ZiiGaat have been on a role recently, they’ve had a lot of great releases, each one catering to a different preference. The Arcanis follows on this recent trend for ZiiGaat, with another cracking set, this one leaning a little brighter and leaner but delivering fantastic detail. Let’s get into it.
The Arcanis comes in the normal ZiiGaat packaging, containing the IEMs (surprise!), a hard case, the cable (terminated in 3.5mm), and one set of silicone eartips and one pair of foams. The silicone eartips are the grey ones with orange stems, which I’ve used in the past and enjoyed, and have the same experience here. I would have liked a 4.4mm option however they are relatively easy to drive and had no issues out of the 3.5mm port.
The shells look amazing to me, black resin with a bit of green and some silver sparkles. I always like ZiiGaat’s shells as I think they look great, and fit my ears well, with the Arcanis following this for me!
The Arcanis is a 2DD, 5BA set. The DDs are arranged in an isobaric configuration, the BAs are Knowles, and brought together with a 4-way passive crossover.
I used my Cayin N3 Ultra for this, I really liked how the Arcanis sounded with the tubes in the N3 Ultra, for music I was all-over the place this week. I started on a Lady Gaga binge, moved to Daft Punk, then Tool, then Led Zeppelin, with a lot of other music thrown in. The Arcanis handled everything I threw at it with ease, my total listening time would have been around 25 hours with the set.
Sound
Bass:
The dual DD setup in isobaric configuration does its job well. Bass is tight, fast, well controlled, with great texture. It’s not the most elevated low-end, what you get is quality but not a massive amount of impact. It’s engaging when it needs to be but isn’t the focus. Mid-bass has a decent amount of punch to it but again, isn’t the focus of this set.
Listening to Taylor Swift – Fresh out the Slammer, the bass that kicks in doesn’t hit impactfully here, but allows Taylors voice to take centre stage. Nine Inch Nails – The Background World, which has a great beat throughout, is wonderfully textured, providing the background (;))) for Trent’s voice and the other parts of the track to work around the bass.
In summary, not a bass focussed IEM, but high quality bass that works in well with the rest of sound.
Mids:
I really like the mids on the Arcanis. They’re not warm, so if that’s what you’re after look elsewhere, but they’re very clean and extremely resolving. Vocals have good weight and positioned well for me (a little forward sometimes). Very natural sounding throughout and dynamic. I generally prefer a warm leaning set however was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the presentation of the Arcanis in the mids.
Listening to Paul Simon – Under African Skies, the drum at the start grabs your attention, then once Paul and Linda start singing you hear them both so crisp and individual. On some IEMs it’s hard to differentiate between the two, with Linda’s vocals disappearing into the background, hear Paul takes centre stage however you can hear Linda clearly in the verses just behind Paul. Wonderful. The instruments on the track also have their own space, where you can focus in on whatever you’d like, but not at the cost of musicality. Really impressive mids for this price point, you’re getting what I’d expect from a kilobuck IEM at $399 with the level of clarity here.
Treble:
Treble is a little emphasized, it never crossed into the area where it overstayed its welcome with me however if you’re sensitive it may fall into that for you. You get a little sparkle, like the shells, however it works with the overall presentation the Arcanis delivers. I think you need this tuning in the treble for the mids to work as well as they do. There is plenty of air up top, lots of detail being extracted, and super clean just like the mids and bass.
Daft Punk – Contact, which can destroy my ears on some IEMs, worked well here. The bird on The Beatles – Blackbird, which is a good test for piercing my eardrums, was just well detailed and lovely sounding with the rest of the track.
Technicalities:
Soundstage isn’t super wide but no complaints, imaging is done well, with the ability to place instruments where they are, and due to the tuning you can really focus in on a particular instrument / part of the track, or step back a little in your head and take in the track as a whole. Most IEMs at this price point do one or the other of those, so I was quite impressed with the ability to do both on this set.
Subjective:
I really liked this set. It’s extremely well balanced across the frequencies and I enjoyed the crisp, musical, sound that was delivered to my brain while listening to the Arcanis. It reminds me of some sets which are much more expensive, where you’re probably getting 95-97% of the experience at a fraction of the cost. The bass is lovely, mids are wonderful, and the treble works well for this tuning.
Overall Thoughts:
The Arcanis feels like a bit of a statement from ZiiGaat to me, saying this is what we can achieve at this price point. It’s not the perfect tuning for everyone, and someone new to the hobby would probably like something a little warmer and bassier, however for others that have moved on from the entry point and are looking for something where you can really dissect your music, or choose to sit back and listen to a track really clearly, the Arcanis is for you. I hesitate to call it analytical; I’m going to go with musically analytical. Recommended from me.
| Category | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bass | 4/5 | Clean, fast, slightly reserved |
| Mids | 5/5 | Clear, forward, neutral, detailed, wonderful |
| Treble | 4/5 | Sparkly and detailed |
| Technicalities | 4.5/5 | Excellent imaging and layering |
| Build/Design | 5/5 | Beautiful IEMs, well built, fit my ears great |
| Value | 5/5 | You’re getting a lot of great sound here for your money |
| Overall | 4.5/5 | Fantastic value at $399. Your money is going towards the quality of the IEMs here. |
Aussie Audiophile 
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