Anima – Lime Ears’ new TOTL flagship.
PROS: W-shaped fun signature, excellent build quality, attractive Bello Opal faceplates and 4-core cable, highly ergonomic nozzle design, high engagement factor, DD sub-bass rumble + BA style fast transients bass response, good detail retrieval, resolution and clarity while maintaining a smooth and easy signature.
CONS: Can’t ignore the eye watering €3400 asking price (theory of diminishing returns). Sound signature dependent on choice of eartips. For me personally, I would’ve loved if the pinna gain rise started at 1kHz as I’m a neutral head. Big shells could be troublesome for small ears.
About Lime Ears.
Lime Ears was started by Emil Stolecki who is a musician, bass player as well as an acoustics engineer by education. In case you haven’t noticed, Lime is basically Emil spelt backwards. They are based out of Warsaw, Poland and have a very simple but intriguing line up of 6 models, Λ (lambda), Ψ (psi), Model X, Aether R, Pneuma and now, Anima. Lime Ears cater to both pro-musicians and audiophiles, and make CIEMs as well as universal models with very attractive and intriguing designs. Some of Poland and Europe’s breakthrough metal bands like Katatonia and Decapitated endorse Lime Ears and can be seen sporting their IEMs at their concerts.
Links – Lime Ears Anima (€3400)
Tech Inside Anima.
- Hand-finished acrylic shells with Bello Opal™ faceplates
- Pure silver nozzle with “Organic Horn Nozzle™” geometry
- BADD™ Hybrid Low-End Technology
- Thirteen drivers, tri-brid construction, six-way crossover:
- One 7mm Titanium-Diaphragm DD for infra-sub frequencies
- Two BA for subwoofer frequencies,
- Two BA for low frequencies,
- Two BA (vented) for midrange,
- Two BA for high frequencies
- Four EST for ultra-high frequencies
- Graphene-coated SPC cable (0.05mm*144strands), symmetrical (4.4mm)
- Handcrafted genuine leather storage case
Included in the box.
- Anima IEM
- Handcrafted leather case with LE logo on top
- Cloth lace pouch x 2 (One for ear tips and one for IEM+cable)
- Ear tips – 3 Symbio W hybrids | 4 Spin Fits | 2 Comply Foam
I only received Anima with the stock cable, leather case and a couple of ear tips, so I’m not sure of the final packaging and accessories. Here are the pictures of the packaging that were shared with me.
Build Quality.
Shells – The Bello Opal faceplates are quite spectacular and the build quality of the shells are top notch. The shells are made out of resin but the way they are hand-made and lacquered makes them seem more solidly built than a lot of other universal resin IEMs I’ve tried. Maybe their weight adds on to that confidence as the shells have a reassuring weight but they aren’t heavy per se. The artistic trippy colours and overall finishing on these shells is very well thought out and executed – all curves and contours are very smooth. Faceplate of the right ear piece sports the Lime Ears logo where the left one sports the name – ANIMA.
Nozzles – Anima’s cool and quirky silver nozzles are made by hand by combining 3D, jewellery-grade wax printing and precision metal casting. The nozzles have a cool pattern on the inside which Lime Ears’ refer to as the Organic Horn Nozzle™, which is in turn based on their VariBore™ technology. The gradual change in the shape ensures matching impedance and suppresses the resonances you get with traditional straight-tube models. The ultra-high frequencies provided by the Electrostatic drivers have no filtering and no tubes, and pass through the nozzle in the shortest, most efficient way possible. The ultra-highs are joined by mid and high frequencies, dispersed precisely by the horn geometry. The lows, sub-lows and infra-subs deliver their powerful impact via the narrowest bore.
The excellently designed long silver nozzle has a groove in the middle which allows for heavy customisation as you can either fit the tip all the way onto the nozzle or restrict it till the first groove, which results into different fit and insertion depth as well as substantial changes in FR.
Cable – The beautiful stock 4-core graphene-coated silver-plated copper cable is a collaboration product made by Khanyayo cables (new brand of cables from @doctorjuggles) and Viking Weave Cables. It has a hundred and forty-four strands and was chosen as it demonstrated ideal synergy with Anima, according to Lime Ears. The cable has a stainless steel jack with 4.4mm BAL termination and a very attractive Y-split made from crushed Bello Opal particles, that goes perfectly with Anima’s Bello Opal faceplates.
Case – Anima comes stock with a nice handmade leather case that has sufficient room for Anima’s big shells and the cable. Nice and simple design with Lime Ears logo on top.
Fit, Comfort and Noise Isolation.
Anima shells are big and chonky, yet fit my ears really well like a CIEM. It has very smooth semi-custom contours that make for a very comfortable fit plus the long nozzle with a groove in the middle allows really good customisation of fit. You can either fit the tip all the way onto the nozzle for a shallow fit or restrict it till the first groove to make the nozzle+eartip longer for a deeper fit or to push the shells farther apart for a wider sense of space. Still, I’d recommend people with small ears to be wary of the size of the shells. Noise isolation is excellent since Anima does not require a vent for the dynamic driver because it has an internal acoustic chamber.
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