Disclaimer: The review sample was sent to me by Tahsin Sevgel for my review and objective comments. This would have been just some feedback to him and for his eyes only, considering the fact that we have been friends for over 12 years and he always valued my opinions due to him relying on my judgment on the audio devices, headphones etc. in general. I am one of the lucky ones to happen to know him since the beginning of his journey of designing and producing CIEMs and I can say that I always made him make one sample for me from his range of audiophile products (I was not interested in the musician ones so far). I always provided my feedback to him secretly and objectively, but this time, I decided to post a review of his latest creation, as I believe that this one deserves some credit and praise. And no, I did not pay for them, and I will try my best to be as objective as possible, even though I did not use my hard-earned cash to buy them.
Teaser photo I used before: The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome. | Page 6514 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org
Some background on me: I am a seasoned so-called audiophile, or maybe better-said, audio-freak, who happens to listen to music and to devices at the same time. Usually, I find myself examining the products while listening to them, rather than immersing in the music itself and enjoying it. I have been in this hobby for close to 30 years. I am one of the guys who ran to audio stores after school and spent hours in their listening room, rather than kicking some football (or soccer for our American friends) or goofing around. This manifested itself as a real and expensive hobby afterwards, resulting in buying and selling some headphones, headphone amps, DACs etc. However, after 2010 or so, I switched more to speaker systems as I was less mobile. I have an acoustically treated room with some nice equipment that I enjoy a lot (you can check my signature here). Lately, I started getting more mobile and Tahsin happened to be on the verge of releasing M3 PLENUMs to the market. That was a nice coincidence and a chance for me to examine what he has done. 2 birds with one stone, right? Yes, right. Before I forget, I also just got tested, I have no hearing loss whatsoever, so, that’s some good news for me and also for you, dear readers.
Tahsin and I go way back: We have known each other for quite some time, it must have been more than 12 years. Back then, we were working at the same company as colleagues. Somehow, he reached out to me due to some posts I made before, regarding some CIEMs I was using back then. At that time, he did not have a product on the market, he was at the R&D stage and wanted to check how my CIEMs sounded. We met and clicked immediately. After that, he always valued what I had to say. When he first developed the PRELUDE, I purchased it right away, because when I first listened to them, even though they did not fit my ears perfectly (the pair was some generic one to enable testing), they were sounding much better than what I had back then. Especially the midrange, it was simply magical. The highs were nicely defined and were not sibilant at all. However, the lows were not much in quantity and extension. I must say that this was never the strong suit of his designs until now. Despite its shortcomings in the lows, I did not hesitate to purchase PRELUDEs right away, they were that much better than my own CIEMs. Throughout the years, I always tested when he had something new to offer and provided feedback to him, but I did not share my experience with the outer world that much. He did not ask for it either, he just wanted my fair opinion. We also entertained some R&D ideas together (more to follow on that).
Introduction: Fast forwarding to today, Tahsin again wants my opinion, however this time, I am sharing it with you dear readers, because I believe, we have something special at hand. Whenever I listen to something that makes me forget why I am doing what I am doing and makes me immerse in the songs that are playing and puts my mind to a state of joy and relaxation, then I call this equipment as a nice piece of equipment. This is what we have here friends. Let me just start with the basics and what I have used for testing and comparison:
DACs and players used in the test:
- Chord Hugo TT2
- Chord Hugo 2 (briefly)
- Sony WM1Z
- Violectric Chronos
Cables used in the test:
- The original cable that came with the PLENUMs
- SilverFi IEM 4s
- ThumbsUp Cables Hugo cable – more on those cables will follow
Comparisons:
- Audeze LCD i4s
- Grado PS2000e headphones – Why is he using open headphones for comparison?
- Tahsin Sevgel Audio Devices – “The Medallion” – What the heck is that?
- Grado GH2 headphones – Same question as in 2.
Song list used for testing:
- Hail to the King / Avenged Sevenfold
- Enter Sandman (Remastered) / Metallica
- Layla / Eric Clapton – The Lady in the Balcony: Lockdown Sessions
- No Time To Die / Billie Eilish
- Planet of New Orleans / Dire Straits
- Sultans of Swing / Dire Straits
- Die Another Day / Madonna
- Possede / Emma Peters
- I Loved Another Woman (Remastered) / Snowy White
- Children of Sanchez / Chuck Mangione
- Bad Guy / Billie Eilish
- Billie Jean / Michael Jackson
- Beat It / Michael Jackson
- Smells Like Teen Spirit (Album – Hi-Res) / Nirvana
- I Let My Guitar Do The Talking / Buddy Guy
- Podmoskovnye Vechera (Moscow Nights) / Dimitri Hvorostovsky – Moscow Chamber Orchestra
Regarding the list above: I listen to Jazz and smooth music as well and also classical music too, but I did not use them for this test (except Moscow Nights – I always loved Dimitri’s velvety voice, R.I.P., and wanted to see how it will be through these CIEMs). Why not jazz and smooth music: Most of the things sound good with this type of music. Well, why not classical then, you might ask: Simply because IEMs are not good enough for orchestra type of music IMHO. That type of music best sounds when listened through a nice speaker system, and I am used to it that way. I did not want that my judgment will be ill-affected if I listen to classical piece through a set of CIEMs. Finally, the songs were chosen because of some difficulty or challenge inherent with them, which can be complex passages, pushing lows, midrange resolution, requiring some nice instrument separation etc.
What is included in the package: The box, standard and ergonomically very nice, but crappy sounding cables and finally CIEMs. Since this is still pre-production, I don’t know what else will be in the package, but for the future, a cleaning cloth with some logo of “Tahsin Sevgel Audio Devices” would be nice to include as well.
Appearance: They look like they are built bullet-proof. Tahsin put some wooden faceplates there, but there are some finishing blemishes to be seen on the CIEMs. I blame this on these samples being pre-production ones and Tahsin urging to produce those pre-productions for reviewing purposes.
The shape itself is interesting. The sound-bore is huge with some wide copper tubing. It kind of looks like a fish opening its mouth. The shell is transparent, and you can see big, probably some high-quality capacitors in there. Overall, apart from some blemishes here and there, the build and looks are great and intriguing at the same time.
Sound: Let us start with the sound signature, so that if it is your type of sound, you might want to continue reading, otherwise you might stop, unless you are really curious. This is a natural and organic sounding pair of CIEM. The sound of it is so immersive, sometimes you forget that you are listening to it for reviewing, you close your eyes and simply start enjoying the music itself. And it does that without sacrificing any technical merits. I would say that the tonal balance is perfect for my taste, the lows are defined both as quantity and quality. This is the bassiest CIEM that Tahsin ever produced, however, the lows don’t mix with mids, they are nice and delivered well and not fatiguing at all. Even though they do not mix with mids, the sound is so coherent that it sounds like everything is coming from the same point source. The mids are again very, very nice, as it is the case with any of Tahsin’s CIEMs, well-defined, captivating, with nice layering and definition. The highs sound good as well, not recessed at all, but also not sibilant at the same time, which is not easy to achieve. Although some might want a bit more quantity-wise, I am not one of those guys and these CIEMs are not lacking anything, but I know you are there, who are fans of highs and to be frank with you, I also agree that a super tweeter might improve the transients as well. Wrapping things up, quality-wise, highs are perfect to me. Quantity-wise they are perfect for me as well, but as I said, some might want more, I am never a fan of a lot of treble, but as said, they help with transients. The detail retrieval is in general, great within the whole spectrum. Now the background: This is a bit interesting, there is some smear with the standard cable, however, this is non-existent when different cables are used. I will elaborate more on that later. Soundstage is also nice, I would not expect a miracle from a pair of CIEMS, please bear in mind that I come from a speaker setup and also used open headphones most of the time before that. However, considering they are in your ear, the image they put is a bit out of your ear as well with nicely defined layers of instruments, pin-point stage locations and again low, mid and high definition within those stage locations. Kudos to Tahsin for such an achievement with the soundstage.
If I want to summarize the general sound-signature and traits of those CIEMs with one word, I would choose “organic”. The tuning of these pair of CIEMs is perfect to my ears. They have such a nice quality of conveying the music in such a coherent way, that nothing stands out and everything is well-balanced and defined. This is such an enjoyable piece of equipment with a nice list of technical capabilities. Well-done.
Synergy with different DACs and players: These are both organic and natural sounding CIEMs. I liked how they responded when played with Chord DACs and also with Chronos, however, I did not like them through WM1Z. WM1Z has a bit too much of dark signature and organic sound itself to pair with PLENUMs. Too much of something is, well, too much. I would pair these CIEMs definitely with a more natural source. The reason is that you are not trying to correct something that is missing, because there are none of such things. WM1Z sounds to me that it is trying to make-up for something that is not there in the case of PLENUMs, and this is certainly not required with these CIEMs. Pair them with a natural source and these babies will shine. Also, they are really efficient, every piece of equipment seems to be able to drive them, they surely do not need a kick in the bottom area (I listed the following pictures of the DACs and the Sony player in the increasing order of my preference).
Cable adventures:
I will just list positives and negatives with cables I tried and you make up your own mind here. +- means that I am neutral to this trait.
The cable that is included in the package:
+ Super-light.
+ Easy-to use and ergonomic, memory-wire serves well.
+ No microphonics.
- Tangles a lot.
- Sound is crappy, steals from the quality of the CIEMs, smear in the background
SilverFi IEM4:
+ Nice and soft cable.
+ Sound quality is great – the background with this cable is completely black, the smear that we have with the original cable is gone.
+ Light and ergonomic.
+ No microphonics.
+- The sound shifts a bit from the original tuning. Not bad, but can be preferred one way or other. I did not like the change. The original tuning is perfect the way it is.
- Build quality is bad.
- No memory-wire and the cables cannot be bent around the ear.
- Expensive (around 900 USD).
ThumbsUp Hugo Cables:
+ Nice build quality and construction.
+ Sound quality is great – the background with this cable is completely black, the smear that we have with the original cable is gone.
+ Sound signature is similar to the original, even though technically this is a much better cable. The tuning itself is not shifted as in IEM4s. One example to demonstrate this is this: I compared both of the cables with different songs. However, when it came to Bad Guy from Billie Eilish, during my time I was listening to it using ThumbsUp cables, I immediately remembered the movie Brightburn – The Son of Darkness. The song is the closing song of the movie and I had the feeling that the scenes from the movie were in front of me again. This was not the case with IEM4s. IEM4s, although nice cables on their own, they simply change what is already great with PLENUMs. PLENUMs lose their emotional character with IEM4s. But then again, some might prefer it that way, i.e. with a different character and tone, but I am not one of those people.
+ Cheaper – The cables are made by me. There is no company like ThumbsUp. This is why my cost is low.
+ Furutech RCA connectors do not use solder. Solder is a weak-point in terms of sound quality.
+ No microphonics.
+- No memory wire, but can be bent around the ear.
- Cable is heavy, good for a seated place, not good for commute.
- RCA connectors limit its usage, this cable cannot be used with regular devices. I could not make them with a 3.5mm connector as the ones I had with me were not big enough to accommodate the wires I used for the construction. There are some connectors big enough to be used for this, but I did not have access to them.
- Furutech connectors are good for sound quality, but bad for recessed female RCA ports. Hugo TT2 has no issues with them, but Hugo 2 needs adapters to accommodate these connectors (see the picture). Interestingly, when I met with a friend owning the original Hugo, I realized that the Hugo’s first version did not have recessed ports and in fact, Furutech connectors could fit these. Why Chord changed RCA ports to recessed ones in Hugo 2 is really beyond me, but then again, we all know that Chord can build its hardware fine, but not without its quirks. Don’t make me start with the choice of micro-usb ports instead of usb-c connections, or usage of colored spheres for choosing all the options that come to mind (after studying the manual, they are easy to learn/remember, but why such a counter-intuitive way even for the volume control Chord, why?). In terms of UI/UX, Chord definitely has a long way 2go
.
In summary, I recommend testing all the cables you have with these CIEMs. The standard cable smears the background, however, these CIEMs are perfectly capable with presenting a black background with a nice set of cables.
Now some comparisons with some IEM/CIEMs and comparison of traits with headphones:
- VS Audeze LCD i4: With the stock cable, I would say PLENUMs are on a similar level. LCD i4s have their PEQ tuning on with recommended parameters (listed online elsewhere, which I do not remember the link of) for this comparison. I must also say that I like LCD i4s with PEQ settings on. They respond to PEQ adjustments well. In their stock form, I would not pick them, but when PEQ is in effect, they are nice pair of earphones. With PEQ on and PLENUMS having the standard cable, PLENUMs have more bass, the background of LCD i4s is nicer, but apart from minor differences, I would say they are similar in terms of technical levels. PLENUMs are more emotional and organic though. LCD i4s are also very difficult to drive compared to PLENUMs. However, things change with upgraded cables. PLENUMs are better in every area in those cases. The differences are not night and day, but with each difference, even though individually they are small, the gap widens. So basically, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts.
- VS Grado PS2000e and GH2 headphones: This is not a vs, this is rather to emphasize similarity of traits with PS2000e along with Grado GH2s headphones and the PLENUMs. Through the past years, I accumulated bunch of headphones and listened to most of the flagships that come to the market. There are some magical things about these Grados though, which in turn made me keep them. I sold HD800s, MDR 1ZRs, LCD4s, Stax L700s, some Ultrasones and also listened to old classics, like R10s, HP1000s, new ones like Focal Utopias, Ultrasone Signatures and some others that do not come to my mind and basically left me unimpressed for one reason or another. PS2000e headphones might be one of the best, if not the best, headphones I listened to so far. That is to my ears and for my preference of course. The reason is that these are both clear and natural and at the same time organic (sounds like something I like and value a lot, doesn’t it?). Obviously being open-back means that they lack a bit the sound pressure of the lows compared to closed flagship headphones, however, the clear definition and detail make up for the lack of the sound pressure. GH2s are technically at a much lower level, but they are as much enjoyable as their big brother. In fact, I chose them over GS2000s just based on their tuning and fun factor.
- Now, I am not saying that PLENUMs can compete with PS2000e headphones. I am just saying that the reasons that made me choose PS2000e headphones over others, like clear and organic sound, a natural sound with a lot of details, nice layering and background, those also come with PLENUMs. Don’t expect a miracle though with CIEMs in general, there is a reason that there are horses for courses.
- VS “The Medallion”: “The Medallion” is an interesting R&D project that we did with Tahsin 6 years ago or so. This was never made public, as the ergonomics are terrible with this one. See for yourself here:
The reason this is called “The Medallion” between Tahsin and me is that the crossover components with desktop audiophile grade capacitors look like a medallion that you put around your neck with the help of a rope (yes, you read correctly, there are no crossover parts in the shell of “The Medallion”). This is a 3-driver CIEM, with cable and capacitor cost of multi-thousand US Dollars. The ergonomics are horrible, but the sound quality is amazing. Technically, “The Medallion” is better than the PLENUMs, apart from the amount of lows that it can produce. The definition, the amount of details, the resolution, layering, soundstage, background, you name it, “The Medallion” excels at it. However, with upgraded cables, the PLENUMs are much better with the amount of lows, and not that far back with all the other traits. This is a very nice feature for the PLENUMs, as I experienced first-hand, how “The Medallion” smashed a bunch of earphones and even headphones during a comparison.
Closing thoughts: I have been spending quite some time lately with those PLENUMs and I must say that I am really impressed. Tahsin managed to pull out a rabbit out of his hat with these. PLENUMs are one of the nicest sounding IEMs/CIEMs that I listened to so far. They have the amazing ability of giving a coherent sound with lows, mids and highs, very nice layering and sound-stage that even a bit excels to just outside your head, a very black background with the right cables, and they also have an organic and natural character that keeps you listening and listening to the music, without analyzing anything and just enjoying the songs and performers, even though technically they are very capable to overcome any challenges in the test tracks that you can throw at them. What can I say in addition to what I already said? Amazing CIEMs. Now, it all boils down to the release price, which I do not know anything about. No matter what, bravo Tahsin, just bravo and congrats. Nice work, very nice work indeed.
