ddHIFI E2023 Janus3 – Power Of Change
ddHIFI E2023 Janus3 is a $129 USD Chifi IEM with a single dynamic driver, detachable cable, and an upgrade to the original Janus we reviewed back in the day. Today we will explore the new Janus 3, and how it compares to other similarly priced IEMs, including Tangzu Fudu Verse 1 (89 USD), Simgot EA1000 Fermat (219 USD), and HIDIZS MP145 (159 USD).
Introduction
ddHIFI is best known for their audio accessories, and as a company that generally makes high quality addons, they also have a line of IEMs. The whole Janus lineup started from the idea of creating an earphone that can use both MMCX and 2-Pin connectors, but with the Janus3 the only connector available at the IEM side is now MMCX. This being said, the IEMs now come with a much better sound, and the company focused less on delivering novelty features, and more on delivering a high-quality product that you can listen to and enjoy this time around. As an Amazon Influencer, I earn from qualifying purchases, and using the purchase links in my reviews helps me maintain this website and youtube channel. A big thanks to ddHIFI for providing the sample for this review, in exchange for my honest opinion.
PROs – Excellent comfort, comes with my favorite eartips in the package, excellent cable with no ear guides, easy to drive, brilliant, sharp and open sound, great at low and medium volumes, good technical performance, impressive instrument separation and price / performance ratio.
Cons – Sensitive to source noise / output impedance, low passive noise isolation, bass is on the shy side.
Product Link
You can grab one from www.amazon.com here – https://amzn.to/49Zfhc6
Build Quality/Aesthetics/Fit/Comfort
Having been in this hobby for quite a while, I had the honor of needing some hifi accessories, be it interconnects, transport cases, supports, or other things, and although when I first started the hobby there was no company making those and you’d have to rely on no-brand solutions, ddHIFI now delivers products so solid that I actually made their cases a part of my daily life. For my entire trip to Venice in March 2024, I have used the ddHIFI C2023 case to store my smartphone and wallet, or sometimes the keys to the place I was staying in, and other times the DAP and IEMs I was using, so I am not just a reviewer but a user of their products too. The new Janus 3 is the result of the company tinkering with improving the original Januys, which although was a fairly comfortable and well made IEM, had a rather colored sound.
The new Janus3 has a single dynamic driver, 10mm ultra-low distortion with lithium magnesium alloy in its construction, and with a frequency response between 5 Hz and 58 kHz. The sensitivity of the IEMs is rather high at 122dB, and the impedance is low at 14 OHMs, so you can expect Janus3 to reveal source quality quite easily, it will hiss with sources that have a high output impedance, but it will get loud really easily, and won’t require a lot of power to sound good.
The cable is a single crystal copper shielded cable, and it is silver in color, it has a length of 1.2 meters, and MMCX connectors, but while the connectors at the IEM side are not just MMCX, the cable has detachable jacks, and you can use either a 3.5mm single ended jack, or a 4.4mm balanced jack. The IEM shells are some of the lightest ever created, at 5.5 grams, and the IEMs are angled, basically disappearing in your ears once you plug them in.
The eartips that Janus3 comes with are my favorite tips so far, namely the ddHIFI ST35, which I have used in many other reviews, as they offer a good contact with my ears, as well as a fairly good comfort. The color of the Janus IEMs is green and silver, and there is a transport case included with the Janus3 as well, a transport case which offers good protection during transport, and which I have used a few times for other IEMs, thanks to its nice design and small footprint. There is no driver flex, and no void, Janus3 being one of the most comfortable IEMs I have ever worn in my entire life.
There are left and right markings on both the IEM shells, and the cables, so you know how to connect them. There are no ear guides, and this further improves on the comfort, making Janus3 outstanding for long periods of wear. There is little passive noise isolation, and Janus3 feels open, offering at most 10 dB of passive noise isolation as I can hear my room and everything coming from the outside almost as well as with open-back headphones like HIFIMAN HE1000SE.
For today’s review, I’ve been driving the Janus3 from a rich selection of sources, including FiiO Q15, Shanling UA4, HIDIZS S9 PRO Plus Martha, HIFIMAN EF600, Hiby Digital M300, and SMSL AO300. Janus3 is easy to drive, and does not require a lot of power, rather being sensitive to source noise, and pairing better with Hiby Digital M300 and Shanling Ua4, both of which have low noise levels, than Q15 which has a bit of noise with sensitive IEMs. Sonically, Janus 3 is fairly bright and open sounding, but with a good bass reach, so it sounds better when driven from a source that has a smoother, darker, warmer sound.
Sound Quality
Overall Signature
Janus3 is a continuation of the original ddHIFI Janus sound, but now with a refined, improved sonic performance, a deeper, fuller bass, while improving on the technical performance, resolution, clarity and retaining the slightly ethereal sound of the original Janus while giving it a fuller body, and more solid impact. The soundstage is slightly intimate in the voices and bass, while the treble tends to extend a bit more naturally in width and height. There’s a fairly happy and sweet presentation for female voices in ACG Music (like Mori Calliope, Takanashi Kiara, or HimeHina), while male voices are slightly thinner. In general, the tuning of Janus3 tends to be thin rather than thick, which gives music a sharper, more resolute presentation but is best enjoyed at lower and medium volumes, becoming sharp at higher volumes.
Bass
While the original Janus was not a bassy earphone, and it was fairly widely criticized for that, the new Janus 3 comes to fix on the shallower low-end of the original, and now we have bass reaching as low as 40 Hz, with bass guitars, drums and low-pitched instruments having a clear and clean presentation. The bass speed is natural, and bass is generally dynamic and punchy, moving quickly with the song and capable of delivering a good nuance and bass note presentation, but the bass is fairly low in quantity compared to the midrange and the treble. This also changes with the volume, and Janus 3 sounds the most balanced at lower listening volumes, while at higher volumes the bass gets tighter, voices more forward, and treble more aggressive and more present, overtaking the bass increasingly with volume level. In songs like Apashe – Confess, we have a fairly deep and rumbly bass, with a strong presence down to 35 Hz, but this is different in most rock songs, where the bass is less evident.
Midrange
Janus 3 manages to get a fairly neutral presentation for the midrange, which is rather clean, technically capable and has a sharp presentation, with a strong detail considering the price point. The tonality tends to favor higher pitched voices, instruments and lead guitars which are higher pitched, like those in thrash metal, speed metal or emo music are emphasized over guitars in death metal, technical death metal or black metal. Synths are quite vivid and presented forward, while live concerts capture the typical feeling of being surrounded by people screaming quite accurately. For example in the song Dance Gavin Dance – Acceptance Speech, Janus3 emphasizes more with Tillian’s voice than with John Mess’s screaming, presenting the cymbals and special effects in the song strongly, while the drums are playing in the background, giving a strong sense of instrument separation to the whole song, while keeping the guitars musical, smooth and clean.
Dynamics / PRaT
The dynamic range of Janus 3 is great, this is an IEM that can extract a lot of information from music, while keeping the transients under control, basically it can reveal a crisp, textured square wave, but doesn’t force all the other instruments to have the same level of texturization. Janus 3 puts the most textures in electronic instruments, but allows female voices, trumpets and violins to sound smooth and clean. The sound becomes more aggressive with volume, so you will get better dynamics and less compression, with better resolution at lower volumes.
Soundstage
We get a generally natural towards intimate soundstage presentation with Janus3, especially as the bass and midrange is slightly narrow and intimate, while cymbals and high-end effects can extend more in width, creating a strong feeling of air. This aids with music sounding more live and alive, but in Jazz and most room music, instruments and voices sound really close to you, the voices part being present at all volumes, and in all music styles.
Volume Control
Janus3 has a bright, brilliant sound which is best enjoyed at lower volumes, and which becomes sharper, more aggressive and more forward at higher volumes. This affects all aspects of the sound, including textures, and dynamics, the sound gets more compressed at louder volumes, it becomes more focused, narrower and generally Janus3 gets sharp at high volumes, making it rather brash.
Treble
When listening to a bright IEM like Janus 3, you always are on the edge about naming it bright or harsh, but in reality the bright despite being quite forward and strong is well controlled, especially when it comes to the texture, which is never too grainy or sharp. Due to the nature of the treble being strong and forward, the sound can be fatiguing at loud volumes, but it is generally pleasing and enjoyable at medium and quiet listening volumes, and if you pair it with a smoother, darker source, you will have no issues with the treble being too strong. The treble extension goes as high as 18 kHz, with no coloration that I can call out, besides a hint of extra presence around 10 kHz, which is more of a very smooth peak that just brings the entire treble to life.
Comparisons
ddHIFI E2023 Janus3 vs HIDIZS MP145 (129 USD vs 159 USD) – There is simply no contest when it comes to the comforty, and MP145 is at the weight and size where it is one of the largest and heaviest IEMs I have ever reviewed, while E2023 Janus 3 is one of the smallest, lightest, and most comfortable IEMs I have ever used. There is more passive noise isolation with MP145, but it is harder to drive, and slightly less sensitive to source noise. Sonically, MP145 sounds more natural, a bit deeper, with more punch and impact, while Janus 3 sounds brighter, sharper, has better treble extension, and also better instrument separation and a sharper sound. Both IEMs are good for most music styles, I prefer the Janus 3 for acoustic music, and for ACG music, MP145 works better for dubstep, electronic and music that’s supposed to have a lot of depth and impact. If comfort is generally an issue for you, I would recommend going with Janus3 for an improved experience.
ddHIFI E2023 Janus3 vs Tangzu Fudu Verse 1 (129 USD vs 89 USD) – The comfort of Janus3 is still better than even Verse1, which is larger, and slightly heavier, although both IEMs are fairly comfortable in practice. I prefer having no ear guides versus the soft ear guides of Verse1, but Verse 1 is more sensitive to source noise, and slightly harder to drive than Janus 3. Janus 3 offers less passive noise isolation, but it also offers a sharper, brighter, more brilliant sound, feeling and sounding much more open, while Verse 1 is at the opposite end of the sonic spectrum, sounding really thick, deep, lush, powerful and bassy, with very little treble extension and sharpness. Both are great options, but colored differently, go for Janus3 if you enjoy more treble, and go for Verse1 if you enjoy more bass and almost no treble.
ddHIFI E2023 Janus3 vs Simgot EA1000 Fermat (129 USD vs 219 USD) – We finally have two IEMs that sound more similar, but at different price points. Starting with the build and comfort, both are well made, but EA1000 Fermat ends up being both larger and heavier, since it has a lot of metal in the build, while E2023 Janus3 is lighter, more comfortable and more ergonomic. The passive noise isolation is stronger on the EA1000 Fermat, despite it being fully open, but the default tips included in the package are better with Janus3. Both IEMs are easy to drive, but Janus3 is easier to drive, also more sensitive to source noise / hissing. Sonically, both are open sounding, bright and brilliant, with Janus3 sounding sharper, while EA1000 Fermat sounds more airy, wider, more holographic, but less acute, and presenting music with a smoother texture / transient. I would go with EA1000 Fermat if I was looking for a smoother, softer sound, but with good accuracy, and a brighter presentation, a fuller mid bass, and more warmth in the midrange, and I would grab the Janus3 for a sharper, more accurate sounding IEM with less smoothness, but improved ergonomics and comfort.
Value and Conclusion
Back when I reviewed the original Janus, it had a price point of 250 USD, which made it hard to recommend for the market, and although the original Janus came with unique tech inside, it was never a universal IEM. The new Janus3 comes with a much lower price point, offering a strong package, including my current favorite eartips, a handy transport case, strong technical performance and a likable sound for 129 USD, and sometimes even lower on Amazon or Linsoul, being competitive in today’s market and offering a good pair of earphones I would recommend to most listeners, especially if you know you enjoy a slightly brighter, sharper sound and if you listen at quiet or medium volumes.
At the end of the day, ddHIFI offers a strong product with their EA2023 Janus 3, this is an Earphone that is plenty comfortable, which offers no passive noise isolation, but comes with a high quality cable, and which I never feel like removing from my ears, which has a transparent, crisp sound, and good detail / technical resolution, and with a bright, brillant treble, tight but present bass, and with a happy sounding midrange, perfect for female voices and enjoying most music styles.
Product Link
You can grab one from www.amazon.com here – https://amzn.to/49Zfhc6
Technical Specifications
Model – E2023 (Janus3)
Driver – 10mm ultra-low distortion dynamic unit with lithium magnesium alloy dome composite
Frequency Response Range – 5Hz-58kHz
Effective Frequency Response Range – 20Hz-20kHz
Sensitivity – 122dB/Vrms (@1kHz)
Impedance – 14 ohms ± 15% (@1kHz)
Interchangeable Cable Design – MMCX connector, with 3.5mm + 4.4mm interchangeable plugs
Cable Material – Single Crystal Copper Core Shielded Cable
Cable Length – 1.2 meters
Weight – Approx 5.5g (excluding cable)
Color – Green + Silver
What’s in the Package – Janus3 Earphone Main Body* 1 pair Interchangeable Headphone Cable* 1 (Includes 3.5mm and 4.4mm adapters) Ear Tips in S, M, L Sizes:*1 Set Zippered Storage Pouch* 1
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Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
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