The ZEPHONE Tiger feels like an exercise in mediocrity, which I can get behind if it was priced closer to the HIFIMAN HE400se than the HIFIMAN Edition XS. Unfortunately there are too many issues here, which make it quite overpriced, even at the $485 it's going for right now, courtesy the 10% discount Summer Shenzhen Sale as I write this review. It's not like I had a lemon of a unit either since both drivers measured and sounded very similar to each other! So unless both sides are faulty—in which case we have another issue altogether—the ZEPHONE Tiger is best left alone and forgotten.

I suppose I should have had an idea of what's to come when it shipped in a fancy wooden box but the execution of that very box had issues inside and out. In a way that could be said about the entirety of what you get here, with the headphones going for build and aesthetics over the sound signature itself. If you got this as a gift and don't have much context of what's good or bad in the headphones world, then I dare say you might be well pleased. There is decent bass quantity here and it sure looks nice while also being quite comfortable for most end users, but the average customer won't buy $540 headphones to appreciate only classical music. They certainly won't spend it to get a set which is out-resolved by a lot of less expensive headphones too—the Sennheiser HD 6XX is a better option for less than half of the cost. I see bits and pieces that ZEPHONE need to build around to improve their next product, but the Tiger in its current state is not one I'd recommend at all.