Vision Ears iem thread, Elysium / EXT / EVE / ERLKöNIG / PHöNIX / VE8 / VE7

[Towa]

To my surprise the Erlky were waiting at home for me after work today, this will be the start of my 7 day demo with these beauties, before I have to send them off next week to the next lucky person on tour I will keep track of my thoughts, impressions, and comparison here in this thread.

First off the case is a beast and really exudes premium feels, more brands should take note of stuff like this for their TOTL peices especially in this price range, presentation should not look and feel like chi-fi garbage.

First thing i noticed from the getgo upon holding these is “holy shit! they are fucking heavy” The next thing i thought was “shit these are gonna be uncomfortable…” Well I was so wrong. Yes these are by far the heaviest most solid feeling IEMs i’ve held, but the shape… it’s all in the shape. These fit so damn well in my ears, like a glove actually. Deep seal with no flex and flush with my ear line, i can’t distinguish these from less hefty sets from a weight perspective while in my ears. The Germans sure do know how to build some great designs huh? Speaking of did I mention the shell is made out of silver.

The faceplates are removable and replacble if you want to get fancy, but the real killer feature is the 4 way switch underneath that lets you change the signature of the IEM. This lets you fine tune the IEM for either a more reference baseline tuning to a tasteful basshead tuning on the other side of the spectrum with varying degrees inbetween.

4 - baseline signature
3 - same as bassline but with a 2db bump at 4khz
2 - same as sig3 but with +3db at 100hz
1 - same as sig2 but with +3db at 100hz (effectively +6db over baseline sig)

There now that we have all the fluff out of the way, we can get to some impressions.

I’m still very early in my listening (only a couple hours) and have only listened using the baseline setting (#4) so far. Right away you notice how much these seal and isolate, and the next thing is the black background, almost deafening how silent it is.

Oh boy these are technicality kings, at least among the sets I’ve heard. The detail is clear and precise with a great sense of weight and tonal density suprisingly, especially for a all balanced armature set. The bass is tight and has good impact and not dissapointing in the least, unlike the BA bass in the Elysium this actually has the fun thumping quality I crave without being overpowering… interested in how this might change with the other signatures with the added low end they provide.

Holy mids! At first impression the midrange is damn good. It’s perfectly balanced with the bass and treble range and sounds very smooth with great detail. Vocals have great presence while not being recessed nor too forward in the stage, very emotional vocal perfomance from the stuff I’ve listened to so far.

The highs are very articulate with great extension and air but not harsh, still gathering my thoughts more on the treble performance, it’s very good but i might prefer other sets in this regard so far.

Staging is decently wide, i’d say about the same as the Ely if i recall from memory. imaging is very precise with excellent placement in the stage.

That’s it for my rough impressions based on just a few hours, i will post more thoughts here as I listen more and gather my thoughts. I will also do a direct comparison to my current TOTL set Fourte Noir towards the end of my loan period.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures

Admin note: edited to include all vision ears iems

[Towa]

First off lets get the tuning switches out of the way.

Switch 4: This is the baseline tuning, it’s probably the most reference out of the different switches. I find this one to be a little lacking in body and a bit “thin” sounding for my preference. It does still have a lot of what makes the erlkonig great but can be a little dissapointing if you are craving something with more warmth.

Switch 3: This one adds +2b at 4khz which gives the upper mids and lower treble more presence and clarity. This is the setting I listened to the least during my time so far, while the added clarity and crispyness is nice, without a bump in the lower frequency it can come off a tad harsh sounding at times.

Switch 2: Adds +3db at 100hz and it keeps the changes from switch 3. This in my opinion is the most balanced sounding out of the 4 settings. The bump in bass does wonders injecting the sound with a healthy dose of warmth and added thump. The added benefit of keeping the +2db increase at 4khz from the previous switch offsets the added warmth a bit and helps retain clarity and detail while maitaining a nice balance.

Switch 1: Here we add another +3db at 100hz for a total of +6db and retains all the previous changes from baseline. It is immediately apparent how much more bass this has over baseline and the previous settings. Its very fun if you are looking for a ton of warmth and just the most bass possible, it can get a little incoherent at times and on some songs the bass can bleed into the other ranges, but it is nice to switch to for a few songs.

I by far prefer switch 2 as being the most balanced and best of both worlds among the different tunings. From now on all of my listening will be done with this setting and my impressions will be based on it.

Now that I’ve had a few days of listening I can say the erlky has been truly delightful. It’s hard to beleve this is a pure BA implementation, but all 13 balanced armatures come together to present something that sounds better than any hyrbrid or trybrid set I’ve heard.

If i didn’t know any better I would think this thing was sporting a DD with how great the bass is. Awesome impact and slam and has good rumble, texture, and dynamics. Hands down the best BA bass I’ve ever heard even beating out some of the DD implementations I’ve heard in enjoyment.

The mids are pretty much the star of the show, like most VE IEMs. The clarity and detail presents everything with a crisp natural tonality, vocals are front and center of the forehead within the headstage and is mindblowing how far it reverberates throughout the width and depth of the soundstage. Instruments are placed with laser focus in the stage and can easily focus on each one, excellent imaging.

The upper frequencies are well extended with plenty of air and sparkle up top, not the best treble I’ve heard but it’s up there and surprisingly not far behind some of the est treble i’ve heard.

The whole package is a highly resolving coherent fun signature that doesn’t really do anything crazy with the tuning but takes everything to the utmost limits of refinement and presents the music in a very organic fun way. I’m blown away with how natural and musical this sounds despite the driver tech and can’t wait to listen more.

Stay tuned for more impressions in the next few days

[Towa]

Spent my day off today listening to these literally all day… If there was any doubts about the build and heft of these in correlation to fatigue, they were dispelled after today… they are heavy but the build quality and curves of the shell are so well done that it fits in my ear like no other iem before it, i dare say this is the perfect fit for my ear. There is some fatigue related to seal however… These seal deep and can have a fatigueing effect after a long time but were talking hours, at least for my ears and the tips i’m using; btw spinfits 145 medium is what I landed on for the best comfort and seal while still sounding excellent. In comparison the Fourte and other 64audio sets have a lot less fatigue due to pressure build up. If the erlky had a pressure relief system like 64a this would be the most comfy iem ive ever used hands down. Still not everybody is gonna listen to iems for hours on end for the pressure to be a real issue, I normally don’t listen for this extended amount of time so it’s a non issue for me. Honestly if you are listening for that long it’s probably a good idea to give your ears a break anyways.

It’s still early on in my demo, only a few days in and i stil have not switched back to the fourte noir yet to compare, but as of right now I think I want a pair of these… the problem is that i want em and they are too expensive not to mention rare to come by lol

If anyone else has heard the erlky please let me know your thoughts, I’m very interested in hearing other people’s experiences with these.

[Towa]

Nearing the end of my demo now and wanted to come back and leave some final thoughts. I have now switched back to the fourte noir and have been doing some comparisons between the two. First off I want to stress how different these two IEMs sound, I could realistically own both at the same time and be perfectly content as they have different signatures and strengths.

The noir overall has more warmth, less present / more recessed mids, and better treble extension and air. The erlky is faster, more detailed, and overall has a more cohesive/refined sound. The dynamic driver in the fourte really shows it stuff after listening to the erlky for the better part of a week even with the highest bass setting, the noir’s bass feels more impactful and reaches a lot deeper with more sub bass rumble making it the clear winner in enjoyment. On the other hand the erlky has a clear advantage in speed and precision when it comes to the bass and is still very enjoyable but for entirely different reasons.

Something that isn’t as enjoyable is the mids, the erlky demolishes the noir in this regard. While the noir mids are slightly recessed and can feel distant somewhat veiled at times, the erlky mids sit dead center in the stage vocals are right between the eyes. Not recessed and not too forward either just perfect. One of the most impressive aspects is the tonality, very natural and lifelike sounding. Fourte in comparison is less natural and more exagerated in tonality and timbre. Stage width goes to the noir surely due to the apex pressure relief sytem that really gives it a very open sounding stage, the erlky can’t compete on this front but it doesn’t necessarily need to either, it is sufficiently wide as is but could benifit from the more open nature of the noir especailly the pressure relief. Imaging goes to erlky, it probably has the most precise imaging I’ve heard from a in ear. The instruments are placed distinctly, the layering is extremely coherent and there is no problem in pinpointing exactly where each one is located within the width and depth of the headstage.

The treble on the erlky isn’t bad but it isn’t standout either and for some this is not a bad thing. I’m indifferent about it myself, the noir extends alot more and gets more air and sparkle in the highs, the tia high driver is really great and can be amazing on the right material. The erlky while not as extended or airy as the noir still does have some nice treble that I would not call dark in the slightest and i would not go as far as saying that it’s inoffensive either, but it defintiely lacks a bit of energy and as a result can seem a bit on the dull side.

The Erlkonig is the most detailed and highy resolving IEM i’ve heard, it’s signature is more neutral with some warmth (especially if using the switches) and a musical tilt. The tuning is nothing unique but has been refined into a very polished sound that is hard to find many faults in on it’s own. The best way I can desribe it at this time is “extremely satifying” and worthy of the TOTL moniker.

The noir is not nearly as cohesive sounding as the erlky in comparison and this can be a strength and a weakness for it with some material. I do consider the noir to be a performance tier below the erlky and if push came to shove and I had to choose between the two it would likely go to the erlkonig.

I had fun with this demo, and who knows maybe if one of these limited erlkonig show up on the secondhand market I’ll pick one up, but for now it’s back to the fourte noir.

[Towa]

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