Softears RSV Review

Technical Performance

The most striking factor of the RSV is its coherency. It’s just so balanced and it feels so natural. The second thing that comes to my mind is its excellent timbre; very realistic, close to a live experience and the instruments have great transparency with great definition. If you read my reviews from time to time, you may know that I give great importance to instrument timbre, and the RSV -especially for its price- has a great timbre.

The sound stage is not too impressive as you can experience wider sounding IEMs in the market. The layering is very good though, so you feel the depth of the stage. But in terms of width, it’s not the most impressive IEM. Yet, the instrument separation is excellent with a great background, though this is also proportional to your sources.

The RSV’s resolution is also very impressive as well as its transparency. You can hear everything with great clarity and you feel like there’s nothing between you and the music. So the sound -despite being very musical- is very open and clear. And thanks to its tremendous balance and control, nothing is out of place and nothing is pushing to be impressive. So for technicalities, I can only find a small problem for its stage-width and in everything else, it performs very well.

Softears RSV

Comparisons

The Earsonics Blade is also an easy-going monitor with good mids and good tonality. So it’s another example of a very smooth IEM, but I have to say that the RSV does all of that with better resolution, refinement, and definition. As a result, the RSV to me is the clear winner of this comparison. The Blade has an impeccable build quality with a deeper fit which is also quite comfortable though. But for sound, I would go with the RSV except you’re a fan of Earsonics’ house sound.

The Black Hole is very good, unique, and exceptional for certain genres. However, I don’t think it performs well against the RSV’s coherency and balance. It’s great for certain genres of course but the RSV is simply more versatile. Also, the treble in the RSV performs better with more clarity and articulation. For the bass, it’s not even close either. The RSV is better. It also has better packaging and also the Black Hole doesn’t have any isolation with an open-back design.

Softears RSV

Conclusion

I simply can not find any weakness in the sound of the RSV. Maybe I can only mention a slight boost in the sub-bass region and relatively small sound-stage. Nothing else made me feel uncomfortable. After listening to three models from Softears, I can honestly say this is their bang-for-buck product, even though it’s not really cheap at all. The RSV offers the most value for your money in their lineup and it’s easy to say that.

I don’t think anyone would find a problem with the sound of this monitor. Does it excel in a certain area? Not really, as it has this “safe” approach to the sound so it doesn’t take any risks. That may sound like it doesn’t have the best resolution or transparency. But that’s not the case. And this is the exact reason that it’s a successful IEM in my book.

For the factors other than sound; it has complete packaging (except that I don’t like the supplied tips), it fits very well with great comfort, and it has a nice build quality with a cool design. This is more than enough for making it into our Best Universal IEMs list. For a similar price level, there’s the Shozy Black Hole with a unique approach, but the RSV is honestly better in this price range. That is also the case for the Earsonics Blade. So I decided to remove both the Black Hole and the Blade from there and instead add the Softears RSV. Well done for this great tuning!