When I reviewed an Audeze product last – the Sine headphones with the cipher cable – I remember being amazed at the company’s engineering chops. From using NASA’s tech to create planar magnetic drivers to using Designwork’s – a BMW subsidiary – help to design the Sine, Audeze just knows how to marry the absolute best from technology into a compact package. In fact, I think that Audeze is one of the very few brands that is at least innovating in the space of headphones, considering this space is generally averse to change; remember when Apple decided to jack the headphone jack? 

However, recently, this American brand went one step further and did the unthinkable. It launched the Audeze iSine 10 and 20 in-ear monitors (IEM). What’s so great about them? Well, both these IEMs use planar magnetic drivers in a small form factor. It is just mind-boggling to think that Audeze managed to shrink these drivers and fit them into something that weighs only 20 grams.

Audeze decided to bring these IEMs to India in collaboration with Headphone Zone recently. They sent me a unit of the more affordable of the two IEMs – the iSine 10 for review. I can’t wait to tell you guys how it sounds and if it is worth the hefty asking price of Rs 29,990.

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What you need to know about the iSine 10?

Like I said earlier, the iSine 10 is a pair of IEMs that use two individual planar magnetic drivers in each earphone. How big are these drivers you ask? Well, they are 30mm in size. Now, those are massive drivers for a pair of earphones. In fact, I think these are the biggest drivers ever used on a pair of earphones. For reference,  most basic earphones with dynamic drivers are generally anywhere between 9mm and 11mm in size. This is truly some engineering wizardy by Audeze. 

What’s more, the Audeze iSine 10 are actually open back which means that you can expect great amount of clarity and detail in your music. The downside, however, is that they are bound to leak sound. Just FYI, planar magnetic drivers are made using materials that are used by world’s premier space research agency NASA. Head to this link to learn about planar magnetic tech in detail.

The moment you lay eyes on the iSine 10, you’d either be entirely in awe or repulsed. I haven’t – in my years of reviewing gadgets – seen such a polarising response to the design of any product; folks who saw the iSine 10 either loved them or hated them. But there is no denying that, despite being whacky, the design is radical and futuristic. If I have to draw a parallel to the iSine 10 earphones’ webbed design, I think they look a lot like Spiderman’s black suit. If you have to ask me, I found them attractive and desirable, and definitely worth every penny.

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Apart from the lightning cable, the earphones also come with another cable with a 3.5mm jack. Both the cables are flat and therefore they don’t tangle easily. Furthermore, you also get two pairs of ear hooks and ear locks. The ear hooks are made of metal and, quite honestly, I found them rather uncomfortable for long use. Similarly, the ear locks were too tiny for my concha. In all, I think that the ear locks would be more comfortable for most folks. 

The advantage of using a lightning cable is that Audeze can bypass the in-built DAC of the iPhone. What this essentially means is that Audeze can tune the sound signature of the iSine 10 according to its preference and deliver a much better sound to your ears by default. The downside of using a separate DAC is that the inline remote becomes heavy and it tends to weigh down the earphones. I had to use the bundled cloth clip to prevent that from happening. 

While IEM specs don’t really mean anything, I still think that iSine 10’s total harmonic distortion of <0.1% @ 100dB is very, very impressive. What this essentially indicates is that you will hear near distortion-free sound. Moreover, Audeze also promises a flat frequency wave at the lowest end i.e. 10hz. 

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Engineering marvel but there are some issues

All the fancy heavy-hitting tech inside the iSine 10 notwithstanding, I faced this minor annoyance with the fit – despite using the ear hooks, I always had this feeling that the earphones would fall off at any time. I felt like this because of the fact that the iSine 10 don’t actually sit deep in your ear canal. However, this makes it easier for Audeze to create a sense of space and emulate the performance of a much bigger pair of headphones. And trust me, it actually works. The spacious soundstaging is something I’ve never experienced in an IEM before. This is something you have to hear for yourself to understand the magnitude of expertise gone into making the iSine 10. 

However, I must say that don’t make the mistake of using the iSine 10 anywhere apart from the confines of your room. Firstly because, I am pretty sure you don’t want to annoy anyone with the excessive sound leak. Mind you, the iSine 10 can get really loud – not just inside your ears, but also outside. And secondly, if you are out and about with the iSine 10 you are bound to hear the din of daily traffic over your music. 

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The iSine 10 offers a clean sonic delivery with a clear emphasis on the low end of the spectrum. In fact, the bass response will stun you with its attack. Also, the tuning of the sound is so good that you won’t hear any artefacts or distortion in your audio whatsoever. They are so accurate in their delivery that I could pinpoint all the inefficiencies in poorly recorded music and compressed .mp3 tracks. I heard a crackling sound in Desiigner’s massive hit Panda. While the bass is impressive, the mids are not as tight and crisp as I’d have ideally liked it to be. Thankfully though, none of the  frequencies bleed into each other, and you will hear a great amount clarity and definition in the sound that you haven’t heard before in an IEM. Even the treble response is controlled with the right amount of extension. 

The iSine 10 is a great pair of open-back IEMs with planar magnetic drivers that can play back any genre of music with relative ease, and don’t forget the fact that you also get a stellar sonic signature. 

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Should you buy it?

There is no doubt that the Audeze iSine 10 is a superb pair of IEMs, one that is in a league of its own. However, I still can’t help but ask this question – who is it for? Or, who should actually buy an Audeze iSine 10. The inherent quality of earphones is that it is meant to be portable and inconspicuous. The iSine 10 completely subverts that logic: it looks odd (subjectively), weighs down on your ears, and leaks sound. 

Therefore, if you are considering spending Rs 29,990 on the iSine 10, you better be a very serious audiophile – the kind that lurks around the head-fi forums. Obviously, you also need to be an iPhone owner to enjoy the power of the Cipher cable. As for the rest of us, including me, we can settle for something like the RHA-T20i.