I saw a Z review of the anthem five e2 and when I heard they went for $150 a pair I was astounded at the price alone. When I contacted Anthem five about the turn around it was claimed 5 days and it was indeed sent out within 5 business days. Fit and finish is pretty good considering the price. I wasn’t too picky on finish but they’re super smooth and it looks and feels great. I wish there were color options but I’m digging the black with gold logo look. The cable included is alright but not my personal taste looks wise. The first set I got had the canals cut right at the second bend which has been a problem in the past for me. I contacted them and asked for a longer set of canals since I couldn’t get a seal. I put some old foam tips around the beginning of the canal to force a seal so I could get a feel of the sound while I waited for a new set to be sent out. The team has been extremely responsive and I’m very happy with the service I’ve received so far. I burned these in overnight via an old ipod plugged in so they got about 10 hours of play time before I tested them. I've been listening to them over that last few days as well before writing this review.
Onto the review of the sound! My personal preference are a dynamic hybrid iem where I get good hitting bass and have a brighter treble with decent mids. I listen to a lot of genres but I hover in the classic rock, blues and edm music with some rap here and there.
Gear used
iPhone X with headphone adapter, FiiO m11, smsl sh8/su8 combo.
Lows- These hit hard! A really good bass impact and you can definitely feel the rumbles and nothing sounds dirty in the low end.
Mids- Super relaxed and flat sounding. I wouldn’t say it’s lacking.
Highs- Feels recessed on first listen but after listening to some flat iems I have I can say it’s more a flat sound in the treble.
Imaging- I was fairly surprised how well these image. Instruments sound like they’re in the correct spots and sounds going from one side to the other extremely accurate and really impressive in the $100-$200 range.
Soundstage- More intimate but depending on your source it can open up a little.
Cable rolling- I do have an decent collection of cables(labkable, null audio, random amazon cables) so I like to try out cables to see if I get any sound difference or not. My favorite brand is null audio out of Singapore and I tested with their ethos, lune and tiburon cables. I will say the cable it comes with is fine to get the job done but I’d recommend at least the null audio ethos at $70 USD for the looks as well as the slightly better quality. Plus the e2 is a flush 2 pin ciem so the options are wide for new cables.
Ethos mkiii- controls the bass better and helps a little in quality with the mids. No effect on highs.
Lune mkVI- everything the ethos did but gave a slight boost to the treble.
Tiburon-cleaner sounding low end, mids and treble sparkle a little more and soundstage opens up. Would recommend but its a $180 cable for a $150 ciem so ehhhhhh.
Amping
I wasn’t expecting a big difference in amping since these ran off my iPhone fine though at high volumes. Running off the FiiO m11 the sound didn’t change much on 3.5mm. The sound was better off 2.5mm and 4.4mm and felt more open but that could be just the m11 specifically with the layout for balanced. Using the smsl set up balanced, the bass actually hit even harder and the mids and highs cleaned up a bit. Via unbalanced it just seemed to have even more bass. A little extra power did make a difference at least to my ears.
Overall thoughts
If this was a universal iem at $150 I’d say it sits well in the $150-200 price range for someone looking for a “fun” iem with a big bass impact. I thought about comparing them to other ciems I have but the cheapest one I have is $700 bucks so I find that not fair. Then I thought about comparing them to the universal iems that I have in the $100-200 range but I’ll make it short and say think of this as an Ikko oh10 with a harder hitting bass and flat mids and highs. The fact it’s a custom fit iem however makes it a extremely good deal and I can highly recommend it for anyone who wants a juicy bass hit or someone on the fence about getting into the ciem world. This is a great deal and had these been $300 dollars I would still highly recommend them. The reshells of my fav iems from another company cost $330 for just the shell and labor to move my universal iem to a custom shell. Good job to the team at anthem five and I can’t wait to see what they come out with next!
Note: Photos of the replacement compared to the first set will be posted once I receive the new set.
Onto the review of the sound! My personal preference are a dynamic hybrid iem where I get good hitting bass and have a brighter treble with decent mids. I listen to a lot of genres but I hover in the classic rock, blues and edm music with some rap here and there.
Gear used
iPhone X with headphone adapter, FiiO m11, smsl sh8/su8 combo.
Lows- These hit hard! A really good bass impact and you can definitely feel the rumbles and nothing sounds dirty in the low end.
Mids- Super relaxed and flat sounding. I wouldn’t say it’s lacking.
Highs- Feels recessed on first listen but after listening to some flat iems I have I can say it’s more a flat sound in the treble.
Imaging- I was fairly surprised how well these image. Instruments sound like they’re in the correct spots and sounds going from one side to the other extremely accurate and really impressive in the $100-$200 range.
Soundstage- More intimate but depending on your source it can open up a little.
Cable rolling- I do have an decent collection of cables(labkable, null audio, random amazon cables) so I like to try out cables to see if I get any sound difference or not. My favorite brand is null audio out of Singapore and I tested with their ethos, lune and tiburon cables. I will say the cable it comes with is fine to get the job done but I’d recommend at least the null audio ethos at $70 USD for the looks as well as the slightly better quality. Plus the e2 is a flush 2 pin ciem so the options are wide for new cables.
Ethos mkiii- controls the bass better and helps a little in quality with the mids. No effect on highs.
Lune mkVI- everything the ethos did but gave a slight boost to the treble.
Tiburon-cleaner sounding low end, mids and treble sparkle a little more and soundstage opens up. Would recommend but its a $180 cable for a $150 ciem so ehhhhhh.
Amping
I wasn’t expecting a big difference in amping since these ran off my iPhone fine though at high volumes. Running off the FiiO m11 the sound didn’t change much on 3.5mm. The sound was better off 2.5mm and 4.4mm and felt more open but that could be just the m11 specifically with the layout for balanced. Using the smsl set up balanced, the bass actually hit even harder and the mids and highs cleaned up a bit. Via unbalanced it just seemed to have even more bass. A little extra power did make a difference at least to my ears.
Overall thoughts
If this was a universal iem at $150 I’d say it sits well in the $150-200 price range for someone looking for a “fun” iem with a big bass impact. I thought about comparing them to other ciems I have but the cheapest one I have is $700 bucks so I find that not fair. Then I thought about comparing them to the universal iems that I have in the $100-200 range but I’ll make it short and say think of this as an Ikko oh10 with a harder hitting bass and flat mids and highs. The fact it’s a custom fit iem however makes it a extremely good deal and I can highly recommend it for anyone who wants a juicy bass hit or someone on the fence about getting into the ciem world. This is a great deal and had these been $300 dollars I would still highly recommend them. The reshells of my fav iems from another company cost $330 for just the shell and labor to move my universal iem to a custom shell. Good job to the team at anthem five and I can’t wait to see what they come out with next!
Note: Photos of the replacement compared to the first set will be posted once I receive the new set.
