SoundMAGIC E11 Earphones Review
SoundMAGIC are at it again with a follow-up to their popular E10 earphones, appropriately named the E11 edition (we have the E11C); promising more accuracy, comfort and value at just £39.99.
Design
The cut of the aluminium design looks mature and aids both sound and comfort. We simply cannot fault the fit and feel in-ear of the E11C earphones. They don’t move around or have any annoying downward drag for which you must compensate, even when dashing about with them in-ear. The reinforced cable contains silver pleated copper, which is supposed to provide a better quality of audio and, married to the aluminium earphones themselves, we certainly wouldn’t worry about sitting on them in your back pocket. ‘C’ in E11C stands for control and it’s a feature we’d encourage you to opt for over the regular E11s at a cost of £10. We’ve had a spell of earphones recently that simply don’t have comprehensive three button control design for Apple and Android devices, but here we have pause/play and volume functionality - a welcome change!
Audio Performance
In this department again we can’t fault the finer characteristics of the SoundMAGIC E11s. They’re a technical joy to have in the ears, unearthing qualities we’ve become used to hearing from the highly rated £149 RHA T20i earphones and other higher priced offerings. Plainly speaking, audio is crisp, tight and volume is enormous and doesn’t peril into distortion. SoundMAGIC are certainly delivering on their claim of fantastic value and we’re not entirely sure how they’ve pulled it off this time, as they definitely haven’t skimped on the build quality.
The sharp layering is probably the stand out quality for us. ‘The Bridge We Built’, by The Magic Lantern, showcases a generous atmosphere around instrumentals and vocals that isn’t common place at this end of the market. A clear mid-range is shown from performances of all kinds and these earphones definitely highlight acoustical sounds, something middle of the market priced earphones can be a little lacklustre with. Of course, advantages for stereo separation become present within the tightness of audio that has precise flowing sound waves in left and right channels in pieces like the bouncy introduction to ‘Such Great Heights’ by The Postal Service. Bass is dark and dives low, as demonstrated with ‘Train Song’ by Holly Core: again, almost to the earthy levels of the £149 RHA T20i earphones; and despite the saturated depth, high ranges don’t get drowsy in amongst the starkness between frequencies.
Verdict
SoundMAGIC have pulled another outstanding release out of the hat with the E11 earphones. A brilliant fit and feel and a pair of earphones that set the stage for our future earphone price to audio performance & build quality benchmarking.