The VE Phonix is the flagship IEM from Vision Ears. It retails for $4200 USD now (up from $3900 USD when it came out). It is a 13 driver IEM with all BAs – that’s typical of VE as they usually prefer to tune their BAs well rather than stick a bunch of driver types together. My source used for review is the Lotoo Paw Gold Touch.
The packaging and accessories are excellent. It comes with a somewhat average quality coppy cable, but it includes a nice leather case, a lanyard, business card wallet holder and AZLA sednafit SE1500 eartips – nice!
The actual IEM itself is pretty nice with carbon fiber shell and glass faceplates. VE didn’t cut any corners for their flagship here and it shows.
Bass:
The bass for Phonix is actually very very good for a BA implementation. It’s very punchy and has that slam that we usually associate with dynamic drivers. It ranks amongst the best BA bass I heard along with UM Multiverse Mentor. However, the subbass is still a bit lacking because it is still just BA bass even though it’s as nicely implemented as I’ve ever heard, so the limitation of that is still there with not much subbass extension.
Mids:
The mids of Phonix is very forward and in your face. Singers sound like they’re right in front of your face and this might be a good IEM for those who want a very forward and warm vocal presentation.
Treble:
The treble is well extended and slightly pushed up which rounds out the w shaped tuning of this IEM. It’s not quite as impactful as the bass and mids are however, and I think the treble is probably the weakest part of the Phonix. Still quite good but not wowing me as much as the bass and mids.
Technicals:
The Phonix has average soundstage height and width for its price point – compared to IEMs like MM Multiverse Mentor or Nostalgia Tesseract, it will fall behind that level despite being a $4k IEM. However overall detail and resolution across the board is quite good.
Overall the Phonix is an endgame level flagship IEM that is recommended for those who want probably the best all BA IEM which excels at both being dynamic sounding for energetic tracks due to its great bass texture and warmth and extended treble, but also for vocal tracks due to its forward mids. It’s only weakness being soundstage width is just average and it could be slightly fatiguing for longer listening due to how forward all the frequencies are.
The packaging and accessories are excellent. It comes with a somewhat average quality coppy cable, but it includes a nice leather case, a lanyard, business card wallet holder and AZLA sednafit SE1500 eartips – nice!
The actual IEM itself is pretty nice with carbon fiber shell and glass faceplates. VE didn’t cut any corners for their flagship here and it shows.
Bass:
The bass for Phonix is actually very very good for a BA implementation. It’s very punchy and has that slam that we usually associate with dynamic drivers. It ranks amongst the best BA bass I heard along with UM Multiverse Mentor. However, the subbass is still a bit lacking because it is still just BA bass even though it’s as nicely implemented as I’ve ever heard, so the limitation of that is still there with not much subbass extension.
Mids:
The mids of Phonix is very forward and in your face. Singers sound like they’re right in front of your face and this might be a good IEM for those who want a very forward and warm vocal presentation.
Treble:
The treble is well extended and slightly pushed up which rounds out the w shaped tuning of this IEM. It’s not quite as impactful as the bass and mids are however, and I think the treble is probably the weakest part of the Phonix. Still quite good but not wowing me as much as the bass and mids.
Technicals:
The Phonix has average soundstage height and width for its price point – compared to IEMs like MM Multiverse Mentor or Nostalgia Tesseract, it will fall behind that level despite being a $4k IEM. However overall detail and resolution across the board is quite good.
Overall the Phonix is an endgame level flagship IEM that is recommended for those who want probably the best all BA IEM which excels at both being dynamic sounding for energetic tracks due to its great bass texture and warmth and extended treble, but also for vocal tracks due to its forward mids. It’s only weakness being soundstage width is just average and it could be slightly fatiguing for longer listening due to how forward all the frequencies are.
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