Improved S12 & S12 Pro and thats it
Pros:
Value ( Overall Tonality for the price )
Avoidance of Planar Drawbacks
Tall scope in the staging
Construction
Cons:
Approach to Safer Tuning ( Huge Treble Dip )
Lack of Confidence in the Bass ( Authority )
Aesthetics
I got these headphones from a friend and any positive or negative review doesn’t benefit me in any way or form. All thoughts and opinions are mine and honest to my findings.
First Impression of the Brand Letshuoer
The first Letshouer I tried was in an Audio-Meet-Up, and it was S12. It was a planar IEM, and I was not quite impressed by that IEM. It was shouty and had very problematic timbre issues. The first listen left a very bad taste in my mouth for this brand and since then I never opted for any IEM produced by them. After the success of S15, I was intrigued again to try them, so I signed up for the review of S12 2024 Edition. And I can tell you at the start that this IEM is unlike the S12 Original version.
Design and Package
It comes in a pretty good box and all, 10/10 on presentation. The IEM looks flashy and has a premium feeling to it, but we are not here to talk about the package. This IEM houses a 14.8mm planar driver and it fits better than any average-sized IEM, quite comfortable for long listening sessions. The wire comes with changeable termination so it’s a huge advantage at this price point, although IDK who use 3.5mm in 2024. I would’ve liked a well-built case instead of this plasticky one.
Sound Quality: Subjective
Now if we come to its sound quality, the first time when I listened to this IEM, it was hard for me to believe that it was a planar IEM. Planar generally always has a distinctive quality to me. They sound different than other driver types and I like the presentation, unlike BA configurations. They sound highly detailed, the sound comes in a tall scope, the bass sounds nice and the overall projection on planar IEMs sounds tall to me. On the other hand, it produces a bit of issues, the treble never impressed me in a Planar IEM and at the same time timbre sounded very lifeless.
The time I played the first song in this IEM, it felt like a dynamic driver. The bass is there, the sound comes tall, projection is big, but the treble didn’t bother me. It is not perfect by any means, but it sounded a lot better than all the other planar IEMs I heard in my past.
The thing is that it comes at a very affordable price, and I hardly notice any flaws that cannot justify the price tag. Now if I start saying everything is good, there is no point in reviewing this IEM so, I am skipping the jargon and cutting straight to the conclusion.
This IEM is extremely natural sounding. The bass is elevated quite a lot. The sub-bass and mid-bass cohesion is there, and nothing feels short in front of others. Although the bass is not very room feeling it feels like a centre blob. The transition to lower mids is very natural too. It offers slight warmth to the lower mids and remains neutral for the most part. The low end does affect the midrange in a good way. The upper mids do sound a bit pushed back in the mix. But the odd part is, the ornamentation of the vocals is very vivid, yet the body of the vocals is a bit distant. Feels airy and sparkly enough. The treble region on this IEM is a bit interesting. On one hand, this IEM sounds upfront, and, in some regions, it sounds way too dark. In the lower treble region, this IEM produces an extended sense of elevation and on the upper treble, it feels safer than usual. I am used to the treble the other way around. But it seems that this IEM adopted the new tuning methodology that is getting popular nowadays.
So, as you can see, this IEM is a very different sound planar I have heard in the past. It feels natural and organic to the most extent, and I am quite happy with it for the most part.
Soundstage
The soundstage is more in-depth than in width. Creating a yolk-shaped stage. The sound seems tall, and it has a bit of an interesting presentation where the vocalist sounds a bit distant but the instruments sound closed in.
Imaging
The imaging on this IEM is not very accurate. The presentation of the tall stage is not very good either. Not that it matters to me, but I know a lot of people who like imaging. Pinpointing instruments and cues are a bit hard, although it doesn’t sound 2D because of the increased depth and vocal positioning.
Dynamics
Dynamics are not mind-blowing, but they justify the price tag.
Timbre
As I already mentioned the Timbre on this IEM is close to natural. The drums sound almost natural but a bit blunted, violin sounded a bit muffled too. The acoustic guitar sounded good, piano sounded average. The saxophone and trumpet sounded very good.
Sound Quality: Objective
The sub-bass of the IEM includes an almost 8dB of bass boost and you can feel the elevation in the sound in terms of the heft and weight. The sub-bass just feels very coherent with the mid-bass. The natural flow of the low-end is there and it doesn’t overuse or underuse this area. The bass on this IEM completes this IEM in a way that is very hard to nail. The ornamentation of the low-end is equally great, texture & details are there, never felt it was lacking any sort of exaggerated sense of decoration.
But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The bass was not pushing enough air to give the low-end a physical feel which is what I think because of the planar driver. In addition to that the treble tuning didn’t make the bass a super fulfilling experience in overall tonality.
The FRA Graph flushes flat in the midrange while giving a bit of definition in the lower-mids. The tuning in the lower-mids is not something that I can discuss on. It is not bad not extremely good, justifying its price.
The upper-mids are interesting. It rises from 800hz-1kHz instead of 1.5kHz, which I like, gives an extra bit of definition to the vocals. But the problem starts after 2khz. Since it obtains a different pinna-compensation than the norm, which I like but in this IEM it didn’t work. The extension felt a bit missing. The 10kHz dip also made a significant difference in the tonality of the upper midrange.
The 5-8kHz though saves a bit of the issue, which helps the upper mids to add to the ornamentation of the frequency spectrum. But the FR again falls off in the 9-16kHz range.
The 10kHz range dip is important to add depth to the music, since HRTF suggests that, but the refinement should be there which I think there was since this range felt very dark. This might save a lot of music, but it doesn’t sound refined.
All that being said, this IEM costs just $200. All the things I mentioned are said without taking the $200 into consideration due to my transparency towards an unbiased form of subjective analysis. Fortunately, this IEM excels in the value proposition.
Conclusion
I have my full recommendation for this IEM. Considering its price it’s a total banger. Just know that this IEM is not very typical of the planar-tonality IEM. It is very safe and sounds coherent. Looks like Letshouer improved to the moon with their latest iteration of the S12 variant.
