Effect Audio EA Perseus

Sound Analysis.

I analyzed Perseus sound performance using SP4000, while playing a variety of test tracks, such as Agnes Obel’s “The Curse”, Sandro Cavazza’s “So much Better” (Avicii remix), C-Bool’s “Never Go away”, Ed Sheeran “Shape of you”, Alan Walker “Darkside”, Galantis “Hunter”, Iggy Azalea “Black widow”, Indila “Boite en argent”, Dua Lipa “Love Again”, Counting Crows “Big yellow taxi”, Bob Marley “Jamming”, David Elias “Vision of her”, Michael Jackson “Dirty Diana”, and SaberZ “Without your love”. Out of habit and given its use of DD drivers, I had Perseus on burn-in for about 150 hours before I started collecting my impressions. I was using a stock EA Ordinis cable and stock ARC Oval silicone eartips.

I hear Perseus to have a balanced sound signature with a natural, detailed tonality. The sound signature is closer to W-shaped, with greater emphasis on sub-bass weight and upper-mid definition, and a more relaxed, natural treble extension. The soundstage expansion is round, evenly extending in all 3 dimensions: width, depth, and height. This expansion creates a natural spacing of sounds without any holographic exaggeration, with a very convincing and accurate placement of instruments and vocals that creates a perfect imaging balance without being skewed too close to the center or too far away in space. Despite a fuller body natural tonality, there is zero congestion or muddiness. Don’t expect much air between the layers of the sound, since the treble is a bit reserved, but the layering and separation are very precise and help you distinguish everything easily in the mix.

In more detail, the bass has more emphasis on sub-bass weight and extension, with a velvety, slightly elevated, textured rumble. The mid-bass is more rounded, meaning it has less aggressive attack, which gives the low end a more laid-back presentation. The decay of mid-bass notes is slightly extended, helping them blend more seamlessly into the lower mids while still maintaining plenty of control, and, as I already mentioned, keeping the mids clean and well separated from the bass without adding any muddiness. This mid-bass tuning also makes the sub-bass stand out with greater presence because of its added weight. This tuning is not exactly for bassheads craving more slam, but it is still quite satisfying with plenty of bloom and presence.

Lower mids have fuller body, north of neutral, adding more natural tonality and texture to the sound, especially noticeable in vocals. The upper mids have a perfectly executed pinna gain, with a forward presentation, giving the sound a clear, detailed tonality. The mid tuning strikes a good balance without making them too smooth, warm, or organic, or going in the opposite direction toward being too forward or revealing. A big part of this balance comes from the treble tuning, which avoids any lower-treble harshness, keeps the upper frequencies more relaxed, yet still gives the sound a clear, detailed, natural definition. I wouldn’t say there’s much airiness. Still, the treble extension is rather good, noticeable when paying closer attention to the cymbal crashes, which get a proper reverberated tail extension without being chopped off.

As far as the genres of music these are suitable for, I had no issues with any. As I already mentioned, these are not for bassheads or those craving more mid-bass fast slam, even though they offer plenty of bass bloom and presence, along with decent sub-bass weight and rumble. The same if you want more treble crunch in your sound; they are not resolution monsters, and I found them to have a more relaxed, naturally defined treble. For me, Perseus worked well with acoustic and vocal tracks and performed quite well across genres from EDM to Top 40, covering all my everyday listening needs!

Eartips Selection.

The selection of eartips is always crucial for any universal in-ear monitor and will significantly affect the sound, particularly the bass impact and treble energy, depending on the seal. The insertion depth, often controlled by the eartips’ design, will also affect the soundstage expansion and imaging. Due to a large opening in my ear canals, I usually opt for the largest eartips to achieve a better seal. Also, please keep in mind that eartips impressions are subjective and will be based on the anatomy of your ears. My suggestion is to build up your eartips collection and try each one with every new IEM you get to find the pair that yields a perfect sound for your ears.

Stock: ARC Oval vs Symbio F – the major difference in sound I hear here is in the bass weight, because foamies give me a tighter seal, also allowing for a bit deeper insertion. As a result, the bass is scaled up with Symbio F, and the soundstage has a bit more depth, while with ARC Oval I get a more expansive, rounded soundstage and more balanced tuning with slightly less low-end exaggeration.

Azla Crystal – sound closer to ARC Oval, with a bit more revealing treble, noticeable in the mid-treble region.

Azla Origin – to my surprise, these pushed upper-mids/vocals too forward and made them a bit grainy.

Eletech Baroque – sound almost the same as ARC Oval, being nearly the same in sound.

SpinFit W1 – these introduced an interesting sound transformation, with stronger mid-bass impact, along with slightly more depth, and a bit less width in the soundstage.

As I usually say, eartips fit, and sound transformation is always subjective; try whatever works for your ears. Personally, I went back to ARC Oval eartips with Perseus as my preferred pair.

Cable pair up.

I’m aware that some people are skeptical about cables’ contribution to the audio chain. It’s not my intent to start an argument here. Instead, I would like to share what I hear during my testing. What makes sense to me is that a metal wire is a material with physical properties of resistivity, conductivity, and purity, all of which act as a filter between your source and earphones. Variations in these physical properties can affect the conductivity of an analog signal, resulting in a change in sound ranging from subtle to noticeable. If discussing cables bothers you, feel free to skip this section.

vs EA Ares 10 – Ares 10 with Perseus pushed upper mids a little more forward, changing the sound balance of their fundamental tuning. As a result, the low-end weight was slightly reduced, scaling down the sub-bass rumble, and the lower mids lost a bit of their body. Of course, all of it is part of how we perceive it, but I preferred to return to the Ordinis cable in this comparison.

vs EA Dionysus – in this comparison, the sound also underwent a slight transformation, with a little more crunch in the treble and slightly more airiness, which improved layering and separation of the sounds. Also, while the soundstage expansion remained the same, the imaging became more holographic, with sounds positioned more precisely in space.

I have a lot of high-end cables that cost more than Perseus themselves, and to me, it makes no sense to spend double the IEM’s cost in this case. As previously mentioned, these IEMs and cable were developed together to achieve a specific tuning synergy while complementing each other. That was also a reason I was curious to try a few other EA cables with different wire materials, to better understand why they chose Ordinis as their stock cable here. At the end of the day, I’m more than happy with the pairing synergy between Perseus and the Ordinis cable, and I’m planning to keep using them together.