Audiophilepure

The Odin’s midrange, like its bass, is very transparent, which feeds detail, positioning cues, and texture. However, its midrange is closer still to the neutral zone than either the bass or the treble. So that wisp of wetness or warmth is further diminished, which translates to less density and thus a less palpable image. Joan Shelly’s “We’d Be Home” (Joan Shelly, No Quarter) is rendered with outstanding clarity and detail, and yet her overall presence fades into the mix, is rather lean, and less intimate. On the track “Wild Indifference” there is a spatial cue—a tambourine in the background—at the one minute and forty-five second point that is far into the room. With the Odin the tambourine is, possibly, the farthest in the room, to date, incredibly well detailed and possibly the best to date of an IEM. A dynamic driver for the midrange, perhaps?

Like I mentioned; Pneuma has an excellent technical performance. It’s not the technical master or king, since there are better IEMs out there in that regard (usually with even higher price tags). But it’s up there with the best. Also, not every one of those IEMs has this kind of musicality. I personally prefer having a musical IEM with excellent technical performance, rather than an analytical or reference one with perfect technicalities. This is a matter of choice in the end.

Yet, the Pneuma is still amazing in terms of sound-stage, layering, positioning, and resolution. It has a great background and excellent separation. You can hear certain instruments sound away from you, some sound close, and some sound crosswise. It’s not just left & right or only 2-dimensional. You have a huge 3D-like stage which is very deep and wide. In this case, the Pneuma has to pay homage to its PwAudio No.10 cable as well. Because when I switched to a generic cable just for the sake of the experiment, the staging performance took a hit. In contrast, the No.10 cable opens up the stage with a 3-dimensional perception. What an excellent choice.

My story goes back to 2014 with the Velvet. At the time, it had a different shell and color, but it was one of the very rare earphones with user-changeable tuning. Earsonics company was not a very advertised brand in my country, and I would not have known about them without the success of the SM3. I cannot imagine such a timeline because Earsonics products played a big role in my audiophile adventure. The reason I used the first edition Velvet for a really long time was that I was able to optimize its synergy with different sources by changing the signature. The A&K 120 loved the Velvet in “Balanced mode”, whereas Cowon Plenue P1 synergized with the “Tight” mode, because it had a warmer, darker tonality. I prefer Earsonics’ potentiometer solution better than switches. Potentiometer lets you do much finer tuning whereas switches offer a limited adjustment range. Without further ado, let’s get to the review!