Letshuoer Ember Review: Big Planar Energy
Letshuoer is a Chi-Fi IEM brand that’s been consistently gaining recognition with quality products and covering a wide range of pricing, particularly known for their mastery over planar IEMs ever since the S12 became a popular budget earphone choice among the communities. While the brand has successfully branched out into premium and hybrid IEMs with the Cadenza and EJ series, the Ember represents a focused return to their popular roots, albeit with a significantly more refined and “summit-fi” approach to the single-planar-driver formula. Globally limited to 999 units worldwide, Letshuoer Ember is priced at $499 and is a collaborative product with Effect Audio. In this review, we’ll be covering the inside-out features, get in-depth sound impressions, and compare with popular planar IEMs from other brands. Let’s get into it.
Packaging / Accessories
Ember comes in a nicely designed book-sized packaging box embossed with the silver signature patterns that are also applied to the Ember earpieces. Opening the packaging box, you are greeted with the Ember earphones, a carrying case, 9 pairs of different sizes/shapes of eartips, a warranty card, and a user manual. The included carrying case consists of a metal bowl with silicone lids, offering robust protection while keeping the weight and convenience.
Special Collaboration: Effect Audio UP-OCC Stock Cable
Ember comes with a custom-grade cable, produced in collaboration with Effect Audio, a renowned cable manufacturer based in Singapore. The stock cable is a 4-braid UP-OCC Monocrystalline copper conductors with a 26 AWG gauge. The surface is finished with matte grey shielding. The cable is lightweight, slim, and pliable, allowing comfortable outdoor usage without causing microphonics or feeling weighty. The cable components are made of light, sturdy metal. The parts are made with mirror-finished silver and matte black, which visually match nicely with the IEMs.
Lightweight, Ergonomical Earpieces
As hinted earlier, Ember is a single planar driver IEM yet targeted for the premium-tier among its planar product line-up. Letshuoer deployed a whopping 14.8mm planar driver, which is possibly the largest diameter possible to be applied to the standard earphone form factors. Letshuoer highlights it as a proprietary flagship planar driver that is fully upgraded from legacy planar drivers, having boosted core sonic performances and controls by ~20%.
Design-wise, the faceplates are adorned with flame-inspired patterns, finished with glossy silver and matte black colors. The housing is made of matte black titanium alloy that feels sturdy in the hand yet remains surprisingly lightweight and comfortable when worn. The noir, stealthy look hinted at shiny silver parts works very nicely without getting flashy in design. It uses a standard 2-pin connector with flushed pins. The earpieces are designed ergonomically, keeping the body slim yet achieving ideal insertion depth.
Next Page: Sound Impressions of Ember / How does it Sound?