wolfjeanne
100+ Head-Fier
I couldn't add this as a review to a product since Head-Fi does not know the product; maybe a moderator could fix that?
Anyhow, I will give a review of the Crescendo DS11 in-ear monitors. I will give a short summary first for all the lazy people and those of us who have something better to do than reading. Subsequently I'll give you a bit of background, then the review on build and accessories, design and comfort, general sound impressions substantiated with some songs; I'll end with my personal conclusions.
Summary
The Crescendo DS11 are not well-know, although they are pretty similar to the better known and well-regarded ACS T15. They are of good build quality, although there is no strain relief at the housing. There are only two triple flange tips provided, although these seem to fit most people. The supplied carrying case is good.
In terms of sound these are clearly balanced armature IEM, meaning extremely accurate and detailed sound. They appear to be geared towards monitoring purposes, which translates to a neutral signature and giving extra weight to the upper mid range. Highs are definitely present though a bit thin in places. Lower mids can lack warmth, bas has good punch, especially considering this is a single-armature unit. Positioning can be messy, soundstage is decent for an IEM.
The T15 are very unforgiving both of source and of source material. They are also very efficient and will pick up any static noise unless of your output making them less useful for use through for example a mobile phone. Isolation is excellent, especially with the optional custom moulds.
The prerequisites that most of you will probably skip - me, my gear and my preference
Before I dive into the actual review it might be good to tell you a bit about me so that you can interpret the rest accordingly. Don't worry, there is no need to be shy; this is a one-way introduction.
To start of, I am more of a music enthusiast than a gear-head in the sense that I am always looking for new music and only rarely for new gear.
In terms of music I am not one to stick to genres; I like quite a lot. My musical taste tends to change a lot depending on the mood I am in. I listen a lot of post-rock, indie rock and "regular" rock, but also quite a bit of minimalistic piano music, classical music, pop, various sorts of metal, Drum 'n Bass, techno, grunge, folk, sometimes rap, ambient, jazz, and, and... Let's just say that putting my entire music library on shuffle is a contrast rich and very... interesting experience. Most of my music is 320kb/s mp3, but there is also a considerable amount of WAV (my old CD's) and Flac (one of my friends preferred ripping formats).
I have tested myself, and I cannot tell the difference between Flac and 320 MP3 though. In general I tend to be sceptical of claims until I have heard them myself, and even then I sometimes suspect it is some kind of placebo-like effect. I do not have amazing ears, though I dare say they are well-trained.
Despite not often buying new gear, over the years I have had (and broken...) quite some audio equipment. Currently I use mainly my Philips Fidelo L2 headphones which are full size and semi-open. I adore those. As a source I use either my phone, the Sony Xperia SP which has quite a capable DAC, or my laptop with a HifiME DIY Sabre U2 asynchronous DAC connected through a USB isolator. I shall also use these as sources in this review.
Before the Philips I have had several full-size headphones, and still own the Shure SRH440 and AKG K530. My in-ears collection has been more limited as I tend to prefer full-size headphones. My first proper pair where the Sennheiser CX-300 II - which I broke, then the xears XPA 2 Pro - of which the detachable led me to lose one of the earpieces, and then the Sony MH1C - which I still have. Only the last one of these I genuinely liked the sound of. Not very detailed or sophisticated but fun and amazingly competent for the price.
My preferred sound then is a bit warmer than neutral. I prefer bass quality over quantity; tight but present. A bit extra in the lower mids over the upper mids and neutral highs are the way to go for me usually. Most of my listening I do at my desk through my Philips L; I need my IEM’s to work well on the go – i.e. provide isolation, be comfortable, be durable, and play well from my phone. Especially this last paragraph is important to take into account when reading this review. I shall get back to it in the conclusion.
What is the DS11? - specs and background
Crescendo is not a company that I had heard of before – in fact I think very few Head-Fi’ers have. I first heard about them when my insurance had an offer for free custom ear protection. Being an avid concert and festival goer naturally I jumped on this opportunity. At the audiologist I asked whether it would be possible to use these imprints also for custom in-ears. He said he thought it would be possible but wasn’t quite sure. I started googeling and mailing with Tympro Music who manufactured the ear-protection and they stated that it would indeed be possible and in fact fairly easy; the imprints would have filters in them which could be taken out and swapped with proprietary earphones. They sent me the specifications for the “INOR DS-11”, though I quickly found out that these were in fact sold under the Crescendo brand.
For those of you who never work with such graphs: healthy human ears percieve sound between 20Hz and 20 kHz. The highest tone of a piano is roughly 4.2 kHz, the lowest string of a normally tuned guitar (an E) is around 82 Hz.
Noise Isolation: 26 dB SNR (DEC silicone plug)
Transducer type: Balanced armature receiver
Sensitivity (at 1 kHz): 103 dB SPL for a 0.1 V RMS
Impedance (at 1 kHz): 41.5 Ω
DC resistance (at 20°C): 26 Ω
Weight: < 11,0 grams
Especially the balanced armature driver at the 100 euro price point seemed very tempting even though it was only a single driver. Things got even more interesting after I found out more about crescendo.
I found that the DS11 is actually the same as the ACS T15 apart from the cable and the branding. This was later confirmed on this forum (they also stated that there might be a discount code and announced a dual-driver version which should appear later this year).
The ACS T15 might be more familiar to you. ljokerl's review was extremely positive, Trusted reviews rated it a 10/10. One of their points of criticism was the absence of an inline remote, which actually an option on the DS11 for an extra 10 euros. Both of these reviews by the way still take into account the much higher price of the ACS T15.
Without an option to listen to them then I ordered them, including remote, for €109,-
Build and accessories - a mixed bag
The DS11 arrived rather soon thereafter - whether that is because I live in the Netherlands and the headphones are also made here I cannot tell. I won't bore you with packaging pictures. It looks just like on the Crescendo website.
The DS11 comes with a very nice hard carrying case and two pairs of triple flange tips. Two?! yes, two. Pretty good ones at that of a very soft silicone (?). Two sizes seems too few, though I have let a few people try it and only one could not get a good seal.The tips have "wings" so that if they detach from the in-ears they will not get stuck in your ear. I have read that some people had this problem with the ACS T15, though I am using the custom ear pieces so it does not really apply to me. Fitting the custom tips was indeed as simple as predicted: pop out the filters, pop in the in-ears.
The DS11 has very small housings due to their single BA driver. They are made out of sturdy plastic and have a colour coding for left and right on the nozzle which matches the colour coding on my custom tips. It seems rather sturdy and non-obtrusive. Going down to the cable we find no strain relieves at the housing but in stead a rather standard cable, a remote on the right side which does have minimal strain relieves. The remote itself is single button and works well with my android phone. The button can wiggle about a tiny bit though. At the Y-split there is a sturdy piece of plastic as well as a ring which can be moved up to secure the cables below the chin. After the split the cable is thicker, it ends in a sturdy L-shaped 4-ring gold-plated plug.
The DS11 with my custom tips attached.
In short, the accessories are sparse but good. Especially extra tips would be appreciated. The carrying case should help protect these though their build seems overall rather solid apart from the missing strain relieves at the housing.
Design and comfort - nothing special apart from the isolation and size
These are by no means beautiful headphones unless small pieces of black plastic are your thing.They mean business. The colour coding on the tips works well, though having the remote on the right side is also a good give-away. Due to their incredibly small housing and good tips - both supplied and custom - they are extremely comfortable.
Some of you may have noticed that Crescendo actually is allowed to certify these as hearing protection at 22 dB SNR, and though I am not terribly good at estimating dB's I'd say that is probably fair. Isolation is not much better than my Sony MH1C, but these were good as well. With the custom tips I get even more passive noise reduction, slightly more even than when I use the moulds with their noise isolation filters in, and these are rated at 30dB SNR. Plus points for crescendo here!
People have reported the tips of the ACS T15 getting stuck in their ears, but I have not had enough experience with the supplied tips of the DS11 to see if I would have the same problem since I use my custom tips almost exclusively. These however did sometimes get stuck in my ear or got detached when inserting the headphones. With practice this got better, but at first it was rather frustrating to put the tips on, try to manoeuvre them in my ears only to have the tips fall of, which I then inserted separately leading me to poke about with the earphones until I had found the holes in the ear pieces.
This is the trade off though if one wants only one pair of earphone tips for both hearing protection and IEM's.
Fit is good when worn straight down, but this does introduce quite some microphonics. When wearing the DS11's over my ear it is better, but the cables do not really stay there; ear-guides would be much appreciated. The isolation is too high to be truly safe outside anyway, but when taking these for a run the only way in which I could make them work cable-wise was over my ear with the rubber ring securing the cables below the chin, which frankly looks a bit dumb. Cable down I could not use the ring since the in-line remote did not allow me to slide the ring up high enough.
For commuting or less strenuous activities though these are great. Just do not get yourself killed in traffic when using them outside.
General sound impressions
So far the DS11 has been scoring decent marks with some minor complaints here and there. In terms of sound it is rather the same actually. The graph I gave earlier is no doubt smoothed over, but it does give a fairly good impression of what I hear.
Below 50 hz I suspect a rather steep roll-off though bass is extremely impressive considering the single armature. It is rarely overpowering but nice and tight. Definitely more neutral than the MH1C. Kick drums especially are tight, bass guitars usally good to follow throughout a song, electronic beats can lack a bit of 'fluidness' but are usually spot on, rather comparable to my Shure SRH-440.
Mids are up front, especially higher mids. They sound fairly light and blend in to the highs which are dry. Not sharp or sibilant just hard and dry without much 'air'. I know it is not fair to compare these to an open full-size headphone twice the size, but compared to my L2's that especially is missing: air. Where the philips send the high notes out almost floating above the rest, in the DS11 they more just pop up, hit, and are gone. Compared to my Sonys though, or even my full-size Shure SRH-440's these do an admirable job.
In general the timbre is rather light. The roll-off at the top is too much to give much character to the highs as their overtones fall in the part outside of the graph. I highly suspect that the light tone is partially due to the first overtones of guitars for example being roughly around the sizeable bump in the frequency graph.
Speed and detail are excellent, as was to be expected from a balanced armature unit. After a week or so with the DS11 I tried my Sony MH1C's again and my did they sound sluggish - partially of course this was caused by the bass boost of these in-ears. In the DS11 separation of instruments is very good, even at lower volumes. Only exception are cymbals and high-hats, which are still fast and distinguishable when in a calm piece of music, but as soon as the music gets more complicated they blend into one big noisy rustle.
In short, the sound signature is that of a monitor with a slight consumer touch in the form of a tiny pinch of extra bass. This makes the DS11 rather dull. The detail is the only part of the in-ears which sometime surprises me in a positive sense, though I am rarely disappointed in them. They just work without adding much character.
Sound stage is good for an IEM, but that is not very good when you, like me, are used to full-size semi-open headphones. The impressive amount of detail, light tonality, and lack of a clear character/focus of the DS11 can make listening hard work. These will throw the entire musical piece at you crumpled up in a rather tight ball. For a monitor it is good to be able to hear everything, but for casual listening this is less favourable.
These then are also not forgiving headphones. If picking out low-bitrate MP3's is your new hobby and you have a budget of around €100,- look no further. As suggested by the specs, these headphones do not need an amp, not at all in fact. They sound positively loud with the volume of my laptop at 10/100 or the volume of my phone at roughly a third.
The more annoying thing is that these headphones are in fact so sensitive that they are also very discriminative towards the source. I always thought the jack out of my phone was as good as silent, but with the DS11 there is noticeable static in the quieter parts of songs, and the headphone out of my laptop is even worse. Luckily my Sabre DAC with USB isolator is dead silent. It also slightly improves the sound quality.
If you want to go loud with the DS11, you can though. My phone not being an optimal source is rather disappointing however since this is what I mainly use when on the go.
Test songs
The songs below are all played through my DAC using a high-quality file (320 kbp/s MP3 or lossless).
Paolo Nutini - Iron Sky: To start things of with what I think is the best song of 2014, the DS11 does a good job here. The guitar stays in the background, the copper coming in is non-obtrusive but just adds a layer. Nutini's voice could use a bit more character though, somewhat more of an edge and the trumpets in the chorus sound a bit flat. The guitar floating around during Chaplin's speach is wonderful, but the bass steals the show. All in all a bit soulless, though definitely not bad.
Oi Va Voi - Yesterdays mistakes: What is most impressive in this song is the ability to tell all instruments apart. Especially the cymbals and high hats are incredibly tight. The vocals are nice and intimate, the bass guitar rumbeling below it is not even near overpowering but nice and warm.
Artic Monkeys - R U Mine?: The guitars sound awesome and drums have an impressive wideness, but all in all the song lacks coherence. It is not expansive enough to give me a concert feel but not direct enough to give me the proverbial punch in the face. Follow-up song One for the run does not really have the same problem. The backing vocals especially give an added dimension. Still, it doesn't blow me away. Decent is all I can make of it.
Bob Marley - Redemption Song: The recording is gritty and very noticeably so. Yet it adds character to the recording. I can almost distinguish the different strings of the guitar. Marley is slightly sibilant in places, but I suspect this is in the recording too. I do not really have a good reason to include this song as it is hard to tell recording and headphone apart and the song is quite easy; I enjoyed it a lot though. Other songs on the album sound detailed and pronounced though a bit too light.
Disturbed - Mine: Time to push these things a bit. The intro of this sounds positively unnerving. When the guitars and drums charge in they are not one big sledgehammer as they would be on my MH1C but in stead like couple of smaller hammers if that makes any sense. The sound bites sound up close though the "hey!" is distant as are the drums. The sound stage then is only something near big when the music explicitly makes it so otherwise sounds are all fairly up front.
The War on Drugs - Eyes to the wind: The entire lost in the dream album is one of my favourites to listen to with the DS11. The detail and attention that went into every single one of the songs is just amazing. The lack of focus and lightness makes things a bit confusing especially in the top end where things get congested a bit, but not so much that it takes away the joy of the details. When the saxophone comes in towards the end the repetitive mayhem forms the perfect bed to lay its warm notes down in.
Daft Punk - Give Life Back to Music: At the intersection of guitars and electronics we find this song. The electronic rumble is very well represented. The heavily altered voices sound even flatter than usual. Representation is rather smooth. Highs fail to truly come lose from the rest so they, like I said before, sort of pop up. It doesn't have the extra shine I would have liked, but it is certainly passable. The game of love is up next and here the bass takes the lead. Rumbling with sparse thick yet gritty notes set to crisp mids and highs it is exactly right and, I think, intended.
Enter Shikari - Gandhi Mate, Gandhi: A standard test song of mine basically since it came it out and a hard one to get exactly right. In the case of the DS11 the weight comes too much from the bass and too little from the middle. Turning op the volume is tempting but does not resolve the issue. The vocals are not piercing enough making the whole bunch sound somewhat boring with a bit of bass. Not very bad, but just not very good for my tastes.
Thomas Azier - Ghost Cities: Further into the electronics then. The DS11 does better here. Aziers vocals sound light but pleasantly urgent. By contrast, Pendulum - Witchcraft has considerably more going on in the mids and the timbre here is too light, too much like a monitor to make it enjoyable while the dryness somehow works very well with the extremely tight beats in Infected Mushroom - Becoming Insane. The IEMs really proof their fastness as this song reaches its several climaxes.
Bach - Matthaus Passion: The DS11 works very well with classical music in general though vocals are sometimes a bit flatter than natural. On the recording I have of the Bach (Gardiner conducting an orchestra of period instruments, label: Archiv) the DS11 succeeds fairly well in placing the instruments somewhere in space though it is not very far away; everything is extremely clear and especially the soprano shines in for example the aria Blutte Nur, Du Liebes Herz. All in all it is a pleasant recording to relax to.
Wardruna - Helvegen: something weird to end with. Unless you are into pagan folk or the series Vikings you have probably never heard of these guys. This song is though is a good example of what the DS11 can and cannot do: it can very well convey a general idea of the atmosphere and pinpoint all the musical elements, but it cannot make me feel this atmosphere very well. The thunder rolls and sounds distant enough, and the strings do their best to make it sound dark but all in all it is too clean to be convincing.
Conclusion
This headphone is very much a triumph of the mind. It is a marvellous piece of engineering which squeezes an incredible sound out of a tiny driver. These can play anything. Bass is excellent as are details and speed, mids and soundstage are good as well though barely average, highs fail to impress. The mind though has gotten a bit too much over the heart though, because while they can technically do a lot the feeling is something that sometimes lacks. In that sense they are much like my Shure SRH-440's, though I'd say the DS11 is superior in details though not in soundstage.
For me personally these are too much of a monitor then to be perfect. I like critical listening from time to time, but with the DS11 it seems as though that is required. However if I am in for an active listening session these bring out everything I want to hear in the record.
Their isolation too is amazing and their comfort as well. Having custom pieces for free is pretty cool too. If crescendo would add strain relieves at the housing and cable guides these would be even better. The static when using these on sources such as my phone is annoying though only actually noticeable in a quiet environment. For commuting then these are very good for me as well as for critical listening sessions.
Should you buy these? Well, if you want a balanced armature with the associated clarity, speed and detail as well as excellent isolation, comfort and a good bass these are remarkably good value at €100,-. The ACS T15 costs a lot more and is still well-regarded.
If you do not have the budget, do not have good quality recordings or players, or want something with more character and fun over the technical capabilities you are probably better of at something else.
