Fit and Comfort

Seen above is the ZEPHONE Tiger on a headphone stand that is actually a set of two artificial ears, complete with soft-molded human ears and a couple of different adapters acting as the top of the head. This has been mounted on a tripod, which also showcases how headphones would look on a human head, with the artificial ears spaced ~20 cm apart. As with all headphones, getting a good fit and seal is crucial, so make sure to properly use the pivot points and headband and ear-cup height adjustability. This section is mostly a summary of the points expanded upon in more detail on the previous page. The Tiger weighs ~430 g but doesn't feel particularly heavy on the head, courtesy the thick headband and the extremely comfortable ear pads held in place with average clamping force. One thing to be aware of is the ear pad opening is not the largest, so those with larger ears may notice their pinna touching the ear pads, rather than being surrounded by them. The vertical sizing and cup swivel options come together to allow for pretty much anyone to fit these easily, although I would still have wanted to see more horizonal cup rotation, as mentioned on the previous page. If you find these to be on the looser side, however, then I urge you to strongly consider bending the steel band in the headband inward to increase it slightly, lest the gap between the cups and the pads detract from your listening experience. Otherwise, these are isolating enough to not allow the ambient environment to affect your listening experience, or having some of your own music/sound leak out.

Audio Performance

Audio Hardware

The ZEPHONE Tiger is yet another new set of over-ear, open-back headphone using planar magnetic drivers. If you thought the IEM world was undergoing a planar takeover, perhaps you missed the same happening here too. Unfortunately, as with most things about this product, there is no useful information available about the exact type of drivers used here. We saw on the previous page how the Tiger uses double-sided magnets around the thin diaphragm, with six magnets per side, and you can also read the equivalent section on this page, for a primer on how planar magnetic drivers work. Thankfully the headphone specs are provided and now we find out these are fairly typical planar magnetic drivers, having a relatively low impedance of 22 Ω coupled with a relatively low sensitivity of 94 dB/mW. I don't really see this being a fairly portable set, given the increased current requirements over your standard dynamic driver headphones, so the cable included here is somewhat puzzling. A decent portable DAC/amp with a balanced cable should suffice, but I would still go with a desktop source such as the FiiO K5 Pro or atleast a beginner stack such as the JDS Atom+ we saw before.

Frequency Response Measurement and Listening

I will mention that I have a general preference for a warm-neutral signature emphasizing a slightly elevated bass and smooth treble range with detailed mids and good tonal separation. I also generally prefer instrumental music over vocals, with favored genres including jazz and classical music.


Our current headphones test setup uses a set of two custom in-ear microphones for the two channels. These microphones which closely adhere to the IEC711 class, but have been tweaked to be more reliable in the >10 kHz frequency range that was the issue with my previous setup that is still very good and will continue to be used for IEMs and earphones. Two soft silicone pinnae are installed on the sides, separated by a distance matching my head, and multiple "height" adapters have been 3D-printed for further customization based on fit, head size and head shape. Each set of microphones has an XLR output I separately adapted to 3.5 mm. I used a transparent source—the JDS Labs Element II—for measurements after confirming it was not a bottleneck in any way.

This artificial head simulator feeds the microphone lines into a reference USB sound card, which in turn goes to a laptop that has ARTA and REW running. I begin with an impulse measurement to test for signal fidelity, calibrate the sound card and channel output, account for floor noise, and finally test the frequency response of each channel separately. Octave smoothing is at the 1/12th setting, which nets a good balance of detail and noise not being identified as useful data. The default tuning was used for testing, and no app or program-based EQ settings were chosen unless specifically mentioned. Each sample of interest is tested thrice with separate mounts to account for any fit issues, and an average is taken of the three individual measurements for statistical accuracy. The raw data is then compensated based on a custom curve created after having worked with Crinacle from In-Ear Fidelity to get measurements with this setup on par with a GRAS 043AG industry-standard measurement rig, especially by accounting for the slightly different pinna gain compared to the KEMAR anthrophometric pinna there.


As per usual, you can find my headphone frequency response measurements on VSG.squig.link, along with all the earphone measurements. Scroll to the bottom and choose different targets there, including two from Harman Kardon, developed after years of R&D. The Harman 2018 over-ear target in particular is a reference curve many headphone makers aim for now, but I find it too bass-boosted. As such, I am opting for the Harman 2018 curve with the bass target from the Harman 2013 curve, which is what is being referred to as the "Harman Combined" target there. Before we get talking about the sound signature of the ZEPHONE Tiger, I want to briefly talk about the channel balance achieved here. You will notice how the left and right channels are pretty much identical all the way through to the coupler resonance itself, and even so past it too. In fact, I will say that I had to see these measurements before I was able to pay attention to and notice the small discrepancy past 1 kHz, but in practice if these are indicative of the average ZEPHONE Tiger sample, then you will be plenty pleased.

Music You can Reach Out and Touch. We wanted to present a sound that was both accurate, and musical. We tuned the bass to be very precise yet deep enough to leave a satisfying rumble. The speed of the bass allows our transparent mids to shine through for those smooth vocals. The trebles shimmer like crystals and presents a detailed, while enjoyable, listen.

These are words from ZEPHONE on the Linsoul product page, and there's certainly a lot of fluff in there. The takeaway here is I am expecting to see good bass extension with a balance of bass quality and quantity alike, no bleed-over to the mids for a warmer presence, and finally to see a generally resolving sound signature here all through into the treble frequencies. ZEPHONE has achieved some of it well, and failed hard in others. The biggest culprit here would be the mids whereby I would not call them transparent and instead clearly identify them as a warmer set. It's not a bad thing in itself, but setting false expectations can lead to disappointment, in case you choose this set as potential monitors. Male vocals in particular don't feature as well, with bass guitars taking over precedence, and even within instrument classes the Tiger isn't as resolving as I'd like to see. Imaging takes a hit courtesy of a general haze when it comes to identifying string instruments and drums in particular, with the Tiger also having an uncharacteristically slower decay despite it being planar in principle. Staging is also not a strong suite here—not exactly intimate but feeling more claustrophobic regardless. Mid-heads would want to shy away from this set overall I'd say.

Female vocals could have benefited from the pinna gain here, and arguably many will be satisfied with the the absolute gain in the 2-3 kHz region were it not for the rest of the frequency response behavior on either side of it. See, that slight honk at 1 kHz can get some vocals nasally, and then the lower treble being elevated soon after makes the pinna gain feel muted by comparison. I also generally want to see more gain in the 1-3 kHz region anyway, so this combination of factors made female vocals also take a back seat in my time with the ZEPHONE Tiger. That said, now we can get to the good parts, including the treble response. In a vacuum by itself, this is one of the better sounding headphones for higher frequencies. Mozart's piano works played here, as did ethereal recordings of harps and other string instruments. Cymbals didn't suddenly pick up in presentation as with a lot of other planar headphones I've tested recently, and I would be perfectly happy listening solely to specific classical music off this. Perhaps some jazz too, but that can be too broad a recommendation.

The bass response is middling, with the overall V/W-shaped tuning resulting in the mid-bass presentation being quite different from the sub-bass itself. EQ can help here, especially if you were wanting more sub-bass anyway, courtesy a bass shelf, but ultimately the Tiger is more a quantity over quality deal. I think the drivers not being especially resolving hurts the most here, whereby those same bass guitars that took precedence over male vocals don't sound all that great if you are looking to pick up nuances. This is more suited to be a general all-rounder regardless of recording quality, which is a nice way of saying faults with the music won't get noticed as well. Bass extension is otherwise adequate in my books, but really the ZEPHONE Tiger doesn't make a compelling enough argument most of the time.


I have here a few other planar magnetic headphones in the same price range, and they all happen to be from China, this time round. The comparisons include the impressive HIFIMAN Edition XS, the mod-worthy and technically competent HarmonicDyne G200, and the hilariously tuned Ovidius TX-901 that I am not sure even merits a review, outside of saying there's not much saving it. The ZEPHONE Tiger is better built than the Edition XS and the TX-901, and has a better cable than what comes with those two as well. Tonality wise, it loses out to the Edition XS, and the G200 with the replacement pads ends up besting it still, but overall it's still good here. It's unfortunately on the technical performance where I think ZEPHONE loses out to everyone—maybe not Ovidius, but it's hard to say given that's such a wonky tuning job with an almost reverse V-shaped tuning. The ZEPHONE Tiger is not going to be a set I'd recommend here. I'd also encourage you to look at how the Tiger and the new Audeze LCD-X fare tonality wise, it's almost like ZEPHONE wanted a piece of the Audeze pie with the more expensive LCD-X, but instead made a set that's warm like the LCD-2 Classic and not as detailed as either. There are also several dynamic driver headphones in the same price range—and lower too—that I'd take over the Tiger—unfortunately this one is a L in my books.