Softears Enigma

The eyes of Enigma!

PROS: balanced sound sig, natural detailed tonality, solid build with a cool futuristic faceplate design, premium EA Hybrid cable with ConX, and premium packaging and accessories.

CONS: price, sound dependency on a pair-up source.

The product was provided on a short-term loan in exchange for my honest opinion.

Manufacturer website: Softears. Available for sale from authorized retailers like Musicteck.

Intro.

I had a chance to audition Enigma prototypes last year after the CanJam SoCal ’23 show, and those didn’t just have a prototype tuning but also a temporary shell. I was hoping the product would be released before Xmas, but it took Softears a bit longer to finalize everything and make it available just now. Curious about how these turned out, I borrowed a pair from Musicteck for a week. And once again, after starting to listen and taking notes, it became clear this would be more than just a first-look write-up. After capturing my notes and taking pictures, I sent them to the next audiophile on the waiting list.

One fun fact, when I’m ready to start writing the review, I usually have IEMs in my ears while typing away. This way I’m connected to the sound as I’m sharing with my readers about the product. Even after taking detailed notes and pictures, it still felt like something was missing. And that made me realize it wasn’t just IEMs being physically missing in my ears but also the sound of these eye-candy monitors that I had missed. I hope you will enjoy my review capturing what I have found after spending a week unlocking the mystery behind these latest flagship Softears Enigma IEMs.

Unboxing and Accessories.

I have experienced fancy flagship unboxings before, and then there is the Enigma unboxing experience. I knew right away after seeing a large box this was not going to be a regular unboxing. The exterior was beautifully crafted with mysterious patterns and fancy ENIGMA print. The top of the box had the Softears x Effect Audio logo, suggesting a collab, and with the top off, it looked like a tightly packed double box and a leather case. The premium quality leather case has to be removed first to get to the other box, which turned out to be an eight-cube puzzle. Yes, here you will find 8 small interconnected compartments that form a folding cube puzzle that eventually unfolds into 2×4 interconnected cube trays, each one holding IEMs and separate accessories. I have reviewed a lot of audio products in the last decade, including many with fancy packaging, yet, I found this one to be quite original.

Starting with a leather storage case, it is big, with a vegetable-tanned top layer of cowhide leather and soft felt material on the inside. It also includes a removable partition divider for you to decide how to organize IEMs, cables, and other accessories more efficiently. This is not a pocket-friendly case, it is a travel case, premium quality, and very practical. Included were also popular double-mesh protection pockets with a drawstring, a cleaning brush tool, and also 6.35mm single-ended adapter for the stock 3.5mm cable. Also, included was a sizable collection of eartips, a set (S/M/L) of clear medical grade sticky silicone eartips, U.C. eartips Softears developed themselves, a set (S/M/L) of a grey cap with black core silicone eartips, and a set (S/M/L) of soft foam eartips.

Then, I discovered an aluminum mold of the left shell, showcasing the manufacturing process and suggesting how the shell is CNC machined out of a solid piece of premium aluminum material. A very interesting display accessory, something I haven’t seen before. The mold itself looks almost like a chess piece. The last accessory puzzled me until I realized it was the actual magic folding cube puzzle. I kept it shrink-wrapped since this review unit was on loan, but it was clear to me this is an 8-piece magic folding cube puzzle you have to assemble using included pins, extra panels, and a small screwdriver.

Cable.

Two sets of cables were included with Enigma. One was a regular stock Softears 3.5mm SE cable, most likely their 6N OFC 4-conductor design with a soft wire wrapped in an all-black shielding, compact aluminum hardware, and a traditional color-coded red ring at the base of the right 2pin connector housing.

Then, I discovered the reason behind the EA collab since the second included cable was a premium Effect Audio Hybrid cable with 2-wire 7-strand 24AWG gauge silver gold-plated+ silver enameled wires and 2-wire 7-strand multi-size fine silver+ fine copper wire mix cable. At first, I thought maybe it was their Xmas edition Ares S x Cadmus cable until I read the spec to confirm this new custom EA Hybrid cable with a selection of high-end premium materials.

A ConX connector was used with a default 2pin connector which allows you to upgrade it later to mmcx or other modular ConX connectors offered by EA. The cable was relatively lightweight, with a custom plug, y-split, chin-slider, and matching black ConX connector housing. The plug is 4.4mm BAL and I have a feeling that most of the audiophiles will use this custom-crafted EA cable instead of the stock one. I didn’t have a chance to test and compare the stock cable to this premium cable, but I will cover the cable rolling with other premium cables relative to the included EA Hybrid cable further in the review.

Design.

Enigma has a tribrid design with 2xDD, 6xBA, and 4xEST drivers. Softears refer to it as a 5-way electronic or 4-way physical frequency crossover structure (using high-precision RC components) based on how they partition these drivers. The low frequencies are covered by an advanced arrangement with an active 10mm DD that has a wool-made biological diaphragm with a strong N52 magnet, and 2 additional BA drivers. Then, to absorb passive vibrations, Softears used the second complementary 10mm DD river (beryllium coated) as a “passive” diaphragm. The mids are covered by 4 full-range BA drivers, and the highs are covered by 3^rd gen Sonion quad EST drivers.

The shells, inside out, are made from an aluminum alloy with reinforced anodic oxidation using advanced five-axis precision machining. In their product description, Softears proudly mentioned using 100% Chinese-made aluminum material, even including the aluminum mold of the left shell as part of the accessories. The shells are all black, with a smooth rounded surface finish and a very comfortable fit inside the concha area of my ear. They do stick out a bit, but not too bad. Each weight is about 9g.

The nozzle is an average length, providing a deep enough comfortable insertion. At the tip of the nozzle, you will find 4 sound bores corresponding to the physical 4-way crossover. Also, the 2-pin cable socket is flush-mounted. But the highlight of the design is the faceplate with its artificial sapphire glass “eye” and the Softears logo printed across the top. The round glass part is surrounded by a carved-out futuristic design to go along with Enigma’s mystery theme.