TONALITY: 8.5/10
TECHNICALITIES: 9/10
TIMBRE: 8.2/10
SPATIALITY-IMAGING: 8.8/10
CONSTRUCTION QUALITY: 8.5/10
COMFORT: 8.5/10
ACCESSORIES: 7.5/10
SOUND VALUE: 8.5/10
THE INTRO
Letshuoer is a chinese audio company that is specialized in IEMs making and nothing else. They've been around since 2016 and release popular hybrid, tribrid, planar and DD earphones.
Their best seller is the S12 single planar earphone which after 2 years still have a solid fan base.
Today I will review a mid-tier IEM from them that as been around for 2 years: the EJ07M.
Priced 650$, the EJ07M is a tribrid using 1x carbon nano tube DD, 2x sonion BAs and 4x sonion EST.
The M in this model is for Monitor, so these are aimed for stage musician and audio producer, but not only.
Let see in this review if those pass test of time after 2 years or if it's an IEM that should be forgotten.
THE PACKAGING, CONSTRUCTION & ACCESSORIES
The construction is simple yet elegant and sturdy. Its made of thick and heavy stainless steel metal. The powder blasted paint for the finish is very smooth. The size is surprisingly small and ergonomic too. 2pin connector are not recessed but solidly embeded to the body. Their no cratfmanship imperfection to be found.
The nozzle is very short, so these are thinked for shallow fit and their no deep fit possible, this could be a drawback for some but not for me. Passive noise isolation isn't bad too, surely due to thick metal used.
Their a venting hole at the side too, which do minimal sound leakage.
Ive read some complaint about driver flex but didn't encounter this.
Oh, and their 2 design and color to choice from, other one look like this:
Now when it come to cable quality, i'm a bit let down.
It's a basic ''high purity OCC crystal copper cable'' with either single ended 3.5 plug or 4.4 balanced plug. For a 650$ IEM, it's not a very impressive cable and don't do justice to the technical performance EJ07M can achieve, you don't want this slight warmth that this cable add for the high fidelity restitution potential of this IEM. I do appreciate the L shaped plug as well as soft and light cable, but not the current transmission it provide, which seem unstable across frequencies, taming treble and warming slightly boosting mids and lower mids. A good SPC modular cable would have been way more welcome.
Now in term of packaging Letshuoer try to impress the consumer, but it don't really work for me. I prefer smaller package especially when we see this box is 50% fullfill with foam. I mean, presentation is good and professional, but it's not needed.
Apart the cable, the rest of accessories are nice enough. I do like the hard metal carrying case, it feel invincible. The included wide bore silicone eartips are perfect for balanced and open sound, so it's a good choice. You have 3 different model of eartips, 2 silicone model and 1 memory foams model, for a total of 9 eartips pair.
All in all, good packaging and accessories but nothing mind blowing.
THE SOUND IMPRESSIONS
Let's begin by underlining that Letshuoer EJ07M is stated as a monitor IEM perfect for stage musician and audio mastering. And I certainly agree due to the pristine clarity and imaging capacity.
Yet, this doesn't mean it's plain cold sounding or not meant for audiophile enjoyement, high fidelity way and...harman target way. Yes. Another one, but perhaps among the best as well as most underatted harman target IEM out there too.
Why? Because it doesn't lack fast slam, mids aren't plain thin or cold, nor too high or shouty in upper mids and most of all: treble extension go far, thanks to those marvellous EST implementation which permit both low and high end of the 07M to dig deep.
Sure, i would never say these IEM aren't technical sounding, and it's a good thing to be so when it's a tribrid using highs ends driver like a 10mm nano-carbon dynamic driver for fast, clean well rounded and textured bass response free of unwanted resonance or distortion, dual sonion ba for smooth, present , transparent and clearn mids and quad sonio EST for sharp, snappy and sparkly treble with incredibly speedy layering capacity that never miss any percussions info.
So yes technical and near analytical but in a gentle way, you need to go into critical listening mode yourself, it's not forced brightness here, the sound info are delivered in an effortless way which make them easy to read for curious ears, for lazy ear (treble head) the wow effect isn't violent enough perhaps.
I receive these IEM at the same time I was swimming into kilobucks earphones like Hiby Zeta, 64audio U4S-U12T-U18T, UM Mest MK3, Firaudio Xenon 6....and my first though poping up listening for the first time to EJ07M is: they don't feel overpriced and offer a performance that can compare to 500-1000$ IEMs without shame. The tuning is cohesive and refined, the sound is open and dynamic, resolution is crisp and transparent, both tonality and technicalities were very hard to fault, like it happen often with very high end earphones.
But these can be found for 600$ easily.
But all the praise ill give here doesn't mean it will fit your tonal balance ideal and trigger high amount of musicality and emotional response, which I will try to explain further in this review.
This tonality can be summarize as sitting between a crisp but smooth W shape and sparkly U shape with gently brighten mids presence. It's evident sub bass is more boosted than mid bass, yet not to the point of making it lack in slam immediacy and impact.
I would never call the EJ07M as mid centric, yet never consider them lacking vocal presence which isn't recessed or dark at all.
We are in lukewarm territory where its neither too warm or too bright, it's crisp and safe tuning with a twist, an EST twist mostly that permit this extra sharpness in ultra highs.
What the EJ07M don't ''excell'' at is: male vocal, note weight, timbre lushness-thickness-colored naturalness, bass warmth, kick drum roundness and density.
What they do more than well: sub bass extension and control, bass and kick drum presence delimitation, clean clarity and transparency, non blurry mids presence definition, treble attack speed with fast brilliant snap, clean sustain-release, incredible micro details and layering. And imaging. And deep spatiality. And the list can of longer but let's dig deeper in to frequencies range impressions.
THE DEEP AGILE BASS
So let's begin by saying these aren't basshead IEMs yet doesn't lack in slam, rumble and deepest extension down to 20hz. We are into this rare territory where quantity meet quality, with more focus on mid bass presence than physicality and a consequent boost in sub bass section. This is typical for Harman target IEM but this time we have this special ''oomph'' that permit us to forgive the lack of sharp ''thump''.
If you are addict to chunky warm bass that slide into boosted lower mid range, this will feel a bit thin, but if your allergic to muddy warm bass that have too excited rumble loudness, you'll be in for alot of contentment.
The bass is fast and it's resonance is natural and controled, it's the proper sub bass acoustic phenomenon and its stable in it's extension, non distorted, very clean and we have details of the natural air recorded too, so it's well textured and dense with transparent layering.
Separation is excellent, their no bleed or veil into mids, and their just a lean dip in lower mid range that don't create problematic tone imbalance, though affect cello and male vocal fullness.
This isn't the type of bass that add density to the cello body, which do offer full tactile presence without extra warmth layer creaming it's timbre, it's rich in details, the attack is edgy without being harsh or unbalanced in texture and transparency is boosted so we have a perfect layering unlike warmed and more chunky cello with boosted lower mids and fundamental that blur its definition delimitation as well as make macro resolution more muddy, less well, monitor like, thant EJ07M.
Electric bass line, in the other hand, are well bodied with vibrant pure tone release in sub region and snappy delivery of each note attack, this is very appreciate for fast jazz or metal player because the edge isn't blurred. EJ07M doesnt boost too much the electric bass line, yet permit a crisp rendering of them with proper tonefullness and it show how well controlled and speedy is the very good DD driver in these.
We have similar mature yet fully extended delivery of acoustic double bass, which is high fidelity in it's rendering and slight boost so wer'e able to focus and engoy the clean, accurate and well articulate rendering.
Then the kick drum is were I always complaint with Harman target IEM, but here it's not plain flat and dull, nor warmer with unstable acoustic cavity resonance, the presence is clear and we have minimal roundness too it, yet it isn't extremly punchy and in a jazz band the double bass will dominate with it's transparent layering and stole the physical impact focus. This doesn't change the fact EJ07M are master of jazz and instrumental music in general though.
All in all, we have a mature but dynamic and fully extended bass response, clean, well texture and define with excellent separation and transient control.
THE MONITOR-LIKE MID RANGE WITH A MUSICAL TWIST
The mid range is clean, vast, transparent and highly resolved without being harsh or shouty at all. While note the heaviest, note weight is felt, with a fast projection that have abrasive attack lead and beautiful natural resonance.
The piano note hit fast without no sustain exctiment or blur, it's agile and each note have full space to be well define between each other, after the note stroke the release is natural in decay and prolongate in the air, so you'r easily able to perceive sustain pedal when pressed by the pianist, this is a sign of high fidelity refinement to me, which is rare to find in this price range. The piano rendering isn't blurry or diffuse in presence, nor floppy or too warm, not to excited in resononance or unbalance in pitch register, its very realist like in an intimate concert place without amplification, you don't have your head into the piano though, so, some people might prefer an even more intimate and colored rendering, i find it perfect like this within the larger spatiality scale since it doesnt feel overpowered nor too distant, it's a singular part of imaging that listener can monitor without sudden high pitch spike that often happen with badly balance V or W shape balance.
Then, as said earilier the male vocal aren't the thickest nor the most fowards, it's surprising the the presence feel as full and realist though, so in term of layering it's great, it don't mix with the bass but would benefit a bit more lower mids boost.
The female vocal are more present and fowards, they are gently bright and rich in texture details without sibilance or timbral imbalance, they are very center in the stage and well layered, never mixing with other instrument including violin in same pitch. The only 2 things i can fault is that they feel a bit compressed in presence stretching. In the sens vocal projection tend to widen naturally in a larger way, here it doesn't project in fullness, as if a smaller speaker where in middle of 2 larger stereo speakers. In that sens, it make them a bit dry too, and yes, thin, but there a density rigity to them too.
The saxophone will be treated the same as female vocal, clean and well layered, easy to track and speedy when nedeed, but not fully embracing the listener nor trigger high emotional response (subjective).
Then, the violin is marvelously agile in it's attack with an abrasive edge to it's attack that isn't noisy nor harsh, but energic and controlled even in fastest passage. The level of micro details in texture is very impressive since it's bright tonality isn't spiky. It's very well delimited in presence definition, highly transparent without being too liquid or polished, and the release resonance is realist, not too scooped and not blurred with harmonic distortion euphony. This make this easy to follow vivaccisimo of Hilary Hahn prodigious playing.
These are very technical and mature mid range, which sound open and vastly informative in sound info but not very colored or boosted in fundamental, so you will not get extra body and breathyness in vocal, nor extra lushness in violin playing which can slow the pace perception in fact. We aren't in ''romantic'' or warm mid range, yet it's smooth in it's tonal curve and lively in a light but vivid dynamic.
THE SNAPPY TREBLE DELICACY
As you will see in comparison part against Hiby Zeta, the treble as nothing to envy to kilobucks IEM and is for me the big highlight even if both bass and mids are extremely refined and capable technicality too.
In fact, while i own 5 IEMs with EST driver, i did have listen for a month to Mangird Xenn Up, Fir Audio Xenon6 and GSaudio SE12 too. Their no doubt for me that EJ07M is superior to all of those apart Zeta, which they are near identical in performance and quality.
To disgress a little more, I would add that I share thoughs about EST alot with Chifi Love members including HiFri who make and tune IEMs for more than a year. It firstly was about my sincere confusion that some people can't hear EST benefit, or find it not lively enough. I guess those people are hardcore treble head that like to have big upper treble boost so micro details pop up violentaly at you, for these people GSaudio SE12 will be the answer but for those seeking effortles details rendering that don't sound imbalanced and do consider that as a sign as tuning refinement: the EJ07M treble will sound magnificently crisp, extended, and natural enough in a rather smooth balance.
Now if you like to pick up every texture nuance and details of instrument, the 07M will impress you. The drum brush is render in all its texture complexity, the cymbals crash have sizzle richness and well resolved decay that never go splashy and are even soft in dynamic, the hit hat deliver all it's speed and snap effortlessly as well as all other percussions, with inimitable realism of their metallic tone.
But this isn't deliver in an agressive way as noted above, the EST aren't screamy drivers, and some might find this cymbals crash lacking energy projection for agressive music like metal or rock, we know it can be both part of headbanging experience but prompt to harshness and ears fatigue, so for me I prefer safe yet crisp and highligy informative treble like the one of 07M that never fatigue me even after 8H straight up of listen at moderatly high volume.
While bright in a very crisp way, the highs might lack a bit of abrasive bite for fans of electric guitar, i find it to do better with acoustic guitar, harp an clavichord. Electric guitar tend to benefit a bit of euphonic brightness to densify it's presentation and here the rendering is a bit flat, transparency being more focus than high harmonic sustain and fuzzyness.
So these highs are airy, gently sharp in micro and macro resolution with an incredible layering capacity that extract micro details and percussion. The speed is intense but don't feel out of macro timing, sure we have an extra EST layering as say, but since it's not too loud it doesn't feel out of phase, just add an extra dimension to a rich musicality.
It's delicate in rendering, so clavichord playing will be a bit light in impact but fully resolved and extended in higher harmonic release, delivering long decay with short and fast sustain that don't warm the micro resolution. Harp attack release too can go ultra speedy, and can bypass the lower harmonic density and resonance. This is both highly accurate and precise in attack timing, and the glittering never feel dirty or too excited. In term of upper treble, i didn't hear as sparkly yet non fatiguing treble from any sub-700$ IEMs yet.
Yes, it's that good to my very capricious ears. And it's the treble I wish Mangird Xenn Up deliver, i guess the secret is having 4EST instead of 2 here.
THE EXEMPLARY SPATIALITY AND IMAGING
The soundstage doesn't sound stock in your head, its wider and deeper than taller, the depth is clean and not obscured by sound layers euphonic opacity. You can travel in a holographic but slightly centered spatiality. The clean clarity magnify sens of air and separation.
The imaging is certainly another highlight of these, which is logical if aimed for monitoring. This is how we know we have an excellent mid tier IEM. Sens of perception is magnify due to transparent sound layering that are easy to separate in Y axis while instrument separation space in X axis is clean and instrument definition is edgy enough in delimitation. As well, EST tend to make layering sharper for percussions too, so nothing is lost in the mix .
THE SIDE NOTES
At 19ohm of impedance and 107db sensitivity, the EJ07M aren't that hard to drive but do scale up with good amping that have lower than 2ohm of output impedance and clean black background floor.
I didn't find exact need these IEM ask, but they seem capricious about source. EST make them pick up hiss background easily with very noisy source and high impedance output can make macro resolution more mushy and even distort or warm bass boom. But it's not very problematic and I get great result with alot of source like Questyle M15 (excellent match) and QP2R, Moondrop Dawn 4.4 (excellent match), Hiby R6pro2 (meh, too soft in dynamic rendering, lack bass impact), SMSL SU9+SH9 (very clean and detailed but lack dynamic heft especially in bass again), Hidizs S9pro (sub bass roll off, some euphony is going on, meh).
I consider those cable sensitive too, and stock one don't do them justice and tame upper treble crispness-brilliance, one of highlight of 07M, my face cable is Tri Grace S with them. It's evident that stock cable ask for upgrade to scale up in transient performance.
The nozzle being very shore and wide, these aren't thinked for deep fit. Stock eartips are right, and i use the short wide bore which is very similar to KBear KB07 silicone eartips and permit proper dynamic balance and spatial openess.
THE COMPARISONS
VS PENON 10th Anniversary (2DD+2BA+2EST-500$)
What hit first is how taller and bigger is the spatiality as well as more holographic and tactile in instrument rendering. As well, it feel more colored and lusher tha EJ07.
So, we can say it's a more dynamic and warmer W shape signature.
The bass is chunkier, warmer and more punchy, there more mid bass boost than EJ07 and more lower mids too so male vocal sound fuller as well as more fowards, less lean and dry in rendering, but sub bass extension isn't as clean and deep.
Timbre wise, i do prefer more colored and thicken rendering of Penon, it's lusher and it tend to deliver wider creamier vocal presence than more centered and compressed mids of EJ07, but overall resolution is notably darker and less transparent, it can't be use for monitoring unlike EJ07.
Then the treble isn't as extended and full in sound info, its thicker, more colored and less lean, it doesn't pick up whole percussions layers as the EJ07 and feel less clean.
Soundstage is notably wider taller but less deep and more densify in sound layers euphony, making macro perception less readable.
This mean your perhaps more in middle of music, but that positionning is notably inferior to EJ07, it's less define in separation, we have more bass blur stickening instrument separation, and the layering is more opaque, which explain we can't travel very deep in spatiality in term of critical positioning.
All in all, the Penon is more fun and musical to listen and get lost in, but technical perfomance is notably superior, more refined and controlled with the EJ07M. Very different sound flavor....and purpose here.
VS KINERA URD (2DD+1BA+2EST-650$)
The Urd offer a darker, warmer and bassier U shape tonality, underlining the more W shape and crisper balance of EJ07M.
The bass is slower but weightier and warmer, with more bass bleed into lower mids, less well define and texture presence and overall more muddy and roll off extension, its very difficult properly following bass line with the Urd.
Then the mids are thicker, but darker and more recessed, apart male vocal that are fuller and more fowards the female vocal are leaner, less define in presence but smoother and more relaxed, overall resolution feel more foggy and hide more sound info the crisper and more freely open mids of EJ07M.
The treble follow similar rendering, it's notably darker and less resolved and its harder to find ESTs benefit but we have 2 instead of 4 than the more snappy, extended, sparklier and cleaner highs of EJ07M.
Spatiality is wider but even less deep than Penon, so it feel quite one dimension compared to deeper airier EJ.
Imaging don't even worth talking about, it's from another league with the EJ, way way more mushy and abstract with the Urd.
All in all, the Urd just can't compete both technicaly and tonaly since it's so colored compared to the EJ07M, i feel like i'm deaf with the Urd after listening for hours to more neutral, clean, detailed and multi layered mature musicality of EJ07M.
VS HIBY ZETA (1DD+4BA+4EST-1300$)
The Zeta is like a more V shape EJ07M on amphetamine both in term of bass and upper treble boost.
So, it's notably less neutral, but less clean too due to mod mid bass warmth into lower mid range.
This bass is more muddy, more boomy in extension so double bass will feel hooked to an amplifier with lotta problematic resonance warmth. Its heftier and punchier, in a whole package way so even if we have more mid bass, the kick drum is less well define and present, its more swallow by boom weight and density.
The mids are nore as crisp, clean and open, but they are thicker in timbre, male vocal are again fuller, slightly less textured, instrument have more note weigth but less edgy definition, female vocal are more breathy and euphonic but not as well extracted and separated in center stage.
And now the treble is so similar that i'm a bit puzzled. We most note both these IEM use quad sonion EST so both excell in percussions layering, at picking up micro details cleanly and effortlessly, at adding this snappy brilliant edge to attack...really, they are 100% on part at least upper treble wise. If i go lower than 8khz, Zeta will infact feel a bit darker.
EJ07M have fuller treble presence and fowardness, which make female vocal and violin more upfront, slightly fuller in harmonic, but in a leaner smoother way. So we can say treble is more polished and organic with EJ will slightly more abrasive and edgy with the Zeta, but less well balanced too due to warmer mid range that stole a bit of macro clarity.
Spatiality is this time very similar, perhaps a hint wider due to extra bass headroom but when the slam don't widen dynamic effect, it's about the same and again EJ07M can go deeper with a less warmed center stage.
Imaging is more accurate, monitor like with EJ too, especially low and mid range wise were clarity is cleaner for proper position and layering.
All in all, hum, the conclusion here is a bit similar than the one with Penon 10th, i the sens the musicality is more fun and colored, with very similar treble performance and muddier bass than EJ07M, which we can say sound a bit colder, leaner, more neutral, but this comparison underline how refined is the tuning and how impressive are technical performance for its price range too.
Ok, ill say it: EJ07M are superior technically even if it use 2 BAs less for mid range and lower treble.
CONCLUSION
I think it's evident I have a big love affair going on with the EJ07M and i'm the first to be surprise about this. WHy? Because i'm rarely a fan of harman tuned IEM, the only other exception is Mangird Xenn Up which share some similarities with these.
It's rare that i need to underline the good sound value of an IEM of this price, but this is due to great experience with tribrid and pricier IEM in general that offer inferior technical performance and less cohesive tuning. This is even more surprising because these tribrid are 2 years old yet still very competitive due to the well implemented quad sonion EST they use.
This treble is the star of the show, yet not in a rough immature in-your-face manner, and this explain why you can still be surprise by it after 100H of use like I do. The micro details it pick up aren't dominating whole spectrum, yet have special protected space just for them that make the curious listener able to choose if he want to hear those or not.
Simply put, Letshuoer achieve with the EJ07M something exceptional: making a monitor earphones that is both a great performing tool and high fidelity audiophile musicality master.
If you like your music to be restitute smoothly, but crisply with excellent resolution-imaging, clean airy spatiality, and a fun fast slam to add dynamic engagement, you can't go wrong with the EJ07M.
Highly Recommended!!!!
----------------------------
PS: I want to thanks Letshuoer for sending me this review sample after i manifest my interest about it. This interest was trigger by the SPL graph i've seen of those, as well as solid recommendation from reviewers and audiophile (non hyper) I respect. As always, these are my savagely independent audio impressions and opinions and I don't care what people will think about it.
You can order the EJ07M for 650$ directly from official Letshuoer website here:
https://letshuoer.net/products/ej07m-best-in-ear-monitors-for-singers-drummers-studio
For more diversified review, you can give a look at my No Borders Audiophile website, or join ChiFi Love facebook group.
