[Deezel177]

The EVR and VE5 were both designed for vocalists specifically, but I have never heard the VE5. I will say that I personally enjoyed the EVR very much, it was one of my favs in the earlier phase. It combines a clear sound with a delightful touch of sparkle, and was to me somewhat reminiscent to iems as the NT6pro and Gemini. It's an iem I enjoyed listening to classic rock or acoustic music with, as a slight lift in its upper treble lets string instruments sparkle and shine. Its bass is fairly linear and will not necessarily be a showstopper, but it's there doing its thing. Despite it being targeted at vocalists, the vocal body is not as large or forward as something like the Phantom or Zeus; both the instruments and vocals are fairly neutral in terms of body and forwardness. Overall, one could say the EVR is a playful deviation of neutral.

The ESR is designed to be very flat, where neither the bass, mids, or treble standout from one or another. The mid-bass is tight and resolved, but not overly present or impactful, the midrange has a nice tone, but is not overly bodied or forward, and the treble is fairly linear, without being overly sparkly nor laidback. It offers a clean, well-separated sound with precise imaging. In a way, it is kind of a prototpye of what an iem should do right, without necessarily failing or excelling in any area for that matter. This is more of a classic 'neutral' iem, taking over the role of Spartan.

Normally weekends are reserved for a very strict Netflix binge-watching schedule with the gf, but she has to grade some papers tomorrow so maybe I will try to race Daniel for some impressions on the other hybrids

I just finished editing a large majority of the photos, commenced on the introduction aaaaaand I have to wake up at 5.30 AM for church/work tomorrow. But, never fear; free time is an old friend, and I tend to work just that little bit harder in the face of competition.

 

[Mython]

I just finished editing a large majority of the photos, commenced on the introduction aaaaaand I have to wake up at 5.30 AM for church/work tomorrow. But, never fear; free time is an old friend, and I tend to work just that little bit harder in the face of competition.

Competitiveness in the world of CIEMs.

Whatever next?!

 

[Dingding123]

3-time Zeus owner here. Just tried the entire new line-ups from EE this afternoon. Here's my two cents.
1) most noticeable improvement of the new IEMs is the build quality. These new shells are thick. Despite having black, barely translucent shells, the new line-up feels much sturdier compared to my Zeus. And Jack Vang was at the launch event and confirmed it with me. They not only made thicker shells, but also made it using a new, more crack-resistant material. Still acrylic but changed the raw ingredients I guess.
2) the entire ESR/EVR/phantom line-up is still very engaging sounding despite being tuned for neutrality. It's got that natural signature I wished for in Zeus R.
3) the LegendX lineup has lower sensitivity than the phantom line-up, which is less sensitive than Zeus. Reason being, I suspect, that Zeus' crossover didn't use any passive electrical components such as resistors and capacitors, while the new line-up did.
4) I didn't enjoy the bass response from the LegendX series. Don't get me wrong - I don't mind the bass quantity, but the bass response was not natural. I thought that the bass response has a weird shape to it. It could have been rounder. I think it's got to do with burn-in, since it's day 1 of these demo units. And the place I tried them at is not particularly known for burning in IEMs. Will be back in a few weeks to try the LegendX again.
5) Phantom is nice. Good staging, good signature, good timbre. It's a huge step away from EE's tuning philosophy of stacking drivers while doing away from passive electrical cross-over components and acoustic filters. The advantage of using fewer drivers and a electrical component is that you can control the phase difference more easily when you have say... 5 sets of different drivers with different response speeds. With Phase under control, phantom loses the interesting, textured mids (or the entire frequency range) and adopts a clean, coherent, scalable sound.
6) it will be good if the phantom could have a dynamic bass driver. Its bass quantity is a step up from Zeus, but it still doesn't have a natural sub-bass. It's a BA bass after-all.
7) overall, really glad to see the good work from EE. Keep improving!!

 

[Deezel177]

3-time Zeus owner here. Just tried the entire new line-ups from EE this afternoon. Here's my two cents.
1) most noticeable improvement of the new IEMs is the build quality. These new shells are thick. Despite having black, barely translucent shells, the new line-up feels much sturdier compared to my Zeus. And Jack Vang was at the launch event and confirmed it with me. They not only made thicker shells, but also made it using a new, more crack-resistant material. Still acrylic but changed the raw ingredients I guess.
2) the entire ESR/EVR/phantom line-up is still very engaging sounding despite being tuned for neutrality. It's got that natural signature I wished for in Zeus R.
3) the LegendX lineup has lower sensitivity than the phantom line-up, which is less sensitive than Zeus. Reason being, I suspect, that Zeus' crossover didn't use any passive electrical components such as resistors and capacitors, while the new line-up did.
4) I didn't enjoy the bass response from the LegendX series. Don't get me wrong - I don't mind the bass quantity, but the bass response was not natural. I thought that the bass response has a weird shape to it. It could have been rounder. I think it's got to do with burn-in, since it's day 1 of these demo units. And the place I tried them at is not particularly known for burning in IEMs. Will be back in a few weeks to try the LegendX again.
5) Phantom is nice. Good staging, good signature, good timbre. It's a huge step away from EE's tuning philosophy of stacking drivers while doing away from passive electrical cross-over components and acoustic filters. The advantage of using fewer drivers and a electrical component is that you can control the phase difference more easily when you have say... 5 sets of different drivers with different response speeds. With Phase under control, phantom loses the interesting, textured mids (or the entire frequency range) and adopts a clean, coherent, scalable sound.
6) it will be good if the phantom could have a dynamic bass driver. Its bass quantity is a step up from Zeus, but it still doesn't have a natural sub-bass. It's a BA bass after-all.
7) overall, really glad to see the good work from EE. Keep improving!!

These are interesting impressions. First of all, to address the more technical details, I bet the Zeus does use resistors and capacitors in its cross-over network; simply because there aren't any other components you can use in a cross-over. Acoustic filtering has never been something Empire Ears implements, so it's definitely electrical in nature. My guess is they've just tweaked the components to reduce overall sensitivity. I also can't bring myself to agree with your comments on the X series' bass and the Phantom's lack of "interesting, textured mids." But, of course, to each their own and I'll address my personal take on them in the THL article. After all, contrasting opinions are the keys to any interesting discussion.

 

[Dingding123]

These are interesting impressions. First of all, to address the more technical details, I bet the Zeus does use resistors and capacitors in its cross-over network; simply because there aren't any other components you can use in a cross-over. Acoustic filtering has never been something Empire Ears implements, so it's definitely electrical in nature. My guess is they've just tweaked the components to reduce overall sensitivity. I also can't bring myself to agree with your comments on the X series' bass and the Phantom's lack of "interesting, textured mids." But, of course, to each their own and I'll address my personal take on them in the THL article. After all, contrasting opinions are the keys to any interesting discussion.

About the cross-over: It's really just a guess, so just take me with a pinch of salt. I've once seen a tragic, completely broken Spartan, and there's no resistors and caps inside. So I used a bit of imagination and made an extrapolation for the Zeus. Also I've peered into my transparent-shelled Zeus R before and did not found any electrical components, so... yeah. I also knew of people who's opened up Zeus and claimed that all the drivers inside worked the full response range. I took it with a pinch of salt though.
Allow me to rephrase the part on Phantom's Mids: its mids loses the timbre found in Zeus. Phantom's mids has texture, but it's definitely very different from that of the Zeus. It doesn't sound like the difference stems from a different sound signature. Maybe it's 'phase'...?

 

[Deezel177]

About the cross-over: It's really just a guess, so just take me with a pinch of salt. I've once seen a tragic, completely broken Spartan, and there's no resistors and caps inside. So I used a bit of imagination and made an extrapolation for the Zeus. Also I've peered into my transparent-shelled Zeus R before and did not found any electrical components, so... yeah. I also knew of people who's opened up Zeus and claimed that all the drivers inside worked the full response range. I took it with a pinch of salt though.
Allow me to rephrase the part on Phantom's Mids: its mids loses the timbre found in Zeus. Phantom's mids has texture, but it's definitely very different from that of the Zeus. It doesn't sound like the difference stems from a different sound signature. Maybe it's 'phase'...?

If that were the case, then there wouldn't be a cross-over network at all. A cross-over is used to assign a particular frequency range to a particular set of drivers, and if all the drivers were producing the entire frequency range, then there would be no cross-overs within the driver network period. The fact that Empire specifically states the amount of divisions present in the frequency response (four in the Spartan-IV, seven in the Zeus-XIV, and eight in the Zeus-R) leads me to confidently believe that there are electrical components within all those IEMs. Besides, if there weren't any passive electrical components present in the Zeus-XR, what does the switch do? In fact, I just looked into my Translucent-Smoke-shelled Zeus-XR and I can see what looks like a surface-mounted capacitor soldered directly onto one of the four-driver clusters. I can take a macro photo on Monday if you'd like.

The Phantom has a more neutral lower-midrange than the Zeus. A combination of a less-accentuated upper-treble and a warmer bass results in more bodied notes with a richer tinge. To my ears, there is a difference in frequency response, while I'd associate something like phase (an aspect I have admittedly very little understanding in) to - maybe - note definition and background blackness.

 

[proedros]

I want to thank you guys for all those wonderful/detailed Phantom impressions

as i find the Zeus XR bass more than adequate for my listening tastes and its tone/timbre as warm/full as i like (i listen mostly to well produced/mastered 70s/80s soul/funk/disco last 2 years mostly so the sound is not shrill/compressed/badly eq'ed), so your comments about Phantom having more bass/a more thick sound than XR makes me feel at ease with XR

like i have repeatedly said in here , Zeus XR ticks all my boxes (i can not finf any faults in its sound/characteristics), it has great synergy (and zero hiss) with my WM1a and its 2 sound signatures give me amazing versatility with all my music genres

being also on a very tight budget , i understand that i don't really need Phantom , it's more a curiosity which is (for now) easily tamed by the bipolarity statement ''XR is amazing/my wallet is empty''

keep those reviews/impressions coming

 

[subguy812]

3-time Zeus owner here. Just tried the entire new line-ups from EE this afternoon. Here's my two cents.
1) most noticeable improvement of the new IEMs is the build quality. These new shells are thick. Despite having black, barely translucent shells, the new line-up feels much sturdier compared to my Zeus. And Jack Vang was at the launch event and confirmed it with me. They not only made thicker shells, but also made it using a new, more crack-resistant material. Still acrylic but changed the raw ingredients I guess.
2) the entire ESR/EVR/phantom line-up is still very engaging sounding despite being tuned for neutrality. It's got that natural signature I wished for in Zeus R.
3) the LegendX lineup has lower sensitivity than the phantom line-up, which is less sensitive than Zeus. Reason being, I suspect, that Zeus' crossover didn't use any passive electrical components such as resistors and capacitors, while the new line-up did.
4) I didn't enjoy the bass response from the LegendX series. Don't get me wrong - I don't mind the bass quantity, but the bass response was not natural. I thought that the bass response has a weird shape to it. It could have been rounder. I think it's got to do with burn-in, since it's day 1 of these demo units. And the place I tried them at is not particularly known for burning in IEMs. Will be back in a few weeks to try the LegendX again.
5) Phantom is nice. Good staging, good signature, good timbre. It's a huge step away from EE's tuning philosophy of stacking drivers while doing away from passive electrical cross-over components and acoustic filters. The advantage of using fewer drivers and a electrical component is that you can control the phase difference more easily when you have say... 5 sets of different drivers with different response speeds. With Phase under control, phantom loses the interesting, textured mids (or the entire frequency range) and adopts a clean, coherent, scalable sound.
6) it will be good if the phantom could have a dynamic bass driver. Its bass quantity is a step up from Zeus, but it still doesn't have a natural sub-bass. It's a BA bass after-all.
7) overall, really glad to see the good work from EE. Keep improving!!

It's nice to hear more comments...thank you

 

[flinkenick]

I want to thank you guys for all those wonderful/detailed Phantom impressions

as i find the Zeus XR bass more than adequate for my listening tastes and its tone/timbre as warm/full as i like (i listen mostly to well produced/mastered 70s/80s soul/funk/disco last 2 years mostly so the sound is shrill/compressed/badly eq'ed), so your comments about Phantom having more bass/a more thick sound than XR makes me feel at ease with XR

like i have repeatedly said in here , Zeus XR ticks all my boxes (i can not finf any faults in its sound/characteristics), it has great synergy (and zero hiss) with my WM1a and its 2 sound signatures give me amazing versatility with all my music genres

being also on a very tight budget , i understand that i don't really need Phantom , it's more a curiosity which is (for now) easily tamed by the bipolarity statement ''XR is amazing/my wallet is empty''

keep those reviews/impressions coming

So just wanna say if you, or any other owners of Zeus, are happy with Zeus you should not feel the urge to switch to Phantom by any means. Phantom is great, but so is Zeus.

However, the difference between their bass is not so much in mid- or upper-bass quantity, but in sub-bass extension and impact. Accordingly, Phantom does not have a 'thicker sound' per se as the bass is not dominant, but it does have a slightly warmer tone.

 

[ranfan]

What do EVR, and ESR stand for? And what is the 'X' in Legend-X?

 

[Twitley]

What do EVR, and ESR stand for? And what is the 'X' in Legend-X?

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/empire-ears-discussion-impressions-formerly-earwerkz.786335/page-689

 

[ranfan]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/empire-ears-discussion-impressions-formerly-earwerkz.786335/page-689

Thanks!

Ah, I see the 'X' is for hybrid. Nice.

 

[flinkenick]

Thanks!

Ah, I see the 'X' is for hybrid. Nice.

X is for the 10-way crossover buddy.

EVR is Empire Vocal Reference, ESR is Empire Studio Reference.

 

[NaiveSound]

I wonder where Zeus XR ranks now

 

[thebratts]

So just wanna say if you, or any other owners of Zeus, are happy with Zeus you should not feel the urge to switch to Phantom by any means. Phantom is great, but so is Zeus.

However, the difference between their bass is not so much in mid- or upper-bass quantity, but in sub-bass extension and impact. Accordingly, Phantom does not have a 'thicker sound' per se as the bass is not dominant, but it does have a slightly warmer tone.

Just realized that the description is a bit like if you would have the zeus and switch to the WM1Z from another more "analytical" source, added warmth, bass extension, bass impact is used to describe the WM1z in reviews. Just a thought.. (even if it will not transform your zeus to an phantom.. )
How much does a source like the WM1Z change/impact the zeus for instance, any comparisons made?
I have it myself but have not compared it to anything else.. But i love how my Zeus sounds out of it. currently actually experimenting with the excellent Eq adding a little bass and dropping 8khz slightly. Haven't reached any conclusions yet though... just for fun..