THE PLUS:
-smoothly balanced warm V shape
-near basshead wide round slam with vibrant rumble
-warm lush and smooth mids
-buttery upper mids
-natural timbre enough for planar
-enjoyable vocal without shouty fest
-safe treble that isn’t plain dull (hint of crunch and snap)
-metal construction
-not hardest planar to drive
-good accessories
THE MINUS:
-not best bass separation (pleasant bleed)
-not very elastic bass response (planar fault)
-darkish mids (overly warmed)
-lack of treble air, sparkle, brilliance (safe treble)
-more musical than technical (a plus for me but not everyone)
TONALITY: 8.5/10
TECHNICALITIES: 8.2/10
TIMBRE: 8.5/10
SOUNDSTAGE: 8.2/10
IMAGING: 7.5/10
MUSICALITY (subjective): 8.5/10
CONSTRUCTION: 8.2/10
ACCESSORIES: 8.5/10
SOUND VALUE: 8.5/10
INTRO
Letshuoer doesn’t need intro anymore so let’s just say they’ve been around for a long time and release one of my fav tribrid IEM called EJ07M.
They get praise for their S12 planar IEM too, which still is talked about nowaday, showing it somehow become a classic, thanks to its very competitive price and all metal construction.
Today I will review the newest planar IEM from Letshuoer call S08, it seem to be the little brother of S12 and S15, filling a gap in term of price range and surely tonality.
Priced 90$ (?), the S08 use a newly developed 13mm planar driver.
”Unique features of the driver are as following:
a) utilizing nanoscopic magnetron sputtering process to lay down the voice coil onto the diaphragm, which enhances the resolution of high frequencies.
b) the nanoscopic magnetron sputtering technology coats the diaphragm with a layer of voice coil in addition to conventional drivers’ single layer voice coil circuit. Benefits include increasing effective diaphragm surface area, reducing driver fluttering, minimizing distortion caused by diaphragm resonance, and enhancing overall transient response speed.
c) conventional planar drivers do not come with a surround, resulting in shallow bass extension. S08 incorporates a PTR elastic film surrounds at the edge of the diaphragm. This significantly enhances the depth of the bass and provides a much tighter bass presentation and increases the width and depth of the soundstage.”
The S08 is one of 4 new products to be release by Letshuoer to celebrate their 8th year anniversary.
But is it a planar IEM worthy of celebration? Let see my personal impressions in this review.
CONSTRUCTION&ACCESSORIES
The construction of S08 is very decent, it’s all metal and feel sturdy and durable. The aesthetic is sober and elegant, not very eyes catchy. 2pin connector are solidly embeded in housing but not recessed. The finish painting doesn’t seem easy to scratch. Design ergonomic is good and comfortable for long wearing but not thinked to be deeply inserted since the nozzle is on the short size. This isn’t thin alluminum shell, so it does have some weight to it, but nothing concerning even for sensitive ears.
The S08 come in a black box fullfill with accessories which are of good quality for a sub-100$ product. The carrying case is very nice and we even have a basic decent modular cable.
This cable is a braided 4 strands 30 cores silver-plated copper cable that brighten the tonality just a tiny bit, the fact it come with 3.5mm single ended and 4.4mm balance plug is a big plus and will permit to the consumers to take advantage of it’s balanced source if necessary. The 5 pairs of silicone eartips included are good because it fit well IEM nozzle size and permit the sound rendering to be properly open and balanced in dynamic.
All in all, very good construction and accessories for the price.
SOUND IMPRESSIONS
For those wondering if the S08 is just a reshell S12 or S12pro with same tuning, be reassured this isn’t the case and more likely the fine tuning based on feedback of S12 owner and reviewers. At least, i was of those finding upper mids a bit too forwards as well as prompt to slight harshness and sibilance so Letshuoer goes smoother in treble and mids intensity, yet bassier and even more V shape, warm way, with great thickness and focus to mids and vocal
S08 offers a balanced V shape with warm muscular punchy mid bass, grunty vibrant rumble and lush thick mids that have enough brightness and bite.
We aren’t in neutral territory since these are quite bassy sounding IEM, near basshead yet due to compressed sub bass resonance release we don’t have a wide slam nor a long bass line extension, it’s no clean bass here and warmth feeds mids density and lushness coloring. It avoids overly edgy or raspy vocal and wind instruments, though the mids shine more with vocals than saxophone or trumpet which get a bit dryer.
Cello earns an appealing vibrancy and euphony with this bass dynamic while double bass can feel a bit boomy, lacking proper flexible extension of lower string pulling. In fact, the string will feel hitted by the bassist instead of pulled. So we have more bass quantity than quality and this S08 shine more with pop, R&B, electronic and beat driven music due to it’s round chunky bass thumping that is creamy and very tactile, has lot of authority and good speed and control so it don’t go veiling or overly darking instrument and vocal, it just stole air around them and make background scene feel hazy, not deep and clean.
The Mids are leaner than bass but wide and dynamic in presence with good note weight.
Piano sounds full and weightfull, a bit opaque in timbre and not crisp in resonance release which will be hard to perceive in slightly foggy clarity.
The intensity gain isn’t very loud so don’t fear shouting with those, upper mids is smooth and like butter a bit salty too, due to extra presence spice that permit vocals to be bright and good enough in intelligibility.
Don’t expect next level clarity since sound info isn’t very high, as well, there is not a lot of clean air around the instrument, it’s no open or airy mids. It’s forward and intimate, you’re part of music not just a listener, this goes well with big bass impact and conduct to an engaging and fun musicality free of overly aggressive mid range but will proper layering thanks to fast transient response of planar driver, even in budget price range.
Then the treble takes the back seat of bass and mids, without going plain dark or dull. We have some acidity and a bite of attack of a rather thick, lean and fully extended up to 12 kHz treble. Then I guess a roll off happens because we don’t have sparkle and brilliance, just a minimal amount of air on top to avoid plain overly meaty and mushy macro dynamics.
I’m not able to follow precisely the percussion line, yet they are well layered in the back, half drafted way with speedy attack but a sustained dominance in dynamics that make cymbals denser and foggier. It’s no sharp and refined treble that will blow your mind with how snappy and thigh highs are.
Acoustic guitar gets densified and will lower harmonic but has enough bit for attack, then the release becomes more hazy.
There is nothing to really complain nor applaud about this treble, it exists and shows its presence when needed like in snare and clap which are energetic, but it will not wow you with its resolution and perhaps make you wonder why planar drivers are so much hyped too.
The soundstage might be better than S12 but is still average. It doesn’t sound too centered and has a good width, but while tallness is OK, deepnest is very limited. Stereo perception isn’t magnified and mixed up with center stage. If I complain about lack of air around the instrument it always means the soundstage isn’t very airy or fully open in spaciousness.
Then the imaging is average too, due to bass warmth and lack of wide clean space between instruments in lateral positioning. As noted, speedy transients permit good macro layering capacity, but all those layers are blurred in presence contour a bit so precision of placement is a bit random.
SIDE NOTES
Like all planar, these need power to shine but it’s not the hardest planar IEM have tried and 100mW@32ohm and up might be enough. It’s most likely easiest planar IEM i’ve test out of 15 I own.
This IEM pairs very well with new Letshuoer DT03 dongle, balanced at high gain, spatiality is way bigger and bass has more slam and rumble sustain.
Eartips that come with it are Ok enough, more wide bore will do well with S08.
In terms of cable, those that had dynamic gain is a good choice for S08, Simgot LC7 and Penon Renata was my fav, unlike sensitive multi BA or hybrid, planar love extra impedance gain.
COMPARISONS
VS LETSHUOER S12
S12 is brighter, more neutral with extra midbass focus, edgier and snappier in treble as well as more rolled off in sub bass.
This bass is more textured and defined in hard punch, so kick drum presence is less warm and thick as bassier and warmer S08, which has chunkier slam, more vibrant and deep rumble and rounder but creamier mid bass with more bleed into lower mids.
Those mids are notably smoother and more buttery with S08, vocals are less compressed and energetic in upper mids, less prompt to sibilance or shoutyness, presence is wide and intensity isn’t as forwards which make overall mids a notch darker and less sharp in resolution too.
Treble is faster, snappier, airier and sparklier with the more vivid and energetic S12, percussions are cleaner and crisper with better attack control, highs are more euphonic and dark with S08 that dig less micro details too.
Soundstage is notably taller and wider with S08, while it’s deeper and cleaner with S12.
Imaging goes to S12 due to sharper separation and resolution and less bass warmth that add foggy darkness to round tonality together.
All in all, those 2 complement well each other but I find musicality of S08 more fun and bassy as well as lusher and less fatiguing in mids and highs, soundstage is notably wider too which i prefer to intimate spatial depth. Yet, technical performance is more highlighted with S12, which will please more treble hear or those into bright forwards mids.
VS NICEHCK F1pro
F1 is brighter and more W shaped, with more emphasis on treble, more forward upper mids, and quite similar bass boost, so as bassy yet not as warm as S08.
The bass is more resonant and thin with F1, not as meaty and tactile, nor as round and heavy in punch so there is a hint more sub bass boost. S08 rumble is thicker and more vibrant, mid bass is creamier and not as well layered but transition into lower mids is more natural, it’s not about resonance mix.
Then the mid is where sword hit for F1, its edgier, harsher, more prompt to metallic planar timbre, more prompt to sibilance and it have accent in texture that make it shouty and grainy….so more shiny and bright minds, more open too due to extra depth of this greater presence push, attack is edgier too, resolution less warm and dark than lusher smoother mids of S08.
The treble is the biggest difference ,F1 is way more energetic and W shape spiky, even more so than S12 though in different ways. Crash cymbals are more splashy and violent and will dominate the mix more than better balanced yet darker and less snappy and speedy treble of S08. F1 has more micro details, more attack energy, more extension and acoustic guitar has more bite as well.
Imaging is superior with F1, sound layers have more space above and between them, resolution is sharper, tracking percussions, vocal and instrument presence is more precise.
Soundstage is superior to F1, it’s about as wide, but even taller and deeper than S08.
All in all, technical performance of F1pro even if more excited in dynamic energy and not as smoothly balanced as S08, has upper hands in attack speed, resolution, imaging and soundstage while for musicality the S08 is more coherent, has more colorful and dense timbre, less edgy vocals and more laid back and versatile sound.
CONCLUSION
While the S08 will not rewrite the planar IEM history, it’s a statement of lush bassy balance that bet on musicality first and engaging yet laid back dynamic first and foremost.
Its competitive price makes it a good choice for those seeking smooth mids with dense vocals that aren’t too aggressive and plenty of bass slam and weight, the main highlight of this warm sounding marvel.
If you are one of the people complaining about overly sharp treble and mids of S12, the S08 is the solution, its buttery smooth musicality will feel cozy while its bass will punch with wider headroom, heavier weight and chunkier presence.
The S08 is among smoothest, thickest and bassiest planar IEM have heard, other one being the Letshuoer S15, its logical upgrade that comes at a rather big price jump.
Unless you’re a treble head or seeking for end word in terms of technical performance and resolution (good luck in this price range), the S08 is a safe bet for both bass and (warm) mids lover.
Very Recommended!
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PS: I want to thanks Letshuoer for sending me this review sample. I have no official affiliation nor any form of $ compensation. These reviews aren’t marketing tool that can be colored, unlike the tonality of S08 which is warmed, smoothed.
These will be available at Letshuoer website soon here: https://letshuoer.net
No Borders Audiophile 