LETSHUOER Mystic 8 - Sound of Clarity
Review From：Leonarfd
Disclaimer
I got Mystic 8 for free in return for a review, I am free to say whatever I want.
So what is LETSHUOER Mystic 8
This is the newest IEM from LETSHUOER, this is a high end model priced at $989. The Mystic is part of a new series from the Myst Series.
Let's take a look at my summary first
Pros:
Technical and balanced.
Smooth and clean.
Tight and deep bass.
Good vocal clarity without sibilance.
Airy and open.
Very good spatial cues and wide stage
Unique black design.
Small and ergonomic titanium alloy shell.
Nice new metal puck with silicone lid.
Thin and light cable 8W SPC cable.
Cons:
BA bass lack elasticity of a dynamic driver.
Could have had a little more note weight through the mid bass or lower midrange.
Design can be to much.
Cable prone to tangle.
The Mystic 8 has driver configuration of 8 Balanced Armatures, all of them are branded drivers from Knowles (4) and Sonion (4). The Mystic 8 have been under development for two years, with carefully tuning to make it perfect for their vision.
The Mystic 8 has a total of 4 acoustic tubes together with a 3 way crossover circuit, this to get tuning how they want without distortion of the sound.
The model uses a low-pass filter module with acoustic tubes to make the bass deeper and more dynamic, this is also done to make the bass being well separated from the rest of the sound.
Instead of me mentioning about all the specs is better to copy some from the product page:
8 Balanced Armature Drivers
Sonion + Knowles BA drivers
Low-Pass Filtering Module
Three-Way Electronic Crossover
Four-Way Acoustic Tube
Precision CNC Titanium Alloy Shell
8-Strand × 20-Core Single Silver-Plated Monocrystalline Copper Cable
0.78mm dual pin connector
The black titanium alloy shell is a nice touch, at first glance it looks similar to resin shells. But immediately you can feel the solid material when picking them up, making it feel way more premium in the hand.
The design is very subjective, and for some this might look too much. Personally I love when brands think outside the box to make something special and unique, so the mythical cat creature is artistic and I appreciate it.
The design has some meaning with the black representing the Phantom Cat, and the silver part being the misty veil with the diamond being the star that lights up the mist.
The packaging and accessories are as great as always from LETSHUOER, this time they have included a new type of accessories that I really like.
I love the new cable and storage puck. They match the design perfectly of Mystic 8, and are of good quality.
The storage puck is this time metal with a silicon lid, this seems to be air tight and make storing it very secure. Just beware if you live in a humid environment, then you should have a silica gel or something equivalent to remove moisture. The inside and underside of the box also have silicon material, so the IEM is very secure in the puck.
The cable also sounds really good, I see no reason to change this cable unless you have very high end cables.Premium Silver-Plated Monocrystalline Copper Cable,This premium cable, shielded by a dielectric material, effectively reduces distortion and improves signal transmission, ensuring a pure acoustic experience and smooth transition across the frequency bands.
Sound Impression
The sound of the Mystic 8 is what I consider neutral and resolving, with a focused and beautiful midrange presentation. There is also some smoothness to the sound that matches well with the tuning.
Going to use the ranges here in review:
20-60Hz------------Sub Bass
60-250Hz ---------- Bass(mid)
250-800Hz----------Low Mids
600-2000Hz---------Mids
2000Hz-5000Hz -----Upper Mids
5000-10000Hz ------ Trble/Highs
10000Hz++ Upper --- Trible & Air
Details and soundstage
Detail in IEMs is down mostly to quality driver and how it amplitudes the frequencies, also when the driver is faster it increases the resolution you hear.
The Mystic 8 is definitely among the sets that have more clarity and microdetails, it also manages it without being overly bright. I guess some of the reason is the drivers and the combination of tuning not being overly warm, but also since it has extended top end and no excessive recessed areas.
Soundstage is very personal, I find Mystic 8 to be above average in how separated and holographic the stage is. Even the stage width is really good for an IEM, makes spatial cues be very easy to pinpoint and paints a holographic sound picture.
Bass
Downside of BA sets is the bass, it always lacks some elasticity of a dynamic driver and can therefore sound a little lifeless and dry. The best BA sets can still convince with very good quality bass, what they excel at is fast, clean and punchy low end.
The Mystic 8 has excellent sub bass reach, it can produce good rumble and is well suited for both music and movies. The bass is very agile and has good definition, it can even deliver some good punch with fast rebound in the decay.
It has more of a sub bass focus than mid bass, so for me it excels more at electronica or jazz than rock or metal. Metal still sounds very good and Mystic 8 handles fast kick drums with ease, it's just that I prefer more thump for it.
It just lacks that extra elastic quality only dynamic drivers can achieve, but even so it does a very good job and one is one of the better BA implementations for bass I have heard.
Mids
The midrange is beautiful on Mystic 8, it is clear and nuanced without being aggressive. It has no amount of bloom from the bass, this makes the midrange sound very open.
I would say it excels more at higher pitched instruments and vocals more than lower pitched ones, the main reason for this is since I like more husk on stuff like tenor voices or guitars and more.
It is still very natural and is more of a preference thing, so when listening to music with a grand piano that uses octaves from low to high it just sounds very natural and realistic. Some would see this presentation of the low midrange as perfect, as its minimal coloration if any.
Had to look at measurement of the Mystic 8 to understand how it managed to be so midrange focused without ever being too intense for me, I usually do not do much graph sniffing as I think this can skew my impressions.
It seems like the combination of clean low midrange and how the pina/upper mids is executed, upper mid range peak is with 6-7 dB of gain around 2 KHz. It is very good that it's fully raised early enough to get good resolution, and the use of lower pina works great since the bass isn't overbearing. I am sensitive to too much elevation, but often it is needed for clarity and Mystic has done well to go around this problem.
Treble
The high frequencies are plenty extended and airy, music is open and can shimmer when called for. For balanced armature the quality is excellent, being airy without any intense unnatural quality in the highs. I believed that I needed EST for the upper treble, as some sets from 64audio and Symphonium had what I call uncanny and tiresome treble. I found out with Cadenza 12 that good premium treble can be done with BA alone, being both well present without any uncanniness. And the same is true for Mystic 8, even more so that Cadenza 12 as its more present on Mystic 8.
Ending
Sources is where the fun starts, this is where I find the most change on Mythic 8. I use my desktop stack for lots of my review time, this is magical on the Mystic 8.
I have also taken this another step by using the DAC together with Cayin HA-2A to get some tube magic, the sound gets a little softer up top then with little extra body. Biggest change is that it really improves the soundstage width and height making it more 3D holographic.
And even with the iBasso DX180 the Mystic 8 sounds great, this is a more clean and crisp presentation that some would prefer than the combos above.