The Pilgrim and its sibling Pilgrim Noir are Malaysian-based Elysian Acoustics' two new "entry-level" in-ear monitors that are priced at $399 and $799, respectively. While these are still fairly expensive, they are a fraction of the price that Elysian's other products like the Annihilator and the Diva go for.
When I first heard of these two items several months ago, I was very excited and anticipated these releases. This is because both the Elysian Annihilator and the Diva rank very highly on my list and I have come to enjoy this brand's sound choices. A more affordable option sounded very promising and allowed their house sound to reach more people.
Elysian set up a tour of these two new products and I am doing a short in-home trial of the Pilgrim and Pilgrim Noir together. They did not come in retail packaging, but did include their standard cables.
Build & Accessories
I was a little skeptical when I first saw photos of the Pilgrim and Noir. They looked a bit bland and generic, and not too different than some of the other budget IEMs I've reviewed in the past. These do look better in-person and do have a good feel and build to them. That said, from a pure subjective appearance point of view, I would have liked something a little different and more like the Diva-style look. I prefer a resin-shell over a metal one, so there's that.
But that said, these are very comfortable, and feel nice. There is a little weight to them, but they are not heavy. I had no problem wearing these.
The included cable for both of them are both pretty easy to handle, do not tangle and nicely designed. Elysian includes the EFFECT AUDIO Special Edition Eros S:NOIR 8-Wire cable with the Pilgrim Noir. It matches the colorway of the IEM.
The one negative I do have with these are that the Pentaconn Ear connectors that are used by Elysian and Effect Audio do tend to get detached very easily. Sometimes with barely touching it will cause it to get disconnected. I do not know if this was due to being well-used in the tour, or if this is just a tolerance issue with the male and female connectors.
Both of these follow my Target Preference Curve very well:
Sound Impressions
Both the Pilgrim variants feature a balanced sound signature with an elevated sub-bass focused low-end region and even mid and treble range. They differ primarily on how they handle the treble though. The Noir, as its name implies, is a darker sounding product, while the normal Pilgrim has a noticeably brighter sound. In my case, I much prefer the Noir's more laidback and easy to listen to sound signature.
When I listened to progressive bluegrass band, Mipso, and their self-titled record, the additional treble of the Pilgrim was a bit much with the amount of higher note strings in bluegrass music. I found these moments a bit jarring and fatiguing to hear on the regular Pilgrim, but not an issue with the Noir. The Noir sounded smooth, full, and very enjoyable.
The normal Pilgrim, with its slightly brighter tonality, does do a little better with the sense of dynamics and scale while the Noir is a little more relaxed and smooth. Its a small and very minor trade-off, but I do notice this in some orchestral tracks. It's less readily sounding in pop and rock music though.
I did not put in a lot of time on these on a limited loaner timeframe that corresponded with a very busy work week for me, so my time to do a higher in-depth review was cut short. Alas, I do feel like both of these are great additions to the Elysian lineup, and would pick the Noir over the Pilgrim. The price point that is set at 2X the Pilgrim does make it a bit challenging to recommend overall though, since the major difference is primarily a subtle tuning change and a branded Effect Audio cable, outside of the obvious color differences.
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