The Zikman Seine was kindly provided free of charge in exchange for an honest review. I didn’t receive monetary or any other kind of compensation and I don’t use affiliate links.
The price of the Seine cable is €249 and you can buy it from Zikman Audio.
Zikman Audio
Zikman Audio is a relatively new boutique European brand that makes handcrafted earphone cables. It was founded by Andre Zikman, a person with a passion for sound rooted in his family tradition of radio engineering.
The cables are designed in Austria, where the company resides, and then hand-assembled in Lithuania with components made in Germany.
Zikman Audio Cables
The brand currently produces five different types of cables that are named after large European rivers. A clever naming practice that evokes impressions of the sound flowing through the cables just like the natural flow of the river water.
The Tiber, the Seine, the Rhine, the Danube and the Arno are Zikman’s five cables, made using 6N/7N OCC copper, high-purity silver or hybrid options with an advanced Litz technology and high quality hardware parts.
All cables are available with a choice of gold‑plated 2‑pin 0.78mm, MMCX, Pentaconn Ear, QDC or IPX connectors while terminations include rhodium‑plated 4.4mm, 3.5mm and 2.5mm plug options. The rhodium-plated connectors provide long term resistance to oxidation while the gold-plated contact points minimise signal loss and distortion. Every connection is hand-soldered using premium silver solder to maintain signal purity.
Moreover, all cables feature an interchangeable connector system so you can have one cable with various connectors and use it with several earphones without the need to buy another one. Changing connectors is as easy as removing a tiny screw with the provided screwdriver. Remove the old connectors, replace them with the new ones, then put the screws back in place and start listening to your favorite music.
Zikman Seine
The Zikman Seine is a 6N silver-plated copper (SPC) IEM cable, made with an advanced 8-wire structure where each conductor is composed of 56 ultra thin strands (0.05mm each) of high purity silver-plated copper. This is a low resistance and high conductivity design that ensures enhanced signal transmission and speed, promising fast transients, clean articulation, and extended treble energy. Zikman claims that the Seine balances clarity and airiness in the highs with natural mids and well defined, tight bass plus various other audio enhancements.
Build quality and handling impressions
The Zikman Seine is designed with a transparent outer sheathing that looks durable and inspires confidence that is not going to develop a yellowish tint over time. The plug, the connectors and the splitter have an industrial design and are made from high quality aluminum alloy that is carefully polished. The cable entry at the plug doesn’t have a strain relief so it may tear and wear at this point.
The ear-hooks retain their shape with the aid of an extra outer jacket and fit around the ears without a stiff feeling. The traditional L/R markings have been replaced by discreetly curved dots at the inner side of each connector. Don’t look for a chin slider because the Seine doesn’t have one.
The Seine is a beautiful looking and well made cable that is flexible and tangle resistant with low friction noise but it is not that lightweight because of its relatively heavy splitter.
The usual cable disclaimer
There is a great deal of subjectivity involved in audio reviews and cables especially that are even more challenging to review and evaluate within an acceptable frame of objectivity.
Sometimes it is difficult to spot meaningful sonic differences between cables, there is a great deal of placebo also involved, and even when you are confident about your findings there is still the chance that they only apply to a certain audio chain. Changing earphones or sources may result in other results, so it is always recommended to test the cables with your own gear before buying.
Listening impressions
The Seine cable was tested with the LETSHUOER Mystic 8 and the ISN Audio H60 earphones substituting their stock cables and with the iBasso DX180 as the source. Using more earphones or sources would make the test too complicated and more difficult to reach out a valid conclusion.
Generally speaking, the Zikman Seine is an audibly transparent and true to the source cable that doesn’t impart any sonic character of its own or act like a passive equaliser. All audio information passes through the cable and is delivered to the earphones unaltered without any tonal shifts or sound quality degradation.
Poorly designed SPC cables usually add sparkle and energy to the music but together with some kind of metallic brittleness and artificiality. They can also enhance detail retrieval but at the expense of cohesiveness.
The Seine is totally different though because it is a cable that can help bring out more resolution and add liveliness to the sound without any of the above mentioned side effects. The cable lets you dive deeper into the recording and discover more without making the earphones sound analytical or sterile.
More listening impressions
The bass is tight and controlled with the Seine but not more visceral or weighty than the stock cables. Dynamics are not restrained and the textures are well defined throughout the whole frequency range. The mid-range is reproduced with naturalness and clear articulation without losing weight or becoming drier.
The Seine sheds light in the treble and adds a touch of extra brilliance but it doesn’t make the earphones much brighter or sharper. It is a cable that can be primarily used to enliven slower or darker sounding earphones but someone can also use it to extract even more loads of energy and resolution from brighter sets without making them piercing and fatiguing.
In both use scenarios, the Seine also acts beneficially to the soundstage by opening it up more and enhancing the earphone’s imaging precision. Earphones with limited soundstage width can get a touch of expansiveness and already open sounding ones expand even more in all directions and reveal extra layers of space.
In the end
The Zikman brand was totally unknown to me before they reached out for this review. And I am glad they did because I discovered a high quality upgrade cable that can match with a lot of earphones and help enhance their sonic performance.
The Zikman Seine is also well made, a pleasure to handle, it has great looks and comes equipped with interchangeable connectors. A handcrafted cable that is made in Europe but it doesn’t cost more than similar mass produced ones. Now that I have travelled along the Seine, I am very curious to explore more of Zikman’s audio rivers.
Copyright – Petros Laskis 2025.
+ Sonically transparent and tonally flat
+ Can add more resolution without sounding analytica
+ Enhances soundstage perception and imaging
+ Adds treble energy without leading to brightness
+ Tight and controlled bass
+ Natural and colorless mid-range
+ Excellent build quality with high quality hardware parts
+ Great looks and handling experience
+ Low friction noise and tangle resistant
- Not much texture weight and elasticity
- Somewhat heavy splitter
- The sonic enhancements are not guaranteed with all earphones
- Doesn't have a chin slider and a strain relief at the plug
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