well, almost everything. Firstly, it’s very thin. It won’t survive any particularly rough encounters or accidents. Secondly, it's springy and poorly behaved. It doesn’t coil well nor does it sit well. It also has a good bit of microphonics which just adds to the annoyance.

But to give credit where credit is due, there is (barely) adequate plastic stress relief on the 3.5mm jack’s metal housing and on the Y-splitter. Above the Y-splitter you can find the 3-button inline controls. They’re made from the same metal as the driver housing and jack and sport the same finish. It’s compatible with Android, iOS, and works with Windows 10. I do not have any OSX machines to test it with.

I would like to see 1More improve the controls by replacing the buttons with a more tactile offering. As they stand the buttons sit loosely within the control housing. Pressing them is no better, as the experience can be summed up as “mushy”.

Comfort

Thankfully the Quad-Driver is easy to wear. I had no problems finding a comfortable position for it and it stayed solidly in my ears at all times, even when moving around or riding my bike.

Accessories

Inside the box you’ll find:

• 1x pleather hard carrying case
• 1x shirt clip
• 1x airline adapter
• 1x 1/4in adapter
• 8x pairs of eartips

These accessories all feel premium. The variety of eartips is excellent, and the quality of the tips themselves is top-notch.

The case feels nice to the touch and has a well-designed magnetic flap. The stitching is precise. I do wish they made it larger, though. As it stands the case has too low a volume to store the Quad Drivers without coiling them tighter than is healthy (for the cable in the long run).

Summary
The Quad Driver is an interesting product. It rests on the reputation built by its predecessor, the Triple Driver, but fails to deliver the bang-for-the-buck that I’ve come to expect from the 1More brand. At $200, the Quad Driver struggles to stand out and nears the bottom of the barrel in terms of build quality, at least compared to its competition. Its high-quality treble doesn’t do enough to make up for its mediocre bass extension and sub-standard mid-range performance either. I’d say that the Quad-Driver gets a pass from me. Should it go on sale like the Triple Driver for 30–40% off, that might change. But for now, take a look at other options.

Suggestions to 1More

• Beef up the cable. Under no circumstances should such a terrible cable be used on such an expensive product. Look towards Alpha and Delta for examples of how to do cabling right.
• Choose a better finish. It currently isn’t sealed well.
• Extend the bass and increase emphasis from the 20Hz-150Hz range.
• Expand the volume of the case this will do wonders in helping your customers extend the lifetime of the Quad Driver
• Even out the mid-range and solidify it. You can reduce the mid-bass emphasis by 1–2dB if need be, there’s plenty of it there right now.

Thanks For Reading!
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this review and you want to help support my reviews, head over to my Patreon!

If want something and make it own, should be clear about and understand the interests related. For that process, you have to spend time. Furthermore, by investing a lot of effort, you can be recognized in one area as a professional.


Luca Bignardi, who runs Big’s Studio, is a sound engineer with four Grammy Awards in Latin. He says that earphone for consumer should implement sound over what is actually heard, above numerical. Now, I would like to showcase 1More E1010 in-ear headset he tuned.






When opened the E1010 package, you are probably in admiration for splendid components. Starting with a black natural leather case, from 3 pairs of memory-foam ear-caps, 5 pairs of silicone-tips, 6.5mm stereo gender, air-jack and aluminum cable clip. Everything you need to use E1010 is just in one place.


The appearance of E1010 is designed to the users, along the aircraft's jet engine. The aluminum housing looks like a titanium metal by low tone colored. Compared to ordinary earphones, it is a fairly heavy, but the weight reaching ear canal is dispersed so that it can be worn stably. And the nozzle tubes are much larger in size than normal (4mm), so it may be difficult to fully integrate them with 3rd party earphone tips.






To prevent cable disconnection, black rubber shields are added at the cable’s Y-split and 4-pole input plug. The wires are made of stiff material with dark green, red, and gold-colored oxygen-free copper wires covered with translucent black cloth. Microphonic noise is not exposed, but please be careful to store or use for not giving stress to the cable.


Since the microphone is highly sensitive and omnidirectional, it can deliver a clear voice to the other party. And the attached 3 buttons are possible to control playback and volume, and are compatible with all smartphones with Android and iOS.









Specification

Type: in-ear
Driver: 3 BA + 1 DD (Hybrid)
Weight: 18.5g
Cable Length: 1.25m
Wire Material: OFC
Plug: 3.5mm stereo(4-pole)
Frequency Range: 20~40,000Hz
Impedance: 32
Sensitivity: 99dB
Rated Power: 5mW


Package

In-ear Quad driver headphones
9 ear tips set of silicone ear tips of various sizes
Magnetic clasping traveling case
Leather storage case
Dual prong airline adapter
Matching shirt clip

Tested Environment

Galaxy S8+
iPhone SE
Sony NW-WM1 A/Z
Astell&Kern AK70/300/380
Cowon Plenue D/1/2
Chord Electronics Hugo
Macbook Air 2015





The overall sound signature of the E1010 seems V-shape, with a particularly strong emphasis on bass. The soundstage is drawn one step away and linear so that gives unique perspective. Due to such characteristics, audible sibilance or dip of the middle and trebles formed is suppressed, which brings about a calm and smooth.


The upper bass is thicker and darker, the lower bass becomes thinner and has lesser reverberation. Bass’ roll-off is slow in the beginning and accelerates in the backward direction., so the bass instrument’s riff gives off strong hits. Overall image of the bass is held on one step above the middles, so can hear more clear vocals as masking phenomenon is suppressed.


The midrange is captured behind two steps and is drawn farther than the others. The roll-off is pretty linear that seems little texture. This can be eased using the enclosed memory-form-tips. Using the form-tip, you can pull a note step and get stronger damping so you can hear the piano's notes more clearly and brightly. However, the stage may become a little narrower as some of the mid-bass is suppressed.








The treble is drawn as slender and has low-level reverberation that sounds more still. Upper treble is little bit emphasized, so the snare of quartet jazz band expresses the scratched expression and the harmonics of the hi-hat more realistically. However, the strong expression of the violin or the high sound expression of the piano may feel plain or dull.


The E1010 provides a pleasant environment without noise even when exposed to a device with strong output or unstable signal to noise ratio. With higher output power, roll-off of bass gets slower and the middles goes more backwards. It is recommended that use devices with light power output and wide dynamic range, because this phenomenon can give restrained middles and highs.






The 'E1010' has provided smooth music experience, even when it is not a matching environment with a professional sound system. If you want to feel the calm and spacious sound signature with stylish appearance, I think 'E1010' will be a good partner.









Disclaimer

Hello, I am a Head-fi product reviewer named 'Bigheadfiler' in South Korea. This review may not be perfect because it is my 5th English translation. I appreciate your understanding. Thank you.

The E1010 was offered by ‘0dB’ Korean audiophile community and ‘1More Korea’. The content of the review has been written without any restriction because the authors' freedom is respected.




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