Review: Vision Ears Elysium – Purity of Sound

5. Customer Service

 

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Vision Ears invites everyone to come see them in Cologne (don’t forget making an appointment) and if you’re in the neighborhood I can absolutely advise you to do so. The VE guys are very nice and they will help you with all your requests and questions. If you can’t make it there in person you can always check out their easy to use CIEM configurator on their website and to see how your ultimate set of VE’s will look like and what the price might be.

I didn’t follow the normal ordering process so I can’t comment on this too much but knowing Marcel and Amin, I am 100% convinced they will do whatever they can to make and keep you a satisfied customer.

 

 

 

6. Sound

The guys from Vision Ears describe the new Elysium’s sound signature as follows:

Listening to ELYSIUM will take you on a journey to an unparalleled level of enjoyment. Wide open and airy highs combined with stunningly natural mids will finally make you hear the music how it was meant to be: pure, brilliant and alive. The sound of ELYSIUM embraces you with all the emotions of your music.

General impression

Impressions in this chapter are done based on usage with different DAPS, but mostly the Astell&Kern SP1000. The Elysium impressed right away to be honest and a first impression is worth a lot. When listening to the Elysium the first characteristics that come to mind are:

– Full body

– Balance

– Clean

– Precision

– Excellent layering

– Smoothness

– Musicality

From bass to treble the Elysium sounds full and you get a nice amount of body all over the spectrum. This isn’t just body but it’s layered and clean as well. Plenty of detail can be found from lows to highs and the Elysium presents you music with great clarity. The delivery is fast but a little smoother and there is a nice amount of warmth, but not too much. The balance between warmth, precision and musicality is spot on, a true reference level monitor.

The cooperation between the dynamic, balanced and electrostatic driver is optimal and bass, mids and treble flow perfectly into each other. Bass and highs are great but to me it’s the mid part that is even more magical.

The sound stage is wide but not the very widest we’ve ever heard. The depth (in combination with the layering) is very good. The Elysium is linear and it with the perfect amount of air combined with an excellent level of separation, makes your music sound natural and non-fatiguing. The decay in the mids is good, but it’s not the very best we’ve ever heard. That being said, this unit isn’t using a dozen of drivers either, so it’s rather very normal.

There for me, apart from the width and maybe depth and decay, really is little to complain about with this monitor and its performance – taking into account the driver count – simply is impressive.

Sound Detail

Elysium’s bass is produced by a balanced armature, where you normally see companies using a dynamic driver for bass. As a result, bass is very clean, full bodied and comes with good impact. Bass is perfectly in control at all times and there’s never too much bass (or too little for that matter). The Elysium strikes the perfect bass balance to keep everything realistic, yet musically engaging. Bass is precise, fast and tight and well layered, but the sub bass and rumble down low is not very present. That’s probably because of the single BA being used for bass. Even without that though, bass is still impressive, real and very enjoyable.

The mids – by a dynamic driver – flow perfectly from the bass and the HALC technology does an excellent job. Everything in the Elysium is really good, but the mid part just is extra nice. Here, the Elysium really shines.

You get he same fullness as in the bass region but the mids are richer and deeper with even better layering. The separation, spaciousness and airy presentation make the Elysium musical, natural and engaging. The delivery is somewhat smoother and on the warmer side, but not too much. In that regard the Elysium is nicely balanced from top to bottom.

The vocals are super sweet and natural. They blend in perfectly and they’re never pushed to the front or the back, they’re right in there. The tonality strikes the perfect balance here between smoothness, naturality and musicality.

The highs from the double electrostat speakers are energetic, clear and oh so sparkling. You get a really good extension and precision combined with good layering, and treble never becomes harsh or sharp. Treble is fast, precise, clean and very energetic but all in a natural and musical way. Treble has good body and is in perfect balance with all the rest. I really love electrostat highs (see Shozy Pola).

As stated, there really is little to remark about the Elysium’s tuning, the VE team has done an exceptional job tuning it. They just make it seem so easy.

The article continues on Page Four. You can get there by clicking HERE or by using the jump below

4.7/5 - (49 votes)
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Lieven is living in Europe and he's the leader of the gang. He's running Headfonia as a side project next to his full time day job in Digital Marketing & Consultancy. He's a big fan of tube amps and custom inear monitors and has published hundreds of product reviews over the years.

6 Comments

  • Reply October 7, 2019

    Bill

    Hi there, really enjoyed reading the review. Your site has alwas helped me make the right decisions when deciding on monitors. I currently own the A12Ts and been enjoying them but looking for a change. I have been eyeing up the VE8 and now Elysium after your review.

    The Elysiums do sound amazing but you mentioned the sub bass is not too present, does that mean there’s little to no rumble? So it wouldn’t be good for EDM for instance as opposed to the VE8. I listen to a lot of genres from rock, pop, EDM, classical, so looking for a step up from the A12Ts that can do all that.

  • Reply October 23, 2019

    Rhyan Paolo Paderanga

    Is the whole monitor acrylic filled like their other custom lineup? Did you ask them how they did it with a dynamic driver?

  • Reply May 17, 2020

    KevP

    I’ve been “lucky” enough to order and receive number 019 of the universal version of the Elysium. After two days and some 15 hours use, I can report that there seems to be some emperor’s new clothes thing going on here with Vision Ears.

    I have the Shozy/AAW Pola39 as well and it’s absolutely clear to me that the Pola39 is the far superior iem at far less than half the price.

    Where the Pola39 is extremely articulate and detailed, but with a solidity and musicality, the Elysium is relatively flat and lacking in dynamics. It also has an extremely unpleasant and pronounced graininess in the upper mids and lower treble. I wondered if there is something wrong with it, or whether the mesh over the bores is somehow detracting from the performance. I can’t imagine it is. But there is something seriously wrong with this iem and I would caution very much against just going blindly into buying it, like I stupidly did.

    I guess I’ll sell these on to someone who is seduced by the ridiculously lavish unboxing experience and the kudos of owning a Vision Ears iem. I think Headfonia has been taken in here.

    • Reply May 17, 2020

      Lieven

      I suppose you have read the comparison on the last page. While I do agree Pola39 is better value for money, I do still feel the Elysium is the technically better one. Maybe there’s something wrong with your unit

  • Reply May 21, 2020

    KevP

    Yes, I thought there must be a problem, but I’ve since heard about others who have had a similar experience with the Elysium and have moved to other options. So it’s not just me. I keep wanting to like them. I’ve even let them burn in for around 50 hours to see if they improved. There was some improvement. But they’re still a tiring listen. For me the Pola39 has them beaten. No question.

  • Reply June 22, 2021

    Lang Reid

    Elysium. Is that just Me? I may just go ahead and use the other supplied set.
    Yhanks.Just got my Elysium earphones. I found that it was impossible to f

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