Impressions: VSD1S

Honestly, I’d heard of Vsonic’s earphones but never actually heard them. The reason is pretty childish: their boss spends every day bragging on Weibo, which came off a bit chuuni, so I couldn’t be bothered. But things always turn around. For instance, someone recently gave me a VSD1S.

The packaging is fairly serious. The accessories are cheap, but they’re all there: ear hooks, all kinds of silicone tips, though no Comply foam tips.

The cable looks high-end and doesn’t seem like it’ll break easily. There’s even a tag on it telling users it’s best to burn them in for 100 hours before listening, for slightly better sound.

I’m not a burn-in believer, and I don’t buy that burn-in improves the sound by any large margin. I’ve always thought what gets burned in is your ears, not the gear. So straight in!

The stock silicone tips are really uncomfortable, and I didn’t have Comply tips in the right size on hand, so I used the Columbia tips I got when I bought the XBA10. Listened to a few songs. Quick impressions:

The VSD1S’s soundstage is fairly wide. It’s not as absurdly good as the HIVI B3 Pro 1 I mentioned last time, but compared to some small-soundstage earphones it’s clearly ahead. Bass is strong, with punchy rebound and no muddiness — not scattered like a certain former Beyerdynamic flagship. The highs drift a bit too much, and sibilance is rather bad, but if you don’t listen to Fish Leong or Ceui it doesn’t matter. The mids sit a little far away, maybe related to the soundstage they’re going for; vocals feel somewhat forcibly pulled in front of you, giving you that “singing right at you” sensation. In that respect it’s still not as good as that HiVi monster. The VSD1S is easy to drive, so you can get a decent soundstage without much power, unlike that HiVi freak which demands an amp and makes you suffer.

Across the whole range, the VSD1S has no obvious weak spot in the highs, mids, or lows, and its character stands out. There are small flaws, but nothing jarring. Yet no matter how I listened, something felt off — like it was “missing something.”

Following the “money crushes all” theory, I pulled out my most expensive pair, the Audio-Technica IM03, for an A/B. And there it was.

The VSD1S blooms across highs, mids, and lows, but the sound quality itself isn’t high — meaning severe graininess (first time I’ve ever felt this woo-woo term). It feels like the presentation quality of the sound itself is low. You have to hear it to get it; I really don’t know how to put it into words. It’s like you’re clearly listening to lossless, but it plays out at 128kbps.

Later I looked into the VSD1S’s price and positioning, and figured there’s probably a reason. To hit that price, costs have to be limited. My guess is VSD1S cut corners on the driver and some internal build, and to make up for that “hard power,” they compensated with tuning — hence this sound.

Either way, it’s worth encouraging. It proves domestic earphone makers have some tricks up their sleeves, turning dead wood into something amazing. Listen to whatever, anyway — buying cheap dead wood that sounds amazing is way better than buying rosewood like that turd Sony XBA10 and hearing a pile of crap, isn’t it?

Honestly, tuning it to this level is impressive. And at this price, not everyone listens to lossless every day. As an earphone for simply enjoying music, the VSD1S does the job well. It’s also made me a little curious about Vsonic’s VSD3S — I wonder if the tuning is as strong as ever. Hope I get to hear it someday.