Sound Signature & Tunable Crossover
The Velvet V2 has a very energetic, dynamic and spacious signature. Deep and strong bass, textured, sweet mids and extensive, resolving treble.
At first try it may seem like a V-shaped earphone but it certainly can’t be straightforward labeled as a V. The midrange is slightly recessed, specifically the lower midrange that is true but the dip is not sharp, it is more like a slope or think of a very wide V. The Velvet V2 HR is much more linear & balanced across the frequency spectrum compared to the Velvet V1 with the plastics1 cable. Velvet’s tunable crossover allows you to fine tune the signature to some extent according to your liking. Earsonics advertises three sound signatures but the potentiometer has no dedicated notches or anything, what I mean is it can be turned freely so you can adjust it and set it in the middle of warm and balanced indicators for example. Those three signatures are, from left to right, tight, balanced and warm. Little heads up here, the knobs are not mirrored so you have to rotate both of them to the same direction.
Low Region
The Velvet has a powerful, authoritative, deep bass response. The bass is rich in texture and scales very well with recordings and the position of the potentiometer. In tight mode, Velvet’s bass reduces in quantity, especially sub-side, and it gets faster. Attack & decay feels quicker and it handles fast, congestion prone, multi-instrument passages better.
If you turn it up a notch and adjust Velvet to balanced mode, the bass will go up in quantity and now it goes a little deeper compared to the tight mode. It does not feel marginally slower either! The quality, texture and resolution seems to be better and that is most likely because of the increased tonal balance and coherency. Rotating the knob to the most-right position gets you to the warm mode where Velvet will have the deepest and strongest bass response of all three modes however, in this setting, the bass slows down a bit and can’t recuperate as agile as before. Fast twin pedal passages are harder to follow in warm mode. This is the most V-shape mode of all. Quality feels good and the impact is really impressive. It has a dynamic driver feeling to it.
As you can see, Velvet’s bass is present in all three modes and that bass contributes to the energetic signature of the Velvet by a big margin. Pairing the Velvet V2 HR Edition with the SMSL SU-9 & SH-9 stack immediately blessed me with a rich, full, deep bass that shakes the walls of my ear canals. Warm mode is where the fun is at truly. This adjustment knob makes the Velvet a great all-rounder because you can adjust the sound based on genres. In my opinion, warm is very good while listening to Electronic, Pop, R&B and similar genres.
After all these bassy talk you may think like Velvet has a bass that takes a lot of space, well, you’re wrong, Velvet has a really wide stage and bass is very controlled. Especially the mid-bass, it is quite well tuned that it does not ever go over its boundaries. Velvet manages to stay very spacious no matter which mode you choose to go with.
Midrange
The Velvet has a slightly recessed midrange presentation and this increases the perceived feeling of spaciousness. The major part of the recession is at the lower mids and this sometimes results in vocals sounding a bit on the lighter side. You can, however, overcome this by proper source selection.
Velvet’s overall midrange presentation is vivid and quite energetic. Detail retrieval is quite good thanks to the spacious presentation and overall resolving signature. Majorly mid-dependant instruments (flute, guitar etc.) feel very dynamic and capture you with their vivacity. Upper midrange however, is very well done and this is where I lose myself to Earsonics. They somehow manage to find the perfect balance between smooth & detailed… Velvet is no different. Upper mids are very controlled yet super detailed and clear. I have tried a couple of bright sources and threw in some lossy metal yet I couldn’t hear any sibilance whatsoever.
Cymbals are real fun to track and Mike Portnoy’s furious hi-hat beatings do not make your ears bleed. Kudos to the minds behind this tuning. If you prefer a leaner response, you may want to select tight mode instead of balanced. It will add energy to upper mids however, I find Velvet’s note weight a little too light on tight mode so you go ahead and test for yourself. If you would like to know what happens to midrange when you select the warm mode, well, you get a warmer midrange, tad more midbass presence, and slightly thicker overall presentation. I tend to set the knob between warm and balanced specifically to listen to major vocals such as the Melody Gardot, Diana Krall, Crash Test Dummies etc.
Treble
Velvet V2 HR Edition has an impressive treble presentation. Highs have this spatial feeling to them. They extend very well into the top octave & clarity is most impressive. Crashes are very easy to track and focus, even more so than the midrange. They feel energetic and overall fast, articulate presentation feeds on highs more than anything in my opinion. Velvet V2 has better, more resolving treble compared to V1. This results in a more linear and Hi-Fi approach rather than just focusing on the fun side of things.
Velvet’s impressive PRaT is at work here as well, treble also has quite agile attack-decay and you can feel this as soon as you listen to any EDM track on your music library. Resolution of the treble region really is something that could hook many audiophiles to Velvet V2. Just because it is a great all-rounder, you can listen to many genres without the feeling of wanting more. If you feel like the extension is a little too much for you, turning the potentiometer to warm grinds down the treble, making it smoother. During my testing I found out that up to a certain point (almost to the middle point between the warm and balanced markings) it does not lose any resolving capability so you have nothing to worry about.
As I mentioned before, if you want a warmer, but technically capable Velvet V2, consider my favourite position. As I also mentioned, these are all highly variable to your cable, source and tip selection so go wild! experiment! Anyhow, let’s not drift too far and let me tell you about the tight mode treble presentation. It is sharper, it is slightly faster and extension improves. In my opinion, it is suboptimal to go full tight because the tight mode thins out the midrange simultaneously while increasing the treble quantity and extension. I personally go with either balanced or balanced-warm mode here, as well.
Technical Capabilities – Pace, Rhythm and Timing
Velvet V2 HR’s PRaT is one of its best features. It is a very fast, very agile, very capable monitor. It handles congestion very well thanks to its spacious presentation. Instrument separation is impressive with lots of air between instruments. General presentation, especially Velvet V2 HR’s new, more linear and coherent approach, feels very fluid.
Frequency divisions work harmoniously and provide an articulate presentation. Velvet can keep up the good imaging properties whether you want to listen to faster and more aggressive genres such as heavy metal or speedcore so you don’t have to worry about congestion, at all.
Soundstage & Imaging
The Velvet V2 HR Edition has a wide soundstage where the instruments are positioned in a relaxed way. As I mentioned in the PRaT section, there are plenty of air between them so tracking or focusing on each and every one of them is quite effortless. Depth is adequate and not as impressive as the width. Imaging is excellent, thanks to wide stage and spacious tuning. Extension of the highs and midbass being slightly recessed helps with this as well. I personally like width staging rather than an intimate one. The more breathy the better.
Comparisons
Velvet v1
Velvet V2 offers a more linear, more Hi-Fi approach. It provides better coherency across the frequency spectrum and it feels more resolving thanks to the upgraded crossover and new treble tuning. HR Edition means that it comes bundled with a brand new cable, HiRes 4C. It is significantly better than the plastics1 in terms of resolution, soundstage and control. It contributes to clarity, airiness and overall resolution.
Earsonics ES-3
Velvet’s notes are lighter, slightly less meaty. Velvet feels airier and it feels more spacious. Velvet’s bass extends better and it has more bass than ES-3 in general. Margin is not big, if you like Velvet’s bass presentation, but if you want a more balanced signature, especially lower midrange, go for the SM3v2’s reformed brother, ES-3. Velvet V2 HR Edition feels more resolving and energetic compared to ES-3.
Earsonics S-EM9
Earsonics’ previous flagship is one of my long time favourites. It is a fast and agile in-ear monitor just like the Velvet v2. Velvet V2 dialed to the warm mode has more bass and is more powerful, however, S-EM9’s bass response is more refined and textured compared to Velvet V2. S-EM9’s midrange is similar, as in positioning, but with heavier note weight. It is also more detailed. Treble on the other hand, frankly, both of the monitors have great treble presentation. They can even rival higher priced earphones but S-EM9’s presentation is a step ahead, it may be one of the best treble presentations I’ve ever heard in my life. It is on par with the Hyla TE5B in my book, which uses the new piezoelectric super tweeter for its highs. To sum up, if you like the Velvet V2 and want to upgrade, this is your best bet in my opinion. You could go the ES Grace route as well.
Last Words
Velvet V2 HR is a definite step up from V1, providing a more linear, more high fidelity approach to sound. Wide headroom, excellent instrument separation, impressive PRaT makes it a very, very capable all-rounder. It can satisfy most of the bass connoisseurs with its tunable crossover and it helps with the pain of source selection by increasing the adaptivity.
If you like open, spacious presentation and energetic, vivid IEMs, I think you’re going to be quite happy with the Velvet V2 HR Edition. Apart from sound, it looks gorgeous with clear shells and the unboxing experience is premium. The fit is also excellent due to low profile shell. I recommend it to anyone looking for a great all-rounder IEM.
