SoundMagic E90C
- Added by Ichos
- Create date
The review sample was kindly provided free of charge in exchange for an honest review.
I didn't receive monetary or any other kind of compensation and I don't use affiliate links.
The price is €117 and you can buy them from the official SoundMagic AliExpress store.
SoundMagic
SoundMagic is a pretty well known manufacturer of budget friendly earphones and headphones with some award winners among them.
Founded in 2005 by acoustic design engineer Tony Xu, SoundMAGIC designs and manufactures headphones and earphones by utilising the latest technology and the best materials.
SoundMagic E90C
The "E" is the flagship series of SoundMagic earphones and the E90C is the newest member of it.
It is an in-ear monitor with a 8mm coaxial dynamic and armature dual driver configuration.
A unique metal film developed independently is used both inside the metal shell and between the upper and lower voice coils so all frequencies are equally expressed full of vitality and wide range.
Build quality and fit
The ear shells, which are made from a combination of plastic and metal, are compact sized and lightweight.
They are anatomically shaped and super comfortable to wear but the short length of the sound nozzle results in a shallower fit than the usual.
The included double flange ear tips offer a deeper and more secure fit while the foam ear tips are the most comfortable and tight fitting.
Cable
The E90C has a detachable cable design and comes with two different high quality single-crystal and copper-plated silver cables that adopt a twisted shielded wire construction to reduce transmission loss and eliminate electromagnetic interference.
The one is with a microphone and a 3.5mm plug while the other one is without a microphone and has a 2.5mm balanced plug.
The MMCX connectors are not the standard ones but they are a self-developed SoundMagic design of thinner diameter so they are not interchangeable with other MMCX cables.
Cable build quality is good with soft handing and low microphonic noise but it gets easily tangled.
The plugs are made from aluminium and a special technology is adopted to shape the TPE ear hook into an arc that can closely fit the ear for more stability while wearing them.
Accessories
The accessories pack is very comprehensive:
You get three pairs of silicone, three pairs of memory foam and one pair of double flange ear tips.
There are also two cables, an adapter for computer use and everything comes well packed in a heavy duty, hard carrying case of very good quality.
Sound impressions
I left the E90C playing music for about 80 hours and then started the listening sessions using various USB DAC dongles like the SoundMagic A30, FiiO KA2 and Hidizs AP80 PRO-X.
The E90C has a 29Ω rated impedance with 100dB of sensitivity so they are pretty easy to drive and you can also use them straight from your phone.
The sound signature is tip dependent, with the double flange ear-tips the tuning is quite balanced with good low-end extension, a touch of mid-bass warmth, evenly handed mids and sharpish treble.
Speaking of treble, it is airy, clean and extended but not that refined, there is a touch of roughness and some metallic grain to its texture.
The E90C is sparkling and agile, detailed, luminous and a touch bright but it manages to stay smooth enough and enjoyable without any excessive harshness and long term fatigue.
The texture is rather lean and not that full bodied unless you switch to the foam ear-tips that add considerably more weight to the sound.
The foam ear-tips also make the bass sound fuller and definitely more extended but without losing in technicalities or affecting the overall frequency response.
They are the best regarding frequency consistency and they offer the most balanced sound signature compared to the two other types of ear-tips.
The mid range has an upper-mid focus but without adding too much of a sibilance or projection to the female vocals.
It is more resolving and refined than the treble with better texture quality and finer articulation, increased liquidity and plenty of harmonic overtones.
Bass is evenly tuned without sub-bass emphasis nor too much of a mid-bass bloat, it doesn't bleed into the mids, it is well defined and tight enough with good layering.
The texture is rather dry, not that liquid and visceral but the presentation is impactful with a very convincing dynamic contrast.
The E90C is an open sounding earphone with good width that it manages to avoid congestion and is not lacking in positioning accuracy either.
In the end
The E90C is a balanced and transparent sounding earphone with a touch of upper-mid and treble focus.
It combines an enjoyable and musical sound signature with some extra sparkle and sharpness but it could do a little better with texture quality and overall refinement.
They are easy to drive, lightweight and confirmable fitting, making them the ideal partner for all day use without compromising in sound quality.
Test playlist
Copyright - Petros Laskis 2022.
I didn't receive monetary or any other kind of compensation and I don't use affiliate links.
The price is €117 and you can buy them from the official SoundMagic AliExpress store.
SoundMagic
SoundMagic is a pretty well known manufacturer of budget friendly earphones and headphones with some award winners among them.
Founded in 2005 by acoustic design engineer Tony Xu, SoundMAGIC designs and manufactures headphones and earphones by utilising the latest technology and the best materials.
SoundMagic E90C
The "E" is the flagship series of SoundMagic earphones and the E90C is the newest member of it.
It is an in-ear monitor with a 8mm coaxial dynamic and armature dual driver configuration.
A unique metal film developed independently is used both inside the metal shell and between the upper and lower voice coils so all frequencies are equally expressed full of vitality and wide range.
Build quality and fit
The ear shells, which are made from a combination of plastic and metal, are compact sized and lightweight.
They are anatomically shaped and super comfortable to wear but the short length of the sound nozzle results in a shallower fit than the usual.
The included double flange ear tips offer a deeper and more secure fit while the foam ear tips are the most comfortable and tight fitting.
Cable
The E90C has a detachable cable design and comes with two different high quality single-crystal and copper-plated silver cables that adopt a twisted shielded wire construction to reduce transmission loss and eliminate electromagnetic interference.
The one is with a microphone and a 3.5mm plug while the other one is without a microphone and has a 2.5mm balanced plug.
The MMCX connectors are not the standard ones but they are a self-developed SoundMagic design of thinner diameter so they are not interchangeable with other MMCX cables.
Cable build quality is good with soft handing and low microphonic noise but it gets easily tangled.
The plugs are made from aluminium and a special technology is adopted to shape the TPE ear hook into an arc that can closely fit the ear for more stability while wearing them.
Accessories
The accessories pack is very comprehensive:
You get three pairs of silicone, three pairs of memory foam and one pair of double flange ear tips.
There are also two cables, an adapter for computer use and everything comes well packed in a heavy duty, hard carrying case of very good quality.
Sound impressions
I left the E90C playing music for about 80 hours and then started the listening sessions using various USB DAC dongles like the SoundMagic A30, FiiO KA2 and Hidizs AP80 PRO-X.
The E90C has a 29Ω rated impedance with 100dB of sensitivity so they are pretty easy to drive and you can also use them straight from your phone.
The sound signature is tip dependent, with the double flange ear-tips the tuning is quite balanced with good low-end extension, a touch of mid-bass warmth, evenly handed mids and sharpish treble.
Speaking of treble, it is airy, clean and extended but not that refined, there is a touch of roughness and some metallic grain to its texture.
The E90C is sparkling and agile, detailed, luminous and a touch bright but it manages to stay smooth enough and enjoyable without any excessive harshness and long term fatigue.
The texture is rather lean and not that full bodied unless you switch to the foam ear-tips that add considerably more weight to the sound.
The foam ear-tips also make the bass sound fuller and definitely more extended but without losing in technicalities or affecting the overall frequency response.
They are the best regarding frequency consistency and they offer the most balanced sound signature compared to the two other types of ear-tips.
The mid range has an upper-mid focus but without adding too much of a sibilance or projection to the female vocals.
It is more resolving and refined than the treble with better texture quality and finer articulation, increased liquidity and plenty of harmonic overtones.
Bass is evenly tuned without sub-bass emphasis nor too much of a mid-bass bloat, it doesn't bleed into the mids, it is well defined and tight enough with good layering.
The texture is rather dry, not that liquid and visceral but the presentation is impactful with a very convincing dynamic contrast.
The E90C is an open sounding earphone with good width that it manages to avoid congestion and is not lacking in positioning accuracy either.
In the end
The E90C is a balanced and transparent sounding earphone with a touch of upper-mid and treble focus.
It combines an enjoyable and musical sound signature with some extra sparkle and sharpness but it could do a little better with texture quality and overall refinement.
They are easy to drive, lightweight and confirmable fitting, making them the ideal partner for all day use without compromising in sound quality.
Test playlist
Copyright - Petros Laskis 2022.
4 stars.... (skipping expletives)... - perhaps, it may be really worth to do reviews on reviewers of "free samples", like Ichos.
I may do it on Discover.
Ichos will be the honourable first (among many deserving), given his remarkable comment here on HeadFi about moving reviews "up in his busy/slow queue, if properly renumerated" (a joke, of course, but a quite really revealing one on mentality).