Venture Electronics VE Asura 2.0 SPC Earbuds - Earphones

Intended Use:I bought the Asura 2.0s with my own money (this is not a review of some free sample), and I want to share my experiences as a consumer. My main interest is in classical music, and this needs an equipment of appropriate quality. The Asura should be part of a mobile setup to be used in the garden or during travelling.The ProductThe Asura are classical earbuds. This is already the second generation, hence the number 2.0. The added “s” represents a silver coated cable, as VE offers the Asura with some other options (like balanced cables etc.). VE has three lines of earbuds, the Monk+, Asura, and Zen. These three differ regarding the impedance (Monk = 64 Ohms, Asura = 150 Ohms, Zen = 320 Ohms). This means that the Monk+ are easier to drive – like from a mobile phone – the Asura need a more powerful source, and the Zen probably (I do not own them) a designated headphone amplifier.I had no problems driving the Asura from an Astell Kern Junior, a Colorfly C10, and a Fiio X1 in the sense of getting sufficiently loud, but they clearly benefit from an external amp – in my case a Graham Slee Voyager.The housing of the Asura has a generic earbud shape, they visually appear like some cheap earbuds from the supermarket. Hence the money should go to what is inside these unremarkable cases.The cable is nice, but I am not really convinced that the material is of major relevance for the sound. There was only this version available on Amazon, anyway. However, the cable is relatively thick for an earbud, which I like, as I think it should last longer.UseAs earbuds, the Asura resemble open headphones and therefore are transparent to ambient noise, which is a good thing if you want to hear the traffic around you walking in the street. It is not so convenient, when you would like to listen to rather quiet music in noisy environments. The sound leak also goes in the opposite direction as it might be annoying for people sitting close to you. However, the analogy to open headphones also includes the open and airy character of the music, which just floats through the air around you. You can have a conversation while using the Asura and listen to some low volume music at the same time.You can use the Asura with or without foams of different density, silicon rings etc. For me the best sound was with the thin foams of the Monk+. There is a tradeoff, the foam increases low frequencies and takes away high frequencies. For classical music, the amount of bass was sufficient for me without foams, and I enjoy the increased transparency of the earbuds without foam, but the foams increase comfort a little and they make the earbuds sit more secure in your ears. The solution I found for myself is perforating the foams with six little holes close to the edge (at the position where the holes in the front plate of the speakers are), which leaves me with the better of two worlds regarding bass and treble. In the end it is the best to try out which setup corresponds best to personal preferences.SoundThese earbuds have the sonic properties of a very good full size headphone.The examples I refer to are from the CDs of the Royal Philharmonic Audiophile Collection converted to ALAC files (hence lossless). A good starting point for finding CDs from this collection is an Amazon search for “royal philharmonic masterworks”.BassThe bass goes very low and has a lot of punch. There is a very large and powerful bass drum in Prokofiev’s Kije’s Wedding, and the Asura excels in reproducing the energy of the drum, which gains a sort of “roundness”, where the bass is very controlled and precise. The low registers of Widors’s toccata make you feel like being there in front of a real organ.MidsThe mids are crystal clear and let you easily distinguish instruments playing at the same time like for instance in the 8th repetition (piccolos, horn, and celesta) of Ravel’s Bolero. The earbuds achieve a very precise reproduction of transients, as in the first movement of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez where next to the guitar the pleasantly “dry” and clean cue of the violins is amazing. String instruments sound especially nice and the Asura excel with Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Solo violins sound splendid; a good example is the recording of Max Bruch’s Scottish Phantasy, where the Asura gives a very natural and somehow floating reproduction of the violin and its very characteristic sound (which actually made me read about the particular violin the artist plays).HighsThe highs are very transparent without getting shrill. The highs are of such an excellent quality that they reveal the problems and/or particularities of the source like variations in sound quality of the CDs in the RPO Audiophile Collection, the breathing of a flutist or even the size of the room in which the recording had been made. What has been said about “roundness” of sound and control also applies to the treble. For example in the middle part of Elgar’s In the South there is a very high tone from a metallophone, which is easy to distinguish from the triangle (also present in the orchestration) by its sound. On the other hand, even though revealing, the treble is not prone to sibilance.SoundstageThe Asura give you the illusion of the sound floating around you, and at the same time the separation of instruments is very sharp. In the final sequence of Ginastera’s Variaciones Concertantes, the melody moves between different groups of brass, and closing your eyes you can observe the sound “jumping” from instrument to instrument and back to the very precise positions the musicians sit.ConclusionFor me the mobile setup with AK Jr, Graham Slee Voyager, and Asura 2.0s provides a perfect synergy, the setup shines with good recordings. Each component is of excellent quality, and the Asura is not the bottleneck. Listening to the Asura is a very immersive and highly musical experience. However, the precision of the Asura will reveal the quality or problems of the other elements in your audio chain.