Akoustyx R-120

Link to my review and measurement index thread where one can also find a full review overview, more information about myself as well as my general-ish audio and review manifesto: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/956208/

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I only give full stars. My ranking/scoring system does not necessarily follow the norm and is about as follows:

5 stars: The product is very good and received the "highly recommended" award from me.

4 stars: The product is very good and received the "recommended" award from me.

3 stars: The product is good/very good, but not outstanding/special enough to get any of my two awards. ["Thumbs Up"]

2 stars: The product is only about average or even somewhat below that and somewhat flawed/flawed in some areas. [neither "Thumbs Up" nor "Thumbs Down"]

1 star: The product is bad/severely flawed to outright bad. ["Thumbs Down"]

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Akoustyx R-120


Source:

Review sample.


Miscellaneous:

The unboxing experience is generally nice with a well-designed, compact package that contains the in-ears, several differently sized silicone ear tips of high quality, some Comply foam ear tips, three pairs of differently sized ear hooks (called “Freebit ear interface”) that can be put on the in-ear shells, one pair of silicone covers that can be put on the shells, and a nice carrying case made of neoprene.

I like the shells’ dark blue colour and that they are translucent.
While it’s generally good that the shell design is unique, I don’t particularly find it the most attractive. Less attractive without any “Freebit ear interfaces” or silicone covers installed, so I have the silicone covers installed on the shells all the time.
I like how and where the MMCX sockets are located.
Perceived value/build quality of the shells is on the lower end – the blue plastic seems to be rather thin; my Shure SE425s’ and Knowledge Zenith AS06s’ shells definitely appear thicker and more premium to me.

Excellent fit and comfort.

High quality cable; removable with MMCX connectors. Supple and flexible thanks to twisted conductors. Looks and feels premium.
Nice three-button remote control, located on the left hand side.
A chin-slider is present.

Two Balanced Armature drivers per side; single-bore nozzle.




Sound:

Largest included single-flange silicone ear tips.

Silicone covers installed on the shells (not that it would really make any difference, though).

Tonality:

Flat-neutral leaning more towards to bright-/lean-neutral; mostly diffuse-field oriented.

The tonality is somewhere in-between my Etymotic ER-4S, the ER3SE, the ER2SE, my Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors and the diffuse-field target.

The lows that are generally flat neutral extend flat and linearly into the real sub-bass (no roll-off) and are generally elevated by ca. 1.5 dB compared to my Etymotic ER-4S that are absolutely flat and lifeless in the bass, which makes the R-120s’ minimal bass elevation appear quite similar to that of the Etymotic ER3SE and ER2SE in quantity, with the exception that the Akoustyx’ minimal elevation extends a little further towards the midrange wherefore they have got slightly more warmth in the upper fundamental range and lower midrange in comparison to Etymotic’s SE models.

The midrange is generally flat, neutral and highly realistic sounding without any real tendency towards warmth or brightness, while the presence range around 2 kHz is slightly relaxed compared to the central midrange at 1 kHz wherefore the R-120 are a bit less “brutal” and direct with imperfections on the track compared to the ER4SR and my ER-4S and more comparable to the ER3SE in this area, and still more direct here than my Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors.

Going up in the treble, Akoustyx’ dual-BA in-ears deviate somewhat more from the more Etymotic (ER3SE) target oriented signature that they closely follow below, and are closer to the diffuse-field target compared to the Etymotic (ER-4S, ER4SR) target (that is basically a slightly milder approach to the rawer diffuse-field target), which makes them sound rawer, more direct, but also brighter in the upper middle and upper highs.
Listening to sine sweeps, the area between 4 kHz and 10 kHz, especially in the middle around 7 kHz, is on the brighter side to my ears and sounds brighter than the central midrange at 1 kHz to me. Compared to my Etymotic ER-4S and the ER4SR, the output from the R-120 is about 3 respectively 4 dB stronger around 7 kHz, and around 2 dB below and above that (there are no audible peaks in these areas, they are just generally and broadly elevated to my ears); around 10 kHz and above, the R-120 are also somewhat brighter than what my ears perceive as flat when listening to sine sweeps, which leads to a somewhat metallic upper treble timbre.
Extension past 10 kHz is really good.

Listening to music, the R-120 sound generally mostly neutral and realistic to me, but also somewhat (sometimes a bit too) bright and metallic all of the time compared to what I perceive as flat when performing sine sweeps or listening to noise signals.
Often the treble timbre appears mostly realistic, but sometimes it doesn’t fully and comes across as somewhat too bright, tending towards being rather metallic and a bit screechy with high notes; anyway, it’s a treble presentation that’s definitely raw, merciless and direct, although on the edge of becoming a bit too bright and a bit too metallic due to the bass being clearly on the flat-neutral side of tuning, wherefore there is no warmth that could act as a bit of counterweight.
This, along with listening to sine sweeps that tells me the same, and demonstrates that the comparatively milder Etymotic target response (that is basically a somewhat modified diffuse-field response) sounds flatter and more correct to me in the highs with music, sine sweeps, noise signals and audio material that contains spoken words/dialogues, compared to the slightly brighter approach that Akoustyx went for – even if the difference in the upper middle and upper treble is only minimal (just few dB), the R-120 are tuned just a bit too bright in the area around 7 kHz to sound correct to me.

Frequency Response:


ER-4S-Compensation


ProPhile 8-Compensation

Resolution:

Generally decent to good resolution, but not among the best in this price range.
Subjectively at least one step or two below Etymotic’s comparably priced Balanced Armature and dynamic driver models from the ER2 and ER3 series when it comes to separation, cleanliness and control in busy parts of the music as well as revealing micro details.

Bass slightly on the softer side for BA drivers, which creates the perception of just a little extra body. Not slow or soft at all thanks to the flat tuning.
Good bass control; doesn’t really show any signs of strain even when fast and complex bass lines are on the music files.

Fairly good speech intelligibility.

Treble separation is mostly clean but starts to show a bit of haze and some loss of control in fast, busy and dense parts of the music.
Due to the slightly brighter tuning, the R-120 come across as more “revealing” in the highs than Etymotic’s single-BA models, but comparing them side by side shows that actual details and separation are somewhat higher on the Ety models.

Soundstage:

The soundstage presentation is somewhat wider than deep to my ears wherefore the perceived shape is a bit more oval than circular; it sounds natural, realistic and three-dimensional to me.
In terms of size, the R-120s’ stage is neither the smallest nor the largest but sounds more or less “average” in size and believable.

In terms of imaging, the R-120 do a good job and provide clean instrument separation and localisation.
Their stage remains intact and precise but cannot fully keep the same level of control when the scenario becomes fast, dense and busy.




Conclusion:

Comfortably fitting in-ears with a rarely found, largely flat- to rather bright-neutral sound signature that is mostly oriented towards the diffuse-field target, but ultimately just a bit too bright to sound fully correct. Decent technical performance but ultimately not fully Etymotic-level.
High quality cable; the only thing in terms of build quality/finish/perceived value that I would wish for are thicker-walled, more premium appearing plastic shells.

Akoustyx R-120 Review:

Akoustyx is a brand-new brand, hailing from San-Jose, California. Their focus is on bringing affordable stage-monitor-styled earphones to the masses. Bands, performers, and audiophiles alike may find something to appreciate within their product lineup. Today, we are taking a look at Akoustyx’s Flagship IEM: the R-120.

You can find the R-120 available on the Akoustyx official website for $169 (on sale!), here

Note that since the R-1 series have identical external construction between its three members, I will be porting parts of my R-110 review into this one. They are still accurate.

About My Preferences: Heads up, I’m a person! As such, these words are my opinion, and they are tinged by my personal preferences. While I try to mitigate this as much as possible during my review process, I’d be lying if I said my biases are completely erased. So for you, my readers, keep this in mind:

• My ideal sound signature would have an extended sub-bass with a leveled, but textured, mid-bass.
• I have mild treble sensitivity.

Source: The R-120 was powered like so:

LG V40-> earphones

or

Hidizs AP100 3.5mm out -> FiiO A5 3.5mm out -> earphones

or

HiFiMAN SuperMini -> earphones

or

PC optical out -> HiFiMe SPDIF 9018 Sabre DAC 3.5mm out -> earphones

All music was served as MP3 @320Kbps or as FLAC.

Tech Specs

• Driver: Knowles Dual-Driver Balanced-Armature
• Impedance: 29 Ω @ 1KHz
• Sensitivity: 109dB
• Freq. Response: 15–22.000Hz
• Cable Length: 1.2M (4.0 ft)
• Microphone: 4mm Omni Directional

Sound Signature
Sonic Overview:
The R-120 is a treble-first IEM. Bright in its own right, the R-120 toes the line between bloom-prone and sparkly. Its midrange is mostly neutral, deviating here and there towards being colder and brighter. Its low-end is very BA-ish, resolving most bass-bound details without pushing them very far forwards in the mix.

Sonic Breakdown:
Treble: Songs used: In One Ear, Midnight City, Outlands, Satisfy, Little One, Show Me How To Live (Live at the Quart Festival)

Treble is an important component of maintaining a highly-textured and dynamic sound signature. It’s no secret to audiophiles, however, that there is certainly such a thing as “too much detail”. This accolade is given to IEMs that simply crank up the treble-knob with concern as to how sharp or unpleasant it will make the sound signature in question. Akoustyx is a freshmen brand aiming to make “detail-first” IEMs, so one would think that this naive approach is what they would take. But they knew better. The R-120 gracefully approaches “too much” treble, always staying below the limit and within the sibilance-free zone. An off-shoot of this self-control in tuning the treble is the R-120’s admirable ability to capture detail in the smallest of fashions: the sliding of fingers along guitar strings, the breath of the vocalist against the mic, the last bit of resonation off of a newly-smacked high-hat.

The R-120 performed well across my suite of treble test-songs. In One Ear’s drum-line and vocals were topped off neatly. Midnight City’s synths were distinct and solid, but not sharp of over-bloomed. Satisfy was… passable, but given its poor mastering that's all I can expect from an IEM targeting a sound signature as treble-forward as the R-120 — the occasional sibilance did make its way through the R-120’s dual-driver crossover. The symphonies of Outlands were layered and airy, never missing a chance to accentuate the flowing harmonies of strings against percussion instruments.

Midrange: Songs used: Flagpole Sitta, Jacked Up, I Am The Highway, Dreams, Too Close, Little Black Submarines

Akoustyx tuned the R-120 to be as neutral as possible without sounding dull and uninviting, postulating that this sonic perspective would be both pleasurable and functional for the aspiring or frugal musician. And as a frugal musician myself, I have to say that they were spot on. The R-120’s portrayal of midrange instrumentation is spot-on for monitoring purposes. It catches pretty much every detail passed to it, missing only the most subtle of components in the busiest songs.

The tone of the electric guitars in Flagpole Sitta is precise and dynamic. I could easily make out the crunch of the overdrive, laid neatly over the strumming of the acoustic guitar in the background. The R-120’s ability to resolve multiple sonic layers at once is quite impressive, as it didn’t even flinch when presented with a myriad of instruments and multiple vocalists. The errupting bridge in Little Black Submarines was a blast to listen to, as the R-120 captured the sudden burst from a quiet and hushed presentation to a loud overdriven chorus.

That said, there is a small rough patch on the crossover right around 6KHz. While it doesn’t generate sibilance or sharpness, it is responsible for the occasional bloom within high-pitched vocals that takes some time to adjust to. A fix for this would go a long way towards making me capable of calling the R-120 a “flawless” IEM.

Bass: Songs used: Moth, Gold Dust, In For The Kill (Skream Remix), War Pigs (Celldweller Remix)

The R-120’s “weakest” point is its ability to produce a high-quantity of bass. This, of course, does not matter to a listener who is seeking absolute balance or a musician looking to use these as a set of monitors. After all, the R-120 can, and does, resolve bass-bound instrumentation with detail and separation. It just doesn’t do so in a loud or aggressive way, something that many listeners who are accustomed to mainstream V-shaped tuning are accustomed to.

But as for the quality of the R-120’s bass, one can’t complain. It reaches far down into the sub-bass spectrum, routinely hitting 20–50Hz drops in the electric-genre’d songs. I’d say that’s more than enough to qualify the R-120 as a “bass-competent” IEM — I’d just refrain from calling it “bassy” or “bass heavy” one.


Build
Construction Quality

The R-120’s shells are built ergonomics-first. This means that heavy materials, sharp materials, and oddly-finished materials simply couldn’t make the cut. Akoustyx settled on using a high-quality plastic with a smooth blue-transparent finish.


As far as nozzle’s go, the R-120’s are pretty slim. As they are low in diameter, they will only be compatible with eartips that have low core sizes. The nozzles have a well-defined lip that really helps keep eartips secure and immobile.


For the longest time, I’ve been wondering, quietly and to myself, “why are there no cables with exposed copper that feature in-line controls”? Well, the answer still isn’t clear to me, but Akoustyx’s cable for the R-120 has shown me that at least it isn’t impossible. Sitting on their four-core cable is a tri-button control/mic combo unit. On Android, I’ve confirmed that pause, play, fast-forward, rewind, and mic functionality are all present. You can even trigger Google Assistant! I’ve not been able to confirm any functionality on iOS devices since I don’t own any.

The R-120’s cable is a thing of beauty. It is, as I previously mentioned, made out of four twisted cores. Underneath the clear plastic sheathing lies the high-purity copper that conducts the music to your ears. The cable’s MMCX connectors, Y-splitter, chin slider, and 3.5mm jack, are each housed in a frosted white plastic. You can see some of the wirings underneath each surface. This blend of utilitarianism and traditional aesthetics is refreshingly novel, at least in a form where it is being done correctly. Being given visual access to the wiring of the R-120’s cable, it’s clear to see that it is done well, and with care. I have no longevity concerns for the R-120’s cable, and even if I did, it would matter little — after all, the R-120 features detachable cables. An aftermarket one wouldn’t be too hard to find.

Comfort
Accessories
Inside the box you’ll find:

• 1x soft carrying case
• 4x sets of ear-hooks
• 4x sets of silicone eartips
• 1x set of foam eartips

The R-120’s accessory package is reasonable. I never found myself missing any critical accessory, nor did I find it difficult to use the enclosed accessories to find a completely comfortable configuration of eartip and ear hook. The Comply foam eartips are a really nice touch. And, if you don’t like the eartips but do like the isolation you get from the inner rubber sleeve, there is a rubber sleeve without an earhook included.

Akoustyx takes great pride in the R1-series’ earhooks. According to their website, the R-1 series earhooks are licensed from a Norwegian company called Freebit. This “ear-interface” technology is well-proven and is used by tons of different companies. These ear-hooks play a key role in keeping the R-120 stable in the ear and make it a viable budget alternative to custom-molded IEMs for listeners who need a high level of security.

The soft carrying case that the R-120 comes with is highly functional. It is large enough to store the R-120 coiled in any way you’d like, so there’s no need to learn a new technique just to use it to keep your IEMs safe. The case features a little zipper compartment for storing some small objects. I use it to keep all my extra eartips and earhooks in one place. Further, it has padded edges and is made out of a shock-absorbent material that dissipates force from drops exceedingly well. So while you could probably toss your R-120 out the second story window in this and have it come out unscathed, I would be weary leaving it in a backpack containing multiple hard, heavy objects. This case’s specialty is not protecting from crushes, but drops.

Comparisons
1: Akoustyx R-110 ($99):

The R-110 has a smoother overall sound signature and a warmer midrange. The R-120 is more resolving and presents a more event upper-midrange, but has a thinner overall body for the instrumentation latched in the lower-midrange when compared to the R-110. They are both quick and resolving and share a somewhat similar treble with the R-120 pulling ahead when resolving complex treble-bound textures or elements in the upper-treble.

2: Earnine EN-120 ($79)

The EN-120 is a very different beast from the R-120. The EN-120 has no bass to speak of; it’s essentially a void in which lower-register sounds fall into with no recourse. That said, I have yet to find an IEM that can rival its ability to produce beautifully cohesive, detailed, and dynamic midrange and treble notation like it can. The R-120, while respectable in its own right, doesn’t fare well when evaluating the quality of tone and timbre in the upper-midrange and treble. That said, The R-120 can do something that the EN-120 can never hope to do: produce an even and consistent tone, detailed and rich, all the way down to 50Hz. So while one might choose the EN-120 if they care exclusively about the midrange and treble of their music, anyone who wants to get the full story, and not just the upper half of it, from their IEMs should be paying closer attention to the R-120.

3: Brainwavz B200($120):

The B200 is a more casually tuned version of the R-120. It has a more prominent lower-end and a warmer midrange. The B200 also features a more prominent treble relative to the midrange. In essence, the B200 is more V-shaped than the R-120 is. This is, of course, natural given their differences in target audiences — The R-120 is for linear listeners/musicians and the B200 is for the consumer who wants clarity and airiness. Either way, the two IEMs clearly excel in their own ways making each of them good buys, just for different types of buyers.

Summary
The R-120 is a fitting flagship for Akoustyx. Its sonic performance is down-right impressive and competes extremely well with its peers. Its ergonomics are unrivaled at this price point, as there are no other universal-fit IEMs that can adhere to the ear as neatly and as comfortably as the R-120 can. Combined with its excellent eartips selection and reasonably competent protective case, there are not many reasons to pass on the R-120, assuming you are looking for a linear and neutral IEM.

As always, happy listening!