Symphonium Helios Review: Uncompromised Engineering

Review written by @Fc-Construct

Review unit provided by headphones.com

Introduction

The topic of today’s review is the Symphonium Helios, a $1,100 IEM hailing from one of the meccas of personal audio, Singapore. The story behind the Helios’ development is particularly interesting – a few passionate community audiophiles decided to take the hobby into their own hands and launched their own high-end IEM brand: Subtonic. During the development of their own products, Subtonic partnered with yet another Singaporean brand, Symphonium Audio. Through these collaborative R&D efforts, the Symphonium Helios was born. With its 4 balanced armature design and kilobuck price, the Symphonium Helios promises to set a new standard for IEMs for the modern market. First and foremost is their no compromises approach to proper IEM engineering, something the lead designer of Subtonic is keen to inform me of. Let’s see how it fairs.

What’s in the Box?

The unboxing experience of the Helios is straightforward. A simple black box with its name and logo on the front and a proud “Made in Singapore, lah” on the back. For accessories, we get a circular metal screw case, a nozzle cleaner, and a couple of brand stickers. It comes with 6 pairs of S/M/L tips, one set being generic silicon and the other a premium Azla Sedna set. Finally, we get the IEM and the cable. The cable is a 2-pin cable with no pre-molded earhooks. It’s more premium than what you’d find stock in most places but nothing too special. A minor aesthetic nitpick I have is where the 2-pin connector fits with the Helios – it doesn’t sit completely flush as the cable seems to be meant for a recessed 2-pin IEM.