Introduction

Elysian Acoustic Labs is a Malaysia-based IEM brand founded in 2016 by one person—Lee Quan Min—who is widely regarded as one of the very best IEM designers and tuners in the world today. He started off with a simple IEM re-shelling service before putting this experience to good use in the identification and adaptation of drivers unlike anyone else at the time. Indeed, Elysian Acoustic Labs is arguably the first brand to properly use Sonion's electrostatic tweeter (EST) drivers in making the treble response of IEMs sound good and meaningfully different from other driver types, as opposed to simply piling on treble extension like there's no tomorrow. In 2024, the brand has grown, with more employees, yet prides itself on only releasing a few products every generation. There are a total of three Elysian-branded IEMs for sale today, for example, including the subject of today's review which only just launched. Thanks to HiFiGo for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp!


Elysian Acoustic Labs is not a budget IEM brand. In fact, it's least expensive entry as of a month ago was the Diva 2023, which retails for $1600. So when teasers started popping up for another IEM from the brand, especially knowing there have been at least two in the works now of which one is a proper flagship rumored to cost over $4000, no one was expecting the set to be as affordable as it ended up being. Indeed, the Elysian Acoustic Labs Pilgrim, which I will henceforth refer to simply as Elysian Pilgrim for convenience, costs significantly less than the Diva and has garnered plenty of attention since it launched a couple of weeks ago. It aims to bring out the Elysian house sound of strong bass and forward mids into a price range that has recently had a lot of excellent releases too. Let's put the Elysian Pilgrim through its paces in our review today, which begins with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

This is my first time reviewing anything from Elysian Acoustic Labs, so I went in not knowing what to expect with the unboxing experience. The Pilgrim gets a clean white product box with the brand logo on the front along with a simplified render of the geometric pattern that seems to have inspired the faceplate design on the IEMs. The product name is printed in large font on the side, with a marketing slogan on another side—that's it. It would have been nice to see product specs and perhaps a factory frequency response curve here. The lid easily comes off to reveal the IEMs neatly presented in the center with the accessories underneath. I appreciate the tags on the side allowing you to easily lift the top layer, and there is more of the same to help access the case too.


We get a branded soft velour cloth to help clean the IEMs, a warranty card, and a quick start guide going over the setup and use of the IEMs and the cable if you are unfamiliar with the process. The storage/carry case is white and goes for a rounded rectangular cuboid form factor. It looks and feels as if it is made of faux leather with some foam padding, the stitching is of excellent quality, and the brand logo is embossed on the top. The case opens up from the side, as seen above, to reveal a netted compartment housing a set of ear tips and a cleaning brush, with the IEM cable found in the soft base layer that has plenty of room for the IEMs, the cable, and ear tips, thus allowing you to also potentially bring along a portable DAC/amp in the compartment above.


We get three sets of Spinfit silicone ear tips with the Pilgrim in sizes S/M/L. For a set from a premium brand that is still costing a decent chunk of money, I have to say I am disappointed. I expect to see more options provided with IEMs simply because most people will just go with what's in the box, or at least assume these were chosen by the brand to work well with the IEMs. In practice, I found it to be quite easy to actually lose the seal with these very tips fitted on the Pilgrim because of the nature of these tips to rotate around a pivot point and a relatively soft flange. It works wonders for a lot of IEMs, but I am not convinced the Pilgrim is one of them. I ended up using my preferred ear tips—the Softears Ultra Clear—on the Pilgrim for most of my listening time with the set.