Let’s Get… Musical!

PROS: balanced sound sig, natural resolving tonality, precise imaging, solid build of anodized aluminum shells, comfortable fit, premium balanced cable, and other quality accessories.

CONS: price, higher sensitivity.

The product was provided to me free of charge for the review purpose in exchange for my honest opinion.

Manufacturer/product website:  VE.  Available for sale from authorized retailers like Musicteck and Bloom Audio.

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Intro.

Last year I had a pleasure of meeting in person both Marcel and Oliver of Vision Ears as VE made their debut appearance at CanJam NYC ’23 show.  One of the show highlights at VE’s table were two mysterious IEM prototypes the guys were letting everybody audition while collecting the user feedback.  Quoting my own impressions, I was very excited about the one which “had a fuller body sound with a natural detailed tonality and a smoother natural treble” which “was my favorite, so good that I didn’t want to take them out of my ears.”  This was exactly what I wrote in my CanJam show report, hoping this particular prototype will become VE’s next release.  And guess what?  My wish came true!

This prototype became their new VE10 model, blurring the “lines” between their regular VE Line and VE Premium Line with a model number referring to a 10-driver design and also being their 10^th Anniversary release since 2013 when Marcel and Amin started Vision Ears and began to Handcraft their IEMs in Cologne.  VE10 IEMs have been in my ears ever since I received these new Vision Ears monitors right before the Xmas, spending a lot of hours while I had a pleasure to analyze their performance.  Today, I would like to share with everybody what I found.

Unboxing and Accessories.

The unboxing experience of VE products is always one of a kind and full of surprises.  From a custom cardboard packaging using VE-branded packaging tape to a protective foam sheet wrapped around the exterior box sleeve which has a glossy 3D image of VE10 and the giftbox storage box with the magnetic cover under the sleeve, I look forward to this unboxing experience as much as I do to the actual IEMs.  Inside, besides VE10 shells and a new custom balanced cable, you will find a pure leather case and a soft double-pocket mesh pouch.  There was also a leather cable clip (tbh, a bit small in size for a thicker stock cable), microfiber cleaning cloth, cleaning tool, extra mesh covers for the nozzle, a stick-on logo, and SpinFit CP145 and new AZLA eartips.

The included rectangular leather case is not something you will find off-the-shelf.  The case is custom made, using quality leather material, with a magnetic closure and plenty of room for VE10 with a cable and spare eartips.  Mesh double-pocket pouch also useful to keep shells separated inside the case.  Along with a set of SpinFit CP145 eartips (in 4 sizes), I was surprised to find a brand-new set of AZLA ORGIN eartips (SS, MS, ML sizes) which hasn’t been even announced yet.  These new eartips is like a crossover between Xelastec and Crystal, with a softer and less grippier medical silicone material, called KCC, and a wider bore opening.

Cable.

Unlike other VE Line models which usually come with a more basic looking cable, VE10 features a higher quality custom upgrade cable with wires by an undisclosed manufacturer in Taiwan.  The new cable uses four 21awg gauge conductors, each one following golden ratio geometry and a custom litz structure featuring high purity 6NOCC Copper and Silver-Plated Copper wires.  The cable is soft, pliable, non-microphonic, with a clear insulation and a silver color finish.  It has a gold-plated 4.4mm balanced plug with VE logo across its alloy housing, custom alloy y-split with a design matching VE10 shells, small chin-slider, and compact non-recessed housing 2-pin 0.78mm universal connectors along with a heat-shrink clear earhook.

The overall packaging presentation of VE10 is definitely of a premium quality with everything included being quite useful.  But maybe because I’m already spoiled by their previous releases, I was a bit surprised VE didn’t include any extras for their 10^th anniversary model, like they have done it in the past with keychains or business card holders, etc.

Design.

Previous VE Line models, from VE2 to VE8, followed a more “traditional” multi-BA driver approach with acrylic shells, custom designs, and universal-custom models.  On the other hand, VE Premium Line is known for their higher end designs, both from internal and external perspective, starting with their legendary Erlkonig release and following later with PHX and EXT.  While VE10 is supposed to be a part of their regular VE Line, I feel like its design made a crossover into the Premium Line.  But even though the Premium Line used acrylic, carbon fiber, or silver (Erl) shell materials, VE10 stands out with an all-new anodized aluminum shell design.  With black finish “ripple” lines on the inside of the shell and a titanium color finish of the futuristically shaped faceplate on the outside, VE10 feels very solid and still lightweight at only 4g per shell.

The multi-bore opening of the nozzle tip is covered with a mesh which you can replace if needed (extras included), and the nozzle tip itself now features a distinct lip to keep eartips secure from sliding off the nozzle, an improvement over their previous uni designs.  The tip of the nozzle is also slightly angled in comparison to the main nozzle.  I was a bit worried considering my experience with EXT fit.  Of course, this is very subjective and YMMV since we all have a different ear anatomy.  But I was relieved to find the fit of VE10 to be perfect, even improving it further while using SpinFit eartips since their cap bends to adjust to your earcanal shape.

Internally, VE had another surprise by introducing DD driver to complement their typical all-BA design featured in previous VE# models.  As I already mentioned, VE10 model number has a dual significance of 10-driver hybrid design and 10^th anniversary, combining 8mm DD bass driver with 9xBAs, partitioned in 5-way system of:

• 1 x 8 mm DD with acoustic low pass
• 2 x dual mid/low
• 1 x dual mid
• 1 x dual mid/high
• 1 x super tweeter

Oliver Marino, one of the VE developers, described to me the internal VE10 design as having one tube for the DD, one tube for the mid lows, one tube for the mid highs, and one specially shaped horn for the super tweeter to extend the high frequency range.  The DD tube goes into the horn together with the tweeter, so the horn was designed to obviously extend the high frequencies but also to reduce interactions with the bass tube and therefore minimize distortion.  Furthermore, every tube has a variable geometry (other than round) to maximize the space and to optimize the fit inside the nozzle while minimizing resonances.

Also, unlike other VE# models which are usually available in custom and/or universal, the VE10 will be available initially as universal only with custom to follow soon, probably in Q2 2024.

The fit.

Page 2 – Sound Analysis, Eartips selection, and Cable pair up.
Page 3 – Comparison, Source Pair up, and Conclusion.