In Ear Cans: Eozoic EM-355 IEM's.

The Eozoic EM-355 IEM's are quite a rare breed of In-Ear-Monitors and indeed quite elusive and difficult to be found. In fact I only found 2 shops with them in stock. I believe the EM-355 IEM's are only available in two colours, a white and orange version which is the one I have and a black and silver version. The shops in Kowloon had other Eozoic earphones, but I did not bother with the others since the EM-355's seem to be the top of the range.

On first plugging in to portable CD and various head amp sources I was impressed immediately by the liquid flow of the music presented. The bass extension and impact were immediately evident to me and very tight and firm without any muddiness at all. The mid range did not seem forward nor recessed and blended well with the bass. The upper range was well presented in a similar fashion being well balanced with the mid and low frequencies without any harshness and no sibilance noted. What was also evident was the aire, timbre presented and sound stage being large and wide making vocals seem to come to life. Of course this is still early and will listen some more if there are further changes after a period of burn in (if there are changes then I will update the information here).

Features:

• Over the ear IEM wearing style earphones;
• Noise isolating in the ear earphones;
• Spare silicone ear tips;
• Fast paced dynamics and enhanced bass response;
• Flexible ear tips fit a variety of ear sizes;
• Durable and light weight resin housing;
• 13.5mm sized drivers;
• Shirt clip.

Specifications:

• Driver unit 13.5mm cobalt magnet;
• Impedance 16 ohms;
• Sensitivity 106 db;
• Frequency response 20-20,000 Hz.

Reviewing gears:

Source: 4GB MP3/4 Player; 8GB 2.8"LCD TOUCH SCREEN MP3/4 VIDEO PLAYER; EPC-303 MP5 8GB 3.0 Inch TFT LCD Screen Player - Red / Black; Oregon Scientific Music Orbit & Station; Denon CDR-W1500 HDCD Recorder/Player.

Head Amps. & DAC: Little Dot MKI Portable Headphone Amp Amplifier; Cmoy headphone amplifier with Bass Boost Setting in a custom made exotic padauk and zebra wood case (opa2227 opamp); Xiang Sheng 708B Tube Headphone Pre Amplifier; Go Vibe mini USB Audio DAC (Burr-Brown PCM2702), Qinpu Q1 Headphone Amplifier.

Reviewing CD and Tracks: Custom made by ripping songs to FLAC than normalized/burnt via Nero9.

CD Tracks: Esteban - Norwegian Wood; Everything But The Girl - I didn't know I was looking for love; The Corrs - Runaway; Acoustic Alchemy - Mr. Chow; The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony; Willie & Lobo - Amsterdam; Tim Weisberg - Party of One; Sleep Station - There She goes; Seattle Symphony Orchestra - Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (Scherzo); Sim Riney - What was I to you; Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem; Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon; Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells.

Additional CD's for auditioning:
1. "The Sound of Analog is Back" From Mark Levinson (Red Rose Music);
2. "CD Master- Direct Master Cut Vinyl CD" Mastering by Mark Levinson;
3. "The Purest Sound-City Folk Songs-Vili" TIS Hong Kong;
4. "Dido" SRS + WIZOR Mastering CD;
5. "The Police" SRS + WIZOR Mastering CD;
6. "Avril Lavigne" SRS + WIZOR Mastering CD.

Rating: From one star (★, lowest rating) to five stars (★★★★★, highest rating), including half a star (☆). Criteria include [Packaging / Build Quality / Accessories / Isolation / Microphonics / Comfort / Sound stage / Sound Quality / Value]

★★★★★-The best
★★★★---Really good
★★★-----Average
★★-------Just OK
★---------Not worth it


Earphones: Eozoic EM-355 IEM
Transducer: 13.5 mm cobalt magnet.
Spec: 16 Ω | 20Hz~ 20kHz | 106 dB/mW
Cord Style: 2m, length, Ø3.5mm mini stereo, gold-plated.
Mini Jack Style: Gold plated, medium build sealed.
Case: white and orange resin.
Packaging: ★★★ (typical bubble pack)
Build Quality: ★★★★ (good medium build)
Accessories: ★★ (No accessories, no storage pouch, only 1 spare pair ear tips )
Isolation: ★★★★
Microphonics: ★★★★ (Very good, hardly noticeable)
Comfort: ★★★★ (Really excellent thick comfortable silicone ear tips)
Sound Stage: ★★★★★ (extremely impressed with sound stage presentation, large)
Sound Quality: ★★★★★ (Very impressed extremely musical, good extension and impact of bass, mids - treble is good and detailed even at low volume listening, overall well balanced)
Value: ★★★★★

Remarks: A pleasing and well balanced sound, bass is clean and tight extension and impact is impressive. I was extremely impressed by the sound stage and aire produced by these IEM's, very large and wide. The timbre was extremely good and dynamics were fast. A very musical pair of IEM's that were able to deliver at even low volume levels.

AVAILABILITY OF THE EOZOIC EM-355 - SEE COMMENTS