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Product Description
The EM5813 is the debut IEM from Cardas Audio, an Oregon-based, family-run manufacturer that specializes in premium audio cables and component parts. The result of years of meticulous design by founder George Cardas, it’s efficient, natural, musical, and complete with an eye-catching copper finish Read More
Cardas EM5813 earphones are extremely nice earphones, and I will recommend them anytime. Sound quality is so good. I have more than a few earphones, mostly from Massdrop. My top earphones are the Shure 846, I will consider these Cardas my second top earphones in terms of sound. Bass is soo good. I am not a bass head, but with these earphones I enjoy bassy songs such as Low and My House by Flo Rida. Female voice sound so exquisite. Listening to Lovers by Shigeru Umebayashi you fell in love with Kathleen Battle, even though she is famous for being difficult to love! The stage on that song sounds high and wide. I really do not understand how to measure the stage, but that is the felling that I get listening to it.
Other songs comments:
Money for Nothing by Dire Straits and Hotel California: from the start of the songs how the different instruments come together. You can hear the main guitar at the centre, the other guitar to the left, then metallic plate on the right, and then drums at the centre back. So the positioning is great.
Rotation and Rise by Herb Alpert: the bass again is so nice, the piano so alive. For sure the mic was inside the piano during the recording. The trumpet is so emotional, so romantic. I just really enjoy my downtime listening to these songs with these earphones
The Echo Game by Shigeru Umebayashi. Again, the drums are so alive. This melody \ song get really messy sound wise with so many drums. I will say these earphones have a little more clarity than the Shure 846.
Ouvre by Cecilie Noer and I Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. I have put these 2 songs together for the different sounds in the background. Also the guitar in “I Wish You Were Here” you can almost hear each single string! It is so clear with these earphones.
Classical as Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, Erik Satie, Franz Liszt, etc. Again the sound stage enhance the experience plus the clarity.
The following sample songs are so fun to listen to with the earphones.
· Despasito by Luis Fonsi
· I got a feeling by the Black Eyed Peas
· Shotgun by George Ezra
· What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes
· In the Summertime by Shaggy
· Music by Aqua
Other things: They look very pretty! The earphones are comfortable in the ear even in long sessions. The cable is awesome, but it is a pain in the back side. The cable is so thick and heavy that makes these earphones more for home than for mobile purpose. Also, the case that comes with it, is so small. You need time to roll them properly to make them fit. Funny enough the lower end of Cards earphones comes with a bigger case and the cable is not as thick!
DAC \ Amp used: Chord Mojo and Massdrop Liquid Carbon X + SDAC. Music source: Spotify Premium, and Tidal HIFI.
These earphones are better than (no in any particular order):
· Shure 216
· BGBP DMG
· TRN V80
· NS-5
· Echobox Audio Finder X1
· TFZ Galaxy 2 and Kings
· Tenhz K5
· TFZ Air King
· Massdrop x Noble Luxe In-Ear Monitors
the original double decker eartip is comfly enough, n provide very good isolation..however, its extra length seems to push out a little too much bass, sound becomes very thick...maybe it suits some, but certainly not me..
my solution, replace it spinfit eartip.. first more comfortable, as the tio is now sitting less deep in the ear...bass is, as expected, a little less..hence, improve the clarity, and the sound becomes more balanced...
my day-to-day machine only offers 6.35 n 4.4 plug.. made tge tough decision to mod the iem by replacing its 3.5 plug by furutech 4.4 balanced plug... cardas cable was not very diy friendly, better keep an eye on tge temp during soldering... fortunately, relevant info can be found from cardas webpages.
with 4.4 plug, n spinfit tip...this iem sounds great to my ears..balance, accurate, separation is natural..
Okay. we all know by this point that our take on the sound signature of any device is going to be very subjective. After trying several eartips, I got a very good seal with Comply T500 large tips. This gave me a consistent seal with a basis to compare to other earphones.
These phones are more bass forward than my Shure SE535's and don't have the sharp sparkle at the higher end. They are very similar to the Klipsch 4S. Some will describe the sound as warm and non-fatiguing. Others might find them somewhat muffled or soft. It really is a matter of choice rather than a knock on the overall quality of these earphones. I don't find them overly heavy and the construction of the body seems very substantial.
My biggest gripes have to do with the cables, which is ironic given that Cardas is primarily known for cables. The cables are stiff and covered with a hard, rough fabric. This makes the cables microphonic and transmit those sounds with any small movement. This is especially notable in quiet passages. The clip helps, but is not a great solution. A more compliant, rubber exterior casing would go a long way to making these a more pleasant set of phones.
For $150, these are certainly well made and a good buy for someone looking for a bass biased and "laid back" sound signature. If microphonic cable bother you, then you should look elsewhere. My $.02
If the term is confusing it is because I used a word that people can relate to, but technically is used incorrectly in my review. The more accurate term is telephonic because I'm referring to vibrations transmitted by the cables to the body of the earphone. True microphonics would be the electrical noise you are referring to. The Cardas earphones are well built, but spoiled by bad cables.
I bought a pair off here i love everything ive bought from this site.I bought this pair of cardas EM5813 they sound like you have wet rags covered in the earbuds down a dirty hallway. dont waste your money.I love DROP but please dont waste your time with these ear buds.
Darkest piece i own, (Not sure what the definition for DARK is but these things are what I have always assumed/imagined it to be) the upper end slopes off early on, that's the way it's tuned, meaty bass and lush mids. They scale well with clean power and are the least fatiguing and easiest to listen to IEM's I own. Beautiful soundstage deep rich bass. I'm happy to have this sound signature in my collection. I honestly have no idea what folks like and feel like I am tone deaf compared to those who go into deep detail speaking about sound signatures and extreme frequency spikes. I can easily compare these to other items I have though and the difference is intense and blatantly obvious to even the least experienced audiophile. I happen to really enjoy these but I am sure others will hate them, they are their own thing, not bad, but very different to what seems to be typical. These will never tire you out or fatigue you, it's not possible, they are so laid back. At the low price of $100 it's silly not to at least experience this sound signature, hell the cable alone would cost you more to have made by anyone out there and it's a serious monster, I wish it was not connected so I could use it on other IEM's. Absolutely happy I jumped on these. Happy Listening
The only good thing about them is the look. They are beautifully crafted, like gold jewellery, however this is where it ends.
These earphones are only suitable for home use, as the cable is stiff, thick and the earphones loose seal with head movement.
You can run them for 50,100,500 hours and use best possible source and the earphones still sound muffled, with poorly controlled overemphasised bass, lacking details, no air.
It's pity as I really like to love them. They are sold and I have absolutely no regrets.
Plain and simple, I don’t like these. The headphones crackle when connected to any audio source that I have. You have to hold completely still not to have any static or crackle in the music being reproduced. They are not comfortable, and to me the sound is merely average. I regret this purchase.
The cord is so monstrous it makes using them undesirable, especially when I could be listening to my BLON-BL03 that have removable cables and sound significantly better than these. For $99, maybe, if you're okay with only using these sitting in a completely static position.
g0ldl10nThe BLON BL03 is probably the best bargain in earphones today. OK, you do have to get some good tips and change the cables. You have to spend around $150 to get anything else comparable. I heard good things about the Shouer Tape ($130).
candygram4mongoOh, you had to do that didn't you..? Making an audiophile aware of a pair of hybrid electrostatic IEMs that they were never aware of before.. You know what I just did, don't you? I bought a pair.. lol..