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 am not a professional reviewer but an avid listener of music. I sang in grade school and high school. What can I say about the Empire Ears Trident but that it is an excellent transducer of music. When a song is well engineered, this iem conveys the event very accurately. I noticed that it scales very well with high end portable gear. I use my Hugo2 and Questyle CMA 18 and find myself listening for hours at a time. Great job Empire Ears for producing a product that sounds so good.
Wow! This is one lovely player with a very beautiful, purple case. All three sound modes are excellent but I'm really loving the Classic Tube flavour!
Very fast delivery to the UK. Thanks Andrew!
I really liked the Timsok TS-316. I waited a while to do this little review, just to enjoy it thoroughly. It offers, in my opinion, a realistic, natural, complete, organic sound...in a word spectacular. Tested with the iBasso DX180 dap it amazed me on all fronts. I recommend this IEM, as I recommend MusiTek, an excellent seller, attentive to customer needs and always ready to satisfy the buyer's requests. Thanks to Andrew and Leonardo.
If u want enjoy fun sound, This is it!!! So funny sounds like deep bass headphone.
I wasn't expecting this type of sound resolution and ultra detail. I wasn't expecting the bass to sound this good either. The stars of the Ragnar show are the mids to upper mids and the treble region. The bass is still excellent, but it's at a reference EQ level and not enhanced. So, if the song calls for a lot of bass in the recording, then it will produce that bass. It's way more bass than I was expecting when I was purchasing these.
These are definitely not for bass-heads unless you are like me who likes both enhanced hard hitting bass but also enjoys lots of detail. For example, if you have a pair of bass heavy IEMs and then get the Ragnar, you will have to go through sort of an adjustment period to acclimate your brain to the new sound signature. it doesnt take that long, maybe 45min-1 hour of listening to the Ragnar and you'll be fairly acclimated. I'm sure for other individuals it can take longer or shorter to get accustomed to the new sound signature, but it's totally worth it. You owe it to yourself to have a pair of IEMs in your collection that can have ultra detail and resolution like these, because you will hear things in the sound track that you have never heard before. In another example, when listening to the Billie Eilish song "Billie Bossa Nova" you can even hear the moisture on her lips as she sings.
These IEMs excel at Acoustic/guitar/bass guitar/vocals/classic rock/heavy rock/classical music/and jazz. Having said all that, I actually enjoy the Ragnar in some rap music that has heavy bass.
Thanks!