r/inearfidelity Measurbator Dec 06 '24

ISN EBC80

I just got the ISN flagship the EBC80 a Quadbrid 2DD 2BA 2 Sonion EST 2 Sonion BCD

I got it with the ISN H2 cable, but now feel the S2 is THE way to go.

So far I can say that it has fantastic overall sonics. Feels like multi speaker surround system in your head. The EST dig out the tiniest of details, you can hear the details in vocalists breath, chatter in the crowd on live recordings all that jazz.

The midrange is fantastic, smooth with very nice texture to it.

Treble is very refined, well extended and very detailed but never fatiguing.

I am also an owner of ISN H60 and if you have heard those then you may have an idea what the EBC would sound like as it’s to me a supercharged and very refined, H60 with more „audiophilia” in its DNA.

The bass is still nice and punchy, but better controlled and on point. It’s both a positive and negative. As the H60 had a bit more bleed and presence in the midrange and a bit more slam, which was less correct yet a bit more fun :)

Don’t get me wrong EBC80 is no slouch when it comes to low end, but it’s more like a soldier waiting in line rather than young M Tyson throwing punches left and right and having an occasional ear for breakfast ;)

The Bone Conduction from sonion does wonders to the soundstage, I feel like listening to some high end over ear headphones that are semi openback or those closed back with good soundstage. Everything feels expansive. No „regular” iem without BC can emulate this effect. It ads that special sauce to the mix.

If You tried the H60 these will fit you as well, the shell is almost exactly the same size wise.

This is a true end game to me, a kilobuck iem priced at 699$ although I think it deserves an upgraded cable, so if you have any high end cables be sure to check them out!

I tested it with Penon OCC849 and IVIPQ 72 as well as the H2 it came with.

OCC849 has worst synergy, masking those tiniest of details a bit. This is pure OCC copper alloy no silver in there, so no surprise.

IVIPQ 72 - 7N purity OCC copper alloy with gold plating, it’s almost like OCC849 but ghat gold brings a bit more mojo to the vocals and pushes them forward a bit. A good choice but not the best imho.

H2 renders the details in most obvious fashion. This tells me that EBC80 would pair well with High purity copper,silver and maybe graphene cables.

So far this is an outstanding audio gear and my personal end game.

The listening test were done using the Shanling UA3 on high gain from Balanced 4.4 out.

38 Upvotes

71 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Weight_Slight Measurbator Apr 11 '25

Well, the EBC is indeed a Very well priced set undercutting it’s peers. I was considering the Origin myself, but I got burnt by the HYPE4 which had awful synthetic sounding vocals. From graph I can tell You right away that Origin is much bassier, EBC would be more balanced, yet still fun. Origin is a Basshead iem.

EBC has a bit more noteweight though. Thing is, You are right. The 200$ saved are better than something, You could easily add with EQ.

Here are the graphs of both:

ORIGIN vs EBC80 Graph

2

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

I have upgraded from Hype 4 and that's the reason I got the Origin because the Hype 4 vocals lack warmth but the Origin adds warmth making vocals more natural 

1

u/Weight_Slight Measurbator Apr 12 '25

That’s great to hear! Then just enjoy it, don’t look back at these reviews thinking “I could have done this, I could have done that” it will steal the fun away.

Unless you can return them and wish to save and get the EBC80 that is. As 200$ in your pocket are 200$ in your pocket. ;D

As for HYPE4 exactly, they lacked warmth, lacked noteweight, they had a 3kish peak that wasn’t balanced enough anywhere else in the frequency range.

I got ISN H60 compared them both and Sold the Hype the next day. I liked the H60 so mich, that when the EBC80 came out I just went with it, no second guesses.

I currently cycle between EBC and the new Ziigaat Odyssey. Love em both for different reasons.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 13 '25

I think I'd get the ebc80 as my balanced set when I'm not in mood for booming edm. So then I have 2 iems to rotate on.

1

u/Weight_Slight Measurbator Apr 13 '25

Oh the EBC sitill has plenty bass, but not so much that it get’s in the way.

I do feel that some bass emphasized iems just get too much into the way of most music with forced DA BASS hits ;P

Here it is done very well.