Introduction

Empire Ears has established itself as one of the biggest players on the in-ear headphone market. Based in Bufford, USA, Empire Ears offers a wide range of first-class monitors. The last product line was mostly themed after Greek Gods, with Zeus naming the mighty flagship incorporating 14 drivers per side. There has been an impressive amount of publicity, as only very few contestants managed to tune such a large amount of drivers as accurately as Empire Ears. Besides, the Zeus had been developed over three generations, starting from the Zeus XIV with a highly resolved and straightforward sound, over the Zeus R with a rather reference signature towards the Zeus ADEL, utilizing a membrane-based valve that alleviates the pressure imposed on the ear drums.



With the X-series and the EP series, Empire ears published two new product lines in 2018. The X-series consists of four hybrid monitors, with the Legend-X as the top model, profiting from a delicate interplay of balanced and dynamic drivers. The EP series, in contrast, follows a more conservative approach in a sense that the three units in this line are entirely based on BAs, without any hybrid architecture, ADEL modules or other tech gimmicks that gave Empire its innovative and versatile image. The flagship of the EP series, the Phantom, has certainly raised a few eyebrows as it has only five drivers. This being said, the number only sounds small because of the driver war during the last years, where companies deviated from the line of having accurately sounding in-ears towards a “more-is-better” strategy, gearing up their units with as many drivers as possible. As a result, the market got overwhelmed with mostly poorly sounding and expensive headphones. Before that, two to five drivers had absolutely been normal, and if we lean back and recap this period a bit we have to admit that earlier generation high end IEMs with fewer drivers sounded just as good. Prominent examples are the FitEar 335, the Spiral Ears 5-way or, as an extreme, the Warbler Prelude with one single driver.



Now what exactly happened in between? Over the last years, a lot of new players emerged in the jungle of in-ear audio, and it got notoriously difficult to establish yourself in the, I would conjecture, oversaturated market. Similar to the megapixel war with digital cameras in the early 2000s, it sounded cool and impressive to have first 9, then 12, then 14, up to 18 and even 20+ drivers in your in-ear – on each side! Were the small cameras with 20 megapixels better? I guess it is safe to say no, but as a marketing gag it worked, at the beginning at least. An analogous situation occurred on the in-ear market, that peaked in 2017. And now, as if nothing happened in between, we are back to normality. Few drivers with a precision in tuning that was not possible for a high driver count are on the run again and, to make a quick qualitative statement, they compete easily with the best IEMs of the last years.



In this review, I am diving into an extensive discussion of the Empire Ears Phantom. There are two reasons why I picked the Phantom over the, equivalently amazing, Legend-X. On the one hand, I was born with strong tinnitus and the sharper treble of the Legend-X sounded unpleasant to my ears. On the other hand, the sound of the Phantom amuses me greatly and presents a perfect example of a simple, yet technologically top notch, monitor that overcomes the limitations even of the best in-ears of previous lines. With a price of 1799 USD, the Phantom is surely no bargain but carries a tag that is fairly average on nowadays’ market.





This review is built up as follows: first, I discuss the configuration and built of the Phantom. Afterwards, a full analysis of the sound is presented. Then, a small interlude compares the Phantom to the Empire Ears Zeus. Finally, cable pairings are elaborated and conclude the main section of this article.



Configuration and Build

The Phantom features a 2 low – 1 mid – 2 high configuration of BAs, while five crossovers control each BA individually. In the previously released Zeus XR technical modifications, such as ADEL modules or plastic levers that change the signature and crossover layout, gave a quite fragile impression of the build. The Phantom, on the contrary, has a plain shell and faceplate, without any of the aforementioned features, such that the shells appear to be very robust. The components fit into a small shell, making the IEM a very wearable and light unit. I felt that the fit got better compared to my previous Empire Ears monitor, where I had some issues on one side. The new ones fit splendidly and allow for long wearing sessions. However, compared to in-ears by brands like FitEar, the shelling can still be improved: like the Zeus, the plastic shell is relatively thin. Therefore, external sources of noise are drowned out when listening at normal volumes but on lower volumes the background is definitely audible.





Two positive upgrades are the available designs and the stock cable. To begin with the looks, Empire expanded its palette of colours by a whole new set, featuring some new tones that fit the faceplates much more. I had the feeling before that the faceplates always looked amazing, while the shells sometimes did not offer the proper pairing in colour. My own IEM from the pictures use Titanium as a shell colour, finished by a carbon faceplate. The shell is slightly sparkling; the faceplate has a shimmering light reflection effect that makes the IEM overall look great. The second very enjoyable upgrade to previous items is the stock cable: both new product lines come with the Effect Audio Ares II, which is a decent copper cable that offers a good match with the signature of the Phantom. From that perspective, expensive upgrades to other wires are not the most important task anymore after receiving the IEM.



Sound

When I listened to the Phantom for the first time, the most dominant characteristic to me was the organic and natural sound. So far, I had listened to more reference-oriented IEMs, such that there had always been an emphasis on wide and clear treble and the higher middle range. Often, I found in-ears with a lower mid or bass focus too dark, such that these IEMs had not been my first choice. The Phantom is the first IEM with a focus on mids and lower mids, without being dark or performing unsatisfactorily in the upper mids and treble stage. The sound is beautifully natural on all stages that I instantaneously fell in love with it. This does not mean that the sound is soft, smooth and round – it rather means that the sound is reproduced in the intended way, without adding much own signature. For example, if you listen to vocals you will find a wonderfully smooth voice, one of the best on the in-ear market. It is sparkling and enchanting in high notes, and full and strong in low ones. If you listen to heavy metal, the Phantom is fast and responsive, reproducing accurate and harsh picks, as well as rough and growling vocals. If you listen to electro, tunes will sound shrill and synthesized, with sharp edges and artificial tones. Altogether, the Phantom is an extremely versatile IEM that just sounds like you sit in a concert hall and listen to any type of music live, in the way the artists intend.


I used the word organic in addition to natural to indicate, that the sound has a fair amount of warmth in its tuning, which adds some lower-mid emphasis. However, this does not boost the bass as it often is the case, but leads to a full and dense, yet accurate representation. The focus is in the mid stage, with clean and strong control over the bass, preventing it from overwhelming the higher mids and treble. Combining this feature with the specs described above leads to a truly warm monitor with an organic sound, that can enchant with sparkling and clean treble. This balance has always been one of the most desirable ones. Yet, a monitor, which combines the benefits of a warm and a cold tuning, was usually not realized very well as these antipodal points on the map of sound signatures usually influence another. Hence, it is truly amazing that the Phantom unifies both strengths. This sound and feeling may take a while to captivate you: many in-ears convince with a tuning that sounds exciting, with sparkling and broad treble or rumbling and high-pressure bass. The Phantom, on the opposite, does all of that on demand, just as the record intended to. This may sound a bit unexciting at first, depending on what you feed in. After some warm up, however, the IEM convinced me and I could not go back to my reference monitors for everyday listening.



From the more technical side, the Phantom offers top notch specs only single other IEMs on the market can compete with. The sound shows a wonderful tonality, with colourful and thick notes. Nonetheless, the stage is very wide. It is often a trade-off between dense tone and stage width, as commonly airiness in the sound leads to a diluted image that appears to be wide. Yet, this approach comes with the cost of a less powerful and more laid-back representation of the sound. The Phantom reaches a splendid balance in between and has a wonderfully, yet not artificially, wide stage. Some reference monitors with a stronger focus on the higher mids and treble may be twenty percent wider, but as mentioned before, not necessarily more pleasant or technically riper to listen to. On the other hand, the sound is still natural in density. Some IEMs on the market have a thick, almost liquid sound that is overly warm, leading to beautiful voices and slow instrumentals, but failing spectacularly when fast and complex music, for which separation and stage in between the notes is crucial, is played.



This also brings us to the next strength of the Phantom: separation and detail. The separation is very sharp between the notes, despite the warm signature. Notes can be localized very precisely in space and there is close to no overlap and fuzziness in between the notes, even for fast and complex music. This makes the Phantom a fantastic all-rounder: before, I tended to listen to metal on a more reference-like IEM like the Zeus R, whereas vocals and instrumentals sounded nicer on my FitEar 335 SR. The Phantom can do both perfectly. Also, the level of detail overwhelms, to an extend that makes the music sound scarily real. When strings play, you hear every audible bit of its oscillation, every screeching when the bow slips slightly, and the full reverbing body of deeper notes played by violoncellos and contrabasses. Slightest instabilities in singing are revealed, as well as, for example, scratching or other rough sound when listening to electronic music. Combining the massive detail with the thick and warm sound leads to another feature I would like to briefly talk about: realistic physicality of the sound. With physicality I do not mean how realistic instruments and voices sound compared to a concert. Rather, I am referring to another dimension of sound, namely the impact. With more spacious sounding IEMs, dilution of the sound often comes with a more laid-back tonality, leading to a lack of power and impact on the eardrum. Here, on the contrary, the sound of the Phantom strongly stimulates the ear. Guitar picks pinch, electronic music scratches and bass pumps. For those who were a fan of the ADEL-based IEMs of the last generation, the pressure during fast and heavy bass kicks may be a bit too much, but the issue can be easily resolved with a suitable cable paring as described in a later section. For bass lovers, the strong pumping pressure will please you, guaranteed.



Before I continue with a more specific analysis of the single stages, I would like to make one comment about the handling of input music files. Once I started to listen to my FitEar 335, I realized that some monitors can be brutally unforgiving if the recording is not good. Now you may say that an IEM cannot interpolate poor recordings to an amazing listening experience, invalidating my point. However, there are strong differences in how well IEMs handle different qualities in music files. For instance, the huge stage and reference signature of the Zeus R made fast and complex music enjoyable, whereas the liquid sound of the FitEar made me skip entire albums or even genres as it sounded disastrously messy. From this point of view, I would like to give tremendous credits to the Phantom. While high quality recordings sound as they should, albums of mediocre quality manage to sound exceptionally good compared to other IEMs as well. While before I shifted my focus in listening to technically good recordings in order to listen to the capabilities of my equipment rather than the music itself, I am finally happy with paying more attention to the type of music again, as there has not been any piece that forced me to skip.



In the following, I will analyse the treble, mid and bass stage more explicitly. The standard cable pairing with the Ares II is extremely warm, setting strong emphasis on the lower mids. I will give a description of the general tone and specify how a different cable pairing can change and potentially improve the sound. A later section discusses concrete pairings for the Phantom. All impressions were obtained by using the Cowon Plenue S as a source.



Treble. The signature of the Phantom is slightly on the darker side. This affects the treble stage: when pairing the IEM with the Plenue S, the combination of warm IEM, cable and DAP lead to a slightly muffled treble that lacked in sparks and width. When I listened to the Phantom for the first time this was slightly disappointing, as I tend to enjoy reference sounding in-ears. The solution here is a new cable pairing: with a silver-copper hybrid the sound magically opened up. The dull sounding high notes suddenly sound bright, yet without sharp or shrill ends. This was particularly interesting for me as in-ear monitors with emphasis on higher mids and treble tend to have a certain level of analyticity in sound, which may hurt sensitive ears as my own. Here, in contrast, you have a wonderfully smooth and accurate representation of the treble stage, while the warmth of the IEM manages to tame shrill ends. The stage becomes considerably wider, yet without diluting the sound. Instead, you will experience thick notes that let voices and instruments sound colourful and musical. The cable-based emphasis on the higher part of the spectrum also improves resolution and separation. In the standard configuration, the dark sound lead to slightly smeared out notes. However, the Phantom, paired appropriately, can have a great resolution among the notes, which, in combination with the ability to separate the notes sharply, leads to a very clean and precise sound. For such a warm IEM this is rather rare to achieve, as this sound signature is normally found in colder, reference-tuned IEMs. For that reason, the Phantom scores greatly for achieving this unusual, yet desirable balance. One more word about the detail: as described in the preliminary part of this section, the detail of the Phantom is supreme. This extends directly to the treble stage of the IEM. Thanks to the high level of tuning, there are no interferences that may lead to slightest level of fuzziness or uncleanlinesses.



Mids. The signature of the Phantom is mid-centric. This makes this part of the spectrum the strength of the IEM. While the lower mids are extremely wide in stage, the spectrum on the stock cable shows a trapezoidal shape, with a stage narrowing down towards the upper mids. This trapezoid can be converted into a rectangle with a different choice of cable, leading to an evenly wide extension of the treble as described above. The center of the mids is the part that is affected least by a change of hardware, always maintaining a great and natural stage width. However, a change in cable can affect the cleanliness of the mids: indeed, resolution and detail benefits greatly from outbalancing the slightly dark signature. The lower mids are where the Phantom unleashes its full potential. The combination of timber with the strong and responsive upper bass reproduces instrumentals that amaze. Consequently, both epic classical music with rumbling and slow sounds, as well has fast metal base drums sound perfect, without any hint of delay or overlap in notes. This punchy and well-controlled sound is supported also by the separation and resolution of the sound. Here, the Phantom is among the best on the market, considering that usually warm in-ears have difficulties to achieve such a high level of separation and resolution. In between every note there is a short period in which the dark and noiseless background separates cleanly from the following one. Just as for the treble, the detail is stably kept at a very high level, yielding an extremely realistic sound: even the finest details are fully audible.



Bass. With a lower-mid centricity, the Phantom presents an impressive bass stage. The two BAs achieve a huge body that fully realizes its potential: loud rumbling and quaking in classical pieces transmit the intimidating atmosphere intended by the composer, heavy metal bass and base drums reproduce the power and agility of the music and electric music features uber clean, punchy and sharp bass kicks and build up a tremendous amount of pressure that resonate the ear drum. The combination of high resolution, detail and separation are the reason for the extreme cleanliness of the bass stage. This in turn is a key ingredient to the strongly forgiving sound of the Phantom. Even bad recordings can be resolved and separated sufficiently well to make it a pleasant listening experience. If you like a heavy bass, the Phantom will definitely meet your expectations. To my mind, the bass is too powerful in the standard configuration with the Ares II, overwhelming parts of the upper mids and treble. For that reason, also here a cable with silver parts is beneficial in order to achieve a more balanced and open sound. However, this is where things are getting more involved. It is possible to find a balance between a bass that is still strong and features the abovementioned characteristics. However, as discussed in the next section, if the pairing is too powerful and the bass gets attenuated too much, then all of the sudden the Phantom tilts over and loses the strongest part of its characteristics.



In short, the Phantom is an impressively tuned IEM that unleashes its full capability with the right hardware. In the following section I will elaborate more on one part of the hardware, namely cable pairings.



Cable pairing

The Phantom is a very adaptive IEM. A change in cable can make a whole lot of a difference, but also harm the signature. The stock cable is the Effect audio Ares II, which is a 4-braid copper cable. With the Phantom being a warm IEM on itself, this combination liquifies the sound more and makes it even warmer, which may not sound good anymore if your source is on the warmer side as well. In my case, it took me quite some effort to tune the Plenue S properly to have a pleasant sound image. One way around was using a slightly colder cable. I ended up picking a silver – gold plated copper hybrid to maintain the timber and punchy bass, while giving more emphasis to the mid and higher mids though the silver parts. This made a whole world of a change: the stage grew by a good 20-30% and the treble was way more open and sparkly. Concerning the listening experience, I found it essential to open up the higher notes, unleashing the full potential of the IEM and adapting the slightly dark signature in the stock cable configuration. However, a cable that is too cold does not work either: when pairing a pure silver or gold plated silver cable, the warm bassy signature is greatly reduced and the timber, which contributes a great part to the Phantoms sound signature, vanishes almost completely. This harms the signature quite a lot, leading to an unbalanced sound that lost its strongest parts. Hence, achieving the delicate balance of preserving the bass and timber, while shifting the spectrum more to the higher mids and opening up the treble is, to me, essential. In the following, I will mention three cable pairings that visualize more the arguments above.



Ares II (Stock cable). The cable the Phantom comes with is a quite prominent, and surprising one. The Ares II is one of the respected copper cables on the market and positioned at the entry-level of premium upgrade cables. With its warm signature, it boosts the Phantom to a level that can only be driven properly by a colder DAP, such as the SP1000. On the WM1Z and the Plenue S, this pairing gives a “too much” of an impression. Irrespective of the audio source, I recommend to upgrade the cable to gain more stage and resolution. For example, if the temperature of the sound should be maintained, then PW audio or the Rhapsodio copper wizard do a good job.



MadCable ReMSG. My personal choice became the MadCable ReMSG. It is an 8-braid silver – gold plated copper hybrid that finds the perfect balance between maintaining bass and timber, and opening up the higher mids and treble. Besides brightening the treble, the ReMSG keeps the bass responsive and punchy. Furthermore, it increases resolution and detail by a significant amount, pushing the Phantom to show its full repertoire of technical capabilities.



Plussound X8 GPS. One instructive example of an unsuccessful pairing for me was the gold-plated silver cable by Plussound. The cable itself is amazing, and I cannot think of replacing it on my FitEar 335. However, the sound becomes too bright for the Phantom and loses its organic sound. The spectrum becomes upper mid-centric, with attenuated bass. However, the Phantom was not designed to be a bright, probably reference-sounding monitor, such that the combination simply sounds off. Even with my warm Plenue S, the cable was too bright. The same arguments count for other bright players on the market, such as the Labkable Titan or Pandora.



Finally, from my personal point of view, I can recommend any good silver – copper hybrids in case that your DAP has a warm signature. One possible choice here is the aforementioned MadCable ReMSG. In case your audio source is on the colder side, I suggest a copper or gold plated copper upgrade cable, such as the Plussound X8.





IEM Comparisons

Before concluding this review, I briefly compare the Phantom it to the previous flagship, the Zeus R ADEL. The reason why I chose this comparison is that I assume many of you, including my previous self, are wondering whether the upgrade makes sense, given the strong performance of and high price for the Zeus R. My full review of the Zeus XR ADEL can be found here. Furthermore, numerous other reviews have already spoken about the difference between the Phantom and the Legend-X, such that I comfortably refer to them. The pictures attached below show the Zeus XR ADEL (on the left) in comparison to the Phantom.

The Zeus R ADEL is a higher mid-centric IEM with reference sound. The stage is extremely wide, slightly diluted and laid back. This gives the Zeus R ADEL a stage that is wider than the one of the Phantom, by about 20 %. Yet, the density in notes is considerably reduced, which gives a clean but less engaging sound compared to the Phantom. The widely spread out of notes allow for excellent separation, slightly better than the Phantom. However, when looking at resolution and detail, the Zeus R ADEL cannot compete. The 14 drivers have excellent tuning, but compared to the black background of the Phantom, and the sharper edges of its notes, the Zeus R ADEL appears to have some slight but constantly present noise in the background. Overall, the Phantom presents a cleaner and more accurate sound image that has a more natural and powerful tonality.

For me, I would redo the upgrade from the Zeus to the Phantom again at any time. The Phantom simply feels more sophisticated and separates itself from previous lines with the outstanding tuning described in an earlier section. Putting aside a 2750 USD IEM for a newer, considerably cheaper one felt odd at first but there is definitely a lot to gain from changing to the Phantom, at least according to my preference.

Conclusions

Empire Ears created a new flagship that takes the listening experience to the next level. While cutting down on unnecessary gimmicks, such as large amounts of drivers, the goal was rather to focus on a top-notch tuning. The result is a technically highly refined IEM that offers a combination of wide, strongly resolved, detailed and accurate sound, while maintaining a warm signature with a full-bodied bass. Its top-notch tuning achieves to keep up with the strengths of previous flagships, such as the Zeus, while improving their subtle weaknesses. With a reduced size, the Phantom also upgrades in wearability: the five BA drivers offer a light and small unit which. Its flexibility in sound allows the user to pair the Phantom arbitrary audio sources, given the appropriate cable to balance out too warm or bright sound. Overall, the Phantom offers an experience that knows to enchant the listener, with a natural sound that takes you right to the live stage. With a price tag of below 1799 USD, the price is more than fair and positioned in the lower mid range of high end in-ears.



Build: 8/10



Sound: 10/10



Price value: 10/10

Introduction

The cable market has been expanding rapidly with a large amount of companies joining the competition. One important hub for this market is Hong Kong, where some of the world’s most renowned brands like Labkable, Brimar, YY Pro and Rhapsodio are stationed. In this review I would like to introduce one more player from this city, who is on the raise to compete with the best: Mad Cable. The company was established in late 2016 and has a refreshing mentality that stands out on the oversaturated jungle of wires. You could say, sticking to their name, that they are mad in a sense that they offer top cables for extremely competitive prices. While the materials identical to and from the same factory as the ones other world prominent cable makers use, the prices are just a fraction of what is commonly asked for. The product range of Mad Cable has been expanding steadily and holds now a choice that goes from silver cables, gold plated silver and copper cables and, recently added, hybrids.

Here, I introduce one cable of the first flagship series of Mad Cable. The series consists of two products: a gold plated silver with cryo silver hybrid called ReMirror, and a gold plated copper with cryo silver hybrid called ReMSG, while the latter one is subject to this review. It is fun to spare some words on the naming of the cables: the MSG in the name stands for Monosodium glutamate. It is a flavour enhancing substance that is commonly used in Chinese cuisine, but about the link between the cable and local food can only be speculated.

Priced at 5950 HKD (about 760 USD), the cable is in the mid-range of nowadays cable market. This tag gets even more interesting with taking into account that the cable is an 8-braid hybrid, given that nowadays plated cables can easily pass this barrier for 4-braids.



Build and Appearance

Each cable is shipped in a light-brown box made of synthetic leather, which has an additional drawer to store further cables or IEMs. Mad Cable knows how to catch the eye of the audiophile. The flagship cables are braided cubically and use clear PVC sleeving, resulting in an attractive mix of colours. The braiding itself is close to perfect, both in terms of looks and audio quality. First, it is extremely regular and tight, resulting in a very portable 8-braid configuration. Compared to my Plussound X8, the cable is about half as thick and excellent for outdoor use. Furthermore, the four strings after the Y-splitter are commonly braided in bundles of four, which makes the cable more long-lasting but sacrifices slightly optimal sound that would come with a twirling. From the build it is safe to say that Mad Cable can easily compete with other top brands on the market.



The individual strings are very thin, much thinner than the strings that States based companies use. There are two reasons for this: First, apart from Japan-based companies or few exotics like SilverFi that create their own cables, there is a quite limited amount of suppliers globally, such that many brands from Asia use the same materials. Second, the cables are not litzed. This means, that there is no additional coating on the single strings that prevents oxidisation. If you live in a dry climate, litzing may not be your first concern, but in tropical climates the cable will most likely tarnish. This will not change the sound at all but is merely a cosmetic compromise to make for the sake of an overall thin appearance of an 8-braid configuration. A further consequence of diameter of the wires is the flexibility: the cable itself is extremely soft and bendable, which makes it perfect for outdoor use. Usually, 8-braid cables are quite stiff, making them less convenient to use on the run, and this is where the ReMSG scores.



The Y-splitter comes in a neat carbon look and fits well to the silver strings of the cable. The ending consists of a standard Eidoloc jack, which is not the best choice on the market but decent for the price class intended.

Finally, I would like to make some comments about the wearing comfort of the ReMSG. The cable itself is very light, such that gravity will not cause inconvenient pressure around the ears after longer times of usage. This was one of the drawbacks with many of my previous cables, which had the tendency to hurt after a certain time. However, depending on the narrowness of your ear and your neck, the spacious braiding after the Y-splitter may inflict some inconveniences behind your ear, as the braiding style is quite cubic.



Sound

In the following I am elaborating extensively about the sound image the Mad Cable ReMSG presents. As quick foreword about myself: I am affected by chronic tinnitus, such that I am more susceptible to bright treble than the average listener. Yet, to spoil the results from my hearing analysis, the ReMSG is a musical delight without any sharp ends, despite being half pure silver. The stage of the cable is uniformly wide. I would position it slightly behind gold plated silver cables, such as the Plussound X8 GPS, but it is still among the top players in terms of stage width. The cable has a strong mid-centricity, and shows a very smooth and natural sound. Besides tonality, the ReMSG scores with its splendid resolution. From that perspective, using cryo silver for half of the braids seems to be the right decision. Every note is well-located in the room, with sharp and audible barriers to the other ones. This gives an extremely clear and precise image, which overtops many high-end cables on the market. Often, a high braid count and gold plating achieve a thick and liquid sound, which, however, has the drawback that this condensation of notes causes overlaps and create slight fuzziness. The ReMSG trades this smooth and warm bass for great clarity by only plating four out of the eight braids. Depending on your personal taste, a less massive and warm bass can be a drawback. For me personally, a slightly warm and punchy, well-controlled bass is more desirable if it leads to an over-all more resolved and clean image. To rephrase the above, this cable tries to combine high-resolution and clarity with warmth, which are the two antipodal grails in audio and rarely enjoy a homogeneous interplay. This is done by using cryo silver to achieve highest resolution, and gold plated copper to control and boost the lower mids and bass, while smoothening the over-all sound and treble. Impressively, this is a quite serious approach to the ideal.

In the following, I will elaborate in larger detail on the performance in the different sections of the spectrum. For the impressions, I used the Empire XR ADEL in-ears, coupled to the Cowon Plenue S as a source.



Let us begin at the upper end of the frequency spectrum – the treble stage. Personally, the treble is the region I am most selective on. Often, pure silver based cables tend to be too analytic, leading to sharp high frequencies that damage the overall presentation of the sound substantially. Hence, I tend to be in favour or gold plated silver, as it smoothens the aforementioned high frequency spikes from piercing the eardrum. This made me quite critical about a pure silver – gold plated copper mix, anticipating that the silver leads to uncontrolled analyticity. I was wrong with this prediction. The ReMSG achieves a naturally wide stage in the treble with very high resolution and sparkle, without the drawback of a sharp and overly bright treble. I was pleased to find a cable that possesses the strength from the cold sound of high purity silver wires and none of its drawbacks. To further elaborate, the mid-centricity of the cable combined with the high resolution present a very smooth extension from the mids. Apart from that, the detail of the ReMSG leads to a beautifully natural tone, giving the feeling that you are physically witnessing the concert. Concerning the energy of the music: guitar picks impose a tickling sensation and pushed piano keys an impact on the eardrum that makes it possible to feel how the instrument is played even with the lack of visualisation. Yet, I should mention that although the cable has the necessary energy in sound, there are other candidates, such as the SilverFi R2, which blow the full capacity of a live orchestra in your ear, enchanting you with a powerful sound that causes goose bumps. The ReMSG cannot compete in this sense, but still performs well.

While the treble is mostly dominated by the characteristics of the four silver wires, in the mid range both the copper and the silver contribute in tandem to the tone. This leads to a very strong performance in the mids, with a few subtleties I would like to discuss. On the one hand, the silver part of the cable brings, once again, cold and detailed sound along with excellent resolution. The sound is fast and responsive – I would say ‘precise’ describes the sound best. On the other hand, the copper adds body and warmth, affecting especially the lower mids. In balance with the silver, the cable is only a bit warm, which preserves the clean character of the silver. Though, the gold plating ads smoothness, which lead to a big plus in the treble, but causes slight problems in the mids: the sound is very subtly but audibly incoherent with fast music. This effect sounds very slightly unclean, or fuzzy if you want. The silver does not have a delay, while the copper cannot keep up with speedy metal or fast and complex orchestras. Once again, this effect is very minor and may not be an issue for most of the listeners. Yet, I felt that this point is worth mentioning. In this sense, cables composed of several materials will always have this problem. Weighing this minor point with the large variety of benefits a well-tuned hybrid cable can have, it is more than worth to accept the unavoidable small flaws. Back to the main discussion, the mids are beautifully wide, benefitting from the strength of both materials. Together with the great detail in the mids, the gives a splendid three dimensionality to the music.

The bass stage surprised me with its clean and slightly laid-back signature. Dominated by the copper wires, I expected a full and deep bass. In combination with a gold plating, I thought the bass and lower mids would be warm and colourful. However, the mid centric tuning achieves that the mids and bass are only slightly warm, but score greatly with a very well-controlled punchiness. If you are fan of bass monsters, this is where you may be disappointed. For myself, however, this slightly boosted clean bass is exactly what is necessary to give the sound an overall homogeneous image. Just as for the treble, also the bass extends smoothly from the mids, maintaining the overall character of the cable. The bass gives a round and wide bottom to the spectrum. What becomes apparent here is the slight lack of energy mentioned in the section above: classical pieces like Tchaikovsky’s 1812 cannot make the bass rumble. I am not talking about a heavy pressure as in a deep bass. Rather, I am referring to a mildly laid-back representation of the bass, which seems slightly too tame for my taste.

In summary, I would like to rewind the last couple of paragraphs by noting that the ReMSG is a splendid cable with a great amount of strengths, such as the huge detail and resolution combined to the right amount of warmth that gives the cable the necessary kick to make it top tier. Minor draw-backs such as tiny lags in sound for fast and complex music and a small lack in energy are partially unavoidable and do not change the overall greatly positive impression of the cable. Every other top of the line cable, independent of its price, suffers from drawbacks that comes with its tuning or choice of materials, such that the flaws here are nothing to be picky on. The ReMSG makes a lot better than certain contestants for much more money and definitely plays in the highest league of audio cables.




Comparisons

To conclude the sound impressions, I will compare the Madcable ReMSG to two similar top tier cables. This is mainly to give a deeper navigation in the landscape of sound with the use of prominent cables as milestones.



Plussound X8 GPS

The Plussound X8 GPS consists of 8 thick gold plated silver wires. It beats the ReMSG in stage and power. More precisely, the stage of the X8 is among the widest on the markets, slightly wider than the ReMSG. The sound of the X8 is more energetic and warm, leading to a less clean but more colourful sound. The bass of the X8 is stronger, and the treble smoother. In total, the Plussound gives a more musical sound image, whereas the focus of the ReMSG is shifted to a more precise and resolved sound, while maintaining the highest possible level of warmth. Thus, the ReMSG has a similar level of detail, while having a higher resolution and separation.



Plussound X8 GPC

The configuration of the Plussound X8 GPC are 8 braid gold plated copper wires. The X8 offers maximum warmth and colour, combined with a very responsive and full bass. Compared to the ReMSG, the cable offers a dense and full-bodied sound with heavy and full lower ends. Conversely, the upper mids and treble cannot compete with the remarkable presentation of the ReMSG. The stage and detail of both cables are similar. The X8 offers a more powerful sound, while the ReMSG has better resolution and separation.



Conclusions

The Mad Cable ReMSG is a refreshing new player on the market. While it performs among top tier cables, the pricing is beneath what high end cables cost nowadays. Nonetheless, the quality of built and sound are more than convincing. The sound reflects an excellent approach in tuning that tries to get as close as possible to a combination of colourful and warm sound, together with analytic and cold precision. Together with its outstanding resolution and details the ReMSG offers a technically highly demanding tuning leading to a natural over-all image. This makes the ReMSG the almost perfect all-round cable.



To warp up, I conclude with a key word summary of the pros and cons discussed throughout this review.

Negative: - Built: Audio Jack, no litzing

- Slight incoherence in the mid range as a result of the hybrid configuration


Pro: + Braiding and building quality

+ Great sound stage

+ High resolution, clarity and detail.

+ Excellent combination of warmth and analyticity

+ Natural sound


Quality: 8.5/10

Sound: 9/10

Value for money: 10/10

Introduction

Empire Ears started off as a Kickstarter project under the name EarWerkz. Within only three years the brand got not only established, but climbed the ladder all up to the Olympus of in-ear monitors and is nowadays competing with the best IEM makers in the world. Based in Bufford, USA, Empire Ears offers a wide range of first-class IEMs. Amongst them their flagship, Zeus, named to rule over the other contestants on the Olympus of in-ears.

There has been impressively much publicity about Empire Ears, and specifically the Zeus. Introduced as the Zeus XIV in 2015, the IEM experienced a steady development to alter and improve the tonality. First, the number of crossovers was increased from seven to eight, and the corresponding product called Zeus R. Then, both the Zeus XIV and the Zeus R were subject to a groundbreaking collaboration with Asius Technologies: in order to release pressure from the ear channel while listening to music, ADEL modules help to prevent hearing damages by releasing pressure via a membrane. This brings us to the most recent version of the flagship and the subject to this review, the Zeus XR ADEL.

With a hefty price tag of 2730 USD in the standard look, you may think twice whether this IEM is the right choice for yourself. In the following I will elaborate on the IEM from many aspects to provide an unbiased support: first, I start out with some basics about the configuration and build. Second, I give an extensive analysis of the tonality. Third, I elaborate whether ADEL is actually useful and how it influences the sound quality of the IEM. Besides, some impressions about the modules in combination with the XR is provided. Finally, concluding remarks about cable pairings are given.




Configuration and build

In terms of looks, Empire offers a great selection of customization options. I personally chose Black Tie Swirl Faceplates, together with Translucent Smoke shells (see pictures for reference). The colours of the faceplate are thick and shiny, such that the IEMs are real eye-candy when worn. The building quality of the shell is very good but cannot reach, for example, the quality of brands like FitEar. There are two reasons for that: first, the hollow shell of the IEMs is made of light plastic. As a result, noise isolation is not optimal. If the IEMs are used on normal volume the environment is surely drowned out, but in case that you prefer smaller volumes background noise is definitely audible. Besides, slight criticism goes to the fit: after having had my IEMs reshelled twice I accepted the fit as it was, but I would describe it as only 95% perfect. In particular, on the left side the helix is slightly too high. It is not uncomfortable to wear the IEMs, but I can easily feel the difference between the Zeus and my FitEars, which slide in my ear channels as if they were poured into them.

The engineering of the IEM is impressive: 14 static drivers per side in a 6 high-6 mid-2 low configuration are coordinated by a 7-crossover network for the Zeus XIV and an 8-crossover network for the Zeus R. Switching between these two signatures it easy: a small plastic lever can be flipped on the top side of the faceplate, where “up” activates the Zeus R and “down” the Zeus XIV signature. The lever itself appears to be quite fragile, and I believe a more stable switch could have been installed in this place.

An important aspect is the position of the cable sockets. The 2-pin females are in a recessed spot, such that not every cable can be connected. Specifically, 90 degrees angled jacks cannot be plugged in.







Sound

In this section I would like to elaborate on the soul of the Zeus XR. Since there are two signatures available, I will analyse them separately and compare the differences and (dis)advantages that are carried with them. Unless stated differently, the impressions given here are about the Zeus with G1 ADEL module. Comments on the different tonalities of the modules follow in a later section.

Both the Zeus R and XIV have an impressive amount of crossovers. Every crossover means that the attached group of BAs can be controlled separately. This sounds ad hoc like a good thing, but in general a higher number of crossovers does not guarantee a better sound: as in a choir with a larger amount of people, it becomes increasingly difficult to get a coherent sound without delays and noise due to frequency overlaps. Hence, a high amount of crossovers has in theory the potential to sound better, but in practice the realisation of an accurate tuning is a serious challenge. For that reason it is remarkable that both the Zeus R and XIV are pretty close to an optimally clean tuning. Precisely, the high amount of drivers and crossovers lead to a sound stage with a spectacular width that leaves almost all competitors behind. The stage is neutrally wide, giving the impression of sitting in a big concert hall being encircled by musicians playing from any angle just for you. The stage is as wide as deep, giving a wonderful three dimensional representation. The separation and detail are magnificent, leading to a spacious sound with sufficiently much air. The resolution is very high but suffers from tiny incoherences between the drivers, resulting in a slightly unclean sound if complex and fast music is played. Yet, in my opinion, sacrificing this low level of fuzziness to improve the detail and separation is worth it.

In the following I am going to analyse these features individually for the Zeus R and the XIV and elaborate more on the individual signatures.


Zeus-R

Let us begin with flipping the lever up, which activates the eight-crossover configuration of the Zeus R. The sound has a strong upper mid-centricity. Although the tonality is slightly on the warmer side, the Zeus R has very good detail, among the best I have heard on the market. Every fine slide over a guitar string is audible, and the tails in sound around beats of drums are clearly audible. This creates an enchantingly realistic sound that gives the impression of having the artists actively play for you, again and again. The stage creates a massive three dimensional space in which you can identify the point of origin of every sound. Together, this has magical effects on live recordings such that you feel like you are part of the show by hearing exactly where the artists are. This is further supported by the presentation of the IEMs: the sound is laid back and without volume focus in space, giving a uniform and strongly coherent image. For classical music this works splendidly but lacks in power if it comes to more energetic music like electro or rock/metal, where it is crucial to hear that loud shredding of the guitar or that bass pump in the foreground. However, one big advantage of the Zeus R as a result of the stage and a high level separation is that even poor recordings sound good. My other IEMs (especially the FitEar 335 SR) sound splendid with high quality recordings but brutally expose flaws in files, such that I even tended to skip a large range of certain genres. With complex music, interference tends to give a noisy and congested tonality. This is greatly avoided by the Zeus R, since even poor recordings with narrow stages are sufficiently well resolved and separated. Being a metal lover myself, this was one strong reason to get the Zeus R.

Next, I would like to discuss in more detail the weaknesses of the resolution mentioned before. Generally, the quintessential property of a high resolution is a note with sharp edges. Lack of resolution of the Zeus R leads to blurred tails of notes, which becomes particularly audible with dynamic and complex music. Here, the Zeus R shows stronger susceptibility to this problem in comparison to the Zeus XIV, which generally has a better resolution and only subtle unclearnesses. Although separation and detail is great, this lack of resolution give a slightly warm and dreamy, rather than an accurate and precise image. I will discuss in a later chapter how this is not a flaw of tuning but rather a merit of the ADEL modules: without the modules, resolution is higher and leads to a cleaner sound. To conclude with, I would like to refer to a later chapter about the importance of hardware paired with the IEM. Due to the Zeus R’s greatly neutral representation, its tonality is heavily depending on the hardware used. Compared to other IEMs, where cable pairing is more a last stage fine graining to the individual likings, the signature of the Zeus R depends crucially on your wiring. I even dare to make the drastic statement that I did not like the Zeus R until I found the fitting module-cable pairing for myself.

Let us now look at the single stages in detail. The strong point of the Zeus R is the treble and upper mids. The sound is sparkling, sensationally wide and open. Voices sound realistic but are not as sweet and smooth as for example with FitEar IEMs or other warm candidates with special tuning for vocals. However, the voice blends splendidly into the forest of instruments, playing with them as another tree. Suffering from strong tinnitus, I was delighted by perceiving such a sparkling and open stage without irritating sharpness: even biting vocals do not sound harshly analytic. Hence, although the tonality is only slightly warm, precision and clarity is realised without sharp sound. Being a treble lover myself, this used to be one of my biggest problems with IEMs.

The mids are in fluent transition with the treble: slipping down the spectrum we find an outstanding upper middle stage, creating perfect male vocals and instrumentals. The stage stays as wide as for the treble but the sound is slightly less open. The upper mids and mids are splendid, irrespectively of the ADEL modules used. In contrast, the lower mids are the point where the ADEL module and choice of cable become crucial: they can be strongly attenuated up to a level where the lower mids are barely audible, or supported to a punchy and full-bodied bass. The lower mids maintain the coherent presentation of the Zeus R in any way, since they are never dominant enough to perturb the upper mid centricity. The resolution in the mids and lower mids is lower than in the treble. Hence, the issue discussed above becomes more audible in this range, such that listening to Rock and Metal, unveils the slight flaws of the resolution in a stronger way.

The bass stage is, even stronger than the lower mids, a pure product of your choice of hardware. Generally, the two BAs for the lower mids and bass are capable of giving a powerful body. In my view, a too massive bass would have affected the overall tonality in a negative way. Therefore, I like the clean and detailed punchiness, but if you expect a full and deep bass you may be disappointed. The tone of the bass itself is very clean and well-controlled. There is no hint of blurriness but for the sake of a musical warmth, the resolution shows similar flaws as the lower mids.


Zeus XIV

Let us continue with the Zeus XIV, activated with the lever flipped down. The tonality is similar to the Zeus R, with some delicate differences. In comparison to the Zeus R, the stage is audibly narrower. You can imagine this difference as if you would take the boundaries of the Zeus R spectrum and push them together a bit, increasing the density of the sound flow on the more confined resulting space. Hence, clustering of all the sound in a narrower channel results in a much louder and upfront sound. While the Zeus R had this greatly uniform and laid back presentation, the Zeus XIV is much more straightforward and powerful, converting the timid and idyllic landscape of the Zeus R into an energetic blast.

The stages behave very similarly to the Zeus R, such that I only talk about the differences between the two tonalities. In general, the Zeus XIV is strongly mid-centric, slightly below the upper-mid focus of the Zeus R. Hence, if you fancy the open and wide treble discussed above, you may find the Zeus XIV to be too narrow. One strong plus for the Zeus XIV is the resolution: the sound has very sharp edges and is better resolved than for the Zeus R. In my mind, this gives a better sound for Pop and Rock, since the active and dynamic energy of the music is much better represented. However, also this comes with a trade-off: the great separation in the stage, which helped the Zeus R to give poor recordings a wide and clear representation, is not necessarily the case here for the XIV. Complex and fast music tends to congest in the narrower stage of the Zeus XIV, leading to interference and noise issues described in a previous section. The bass is stronger and more dominant than for the Zeus R – also a merit of the stronger mid-centricity of the Zeus XIV. In short, your choice of sound depends greatly on the type of music you are listening to. At the beginning I was flipping the lever a lot to get the best out of the Zeus XR construction. However, I gave up on it at some point and listened exclusively to the Zeus R, since I got used to the laid back presentation. Also, I found that the right module and cable can compensate a good deal of the thicker and more powerful signature of the Zeus XIV.




To ADEL or not to ADEL

In the last section, I briefly mentioned that due to a neutral and balanced sound, the Zeus R (more than the Zeus XIV) relies heavily on the ADEL module used. Before I describe the differences among the modules I would like to remark that the modules are indeed working as a pressure relief for your ears. After having exclusively listened to the Zeus XR ADEL for eight months, every switch to another pair of IEMs gives me sensible pressure on my ears that causes discomfort after a certain time. However, the ADEL modules come with a verdict: first of all, the density of sound is much lower. Thick notes are diluted heavily by the air that the modules add to the sound. Besides, the resolution with ADEL is lower compared to the Zeus R and XIV without module. Hence, if you prefer a less airy tonality and high detail and resolution, probably the Zeus R or XIV without a module are a better choice.

In the following, I will elaborate on the B1 and the G1 module. I have never bothered to play with the MAM module, since I would imagine myself to constantly play with the module screw and focus on the subtle optimization process of the sound than rather on the music itself.

The B1 module is black in colour and gives the Zeus a strong reference sound. That means that the sound is shifted even further up to high mids and treble and is greatly flat, while lower mids and bass are almost fully eliminated. For that reason I discarded the B1 quickly as my choice, since the bright and cold sound did not match my personal preference. If you are intrigued by reference monitors, you may give it a try.

The G1 module is pretty much the exact opposite of the B1: it adds more colour to the signature. The IEMs sound a great deal warmer and the lower mids and bass is strongly amplified. The signature in total is dragged down to a mid-centric focus, such that the IEM performs splendidly as an all-rounder. Besides, the notes get thicker and more musical while the width of the stage and detail are maintained. Even the more laid back Zeus R sounds more energetic while its strenghts about separation and detail is preserved. All in all, the Zeus XR with the G1 module is among the technically best and most impressive sounding IEMs I have encountered.

One last note about the MAM: I tried the module once with a fully closed screw and it does not reproduce the non-ADEL sound of the Zeus. There is still an air valve that alleviates pressure from your ear channel. The sound is similar, but the detail and resolution is still not as good as the non-ADEL version. Therefore, you need to think carefully about your IEM architecture before placing an order.




Cable pairings

Finally, I would like to give some impressions about cable pairings with the Zeus XR ADEL. As mentioned before, the second ingredient to a heavy modification of the tonality is the right cable. I tried a large variety of TOTL cables available on the market and would like to pick some exemplary groups of materials to share my impression about how well they pair.


Copper / Gold-plated copper

Copper or gold plated copper (GPC) will drag the spectrum further down towards a balanced mid centricity. The bass will be strengthened, and thanks to the great clarity of the stage the bass stays well controlled and punchy. Furthermore, the notes gain considerably in thickness. Together with the warmth a copper based cable adds to the sound, the Zeus XR sounds very colourful and musical. From my personal standpoint, copper based cables are the best choice for the Zeus XR.

Recommendations for good pairings are the Plussound GPC cables, MADcable GPC or, if money is less of an issue, PW audio 1960. To elaborate a bit more on TOTL cables, I personally found the Labkable Pandora and Titan too bright, although they are GPC based or contain GPC braids.


Gold-plated silver

Since silver alone sounded much too bright for myself (with exotics like SilverFi which results in a splendid pairing), I restrict this short comment on gold plated silver (GPS) cables. Generally GPS cables pair well if you are a treble lover, since they add thickness to the notes, slight warmth to the sound and punchiness to the bass just as GPC, without dragging the centricity of the sound down. The treble will be smoothened and becomes great for vocal based music. However, I found the resulting sound of the GPS less balanced with respect to the full spectrum of the sound, since the focus is not the whole range from bass to treble. Therefore, the colourful naturalness of the GPC cannot be reached.

Recommendations are the Plussound and MADcable GPS.



Comparison

In this section I elaborate more on the natural tuning of the Zeus by comparing it to another prominent TOTL item, the Fitear 335 SR. This comparison of two quite different IEMs is meant to visualize complementary strengths and weaknesses, as a guide if you are uncertain which tonality to choose for yourself.

The Fitear 335 SR pursues with its five BA configuration a completely other goal than the Zeus: it is warm and lower mid-centric, with a mighty bass that knows how to intimidate when playing classical epics like Tchaikovsky’s 1812. But heavy and slow musical thunderstorms are not the only specialty of the Fitear. It has a special sweet spot on vocals that is unique on the market, making voices sound smooth and musical like with no other IEM. This way, in contrast to the Zeus, the voice is not represented as an instrument but it feels like there is an own tuning only for it. If your main focus in music is of the type mentioned, then the Fitear certainly scores here. On the other hand, fast and complex music rapidly corners the Fitear. Here, the congestion of sound in the ear channel takes an extreme, up to a level that even good recordings can sound noisy and unpleasant. The more natural and airy signature of the Zeus has clear advantages here.

Going a bit more into detail, the resolution and clarity among the two IEMs is similar, given that the music is suitable for the Fitear. With the SR upgrade of the Fitear, both know how to represent sparkling upper mids and treble that enchant the listener. However, while the Zeus is focused on a wide and precise image, the strong warmth of the Fitear gives an unusually high thickness to the notes and condenses the stage to a virtually liquid sound. This leads to an important point from a previous section, namely the ability to represent recordings of lower quality. While the width and separation of the Zeus makes even bad recordings sound decent, the dense sound of the Fitear exposes any flaw of the music file, no matter how small, so painfully that it made me skip entire albums of interprets I personally cherish a lot.

In summary, the Zeus and the Fitear 335 SR are contestants that as complementary as two TOTL IEMs can be. If you listen to slow instrumental music, full bodied classical pieces or vocal based records, the Fitear has a unique tuning that surpasses the sound of the Zeus. If you tend to listen to dynamic and complex music like pop, rock and metal, the Zeus is certainly a better choice.




Conclusion

The Zeus is without doubt one of the best in-ears available today. The impressive engineering and top tier tuning of the complex eight crossover construction allows for a sound that leaves most of the competitors behind. Additional options in terms of ADEL modules enables a high level of customisation, since the different ADEL modules in connection to suitable cables can change the sound of the IEM entirely. From strong reference sound with a lot of air in a treble based signature to thick and heavy notes in a warm and mid-centric sound, the Zeus can do it all almost perfectly. To answer the question, whether the pricing and the hype is justified, I would definitely respond in the affirmative. Regarding the heavily flooded market of in-ear monitors, there is a huge offer of unimpressive products for high prices since extraordinary technical specifications attract enough customers. This lead to a driver war with companies clustering as many BAs in a shell as possible, which does not make sense anymore regarding the level of difficulty to tune even 12 to 14 drivers accurately. For that reason, in terms of tonality the Zeus marked a new standard that is pretty hard to reach.



Build 8/10

Sound 10/10

Price-value 8/10

Disclaimer: the IEM-R2 was a demo unit sent on loan. I was able to listen to the cable for a couple of weeks, and sent it back after.
 
 
Introduction