Astrotec Vesna
disclaimer: The Astrotec Vesna was provided by Astrotec for the purpose of this review. I have received no compensation for this review, nor do I have any financial interest in Astrotec. To learn more about the Vesna, see the Astrotec website. If you are interested in purchasing the Vesna, they can be purchased directly from Astrotec’s site or from most of the normal resellers.
Unboxing / Packaging:
The Vesna come in a slip-cover style box with a line drawing of the earpieces on the front and the specifications and the FR diagram on the reverse Removing the slip-cover exposes a black lift type box with the earpieces in foam at the top and a small box with the remainder of the kit in the lower portion. The kit is fairly impressive for a $20 USD retail package as it contains the earphones themselves, three sets of tips, a carrying case, and a USB type-C to 3.5mm dongle. The carrying case is a heavy canvas with a spring closure and is well made and should last well.
Build/Fit:
The Vesna is a barrel style in-ear that comes in 2 varieties. The standard Vesna which is shown in the photos has a fixed cable while the Vesna EVO which uses a bi-pin cable. The two are qucikly distinguishable at the cable junction but also at the rear face where the Vesna is mint green and the EVO is gold. Other than the cables the two are very much alike. Both have a barrel style body with the nozzle at one end and face plate at the other. The body is fairly small as the 6mm driver doesn’t require a large shell. The body is aluminum made in three pieces with a forward shell/nozzle assembly, a rear shell, and the face plate. Nozzles have a pronounced lip for tip retention and a vent at the base of the nozzle. The cable exit is near the rear of the unit allowing for fairly deep seating in the ear. I found the Vesna very comfortable for long listening sessions but did have to go to a small tip due to the deeper than usual insertion depth. The upside of that is that the passive isolation of the Vesna is better than one would expect.
Internals:
The Vesna uses a 6mm dynamic driver with a liquid crystal polymer diaphragm. Most people think of display screens when the words Liquid Crystal are mentioned but in this case a better example would be Kevlar which is also a form of liquid crystal polymer. The same things that make kevlar great for armor make LCP a good choice for driver diaphragms. It is strong, tough, and lightweight. The Vesna lists a frequency response of 5Hz-22kHz with a nominal impedance of 30Ω and a sensitivity of 102 dB/mW (@1kHz). I found the Vesna liked a little more power than the sensitivity might suggest and while it can be driven by dongles as well as directly from PCs or tablets, it does better with more potent sources. It does scale some both qualitatively and quantitatively with better sources with dynamics and low-end being the most notable changes with additional potency.
Cable:
Both versions use an Oxygen free copper cable with a 3.5mm straight jack in a polished metal casing. I would have loved to have the casing match the earpiece color with its darker matte finish but the two are enough distance apart most of the time that its hardly a concern. The cable itself is a twist that is housed in a clear casing up to the splitter so it looks like a twist but behaves like a single strand. The cable is very pliable and microphonics are kept to a minimum despite the tip-down wear of the Vesna. The splitter is a polished metal barrel style matching the jack and above it a clear bead chin-slider helps minimize movement during use and cut down on microphonics as well. At the north end there is a short black strain relief at the entrance point into the shells. The EVO shares similar materials and construction but adopts a 0.78mm bi-pin connector at the northern end. The other interesting thing is the addition of a 3.5mm to USB type-C adapter included in the package. It very much looks like what ships with Apple phones (other than the port type) with bright white fixtures and a slightly gray tone to the cable between the two jack housings. No information was provided with the kit on the capabilities or chip used and I found it was hit or miss as to which devices it worked with. I had no issue using the dongle with a OnePlus 9+ phone, but my Samsung S20FE didn’t recognize it, my daughters phone did, S21 ultra, and my laptop did not. The good news is the value of the package isn’t dependent on the inclusion of the little dongle so its simply a plus.
Sound:
Bass:
The sub-bass is mildly emphasized with a peak around 70Hz and gradual decline to either side. Sub-bass has good rumble but doesn’t dominate the signature or intrude where not called for so transition to the mid-bass is fairly linear with good control and detail in the signature. Bass on the whole shows a slightly blunted attack and some sustain that adds a little weight to the sound without getting overly thick. This does mean that passages that are particularly busy and fast in the low end can begin to thicken a bit and some compression does become evident. Again though this is a $20 budget model and lows are better controlled with a more natural tonality than anyone has a right to expect at the price point.
Mids:
Lower mids follow seamlessly from the mid-bass with no bleed or obstruction and good note weight to lower voices. Guitar has good growl when called upon and strings have a nice tonality if slightly less energetic than reality. In the mids we do see the weakness of the Vesna which is resolution is not as good as higher price models and detail is somewhat limited. It’s a pleasant listen, just not the most micro-detail oriented among the bunch. This first became evident in listening to piano concerto where individual key strikes don’t have the inital impact followed by a more mellow sustain and again listening to strings where the plucked strings are a bit less defined than expected. Again, considering the price, the Vesna is more than adequate. Upper mids have a bit more energy and higher vocals do step forward in the mix but not so much as to sound shouty or strident.
Treble:
Soundstage / Imaging:
Soundstage is a little better than average at this price with dimensions being fairly even but none being particularly large. I found the stage sort of bubble around the head shaped with some depth and width and even a bit of height, but the stage is still quite intimate overall. Seating the orchestra isn’t bad as the instrument separation is good enough to keep things from overlapping or blurring, but the stage size does limit the placements and make for a more condensed than normal seating chart. Movements around the stage are easily tracked but positions are not tightly defined in space.
Thoughts / Conclusion:
The Astrotec Vesna stays true to Astrotec’s typical build quality and kit while reducing the price to $20 for the fixed cable version or $35 for the EVO with its replaceable cable. The kit includes a dongle and a carrying case which is of higher quality than typically seen for $20, and the sound also surprises. The Vesna is a mild V and sits somewhere between a neutral tuning and the Harman target tuning which makes for a very comfortable, non-fatiguing listen that handles most genres well. It isn’t the most detailed signature out there, but its one of the better tunings in the budget space without a lot of anything that would run off listeners. Those looking for a good option to introduce non-audio people to the fold will find a lot to like here as the Vesna easily bests the buds shipping with most phones and at $20 won’t break the bank if at the end of the day, the recipient still doesn’t see a difference. The budget market is a battle ground for sure with lots of options vying for your dollar so the Vesna is not without some stiff competition. I think it carves out its own space with its mild signature and pleasant manners. At $20 its well worth a try.
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6/10
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6/10
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5/10
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5/10
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5/10
Summary
Pros: Great kit for $20, very listenable, solid build
Cons: not the most detailed sound, too polite a treble for some.