Reviews by Vanheim
My earliest memory of a Shouer IEM was The tape which was. well, a weird IEM that I could not bring myself to like. I have tried a few more Letshuoer models since. Some briefly, some for a few weeks and I must say, they have come a long way since the horrendous Tape. When I was asked if I wanted to be part of a review tour arranged by @BonGoBiLai , I was intrigued but with some reservations.
Cadenza 12 is essentially a 12-driver Hybrid. It has 11 high-performance balanced armature drivers from Knowles and Sonion, which are made up of a conventional blend of dynamic and balanced armatures, and a 10mm silicon surround dynamic driver unit. Together, these drivers form a carefully designed 5-way frequency crossover. With this crossover, you can fully control the output signal because it has both electronic and physical vacuum tubes that can be accurately adjusted. I know the specs are a mouthful so I would just list them below directly from the product page in case you want a summery :
The unboxing experience was flattering though I received my unit already unboxed. To summarize, upon opening the magnetic flap, the upper lid will reveal a transparent piece of paper with Letshuoer branding printed on it. A long black carton that takes up two-thirds of the sponge pad's surface is the first layer. It is printed with the fancy handwriting "LETSHUOER" and contains a stack of exquisitely printed mini posters/brochures that basically advertises Shuoer's classic products. A pair of Cadenza 12 earpieces with accessories are located on the lower part of the cardboard. The accessory list is all follows:
Even though other IEMs may have an ergonomic design similar to the Cadenza's, it's difficult to match other models' distinctive appearance. The outside of the Cadenza's case is composed of a strong titanium chassis with a silver surface finish that reflects light. It is blingy and attention-grabbing without being obnoxious. The shells are larger than usual and feel dense while held in palms. However, equal emphasis is given to ensuring optimal density and a feeling of quality at the same time. The Cadenza's lightweight yet substantial design is impressive, to say the least. For a pair of high-end IEMs, this is a terrific look because it looks the part and is simultaneously comfy and useful.
The stock cable has a half-sleeved design and the cable internals use 204 strands of 6N monocrystalline copper and silver as materials. Sounds fancy on paper and looks the part though the cable also feels thick and heavy. It is a good cable and does its job well. It also modular so can be simultaneously used with different type of outputs without swapping to a different cable frequently.
Cadenza 12 is a very coherent, neutral and transparent sounding IEM which does not suffer from typical Chi Fi oddities i.e. shouty thin vocals, bass thats either too boomy or "Farty" and treble rougher than sandpaper. It is also super easy to drive though and does not showcase any particular penchant for any specific source. Even decent high end dongles are enough though hig end DAPs can definitely amp things up.
It is not completely "neutral" though and has some fun factor blended it, mostly in the upper frequencies. C12's bass is one of the most tastefully done executions under 3000 USD. It does not have the raw animalistic energy of the Legend Evo or Z1R but in no way or form, bass light. It is tight, controlled and engaging and retains proper extension and rumble like a good dynamic driver should. It might not be "fun" or "energetic" in the traditional sense, but sounds like what bass should sound like in real life as it has just the right amont of decay.
Midrange sounds "right" without any unnecessary quirk. It is not thick/lush like warm/warm neutral IEMs but not sterile/thin either. C12's midrange is what proper, no nonsense midrange should be like. Both male and vocals sound clean and articulate without any hint of muddiness. Though I wish electric guitars sounded slightly livelier. Other than that, I have found no particular issue whatsoever that could ruin the midrange experience for me, accross all genres.
The treble is lively and zingy. I have read some complaints regarding the treble quality but I would mostly disagree. I never found the treble misbehaving too much. The zing added some element of fun, not annoyance and I believe my fellow trebleheads would agree. The lower treble, however, is a bit rough at times and I can see why It would be bothersome for some audiophiles.
Soundstage is impressive especially the tallness and depth of it. The width is no slouch either but there are other IEMs in this price range that sound markedly wider. The vocals sound a bit intimate. It does not exhibit diffused, concert hall-like soundstage ("holographic", to be precise) like some IEMs out there do. I actually prefer this approach to soundstage as it helps me to focus on the music more. Imaging and separation performance was phenomenal. I would not call it class-leading as that would be hyperbole but it is definitely up there among the best. The Cadenza 12 is the most impressive Chi Fi IEM I have heard to date I cannot think of many IEMs that are as lively and unique sounding under $2000 as it is. I am looking forward to trying out more IEMs from this brand in the future.
Cadenza 12 is essentially a 12-driver Hybrid. It has 11 high-performance balanced armature drivers from Knowles and Sonion, which are made up of a conventional blend of dynamic and balanced armatures, and a 10mm silicon surround dynamic driver unit. Together, these drivers form a carefully designed 5-way frequency crossover. With this crossover, you can fully control the output signal because it has both electronic and physical vacuum tubes that can be accurately adjusted. I know the specs are a mouthful so I would just list them below directly from the product page in case you want a summery :
The unboxing experience was flattering though I received my unit already unboxed. To summarize, upon opening the magnetic flap, the upper lid will reveal a transparent piece of paper with Letshuoer branding printed on it. A long black carton that takes up two-thirds of the sponge pad's surface is the first layer. It is printed with the fancy handwriting "LETSHUOER" and contains a stack of exquisitely printed mini posters/brochures that basically advertises Shuoer's classic products. A pair of Cadenza 12 earpieces with accessories are located on the lower part of the cardboard. The accessory list is all follows:
Even though other IEMs may have an ergonomic design similar to the Cadenza's, it's difficult to match other models' distinctive appearance. The outside of the Cadenza's case is composed of a strong titanium chassis with a silver surface finish that reflects light. It is blingy and attention-grabbing without being obnoxious. The shells are larger than usual and feel dense while held in palms. However, equal emphasis is given to ensuring optimal density and a feeling of quality at the same time. The Cadenza's lightweight yet substantial design is impressive, to say the least. For a pair of high-end IEMs, this is a terrific look because it looks the part and is simultaneously comfy and useful.
The stock cable has a half-sleeved design and the cable internals use 204 strands of 6N monocrystalline copper and silver as materials. Sounds fancy on paper and looks the part though the cable also feels thick and heavy. It is a good cable and does its job well. It also modular so can be simultaneously used with different type of outputs without swapping to a different cable frequently.
Cadenza 12 is a very coherent, neutral and transparent sounding IEM which does not suffer from typical Chi Fi oddities i.e. shouty thin vocals, bass thats either too boomy or "Farty" and treble rougher than sandpaper. It is also super easy to drive though and does not showcase any particular penchant for any specific source. Even decent high end dongles are enough though hig end DAPs can definitely amp things up.
It is not completely "neutral" though and has some fun factor blended it, mostly in the upper frequencies. C12's bass is one of the most tastefully done executions under 3000 USD. It does not have the raw animalistic energy of the Legend Evo or Z1R but in no way or form, bass light. It is tight, controlled and engaging and retains proper extension and rumble like a good dynamic driver should. It might not be "fun" or "energetic" in the traditional sense, but sounds like what bass should sound like in real life as it has just the right amont of decay.
Midrange sounds "right" without any unnecessary quirk. It is not thick/lush like warm/warm neutral IEMs but not sterile/thin either. C12's midrange is what proper, no nonsense midrange should be like. Both male and vocals sound clean and articulate without any hint of muddiness. Though I wish electric guitars sounded slightly livelier. Other than that, I have found no particular issue whatsoever that could ruin the midrange experience for me, accross all genres.
The treble is lively and zingy. I have read some complaints regarding the treble quality but I would mostly disagree. I never found the treble misbehaving too much. The zing added some element of fun, not annoyance and I believe my fellow trebleheads would agree. The lower treble, however, is a bit rough at times and I can see why It would be bothersome for some audiophiles.
Soundstage is impressive especially the tallness and depth of it. The width is no slouch either but there are other IEMs in this price range that sound markedly wider. The vocals sound a bit intimate. It does not exhibit diffused, concert hall-like soundstage ("holographic", to be precise) like some IEMs out there do. I actually prefer this approach to soundstage as it helps me to focus on the music more. Imaging and separation performance was phenomenal. I would not call it class-leading as that would be hyperbole but it is definitely up there among the best. The Cadenza 12 is the most impressive Chi Fi IEM I have heard to date I cannot think of many IEMs that are as lively and unique sounding under $2000 as it is. I am looking forward to trying out more IEMs from this brand in the future.
Introduction: well, let me start off by saying that I don’t come from the wealthiest background.
So, it shouldn’t come to a surprise that purchasing the hifiman even at $300 was a big move on my part and wasn’t an easy decision, but my love for audio made me detest using cheap audio products which didn’t honor music, instead spat on its face.
Da luuks and da build: I’ll say it, these look sexy. The chrome cups give for a very classy and sophisticated look IMO which helps it segregate itself as a higher class of headphones. The headband is not so ideal but you get used to them. Others really don’t. I wore these during a road trip and I stopped counting how many weird looks people were giving me. It was awkward to say the least. But tell you what? I didn’t care, (maybe I cared a little bit), but I wasn’t going to take them off my head.
~
But the sexy cups tend to be a fingerprint magnet, they don’t give me much confidence in terms of being scratch resistant. Take care of them will you? Try not to throw them around and be rough with them. The headband adjusters inflict scratches on the back of the metal structure. For the retail price of $499.99 this is unacceptable to me. Hifiman messed up big time in this part for me. The adjusters are very hard to adjust due to stiffness but ease up over time. The new 2.5 mm connectors look nice, I’d say they shouldn’t cause any problems.
~
Da cumphorttt: Holy schiit! Why would you take these of your head? Even if no music is playing, I would rather keep them on my head while they hug my head with those soft pads. It’s not a headphone that I want to keep on my head just for its sound, but its comfort makes me want to keep them on even if there is no music on! I have listened to these for hours at a time and felt little to no discomfort. These don’t disappear completely but they don’t keep screaming “hey I’m on your head, does that bother you?”.
Da sundddd:
First impressions when I received them were as follows,
***note: I am playing them out of an Objective2 amp with no external dac, only the crappy one from my HTC one m8 and my Lenovo notebook. So maybe that's the reason for my impressions.
Unimpressed. I simply didn't see what the fuss was all about. The treble siblant and strident.
The vocals were nice but there was no *magic* I wanted for 300 dollars.
The bass, oh my God, where is the bass? Is hifiman pranking me? Is this a joke? Are my headphones broken? The mid bass sounds horribly anemic, like someone beating on plastic with plastic.
Unacceptable for it's price tag. Where is the liquid planner bass I was promised? There is no sign of sub bass. It's just missing. On "secrets" by tiesto and kshmr- this particularly showed.
I tried eq from dobly atmos on my HTC one m8: on the "rich" setting with a bit more eq'ed sub bass. better. The treble calmed down, but not much. The mids still there and are nice but no orgasmic *magic*. They are just not forward enough for me. Mid bass less plastic feeling but still not good enough. Sub bass is helping the mid bass sound a bit more textured but it's still mostly missing and obscure. Hell I preferred the punchy textured bass on my $50 status audio hd one than the he-400i at this point.
But slowly they started to improve, (burn in? What? It really works?) the treble calmed down a lot. And the Objective2 seemed to help, (ampless directly from phone with eq didn't work well enough). The mids started to sound a lot more nice. Vocal layering was very impressive. The bass improved and wasn't as plastic crappy feeling anymore. But it didn't go deep at all. Impact was almost non existent. It wasn't "accurate" there was certainly information missing my $10 earbuds with eq can dig out that this couldn't.
On a jazz track it really shined. On "the look for love" by Stanley Turrentine - the instrument separation was impressive. The instrument's attack and decay is something I first realized on this headphone. The strings and drums sounded fantastic. They had life in them!
On "better than anything" by Diana Krall and Natalie Cole - the vocal layering and separation was also quite impressive as I've never heard them on other cheaper audio gear.
But at that time I thought that if they didn't improve drastically with a better dac (garbage in, garbage out and all that), and further burn in, I’d have to say that I really didn’t think they were even worth $300 let alone $500. But prices are really crazy in the audio world I’ll have to say. My perception of value for money might differ from yours but whatever.
Now these are my impressions after listening to them for around a month-
Bass: amazing sense of realism and the lightness of the slam helps clarity. It can sound anemic depending on the song and the rig. There is a certain texture the bass presents that I’ve come to love. With the correct eq however it can reach higher levels of awesomeness! For bass heavy genres I use the eq to bump up the bass quite a bit and boy does it seriously hit hard! Most of that seductive texture is still retained but now it doesn’t just punch weakly, now it attacks you with authority! Yes, in a pleasurable way! On The Eagle’s Hotel California the kick drums with eq are very authoritative and make for a very addicting listen.
Mids: Oh. Thissss. This is amazing. The mids have a sweetness to them that is hard to describe, its unlike anything I’ve ever heard. The instruments are presented in a way that is just a joy to listen to! On Porcupine Tree’s song- My Ashes, the guitar sounds incredible and the imaging is very good. The vocals carried that sense of dark atmosphere which just stood out so much to me! And not surprisingly Steven Wilson’s songs are great on these. The Vocals and the instruments never sound congested, rather they flow. Green day is also amazing here. The guitar riffs have a sense of authority to them. On Diana Krall’s Let’s Fall in Love, her voice sounds intoxicating to say the least. I’m blown away each time I hear that song. Bjork and Carpenters also sound amazing! Blowing me away each time I put their songs on.
Treble: One cannot be perfect from every angle. Somewhere there has to be a problem. In this case for me It’s the treble. Don’t get me wrong, it is very extended and isn’t veiled or dull in any way. Rather it’s insanely lively and clear. But that clarity can get a bit displeasure-able at times. There’s peaks in around 4k and 7-9k that I can only describe as party poopers. They almost ruined the headphones for me! They made the vocals sound shrill and harsh as well as the cymbals and high-hats. Listening to Fetty Wap’s Trap Queen without eq ,the cymbals/high-hats are ear piercing and make for a very very bad experience. On Eminem’s Must be the Ganja, it’s torture. Everything sounds sibilant to a certain degree. But I was persistent, after weeks of trial and error I finally came up with a eq setting for me, which killed all the sibilance. Now this headphone for me had become worth $300 and even more. Everything sounded smoother.
Soundstage/separation/imaging: wow, coming from super low-fi gear this was amazing to me. The attack and decay, the transience, the flow of everything was spectacular! The clear identity of each instrument and their ability to stand out individually without seeming to be mashed into a crowd was something I hadn’t experienced before until I heard the Hifiman he-400i. While the soundstage isn’t HUGEEE it has its charm for me. The soundstage over all seems to expand more on some songs than others. Vocal layering is also very nice as I had stated above in my first impressions.
Amping: This needs and I mean NEEDS a warm sounding amp to sound like what people praise these so much for! I had to learn that the hard way. I didn’t have the budget at the time to get a rig for it so I was stuck with an Objective2 double amping out of my phone or laptop and using the onboard crappy dacs they come with.
So if you’re thinking of getting these for portable use with a phone, like I was, you can say bye-bye to that. (unless of course you have a warm sounding amp/dac in your phone e.g the nexus 6p?).
Conclusion: Over all I wanted to experience what good audio sounded like and hifiman he-400i gave me a bit more to bite than I could chew. It’s overwhelming treble extension is definitely something I could live without! It’s sibilance and harsh/shrill attitude is something that ended up making me decide that this wasn’t really the right headphone for me.
P.S- here’s the eq that I was using for them:
And for when I wanted BASSSS~
Please do let me know what you think of my review (as it's my first), where I messed up and where I can improve on in the future.
So, it shouldn’t come to a surprise that purchasing the hifiman even at $300 was a big move on my part and wasn’t an easy decision, but my love for audio made me detest using cheap audio products which didn’t honor music, instead spat on its face.
Da luuks and da build: I’ll say it, these look sexy. The chrome cups give for a very classy and sophisticated look IMO which helps it segregate itself as a higher class of headphones. The headband is not so ideal but you get used to them. Others really don’t. I wore these during a road trip and I stopped counting how many weird looks people were giving me. It was awkward to say the least. But tell you what? I didn’t care, (maybe I cared a little bit), but I wasn’t going to take them off my head.
~
But the sexy cups tend to be a fingerprint magnet, they don’t give me much confidence in terms of being scratch resistant. Take care of them will you? Try not to throw them around and be rough with them. The headband adjusters inflict scratches on the back of the metal structure. For the retail price of $499.99 this is unacceptable to me. Hifiman messed up big time in this part for me. The adjusters are very hard to adjust due to stiffness but ease up over time. The new 2.5 mm connectors look nice, I’d say they shouldn’t cause any problems.
~
Da cumphorttt: Holy schiit! Why would you take these of your head? Even if no music is playing, I would rather keep them on my head while they hug my head with those soft pads. It’s not a headphone that I want to keep on my head just for its sound, but its comfort makes me want to keep them on even if there is no music on! I have listened to these for hours at a time and felt little to no discomfort. These don’t disappear completely but they don’t keep screaming “hey I’m on your head, does that bother you?”.
Da sundddd:
First impressions when I received them were as follows,
***note: I am playing them out of an Objective2 amp with no external dac, only the crappy one from my HTC one m8 and my Lenovo notebook. So maybe that's the reason for my impressions.
Unimpressed. I simply didn't see what the fuss was all about. The treble siblant and strident.
The vocals were nice but there was no *magic* I wanted for 300 dollars.
The bass, oh my God, where is the bass? Is hifiman pranking me? Is this a joke? Are my headphones broken? The mid bass sounds horribly anemic, like someone beating on plastic with plastic.
Unacceptable for it's price tag. Where is the liquid planner bass I was promised? There is no sign of sub bass. It's just missing. On "secrets" by tiesto and kshmr- this particularly showed.
I tried eq from dobly atmos on my HTC one m8: on the "rich" setting with a bit more eq'ed sub bass. better. The treble calmed down, but not much. The mids still there and are nice but no orgasmic *magic*. They are just not forward enough for me. Mid bass less plastic feeling but still not good enough. Sub bass is helping the mid bass sound a bit more textured but it's still mostly missing and obscure. Hell I preferred the punchy textured bass on my $50 status audio hd one than the he-400i at this point.
But slowly they started to improve, (burn in? What? It really works?) the treble calmed down a lot. And the Objective2 seemed to help, (ampless directly from phone with eq didn't work well enough). The mids started to sound a lot more nice. Vocal layering was very impressive. The bass improved and wasn't as plastic crappy feeling anymore. But it didn't go deep at all. Impact was almost non existent. It wasn't "accurate" there was certainly information missing my $10 earbuds with eq can dig out that this couldn't.
On a jazz track it really shined. On "the look for love" by Stanley Turrentine - the instrument separation was impressive. The instrument's attack and decay is something I first realized on this headphone. The strings and drums sounded fantastic. They had life in them!
On "better than anything" by Diana Krall and Natalie Cole - the vocal layering and separation was also quite impressive as I've never heard them on other cheaper audio gear.
But at that time I thought that if they didn't improve drastically with a better dac (garbage in, garbage out and all that), and further burn in, I’d have to say that I really didn’t think they were even worth $300 let alone $500. But prices are really crazy in the audio world I’ll have to say. My perception of value for money might differ from yours but whatever.
Now these are my impressions after listening to them for around a month-
Bass: amazing sense of realism and the lightness of the slam helps clarity. It can sound anemic depending on the song and the rig. There is a certain texture the bass presents that I’ve come to love. With the correct eq however it can reach higher levels of awesomeness! For bass heavy genres I use the eq to bump up the bass quite a bit and boy does it seriously hit hard! Most of that seductive texture is still retained but now it doesn’t just punch weakly, now it attacks you with authority! Yes, in a pleasurable way! On The Eagle’s Hotel California the kick drums with eq are very authoritative and make for a very addicting listen.
Mids: Oh. Thissss. This is amazing. The mids have a sweetness to them that is hard to describe, its unlike anything I’ve ever heard. The instruments are presented in a way that is just a joy to listen to! On Porcupine Tree’s song- My Ashes, the guitar sounds incredible and the imaging is very good. The vocals carried that sense of dark atmosphere which just stood out so much to me! And not surprisingly Steven Wilson’s songs are great on these. The Vocals and the instruments never sound congested, rather they flow. Green day is also amazing here. The guitar riffs have a sense of authority to them. On Diana Krall’s Let’s Fall in Love, her voice sounds intoxicating to say the least. I’m blown away each time I hear that song. Bjork and Carpenters also sound amazing! Blowing me away each time I put their songs on.
Treble: One cannot be perfect from every angle. Somewhere there has to be a problem. In this case for me It’s the treble. Don’t get me wrong, it is very extended and isn’t veiled or dull in any way. Rather it’s insanely lively and clear. But that clarity can get a bit displeasure-able at times. There’s peaks in around 4k and 7-9k that I can only describe as party poopers. They almost ruined the headphones for me! They made the vocals sound shrill and harsh as well as the cymbals and high-hats. Listening to Fetty Wap’s Trap Queen without eq ,the cymbals/high-hats are ear piercing and make for a very very bad experience. On Eminem’s Must be the Ganja, it’s torture. Everything sounds sibilant to a certain degree. But I was persistent, after weeks of trial and error I finally came up with a eq setting for me, which killed all the sibilance. Now this headphone for me had become worth $300 and even more. Everything sounded smoother.
Soundstage/separation/imaging: wow, coming from super low-fi gear this was amazing to me. The attack and decay, the transience, the flow of everything was spectacular! The clear identity of each instrument and their ability to stand out individually without seeming to be mashed into a crowd was something I hadn’t experienced before until I heard the Hifiman he-400i. While the soundstage isn’t HUGEEE it has its charm for me. The soundstage over all seems to expand more on some songs than others. Vocal layering is also very nice as I had stated above in my first impressions.
Amping: This needs and I mean NEEDS a warm sounding amp to sound like what people praise these so much for! I had to learn that the hard way. I didn’t have the budget at the time to get a rig for it so I was stuck with an Objective2 double amping out of my phone or laptop and using the onboard crappy dacs they come with.
So if you’re thinking of getting these for portable use with a phone, like I was, you can say bye-bye to that. (unless of course you have a warm sounding amp/dac in your phone e.g the nexus 6p?).
Conclusion: Over all I wanted to experience what good audio sounded like and hifiman he-400i gave me a bit more to bite than I could chew. It’s overwhelming treble extension is definitely something I could live without! It’s sibilance and harsh/shrill attitude is something that ended up making me decide that this wasn’t really the right headphone for me.
P.S- here’s the eq that I was using for them:
And for when I wanted BASSSS~
Please do let me know what you think of my review (as it's my first), where I messed up and where I can improve on in the future.
musedesign
I agree with your review, I am returning my 400i. The treble is just too shrill. Thank you for the honest review.
Sajid Amit
Hey, found you on headfi!
I bought the ZMF Omni cherry from the B-stock sale at ZMF.