Hello, I’m Alexander, and today we are checking the ThieAudio Elixir, a very special single DD IEM. I would like to thank Linsoul for providing the sample for this review. No one paid me to make this review. I don’t offer any specific opinions and all thoughts expressed in this review are my own.
ThieAudio Elixir features a special dynamic driver. It has a light alloy shells with faceplates that are milled from solid genuine burl wood block. It comes with a high-quality de-attachable Litz copper cable, and has a balanced tonality. Let’s start with the unboxing first.
ThieAudio Elixir arrived in a large black box with a sleeve. There is a THIEAUDIO logo on the front of the sleeve. The company information on the back of the sleeve. Inside the sleeve, there is a black box.
In the box:
- ThieAudio Elixir IEMs
- a beautiful navy color carrying case with a magnetic lid
- a de-attachable cable
- 3 pairs of silicone ear tips
- 3 pairs of foam ear tips
- a cleaning cloth
- and a user manual.
The impedance of ThieAudio Elixir is 18 Ohms, and the sensitivity is 112db.
Design and build
The shells of ThieAudio Elixir are where things start to become interesting. Two glued-together parts form the shells. The base of the shell consists of a light alloy. ThieAudio used a solid genuine burl wood block to create the face plates and the acoustic chamber. It is then coated and embedded within the aluminum bezel. Each faceplate is unique, and I think this design not only looks aesthetically pleasing but is also very interesting. Each Elixir unit undergoes an additional round of QC, that consists of both sound measurements and the build inspection.
The shells are medium in size with a slightly shorter nozzle which unfortunately affected the fit in my case. The nozzle diameter is 5 mm. There is also 1 vent located on the top of the ThieAudio Elixir and another one close to the nozzle. The acoustic chamber that hosts the driver was carefully designed and engineered. It helps to achieve the required tonal signature and each driver is also carefully selected and pair-matched. The driver is also quite different from the traditional dynamic drivers. Its diaphragm is composed of beryllium-coated layers of carbon nanotube sheets, which create an extremely dense and rigid membrane. It is capable of higher tensions, resulting in better responsiveness.
Cable
The cable that comes with ThieAudio Elixir is high quality. I don’t believe the cables have any impact on the sound. But I still care about cable quality, flexibility, and visual aesthetics. The IEMs feature a 26AWG cable composed of a mixture of single-crystal copper and silver-plated OCC copper cores. The cable has a 3.5mm single-ended cable termination on one end, and 0.78mm connector terminations on the other. It’s low in microphonics and has a metal splitter and a metal chin slider.
The connectors have blue and red dots to indicate the channel aThieAudio mentioned the hand-paired cable. But I just can’t ignore the silver connectors, which don’t suit the overall color scheme.
Talking about fit & comfort, ThieAudio Elixir is lightweight. But it has a short nozzle and it required some tips rolling. And I was unable to find a good seal and fit with the provided stock silicone ear tips. Using Elixir with Dunu’s Stage & Studio ear tips helped me achieve a proper fit and seal.
The Elixir is lightweight and ergonomic it won’t be tiring if you plan to use them during long listening sessions. But the generic fit and short nozzle length might not suit everyone’s ears.
🛒 ThieAudio Elixir on Amazon
ThieAudio Elixir sound overview
As always, all sound impressions on my channel are completely subjective. You should take it with a grain of salt.
Despite having a low impedance and high sensitivity, ThieAudio Elixir requires some power to open up and shine. My Samsung Galaxy S10 was struggling in this regard. I highly recommend pairing Elixir even with dongles that can provide at least 50 milliwatts of power at 32 Ohms. This will help to utilise Elixir’s driver capabilities and the tuning fully.
The single dynamic driver IEM market is over saturated, so what exactly makes Elixir a special IEM? It stands out with a balanced and natural tonality. And I can describe it as warm-neutral, with a well-rounded bass, detailed midrange, airy treble. It also has good amount of details, and a hint of vintage tube sound. Sounds intriguing, right?
The bass here is north of neutral, it’s detailed, fast. It’s punchy with a good amount of details and resolution so a lot of people will appreciate it. ThieAudio Elixir has quite a prominent sub-bass which is more dominant than the mid-bass. Still, the mid-bass has a solid body and impact. If you are my YouTube subscriber then you know that my musical tastes are very diverse. I particularly enjoyed the Elixir bass response with well-recorded EDM and metal music that has double-bass drums playing. Despite much information in the lower frequencies with such genres, the bass on Elixir was detailed, punchy, and fast.
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While some other single dynamic driver IEMs aim for a more V-shaped tuning, ThieAudio Elixir takes a different approach. There is some bass bleed into the lower midrange, but for the most part, it’s linear, neutral, and informative. The timbre is excellent and the midrange neither lacks clarity nor energy. The presentation is full-bodied and lush. The upper midrange is crisp and detailed and I found the midrange on Elixir very enjoyable. Especially with rock and metal music, where electric guitars had enough bite, texture, and definition.
The treble is rounded and smooth but is still resolving and detailed. It’s neither harsh or grainy nor dark or veiled and follows the overall tuning well. The treble reveals many details and nuances. It’s a good example of a well-tuned treble that a lot of the competition in this price bracket is lacking. There is enough sparkle and air for my personal preference. But if you are looking for a very resolving and analytical treble, you need to look elsewhere. The Elixir is tuned to have a neutral warm sound presentation. And this statement is true about each part of their frequency response, including the treble.
The soundstage is above average in width. The same goes for the depth, but the sound stage is not very tall. Instruments hold their particular places in space well, and the soundstage is large. The imaging is good and detail retrieval is good as well, especially compared to a lot of the competition. And I feel there is no need to be exceptionally picky here.
Elixir brings fun and excitement, with its punchy and fast bass, lush midrange, and rounded yet detailed treble. And it might be a very good IEM for you if warm neutral sound signatures are what you are looking for.
So what do I like about this IEM?
- Warm-neutral sound signature
- Transparent and cohesive sound
- Beautiful lightweight shells
- Burl-wood acoustic-chamber design
- Strong dynamic driver bass
- Lush and textured midrange
- Smooth and rounded treble
- Quality stock cable
- A good set of accessories
- and an excellent price-to-performance ratio
What I didn’t like?
- The fit may vary due to the short nozzles
- and cable connectors don’t match the IEM color scheme.
As per ThieAudio, with Elixir they wanted to capture that old-school sound and vintage feeling and they masterfully accomplished it. ThieAudio Elixir is perfect for many genres and no matter what music I was throwing at it, it sounded wonderful. It stands out with excellent design, balanced and natural tonality, strong bass, and lush midrange. It impressed me and I can recommend it to anyone looking for a daily driver IEM with warm tonality.
And that concludes my review for today. If you want to see more content like this consider subscribing to my YouTube channel for future updates. Thank you for joining me, and until next time, goodbye!
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