Closer Examination

The cable that comes with the ZEPHONE Tiger is overall quite good, and highly functional, although there is next to no information provided about it. For a company that prides itself on its upgraded cable lineup, this feels like a missed opportunity to flex their capabilities. Linsoul is partly to blame for this too, given that I understand the ZEPHONE Tiger has more details in the various China-only retail options. I was able to determine this is a pure copper cable as far as the conductor goes at least! It begins with a 3.5 mm TRS single-ended connector headed to your source, and ZEPHONE also provides a screw-type 1/4" adapter, for more prosumer sources too. A brushed aluminium alloy housing leads to the conductor itself, which in turn comes inside a well-behaved and tight fabric sleeving. This makes for a cable that is quite easy to loop around and manage on your desk, and there were no microphonics perceived in use either. The splitter is fairly basic in design but works perfectly fine, and then we get two cables in the same black sleeving headed to the headphones end. Here too we get aluminium alloy housings to contrast against the black elsewhere, and there are L/R markings to help identify the left and right channels respectively whereby there are two 3.5 mm TRS connectors. All metal plugs are gold-plated for oxidation resistance.


The ZEPHONE Tiger applies black and gunmetal gray colors well, to make for a set of open-back over-ear headphones that mix being subtle and themed at the same time. They feel solid in the hand, and the mix of metal and plastic works well enough to where I don't have any build quality concerns. The headband uses a single piece composition, with leather covering foam padding inside, and it looks a lot like the HIFIMAN Edition XS we saw before. Stitching is well done here, without fraying, unlike on the cable above, making for a fairly comfortable and supportive headband, although it can result in hotspots on the top of your head. The headband terminates in aluminium alloy trims, akin to those on the cable again, and this is prime property for branding that goes unused here!


An internal steel band is used for vertical headband sizing, with multiple discrete points on either side that can be clicked in place into to also align the headband properly on both sides. Shown above are the two extreme points of the vertical sizing, which admittedly is below average for over-ear headphones, although I dare say it would still suffice for the vast majority of users blessed with heads small or large. For context, two steps out on either side worked fine for my average-sized head and there were another four to go.


So while I am more confident about the headphones accommodating vertical movement for fit and comfort, the same could not be said about horizontal motion and ear cup swivel. The bane of this kind of headband design is that the steel band is held in place via a central locking mechanism on either side, and the only cup swivel you get is effectively all that the steel band can rotate around it. This means that the ZEPHONE Tiger barely rotates horizontally, but at least has the usual C-clamps to allow for the cups to rotate vertically around the pivots more freely, as seen above. Two out of three isn't bad I suppose, and in general there is nothing here which is a deal breaker when it comes to these headphones doing the basic function of accommodating customer's heads and ears.


The gunmetal gray is left solely to the ear cups where the aluminium alloy comes back, and these end up making the ZEPHONE Tiger more semi-open than fully open-back. The metal parts wrap around a metal mesh screen, and here is also where ZEPHONE is engraved for relatively clean branding. On the side are Chinese characters referring once again to the Tiger general these headphones draw naming inspiration from. There are also L/R markings at the bottom here to help indicate the left and right channels respectively, these are also conveniently placed right above the cable connectors on the headphones.


The ear pads are easily replaceable, although I do not know where one can purchase replacements from! See how these ZEPHONE Tiger pads adopt a push-fit installation mechanism, involving several plastic nibs that fit inside matching recesses in the ear cups themselves. These click into place once oriented correctly and pushed in, hopefully Linsoul can help customers procure replacement ear pads in due course. Removing the pads also provides a closer look at the planar magnetic drivers used, which come with a protective fabric mesh screen to keep dust and hair away from the fragile diaphragm. ZEPHONE appears to be using double-sided magnets here, with six per side, and the pads themselves are leather wrapped with medium-density foam filling, as with the headband. These are hybrid pads however, with a velour contact surface where they meet the skin itself, and also come with breathable holes in the middle to make them some of the most comfortable ear pads I have ever used! Unfortunately the installation mechanism isn't perfect, as we see a noticeable gap between the ear cups and the pads. This gap reduces a lot with clamping pressure against your head, but means that a good fit is absolutely essential towards having no leakage here.


On the bottom of the ear cups and slightly biased towards the front is where we find small cutouts for the cable connectors. These allow the cable plugs to connect easily enough, in turn naturally directing the cable away from your body but still requiring you to position the splitter on your chest, or on a desk when sitting down. The ZEPHONE Tiger utilizes dual 3.5 mm TRS connectors, meaning there is excellent compatibility with aftermarket cables should you wish to try something other than the stock cable, that is relatively short for desktop use at ~1.5 m in length, making it more suitable for portable use. The 3.5 mm source connector also points towards this thinking, although of course you still get the 1/4" (6.35 mm adapter) for most desktop sources such as the FiiO K9 Pro and its 6.35 mm output that I used for testing these headphones with.