Earsonics Blade Review

Sound

Earsonics’ house-sound is quite obvious and apparent with the Blade on first listen. It has an apparent bass for starters, as it hits hard from a wide area. The bass kick and rumble are there and this is a very satisfying hybrid if you like to have a rumbling bass response.

The sound overall is more balanced and cohesive compared to the V-Shaped Stark. Whether you will like the Blade or not would depend on your personal preferences. It has good technicalities, but the presentation has a warm nature with a unique tonality. Nevertheless, this model has much more price/performance than the Stark in my opinion.

Bass

The bass in the Blade is rumbling and impactful. It has a heavy-hitting bass with a great impact. The sub-bass rumble is very apparent at times, and the mid-bass area is a bit more apparent compared to Stark. Despite those traits, the bass control is good enough so it doesn’t sound bloated. The bass also isn’t too congested and it has good room and space to hit and recover. However, I wouldn’t pair the Blade with very warm or bass-heavy sources or equipment. That would most probably result in a bass that is over the top.

Lows have good texture and resolution and what I liked the most is the tonality of mid-bass. It presents a great foundation for instruments’ lower notes. That is a surprisingly good point of the Blade. But as I said, source matching is important here.

Mids

The mid-range is a bit more distinctive and defined than the flagship hybrid model. In the Stark, you feel like bass and treble try to do too much so that automatically congests the mid-range. This is not the case with the Blade, as it provides a nicely defined mid-range with more room and space.

The tonality is just a bit thinner than I would’ve liked, but thanks to the more spacious mid-range, the timbre is better to my ears with more breathing room for the instruments and vocals. Presentation-wise the mids are warm and they sound quite organic with good resolution.

Tonality is quite good when it comes to guitar and sax tones. The mids however should’ve been a bit thicker with more body in my opinion. However, I’m aware that a thicker and more full-bodied mid-presentation would make this IEM too warm and too congested. So in its own warm and organic presentation -and also considering the Earsonics’ house sound- this is a very good mid-range performance.

The Blade might not sound very transparent to your ears though, as it doesn’t have the ultimate fidelity or clarity. However, from the resolution standpoint alone, the Blade is quite good for its price and presentation, more so than the Stark. Its unique tonality also can impress you in terms of guitar and sax notes, because for some odd reason, it presents the saxophone in a very unique way in Jazz songs.

Treble

Treble is good, articulated, and under control at all times with a good definition and extension. To me, the treble is the same story here. In the Stark, the bass is sometimes so huge and impactful and it affects the mids including the upper mid-range which makes them sound congested.

However, with the Blade, the mid-range is better defined and sounds more cohesive. That results in a better transition to the treble section. So overall the IEM feels more natural, more cohesive and the treble has more space to shine. Compared to the Stark, the Blade is much more balanced so that affects the high frequencies in a positive way in my opinion.

That provides a very nice and warm treble response with good enough transparency. The treble is easy to like and easy to work with many sources. It doesn’t have any aggressive nature whatsoever. So like the mids, the treble is quite warm and smooth.

However, you may want a more open and clean treble presentation with more brightness. You won’t find that in Blade so be aware. Other than that highs have good positioning and resolution. They’re not very transparent though, and they’re slightly darker and thicker than most IEMs out there. It reminded me of the Meze Rai Penta in that regard.

The review concludes on PAGE 3 with technical performance & comparisons.