Spartan UIEM Initial Impressions
Reasoning
Coming from the Cerberus III and AS Rockets, I wanted something that sounded a bit more... grand. Something that would capture the soaring notes of an epic, and yet at the same time convey the sheer
grandness and
scale of a song.
My thoughts, for what they're worth? The Spartan
hits it out of the park. Let's go into a bit more detail.
The shells are great - the same excellent quality we've come to expect from EE. They feel durable, and I've had no problem lying on my side with these. The cables are tightly braided and can be very easily bent/curled, which is great for portability and durability. Also pictured above - Spinfit tips (my favorite), and the UE Buffer Jack (described below).
Sound
Sensitivity Options
Previously, I had opted for the low-sensitivity version of the Cerberus III as the high-sensitivity version would have quite audible hiss, and even the low-sensitivity version would hiss a tiny bit with my phone (a Galaxy S6 - Wolfson DAC). However, recently, I had obtained the
UE Buffer Jack ($10), which eliminated hiss in the low-sensitivity version.
I decided to risk trying the high-sensitivity version of the Spartans, and the UE Buffer Jack
eliminates all hiss. Now, I have the best of both worlds - high sensitivity when I'm near an extremely high-grade source, and no hiss on any other source, with added portability - a no-brainer for $10.
Signature, Soundstage, Imaging, and more
This is where the Spartans really excel. The sig seems
fairly straightforward with partially elevated highs. Mids are not exaggerated (but not laid-back, either - perfectly normal), and bass feels elevated a
tiny bit elevated (which works wonders, as I'll describe).
But perhaps my favorite quality is the sheer
scale of the sound. These sound
airy and open, and the first few times I heard them, I had to remind myself I wasn't wearing a headset. Opposed to the intimate nature of the Cerberus and AS Rockets, the Spartans go for the grand feeling of openness and scale. As I heard an epic song, I could picture,
feel war bands marching across a massive valley, drum beats
soaring through time and space. It felt very close to an "out-of-head" experience. This was everything I was missing in sound - intimate sound performs well with vocals, but tends to fail when faced with instrumental songs. As I listen to mostly instrumental, the Spartans have filled that gap phenomenally well.
Due in part to the open and airy feel, it's also much easier to tell where instruments are coming from. It's also
very easy to distinguish instruments from one another, which is also due to the
astounding detail of the Spartans. Listening to my library of absurdly complex instrumental tracks, I had to expend no mental effort whatsoever in distinguishing one instrument from another - an astonishing feat, exceeding all of my previous IEMs.
Isolation, as with any UIEM, depends on the tips. I'd recommend doing your own research, for this one, but I find the Comply Foam best for isolation (at the expense of some detail), and the Spinfits for general use (great isolation, unless you're in a plane, and no noticeable effect on sound - but might require a bit of adjustment for a good seal).
Bass
The bass
is amazing. I have few words for it. It's the beautifully-textured, visceral (but not overpowering) bass that I've come to love from EE. I adore how well the bass meshes with the open and airy feel; it's quite difficult to describe - but perhaps the best example I can give is the one with epic songs, above. Bass with intimate sound feels good, but bass with an open soundstage feels (quite literally)
grand, and it's difficult to find another word to describe it.
I could hear the bass as low as 25 Hz.
Mids
Mids feel neutral, but quite detailed. They don't feel overdone or elevated, and at the same time, are not recessed or laid-back. I feel that EE did a great job of balancing the sig of this IEM, and it really shows with the performance in the mids. It's not overshadowed by either the bass or the highs, but preserves the musicality and tonality. Very detailed, and I love how EE dealt with these.
Highs
Slightly elevated highs are a relative first for me in the world of high-end IEMs. I haven't seen many people doing this, and it's understandable why - there's a very fine line, here. Turn them up too high (pun intended), and songs sound tinny, fatiguing and out of character. Turn them down too low, and you kill detail.
EE have managed to find the sweet spot. The highs are done in such a way that I can pick out the smallest details, but not to the point where they affect the timbre and character of an instrument. I am surprised at how non-fatiguing they are, too. Listening to post-rock and instrumental, I found the highs superbly detailed.
I could hear the highs rolling off at ~17.96 KHz, which is around where my hearing drops off (they might go higher, but I wouldn't be able to tell).
Summary
Well, this is just a preview review. I've had the Spartans (to review) for about a week, now, and I've logged a probably unhealthy number of hours on them. I've liked these enough that I'm going for the CIEMs. What more is there to say? Excellently textured bass, perfect mids, and intricately detailed highs. Combined with an airy and open feel with great imaging, they are exactly what I've been looking for in CIEMs. And I could write another glowing review about Jack's customer service!
In the full review, I'll try to go more in-depth with describing the sound, and probably describe how they perform with some of my favorite tracks (preview:
really well!).
