Earsonics Corsa Review
The balancer
Pros: – Warmish overall presentation
– Resolving and detailed
– Great integration between mids and lows
– Transparent
– Tight bass
– Excellent build quality
– Good quality cable
– Nice selection of ear tips and carrying case
– Made in France
Cons: – Bright top end and forward upper mids may not suit everyone
– Timbre lacks in coherency
– Bass is not full bodied
– Bulkier and heavier than the competition
The Corsa was provided by Earsonics in order to be reviewed for Headfi and hxosplus website.
They never asked for a favorable review and as always this is my honest and subjective evaluation of it.
Introduction
The French brand Earsonics is pretty well known among Headfi enthusiasts around the world but let us copy – paste some useful information from their website.
Earsonics was founded in 2005 by Franck Lopez, a musician and sound engineer, who, unhappy with the quality of in-ear monitors available at the time, decided to create his own.
In 2006, he began to offer his creation for sale and, enjoying immediate success, Earsonics was born.
Franck then decided to release a mainstream model which would appeal to markets outside of France: the SM3.
In 2012, Earsonics launched the first universal 6 driver earphone in the world, the S-EM6.
From its very beginning, Earsonics has always been associated with professional musicians, and it is by developing products for this industry that it has been able to offer earphones of exceptional quality to the discerning public.
For Earsonics, the most important criteria about listening to sound is absolute precision – just like the original recording, no effects or modifications – just reality.
The brand is offering most of their products both in custom and universal form and lately they have expanded to include wireles earphones.
The Corsa
The Corsa which is the latest addition in their catalog is a three way full balanced armature set up.
It uses three proprietary drivers designed exclusively for Earsonics: one for the lows , one for the mids and one for the highs.
They have implemented an impedance corrector crossover , coupled with EVS and FUSION technologies made in EarSonics, as well as their exclusive TRUEWAVE system incorporating the output cannula.
The outer shell is made from anodized zinc and magnesium alloy while the internal electronics are housed inside a new 3D full Acrylic structure that brings sound rigor and phase control.
Impedance is 31Ω and sensitivity is 119 dB/mW.
The design , manufacture and packaging of Corsa are entirely carried out in France in Earsonics’ private labs.
Cable
The detachable cable is a four core design featuring the 2 – pin connector system.
The plugs are well made and they fit snugly into the shell sockets.
The cable itself is of good quality but the white color doesn’t match that of the shell so we do think that a black one would be a better choice.
Accessories
Inside the box we are going to find four comply and eight silicon tips of various sizes plus a cleaning tool and a carrying box.
Build quality and fit
Build quality is just excellent and the Corsa looks and feels premium with a minimalistic industrial design and a matte , non shiny surface.
Truth is that the Corsa is a little bulky and weighty but thanks to the anatomically shaped outer shell and the extended nozzle we were able to get a good and comfortable fit.
Users with smaller ears may find it more difficult to get used to it and the increased weight can cause ear fatigue after a prolonged time of use.
Listening impressions
The Corsa is easy to drive so it is going to be happy with just a quality USB dongle like the EarMen Sparrow and the THX Onyx that we have used for the greatest bulk of the listening tests.
The Corsa is a slightly warm and musical sounding earphone with increased upper – mid and treble energy that adds a brighter and detailed top end.
The Bass is the typical balanced armature type with an agile and fast paced response that sits on the leaner side of things rather than being full bodied and weighty.
Tuning is balanced with good sub-bass extension and no traces of mid-bass bloat while masking is minimal , so various low register instruments sound well defined with nice layering and separation.
Bass is very tight and dynamics are present with a wide range of contrast that builds up an enhanced sense of realism although we would like it to be more controlled.
Mids are warm and balanced but there is a noticeable upper-mid emphasis that favors the top register of instruments and vocals of the region that have the tendency to become shouty.
Timbre is quite natural and organic with satisfying harmonic wealth and a full bodied note texture although upper-mids can sound a touch out of tune and slightly metallic.
Clarity is good but not crystalline and we would have loved some finer articulation but truth is that we didn’t bother a lot since we were busy enjoying the thoroughly integrated and well blended sound between lows and mids.
Treble is definitely emphasized and prominent, giving a brighter and forward top end to the Corsa but thankfully not reaching harsh or piercing territory.
There is a great sense of clarity and transparency while we get an excellent portion of detail retrieval without becoming too analytical.
One issue is that there is a loss in timbre quality and the higher frequencies don’t sound very well integrated with the rest of the audible spectrum.
Treble seems to stand detached and projected with a leaner texture and an overly rushed sound decay splitting the performance into two parts with uneven tone grades.
The soundstage is open and spacious , well proportioned without being artificially stretched.
Positioning of the instrumentalists is precise with good layering and depth for the category while there is a remarkable feeling of the inherent reverb and echo of the recording location.
At the end
The Corsa is trying to balance the warmish and organic sound signature with the luminous and highly detailed top end and it quite succeeds without becoming overly bright or clinical.
Quite versatile and suitable for most genres, it combines a musical and engaging character with good levels of transparency and clarity in a spacious and open presentation.
It is not perfect and driver integration with timbre cohesion could be better but still it is a great mid-priced offering with virtues that should appeal to a certain audience.
Build quality is top notch , cable is of high quality and accessory pack is full, making for an appealing offering made in France.
Copyright – Laskis Petros 2021