Earmen Angel’s Review - Simply Excellent!
General Info/Build/Packaging
Earmen is no stranger to the audiophile community especially in the high end segment. If you are not aware, Earmen is Auris Audio’s sister company, in which Auris is mainly producing audio equipment for desktop setup, while Earmen’s focus is mainly on the portables. The unit is being designed and made in Serbia which will ensure strict QC as well as consistent quality throughout.
Build Quality of the Angel is solid, the unit is built like a tank and the switches and buttons exhibit no wobbly behaviour, not to mention both the USB C port for data and charging are also positioned vertically, this in my opinion is a very good design consideration because the vertical position is less likely to be prone to any accidentally damage to the port.
Packaging is rather standard with a box containing the DAC Amp itself, some manuals as well as a usb c cable, for the price, it’d be good if a storage pouch is being included in the package, but sad to say there isn’t one, not really a big deal anyway
Specifications
I will leave the product link here for your reference as the specs are quite lengthy.
Earmen Angel’s Official Specification
IEMs/Headphones/Equipments used for this review
Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite 3.5mm
Simgot EA500 4.4mm
Thieaudio Ghost 4.4mm
iKKO OH5 4.4mm
7Hz Timeless x AE 4.4mm
Hidizs MS5 3.5mm
Macbook Air M2 -> Earmen Angel -> Apple Music
Macbook Air M2 -> Earmen Angel -> Tidal MQA
Macbook Air M2 -> Earmen Angel -> foobar 2k (tracks ranging from 16-44 to 24-192)
*Earmen Angel is sent over by Miroslav from Earmen for the purpose of this review. I appreciate the opportunity given
Foreword
My review is solely based on what I hear via my equipment and I never consider my reviews to be objective in any way rather a subjective approach. Do take into consideration that everyone’s ear anatomy is not the same, so the psychoacoustics perception might be different as well, but i believe it will not stray too far. I have used the Angel for several months prior to writing this review.
General Features
There are some features on the Angel which i find it’s notably useful hence worth mentioning it here since i did not see it being mentioned anywhere in the manuals
After you unplug your cable from either the 4.4 or 3.5mm port, the volume will be reset to 0, i find this feature very helpful in preventing the volume from suddenly playing too loud when we plug in new earphone/headphone
The Gain+ mode is really impressive in making any of the pairing sounds a lot more dynamic, the difference is noticeable immediately, without the Gain+ switched on, the music sounded less dynamic but when you switch the Gain+ on, you can immediately hear that the music sounded a lot more dynamic
Angel can also be used as DAC only, allowing you to connect to your AMP of choice, my gears are generally quite efficient, hence i don’t really need to use it with other amp as Angel offers plenty of power for my gears, except when i want to listen to Angel with different sound characteristics, i will use the line out function
Battery life is quite impressive as well, clocking in roughly 7 hours with mixed usage of IEMs and Headphones, it can also be charged and used at the same time, although it does get a little warm, but nothing to be worried
The volume steps adjustment is also very precise and has good control, it doesn’t get too loud nor too quiet when i’m adjusting the volume
Volume pot is fully digital, so there will be no channel imbalance even at low volume
Sound Impression
Having reviewed several sources, it is futile to describe the signature of the source as the sound characteristics ultimately depend on the transducer that you are pairing it with. Having said that, The Angel is neutral and uncolored, it does exhibit a little of the Sabre glare but it’s not really noticeable and well controlled.
Pairing Impression with various Transducers
iKKO OH5
OH5 itself is a warm IEM and the soundstage is rather intimate
Pairing it with the Angel made the OH5 sound more dynamic
Bass quality is better in terms of tighter and slightly more punchy
Slightly better perceived detail retrieval as well a little bit more “excitement” on the top end
Soundstage is slightly wider as well
Very good pairing to my ears overall
Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite
Despite being a full BA set, it doesn’t exhibit any noise or hiss when i plug it in, even with the Gain+ on
Orchestra Lite is another set that’s safe sounding by nature, pairing it with the Angel seems to be a great choice as the so called “Sabre Glare” does add some excitement overall for the Orchestra Lite
Detail retrieval and staging is excellent
Hidizs MS5
MS5 has fairly low rated impedance at 5.3ohm and 104db of sensitivity, hence a perfect candidate to test if it will hiss
To my surprise, it doesn’t hiss and the background is quite dark
Listening with the MS5 using the Bass nozzle paired with Angel shows a good improvement in terms of dynamics as well as imaging
The bass and treble pretty much sounds the same as Angel is quite neutral
The soundstage has better depth and imaging is excellent
Thieaudio Ghost (Headphone)
Bass appears to be more punchy and sub bass has slightly better extension
Tonality wise, Ghost is lacking some warmth hence pairing it with the Angel doesn’t seems to be quite musical, but it is a little analytical sounding, good if you’re going after this signature, bad if you like it to be musical, so it’s up to the individual, not really a good or bad thing
Comparison (iFi xDSD Gryphon)
The 4.4 exhibit some noise when using it with certain IEMs, no such issues with Angel, dead silent
Gryphon has some additional features over Angel, on the fly filter adjustment, Bluetooth connectivity, hardware EQ functionality as well as a OLED screen to display the informations
In terms of power, this is where Angel takes the lead from Gryphon, a whopping 8.5vrms vs 6.7vrms from the Gryphon
Angel will power most of the headphones and IEMs out there without breaking a sweat, of course not the Susvara, Gryphon does struggle to drive the Planar headphone properly, i have tested one with HE400SE, a budget Hifiman Planar headphone, it does propel it to a loud listening volume, however i feel that some of the dynamics are lacking, switching the dac amp to Angel, the entire experience changed, dynamics are much better, bass are tighter, imaging and soundstage also improved
The verdict here is, if you are mainly using efficient headphones or IEM, Gryphon is the way to go, if you have a wide range of gears, power hungry to power efficient, you’re better off with Angel
Final Thoughts
All in all, Angel is an excellent transportable dac/amp, for a portable user like me, i prefer to have something that’s powerful enough for the future in case i want to get some power hungry headphones, yet easily usable with efficient IEM. The price in my opinion is positioned justly given the build quality as well as the specifications and the listening experience.
With all that being said, The Angel does lack what I deemed is quite an important feature for most portable users, Line-in (the ability to use Angel as an amp only). However, it’s not really a deal breaker to me with all the features offered by it. The Angel no doubt will receive the recommendation from me for those who are looking for a high end portable dac/amp.
Head to the link below if you are interested in getting a unit yourself
Earmen Angel - Non affiliated
Comments
Post a Comment