Finally in frustration I throw my hands up and submit this for a review:
CUSTOM Letshuoer EJ07M in ear monitors with Kinda Lava tuning
Pros: Overall awesome, revealing sound. Should suit any genre of music. Faithful reproduction of the recorded material, audiophile tuning. Sleek, beautiful fit and finish. Small ear pieces for all the drivers packed in there. Letshuoer is wonderful to work with, very helpful and professional design and sales/service.
Cons: I would like more bass. Takes a long time to break in, VERY noticeable burn in, some harshness went away, but then it got worse again-- glare/harshness in the upper treble. Can be unforgiving of poor recordings. The DD does suffer from “driver flex” upon insertion in the ear, or when pushing on the earpiece for deeper insertion. Annoying at those times, otherwise a non issue.
Please note: These are custom iems, ciems, therefore no need for any TIP comments, nor filter or mod comments and I don’t use EQ (somewhat by my “audiophile wannabe” choices, but also because more than half my library is made up of DSD recordings and my DAP cannot apply EQ to playback of DSD).
I paid $655 at 20% discount sale and considered that about right for a custom tribrid with 1 DD, 2 B/A and 4 Electret drivers.
I have read a LOT of iem reviews lately, most follow a kind of format/pattern, which is fine but getting kinda boring for me, so if you don’t mind I will tell my story instead. For the impatient, my pros and cons are above and I recommend these ciems and give them an overall rating of A-
I love music, played back faithfully, love to listen to it played at a reasonable level (not quietly) on the bed at night before going to sleep. But she who should not be disturbed is already asleep, so I need in ear monitors. I have tried quite a few of the universal ones, and never once ever got them to seal with any tips. A few years ago I found customs, got 3 pair of EarTech Music ciems, 2 Quads (4 B/A drivers) and 1 Hex (6 B/A drivers). You can read my reviews of them here:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/eartech-music-quad-review.832913/
These days their prices are about the same as the EJ07Ms being discussed here.
The EarTech ciems sound great but Cynical rates them a C and does not have much good to say about them. Been enjoying them for years, but now am wondering what I am missing? An audiophile friend suggested I try improving them with a balanced rig. I had been listening with a Cowon Plenue M2 (with wonderful TI chip, great sound) but it is only SE. So I got a Fiio M11 Plus Ltd. recently and some balanced cables, yep that does bring some more fullness, ease to the sound, but even though the Fiio has a pair of AK4497EQ chips with THX amps it is not as sweet sounding as the Cowon PM2.
So what am I missing? That investment brought me part of the way, but I must need some ciems better than a C rating. So after a LOT of research I decided on the Shuoer EJ07 line. And I love bass, never get enough of it, so I finally went with the Kinda Lava tuning. Got my ear impressions made, sent them off, took a long time having them shipped around the world to the USA to a shipper I use there who can get things through Thai customs, took the long way home as Supertramp once said. I can’t tell you how excited I was to get these and to love them, for them to be my end game ciems.
They are beautiful and they fit!!!!! Pics attached. Lots of places in my order process for things to go wrong, but Joseph got it all exactly right. Perfect. A BIG thank you!!!!!
In these reviews a LOT is made of the reviewer’s library and I get the impression some of the guys have different iems for every album they play, or at least every different musical genre. I want one set of ciems that play all my music well, evenly, perfectly. I was raised on Rock and Roll, the Blues, Folk, Classical is by far what I listen to most, but I love well recorded music, close miked, new classical, Reggae, some jazz, I love good bass, it is essential for a great sounding foundation to the music.
But when I first started listening to music through my new EJ07M KLs some things sounded good, even great, especially Rock and Roll, but close miked vocals and treble instruments were harsh, there was some shocking glare there. I found out right away, I was not missing anything with my old EarTech ciems. Honestly I pretty much knew that, I know what great music sounds like and I had been enjoying it for years!! OK, the new 07M KLs needed to break in, burn in, whatever you call it. I did not expect that, was shocked at how much the treble backed off, the glare subsided in the first 20 hours or so, they still got better over a few days, but I have to say they have gotten worse again. Yes, I have gone back to SE listening with old cables, on the old PM2, it is still there. BTW I do turn these babies up, listen louder than ever, which MAY be part of the harshness problem, they volume scale but sometimes painfully. MOST music is great!!!! EVERY instrument I have heard, close miked too, sounds exactly right, organic and natural. Nothing “analytical” here, and often so fun I forget to listen critically. Then some songs are almost unalienable, hard edged almost shouty treble.
Here is an example for you where it is like I opened the top on a concert grand piano, stuck my head way down inside while Bruce Levingston holds forth loudly and powerfully on high notes:
And I am like, that is what you get for sticking yer head in where it doesn’t belong!!! I enjoy the heck outta this album, but my new ciems don’t do it justice.
However, check out those same piano notes in this breathtaking performance by Jacintha of Moon River:
Not really my kind of music but she kills it and those piano notes sound pure and sweet on the 07M KL. Maybe something in the way the offending songs were recorded? I can give more examples, there is a little harshness on close miked vocals from Nora Jones “Come Away with Me” and Willie Nelson’s whole Stardust album, just don’t like the way that mike makes his voice sound. Iconic as it may come across.
OK, so I love most of the treble except a few piano notes and the occasional highest violin notes, and everything else in music. Mids are fantastic, mid bass, bass are fine and sub bass, when I can find it is to die for. I just want more music to have great bass.
Check out what the bass foundation does for the whole of Elbow’s “The Night Will Always Win”:
If you can get this orchestral piece Macmillan Larghetto for Orchestra on Reference Recordings see what bass will do for classical music:
Please mister, can I have some more???? Down in Texas we like bass to support the music, check out:
Or enjoy Gary Karr, with the double bass and some organ kicking it:
I listen to more cello than any other instrument, but these ciems have me digging for any and all the double bass I can get my hands on. There is not enough good bass in my library.
I may be a basshead and didn’t know it. So I would say, the 07M KL could be improved by either a larger dynamic driver for the bass, or a beryllium one, something stronger, OR by increasing the sub bass tuning even more. Perhaps that would make things more V shaped, less audiophile worthy but maybe more fun sounding.
Cables: I tried the supplied copper cable, plus Shuoer kindly sent me the 09 silver and copper cable since I did not want the dongle they were giving with this sale. I also have a good all silver cable, a litz copper cable I really like, plus a silver, silver plated copper DDHiFi Air Nyx (expensive cable, a good one). I have to say cables hardly made any difference at all.
Moral of the story: So my conclusion is that the EJ07M KL is a fine custom in ear monitor, beautiful in every way, is an easy recommendation if you are not too sensitive to treble harshness, or if you listen with lower volume. But it is just a little bit better than the ciems I already owned, the DD for the bass (when I can get enough bass in my music to hear it) are a small improvement over my B/A drivers, the mids are the same as, the electret drivers are better than the B/A drivers I am used to but they can also be harsh. These are better than my old EarTechs, but not by much and my old ciems do not have the harshness problem.
So I don’t trust a certain Cynical foul-mouthed iem reviewer any more. But using his scale, I would rate my EarTech Music Quads and Hexes as A- and the EJ07M KL the same. I think the HBB tuning for the KL adds some needed mid bass, as best as I can tell, but I would go past that audiophile tuning and give it even more bass for a more fun tuning. I will leave it to more knowledgeable people to talk about staging, imaging and technicalities. Seems great in those areas to me.
Thanks for listening.
God Bless,
Wayne
Attached FR graph and pics
of my ciems: