Erebus is a way-under-the-radar (in the West at least) TOTL IEM, with an overall performance paralleling or besting many other legends such as Traillii and more. Here are some of my impressions about this fantastic IEM, excerpted from my Head-Fi review of Erebus:
It has a premium build. The Erebus shell feels like a small piece of polished marble. The plate design is not super attractive, and I never would have chosen this on looks alone. Erebus has a more comfortable than any other IEM I have tried except Fei Wan. I could have Erebus in all day and barely notice.
Erebus has a relatively relaxed sound, but it has some verve, scales extremely well, works with just about any type of music, for any mood I brought to it.
It features a largely uncolored, very slightly warm, reference-ish sound (its bass strength and upper mids energy keep it from being what I imagine truly reference style to be).
At first it does not sound really special, rather just very good, but with more extended listening, the full scope of how impressive and top-shelf Erebus is becomes clear.
Erebus features a balanced W shaped sound. All parts of the FR are distinct and still coherent, unlike some other W shaped IEMs like Rn6 that to me sounded slightly less coherent.
Erebus’ sub bass has punch and snap, and is articulate and tactile.
There is a medium amount of mid bass that comes up to lower mids just enough to bring them a bit forward and add depth and a little warmth. No muddiness across the spectrum.
Erebus’ mids provide just the right amount for vocals and acoustic instruments to assert their space well and not be left behind, as can be the case with Loki in particular. Erebus’ mids are neutral-ish but still have excellent texture. To go beyond the set of four in these impressions, and going from memory, I find Erebus' mids not to be as warm and romantic as Trailli's. I find its mids however to be as detailed and similar-charactered as Mentor's.
The upper mids can be energetic at times, though not peaky and generally not fatiguing. This quality lends urgency to many vocals, which 90% of the time is welcome. Still, I would prefer it was dialed down. At points the danger zone is approached, but never fully entered into thankfully.
Erebus has fantastic treble, not dry but rather neutral to slightly sweet, loads of air with just the right sparkle, softened crispness, medium extension, zero sibilance, not at all fatiguing. Very close to Annihilator 23’s class-leading treble, I would say 95% of it, just lacking a very slight bit of the superior transient snap that Anni possesses.
Erebus provides a largely neutral sound, slightly warm with minimal color. It presents music how was intended perhaps (as overused an expression as that is).
Superb technicals, right up there with the very best as an entire presentation.
Excellent layering and separation of instruments, better than the other three, in spite of their excellence. Superior imaging as well.
Compares to other staging class leaders like Fei Wan, Traillii, and Mentor, which has massive 360 holographic staging, more than Erebus.
Dynamics are solid but Fei Wan is a dynamics monster, and Erebus isn't quite at that level. It is on par with Anni and Loki's dynamics performance.
Excellent detailed transients, particularly acoustic and brass instruments. Overall top-shelf resolution, as well as speed and dynamics.
Maybe the best part of Erebus’ performance is with vocal-focused music. Up and down vocal ranges, it scales so well, so many Wow moments. All across the vocal spectrum, I hear excellence of pacing, timbre, intonation, detail.
Best music genres for Erebus: All of them! (or at least all the genres I listen to). Jazz and bass vocal sound superb. Classic rock, modern rock, pop, dance pop: all excellent. I suspect classical would sound terrific, though I don’t listen to it. Live music sounds fantastic, spacious, holographic, dynamic.
Erebus is a bit of a slow burn as far as recognizing its amazing qualities. After a handful of listening sessions of "this is good but not great" and allowing Erebus to burn in, it became very evident what a special IEM this is. Erebus rewards patience, but not too much is required.
I can find only a few flaws for my preferences. One would be the plate design, not a big deal for me but still it is not attractive. The lack of recessed 2-pin connector ports is not great. It is expensive at $4700US retail. The other nitpick is the energy in the upper mids, which if they were slightly reduced would make this the IEM I could quit the hobby with. Even still, it very well could be if that sad day were ever to come.
Hopefully more people will get to hear Erebus. It is first-rate and should be in the conversation when we all debate which are the TOTL of TOTLs in the IEM world.
I'm a recent newcomer to the audiophile scene but I've been lucky enough to listen and try some amazing gear thanks to a dear friend of mine. My first experience was the Sony WM1ZM2 paired with the Oriolus Traillii. This is a great way to be introduced into this world. Well as you can imagine I was immediately hooked. I couldn't afford my dap at first so I bought myself a nice L&P W4. Which is an amazing dongle paired with UM Fabled Sounds I was in a dream world. But I knew I wasn't getting the best I could. So I did some research and settled on the hiby r8 ii. Man, I thought the L&P was doing a decent job and it was. But the Hiby makes everything sing. Every sound is more expansive, clearer, and detailed. And while I liked the Sony, the hiby has a lot more powerful features. There is a lot more control. Also, Andrew really is the best. Now I must get back to listening to music.
Let's start off with CONS:
1) Oriolus only grace the world with only 199 sets.
2) Heavy. It's heavier than OG Traillii and UM AP combines.
3) Pricey.
Love the L shape terminal from new cable. Cable looks very familiar to the PW1960. New cable material consists of pure silver, gold-silver alloy, copper vs 1960 pure copper.
I thought Traillii was perfect. Oriolus somehow manage to improve the vocal and treble. Traillii TI sounds like an open back headphones...very airy.
Warm natural sounds when pairing with Sony M2.
Turn on Hyper and let the bird with titanium wings sings to you if you have Cayin N30LE.
Por el precio que tienen son insuperables y a decir verdad son mis IEMs favorito, no venia con la case Dygnis pero a decir verdad no es importante para ml
It’s been 5 weeks since CanJam NYC. My mission, try as many IEM’s
I left the Grand Maestro until the end of the day.
Sound Impressions:
BASS: Thick, Fast and Deep. The GM has what they call NOAH modules that can be swapped out to change the Bass frequency response, without impacting the upper frequencies, bringing the mids and treble appear to be more forward, through less bass (blue module). This impacts the sub-bass most and leaves the slam of the mid bass region intact. The black module, which comes stock, gives the most sub-bass. This is what many reviewers consider a “Basshead” sound. Having listened to the Scarlet Mini in comparison, I would say the Mini is a “Basshead” set. The GM is, however, not…just a Basshead set.
MIDS: I found midrange to be very well balanced, with both female and male vocals very clear and engaging. Giving the sound signature a slightly warm feel. But this is where Fatfreq has another trick up their sleeve. There’s a toggle switch just behind the 2pin connector. It sticks up about 1mm and allows the listener to turn the bass down on the fly and bring the midrange and treble slightly forward. My listening preference is always slightly warm, but for certain tracks and artists this setting is preferred.
TREBLE: The treble is crystal clear and very well extended, but never fatiguing.
TIMBRE: This is where the GM sets itself above all others I’d heard. The quality of the sound across the entire frequency range was best in class. Every instrument could be isolated with all the details present. 10/10
TONALITY: The balance of the instruments to the vocals is, again, the best I’ve ever heard. It’s like some little man (the crossover) inside working his soundboard, and making the IEM completely in control of the concert in my head. Getting the most out of every last bit of sound detail and making sure no part over powered another. 10/10
SOUNDSTAGE: Ok, this is some next level shit! We’re not talking about a soundstage that was ultra wide. Rather something I’d never experienced before and directly related to the timbre and tonality. Instead of having visualisation of the instruments playing on a stage, it feels like I’m sitting on the stage and Stevie Nicks is singing next to me, Mick Fleetwood is playing behind me and on my other side is Lindsey Buckingham playing his guitar with smooth precision.
SIBILANCE: I’m ultra sensitive to sibilance and have test tracks I use to see just how controlled an IEM is to lower it. Without a doubt the GM is the least sibilant of any IEM I’ve heard.
MASKING: This was probably the biggest and single most distinguishable difference between the GM and anything else I’ve heard on the market. Similar to the experience in soundstage, the instruments and isolated to themselves, making all the details present. On busy tracks that would normally sound like a bunch of different things happening on top of one another, but GM has a magical way of creating a space or protective zone around each musical element. If I could explain this another way, imagine hearing a track recorded in the late 60’s, with its hiss and imperfections, where it sounds like there’s a fog or layer of pollution present that makes everything sound just a bit layered into everything else. Now imagine you take the full stage in dip down into a pool that cleans all of that away, raise it back up and now you hear only the instruments as they were originally intended. The GM takes old tracks and “remasters” them. And takes remastered tracks and makes them even better! 10/10
BUILD QUALITY: Just look at the photos. I was also lucky enough to get the gold upgrade cable thrown into the deal for free! 10/10
CUSTOMER SERVICE: I had heard some stories about problems in the past, but after reaching out to Fatfreq post sales and asking for certain things that were missing from the sale, because it was a floor model and being contacted by Ben himself, I was very happy with how they handled everything. I used to live in Singapore and can tell you the people are amazing!!!
I think some of this has to do with just how much power these IEM’s really need. More than any that I’d tried on the day. Now remember I was driving these with a FiiO M17, a BEAST of a DAP that puts out round 1,500mW on the 4.4mm plug @32ohms. These IEM’s are power hungry! They take every bit of that and deliver it with surgical precision. I spoke with Ben, the CEO of Fatfreq and he told me the M17 is a great pairing for the GM and that they have a few at their HQ in Singapore. They also have a technology called Linear Impedance, which I believe levels the playing field for the different drivers in the set. I think the impedance of this set is 32ohms, but it sure seems like it takes more to drive it than other 32ohm sets I have. This higher impedance and power requirement also contributes to eliminating the background noise, giving a cleaner listening experience.