Reviews by Coralian

Today I have the Kiwi ears Airoso for review.
I've been using this iem for about a month now.
İt costs around 125 dollars and for this price you get a 1 dd 4 ba iem with a well done V shaped tuning. Let's go one by one shall we.
First sound.
These are V shaped; meaning there's extra bass and treble in the tuning and normally I don't like this because it usually negatively affects the timbre. And the best example for this would be Kiwi ears Canta; that model had way too much bass and treble.
Airoso however dials down both ends a little and makes sure the extension is in key areas.
Boosted frequencies are; below 300hz 4.5khz, 6to 8khz and 12ish khz, this depends on how deep you've inserted the iem.

Result? A fun, sparkly but also very smooth tuning that has solid value.
I normally don't like extra treble but man Airoso is addicting for me.
İt's very fun to listen to. Every instrument is highlighted properly and doesn't loose it's natural timbre in most cases.
There are some cases it can sound a little thin, piano notes for example, they don't sound as intimate as they can be.
But honestly the overall tuning is very pleasing.
İt delivers the fun yet retains the naturalness.

To me Airoso is a perfect option for those who have a Truthear hexa, or either of the Zeros.
İt's a nice alternative to the Simgot Em6L.
Only İems that I can see being better than Airoso is the Letshuoer s12 pro or more expensive sets like Aful Acustics products.
I haven't tried the Explorer but as far as I can see these are differently tuned.

As for the particular frequencies.
Bass is full, very punchy yet also airy, thanks to extended treble. Having a little bit more of lt along with the mids would have been better though.

Mids are smooth, natural, but gotta admit sometimes a little lean, a 1.5 db boost around 600 to 2100hz would make it better though. İt just needs some fullnes in this area.

And treble is extended at perfect frequencies, seriously it's very fun.
İt adds a lot of sparkle yet never becomes fatiquing.

As for the graph and eq options
I can pull down the treble to make it more neutral but honestly they don't really need it.
But if you want to listen more acoustic tracks you might want to reduce the treble peaks.

The fit and comfort is average.
I couldn’t get a good seal with the stock tips so I've switched to Kiwi ears Flex tips. Result was way better.

Packaging and accessories are also average, well below average in my opinion because Dunu Kima exists. And I expect a similar result.
Package itself is nice but the eartips are essentially meh, instead of 3 pairs of budget eartips I'd prefer to have a single set of Kiwi ears Flex Tips because they're lightyears ahead of these. Seriously Kiwi ears please offer better eartips.
Cable is the same as the Cadenza cable and I have mixed feelings about it. From one perspective I kinda like it because it's lightweight. But from another one I think it's tangle prone.
Case is good, but not as good as the ones you get from the models like KE4 or Quintet.

My overall opinion of the Airoso is very positive.
Not necessarily my favorite, I prefer Quintet but definitely a great option, it's a perfect combination of fun and naturalness.
Definitely recommend it.

Kiwi ears Allegro mini.

Hi everyone in this late review I'll be sharing my thoughts about the Kiwi ears Allegro Mini.

This is a unibody dac amp from Kiwi Ears.
It costs less than 20 bucks, I think, depending on your location it can cost more.
In this package what you're getting is a portability focused source that offers both 3.5 and 4.4 mm connections.
Here's the official marketing material for it.

DAC Chip​

Built-in DAC/Amp chip

THD+N​

< 0.004% (32Ω load, A-weighted)

Output Power​

L+R ≥ 30mW + 30mW (32Ω, THD+N < 1%)

SNR​

≥ 114dB (32Ω load, A-weighted)

Frequency Response​

±0.2dB (20-20KHz)

Background Noise​

< 3μV (A-weighted)

Supported Formats​

PCM (up to 32bit/384kHz), DSD (DSD128, DSD64)

Output​

USB C to 3.5/4.4mm



And for my experiences.
I have been using these with my Quintet, s12 pro and hd560s for couple of times.
I'll come out right off and say it; these are not that loud. Yes they can power the hd560s but it doesn't really make them that loud.
It has the same amount of power output at both 3.5 and 4.4 mm outputs so I kinda wonder why it was offered at first place but hey, more value to you, now you can easily A-B test both outputs and decide if 4.4 mm is worth it.
As for the sound quality; it's fine.
It doesn't have the imaging capability of the original Allegro because it doesn't have an ESS dac. But it also doesn't fall really far from it either.
One thing I've noticed is it's warmer than most other sources. So if you have a bright iem it can be a good choice.
I wish they would offer an ESS9028Q2M on this package. That would've been great.

Another thing that I've noticed is Allegro mini can actually use 2 outputs at the same time so you can also use it like a Y split as well.

It doesn't have a mic support, so in smartphones you have to use the on board mic but it's ok since it doesn't block it either.
For comparisons I think the closest option would be the Jcally jm6 and I don't have that model.
Compared to the Moondrop Dawn pro and Kiwi Ears Allegro dac amp Allegro mini is severely lacking in power but it's main purpose is portability and flexibility. And this can be beneficial because unlike those options Allegro mini barely affects the battery life of your smartphone.
Overall, a nice option for the price. Not the most powerful because there are other options but one of the most unique ones.
I wouldn't use these on laptops though, because they block the other usb ports.
For smartphones? A nice option.

Today I have Kiwi ears Ellipse for review.
I'll be keeping this review short. This review was possible thanks to the Kiwi ears themselves. They've agreed to send the product for review.

Ellipse is the second headphone entry from Kiwi ears and it's priced at now 75 dollars. İt cost 60 bucks before.

Anyway built wise well let's say.. it needs further modifications.
The earcups are made out of metal. They feel robust ,VERY assuring. And it's really funny because the headband design is kinda exact opposite.
İt's a comfortable but loosely put together headband that dislocate with the small amount of force to the yokes.

This design is not strong enough to withstand the stresses of a work environment. These are marketed as DJ headphones and I doubt people would appreciate this loose design.

It just needs better connection between the yokes and the headband itself.
Other than this I honestly don't have any major issues with the design.

Sound.
Ellipse has a pretty colored sound signature and I personally don’t hate it but also don't know how to classify it.
To give you my experiences with it.
To me these headphones sound very warm, cozy and a little bit boxy depending on the frequency range.

Bass is rather pillowy, not necessarily bad but not particularly clear either. Drums and other percussions sound kinda muffled but the woodwinds, guitar and piano sounds nice.

Midrange is rather murky. Vocals ln particular sound distant and fuzzy. Lacking in definition and clarity. Again not terrible but I don't know if I'd listen this more than I had to.
Treble is surprisingly great. There's a sense of clarity in this frequency range and I think it's the main reason why Ellipse sounds better than it should.
While bass is rather muddy, mids are scooped treble is surprisingly present and natural.

And here's the frequency response graph from earphonesarchive.squig.link

As you can see the Bass is although kinda muddy still very deep. This is surprising considering that this is a dynamic driver headphone.
Mids are like I've said rather pulled back. Lack of presence in 2 to 4k region is the reason why this headphone sounds lacking in any detail.
And the treble like I heard is good, excellent even.
But the overall sound is lacking in any directionality and imaging. The midrange scoop just ruins the tonality. And this headphone doesn't like eq for some reason, I've tried to fix it and the result was rather half baked...

And now for the verdict; would I recommend these?
No. I don't think Ellipse is worth for it's asking price.
If you're looking for a cheap headphone there are better options that came out DECADES ago.
But I also don't think this is a bad product or a bad attempt either.
I see this as an alpha version of a proper offer from Kiwi ears.
If they experiment with different earpads even if not drivers I think they can offer a far better product at this price range and push the industry forward.
Like I've said we've had great sounding headphones in this range for decades and their base design is not really far off from Ellipse.
Do you want a cheap but good sounding headphone? Get the Koss KSC75, full size headphone? Sony has some old offers in CD and MDR line up but that said you need to mod these to get a decent sound.
And if you want a good sound from Kiwi ears brand itself well, their Cadenza is a great option, not the cheapest because well moondrop chu and 7hz zero exists but still Cadenza is a great set.

And Kiwi Ears.
I like what I'm seeing here. You're trying to cover more of the audio gear market with alternative offers.
It's always nice to see more options and I just can't wait to see your Quintet equivalent offer in headphone market but the Ellipse is not it.
I believe with more experiment you guys can achieve the success in this segment. I'm looking forward for your next offer.

When moondrop released their Dawn pro at 50 bucks I knew that the competitors in the industry would try to pick up. And Allegro is a great example of this.


Hi everyone today's review sample was provided to me by Kiwi ears themselves and I thank them for the opportunity. But they don't have anything to say about what I say.

Allegro is a dac amp that uses an ESS9028q2m chip.

Like many other similar dac chips this chip supports all available audio formats from standard 16 bit to all the way 32 bit 384khz. I've still yet to find a song that can use this full range, I might try to test it with a remux or wave file. But honestly I personally think it's nice to have that extra bitrate.
Because although we can't use the 32 bit 384 khz on single files I personally hear a slight improvement on 5.1 concert recordings and anything that involves Dolby Atmos. So windows as a system does provide better sound output at these high bitrate modes.

Like dawn pro Allegro uses a dual 3.5 and 4.4 outputs.
It's power output is not the highest at 32 ohm 3.5mm gives you 70mW and 4.4 mm gives a 155mW.
But this doesn't really matter because if if it were to provide more power it would drain too much power from the usb connection. For laptops this isn't an issue but for smartphone users this is a pain in the ass.
And besides it still has enough power to drive full size planars.
Speaking of wich.
I've tested the Allegro with my Hexa, Kiwi ears Quintet and Ke4, letshuoer s12 pro as well as sennheiser hd560s and hifiman edition xs.

Out of all these the Edition xs is the hardest to drive and Allegro had no issue powering it via 3.5mm output. So it is powerful enough for almost every iem.

Now let's talk about the hardest part of this review for me.
The sound.
Honestly I don't have a good idea on how to describe it to you.
Because dac-amps are supposed to be flat and yet every dac that I've used so far had slight differences in sound. For example to me moondrop dawn pro has a cirrus logic chip and that dac-amp sounds musical, it doesn't change the frequency response but the Bass hits on that dac amp sounds open and spacious. Definitely better than my old note 9 and current laptop that uses a realtek sound card.
Old hidizs dac-amps that used similar Ess chips had a very resolving mid centric sound.
And Allegro probably due to its Ess chip sounds similar to them.
It is very resolving but it also sounds rather sterile. İt's flat, dead flat and this can be a good thing or bad thing depending on what you're using it with.
For example for my 560s it's a terrible choice, 560s already have a very clinical sound so pairing it with a neutral source like Allegro is not the best idea.
But edition xs pairs well with the Allegro.
Allegro pushes the center image and vocals forward and since edition xs has a pulled back mids it compliments it nicely.
As for iems everything sounds fine except hexa. Hexa is similar to 560s, it's neutral so it doesn't sound good with Allegro.
And for Kiwi ears models both KE4 and quintet pairs nicely but for different reasons.
Ke4 has too much bass for it's soft mids so Allegro boosts the mids a little and this makes it more detailed and more balanced. İt sounds great especially with the vocal forward tracks.
And for Quintet it's the exact opposite.
Quintet already sounds open and airy and adding a neutral source to it basically amplifies its resolving capability.
I'll be honest, I don't like to use Quintet with Allegro because of this, it sounds too harsh for music but in gaming this comes handy. It improves the directionality and separation.
But for music I prefer Dawn Pro.

And let's get into my criticisms.
I think Allegro is too bulky. It's built like a tank but it also makes it heavier than it's competition and for a mobile device this is an issue.
And other issue I have is the design.
This is my personal opinion so you are free to disagree with me but I think Allegro's design is not really that good.

I like the idea of retro eastetics but filling this thing with fake buttons isn't a good idea. Again this is a portable device so keeping it clean would've a better idea.
I get the reason, they wanted to add their identitiy but a soft glowing logo would've a better idea. İt would have double as a notification led.
And that's it.
I like the Allegro but it could use some improvements on design.

Hi everyone, today I'll be sharing my thoughts about the Kiwi ears ke4. This review is way behind the schedule but let's get into it.
I got this sample from Kiwi ears themselves about 6 weeks ago and was using alongside my Quintet and s12 pro.

Ke4 is a 2 dynamic driver 2 BA hybrid set that comes at 199 dollars.
For this price you get the IEM's, 1 hard case and just 1 set of eartips.

Case is really good, I have the same case from Quintet and It's perfectly pocketable.
Cable is a standard 4 core with fixed terminations and jack.
It would have been nice to have a 4.4 mm version or even an interchangeable cable system but I think it's good enough.
Eartips are a new addition from the Kiwi Ears, they are called flex eartips.
I honestly really love the design of these eartips; they are just perfect for me; it's firm and grippy enough to seal perfectly while not causing any issue with the comfort whatsoever.

And as you can see they have an in built wax protector. It might not look much but this is very important to keep your iems safe and clean. I look forward to see alternative versions of these eartips like double flange and wide bore.

IEM design is a very comfortable semi custom fit. My only issue is they portrude a little bit from my ears compared to Quintet's flush fit. But all in all very comfortable.

And let's get into sound.
Ke4 is tuned with the latest available information about the audio gear.

For those who don’t know the overall idea of "neutral" in iems and headphones have been evolving rapidly with the introduction of advanced measurement rig B&K 5128.
These advancements helped us to understand why some people don't like the way IEM's sound despite how well tuned they are and strictly prefer headphones over in ears.
And we have a new target curve for these people; JM1. Jm 1 target is a direct result of latest information we've got from 5128 and old research from harman acoustics.

And Ke4 is a perfect option for those who strictly prefer the over ear headphones.
Especially if you prefer warmer headphones.

General tuning is neutral with the Bass boost. But unlike similarly tuned older models ke4 puts a heavy emphasis on lower mid range.

Older models had a tendency to boost some certain frequency ranges in treble to add a sense of contrast to the sound. And this was one of the reasons why some people didn’t like in ears.
Ke4's treble is silky smooth with the exception of 15k, there's a small peak at that range but it's not bothersome at all.
To me these iems sound natural, smooth and very pleasing.
My only issue is the Bass.
Now let me be clear; bass is not bloated boomy. It's relatively over pronounced but it's due to way the mid-range is tuned, not because it's too much.
My issue is more closely related to notion of wrong tool for the right work.
Back to the topic of measurements and tuning there was a certain thing about the mid range in iems that were tuned with older tuning metadology; there was a slight dip at 400hz on every neutral with bass boost IEM.

This dip combined with the certain treble peaks essentially gave a certain sense of separation and headstage.
And this is also one of the reasons behind the notion of "Bass boost that starts from 200hz"
For these older versions 200hz bass boost was the way to go because it both added a fun factor and made vocals more lively rather than sterile.
But again this created an issue for the certain minority who didn’t like the way this tuning sounds.
Ke4 funnily adressed that issue but also created a new problem, a problem that no one really see up until now. I'm not sure even if the people who worked on jm1 has noticed this.
Since jm1 target has a slightly more pronounced yet neutral lower mids and more laid-back treble it naturally favors the Bass frequencies. Even we didn't boosted the Bass with a bass shelf it wouldn't sound boring.
And because KE4 has a bass shelf on top of an already relatively warm base tuning, bass notes sound extra thick.

When a bass shelf at 200 hz is combined with the extremely linear and smooth mid range and treble essentially causes the Bass to be the dominant frequency.
Like I said this is a perfect example of wrong tool for the right job.
And my solution is simple; just put a tape over the back vent. İt lowers the Bass shelf but I'm not sure how much. But the dynamics and overall bas presence gets an improvement.
And you can also put a low shelf filter around 170hz. This essentially moves the Bass shelf to the 150hz.
This keeps the natural timbre but adds that sense of separation from bass to mids.

And speaking of EQ KE4 is a perfect IEM to experiment with.
Each driver is tuned and damped perfectly. This makes using this iems with eq a joy.
It's so easy to tweak and boost certain frequencies.

Comparisons.

Vs Kiwi ears Quintet; neither is better or worse than eachother. Honestly I think these 2 are perfectly matched against eachother.
To me Quintet is the benchmark of sub 250dollars and while it can be hot in treble. But I like it for what it is; a highly resolving budget hybrid.

Altough its close to JM1 target it still retains the older tuning philosophy. It has slightly boosted treble and a slight notch at 400hz. So it does sound slightly different from KE4. But resolution wise I'd say even with the eq Quintet sounds more resolving and clear than ke4.
Transients are faster, notes are more incisive and overall imaging is better.
But it can be fatiquing for some people. Especially for those who prefer headphones over in ears.
So for this case KE4 is better. In fact I like ke4 for some genres over Quintet. Ke4 sounds smoother and delicate than Quintet in most cases and it's definitely better in eq.

Vs s12 pro.

S12 pro has more detail but it's tuning is not as natural as the ke4.

İt's also less dynamic sounding. Again ke4 is definitely smoother in this area.

Vs hexa.
Hexa is kinda polar opposite of ke4.

While ke4 is bas dominant hexa is treble dominant.
Also ke4 has slightly more detail than hexa.
But they are close.

Conclusion.
Ke4 is the perfect representation of jm1 target, both it's pro's and cons.
For 200 dollars there are more resolving iems than it. And there are iems that have similar level of details at lower price ranges. But none of them sounds as smooth as ke4.
And sure I can use eq to get a similar results but I'd rather not.
Altough bass is rather dominant I honestly really don't think it's a major issue. İn fact for most of people it might even be better. And if not solution is only a tape mod away
Just cover the vent and you've got an in ear hd650.

Kiwi ears canta

Hi everyone, today I have Kiwi ears’ 1dd 2 Micro Planar hybrid set on review table.
I was offered to review this set from Kiwi ears by them.
Honestly I’m flattered. I’ve just posted a couple of reviews and they still offered me the opportunity.
So thank you guys.
Anyway on to the review.

Canta was silently released by Kiwi ears, I really haven’t seen much fanfare from the community.
It’s priced at 89 dollars. Not too expensive but I think it’s also exciting because it’s the cheapest hybrid that uses Micro Planar tweeters. Normally they are used on more expensive sets. The other cheap option is simgot supermix4, a dark harman set.



As you can see the accessories are kinda basic. I love the cable, it’s light and supple but honestly I’m sick of seeing these cheap eartips.
They easily break seal and gives me itchy feeling on my ear canal.
I think every manufacturer should use a standard set of good quality eartips on their products. I’m not expecting sedna clears or uc clear eartips. Just use something that is made of medical grade silicon. Something like BGVP type e or w1 tips.
Oh and the case is good; it’s kinda bulky but I like it: it can easily hold Canta or Quintet and Kiwi Ears Allegro.



As you can see the IEM’S have a barebone design that doesn’t really scream. It’s both good and bad. I’ll come to it in a minute.
Let’s talk about the sound.
Canta has a weird tuning. I can say that. Right now I don’t have a detailed 5128 measurements for it. All I have is the measurements from the 711 clone couplers. And I can see a similar measurement from official Kiwi Ears marketing material as well.



As you can see it has a rather V shaped tuning.
Bass is boosted but clean. It’s too much for my taste but I’d recommend this over the old chifi style every day.
Mids are.. weird. It’s kinda recessed between 400-2000 hz. This makes the IEM’S sound thin and makes the Bass even more prominent.
And the treble, well. It’s a roller coaster. İts overly extended at 8khz and 12.5 khz.

Now I’m going to be honest; I wouldn’t buy this IEM as it is. Because Truthear hexa and Zero Red exists .
But I still wouldn’t call this IEM bad. It’s just not designed properly. It’s faults can be fixed easily via eq. When it’s fixed its transients and details are better than hexa. İt sounds sharper, cleaner and a little bit more detailed. But I would expect this tuning out of the box. Not after an EQ session.
But the capabilities of the drivers are there. They are just held back by the shell design.



To understand what I mean I want to show you the frequency response graph of Canta once more.


I want to tell this first; 711 clones are not exactly reliable but even with the low reliability we can still see the individual driver’ frequency crossover points.
Dynamic driver is handling everything up until 6k. It’s good. There’s some driver flex but it’s not bad.
1st MicroPlanar is handling the frequency range between 6 to 10 pr 11k. And the second one is trying to handling everything above 10k. I’m saying “trying “because last driver can’t really seem to cover everything in it’s range. Now again I want to point you that drivers are doing fine. But I can tell that this IEM shell design is not really designed for specifically this setup. I remember seeing the same design on Kiwi ears melody. So this is probably a generic design.

I think this is the crux of the issue here. All the drivers are doing great but shell is not exactly designed for these drivers. I still see myself as a newbie so take my words with a pinch of salt. But I think the inner air volume of the IEM’S is a little too much. This causes a slight dip at 400-2k region. And massive inconsistencies afyer 5k. Again I need to see a 5128 measurement to be sure.
Kiwi ears design team has the same limitations as I have. So I’m not exactly disappointed in them on this matter; a 5128 is just too expensive.
But I wish they were had at least tried using a 3d printed shell for this IEM, its so close to perfection it hurts.
By separating the dd and MicroPlanar driver’s chambers they could have avoided having an inconsistent treble response and dips. And maybe separating the micro planars would change what exact frequency they would peak at. I’ve seen hybrid IEM’S that using older, more inconsistent drivers having a better response than Canta. Canta’s drivers are capable, it’s crossover is good. It just needs a better designed shell to perform at its full potential.

I will be giving a little bit more detailed feedback to Kiwi Ears team. I really love some of their products, Cadenza was really nice and Quintet is my top favorite under 250$ range. I really want them to succeed. And I hope they can offer a product that basically fixes Canta’s issue.
As of now I can only give 3 out of 5 to Canta. It’s capable but you have to fix it.



Still a better offer than the absolute best KZ can dream of.

Hi everyone. today I want to add my opinions on to me the best sub 250 dollar IEM on the market.
I wont be adding any pictures because why bother? I want this review to be a little bit more on the deep brain storm side rather than an buyers guide.
BUT if you are a potential buyer: go ahead, but this IEM, yes its old in chifi standards but its better than most options under 250 bucks. very detailed and resolving. only thing that I can think as a matching alternative is the Letshuoers planars. but even than quintet has the advantage of having a dd for bass. just make sure to get a better eartip than ones on the box because they suck ass.
Kiwi Ears PLEASE put better eartips on the box next time: preferably good quality stuff like BGVP's type W01 tips.
aside from the eartips nothing really bothers me that much, well except cable maybe; its too lose. I like that its light and really comfortable but they get tangled rather easily.

lets focus on my main point now: the sound.
To me quintet sounds neutral with emphasis on bass. treble does have some extra presence bot its not to the point of being V shaped. its just slightly emphasised. enough to give it some extra bit of reolution.
heres the FR from uncle Crin:
I have NOTHING bad to say about the Quintet: its a great set for any begginer. just fire and forget.
BUT I do have some opinions on how it can be even better.
to me it has 3 minor characteristics that I'd change.
slight dip at 400 hz: see that small dip? that range makes the quintet somewhat thin. its nowhere near ar problematic as a traditional harman IEM but boosting that range by 2 db really gives a more organic timbre. but this is not mandatory.
my second issue is everything above 6k.
theres a peak at 7k and another at 9 and another at 14k
now this much deviation from graph is not an issue. in fact I really like it. but I wish these peaks were at 8, 10 and 16 k regions.
as it is these peaks make quintet very resolving but also rather intense. if you reduce the 7k peak by 2 db's intensity goes away and youre still left with a very detailed IEM but I wish this was out of the box.
aside from these minor inconveniences I think Quintet is the best option at its price range.
its more detailed than any IEM below its price range. maybe with the exception of letshuoer s12 brothers. but still I had to EQ the s12's to get a desirable result. quintet is this good out of the box.
wayy better than Chopin ( to me) its more open, has better dynamics and better comfort too.
chopin feels like a cold monitor compared to Quintet.
and thats it.
honestly I'm having so much fun with this IEM I'd love to see an upgraded version: Kiwi ears doesnt have to change too many things; just try to shift every peak after 6k towards a little bit more higher frequencies: lower the 1.5k and fill in the 400hz region. and IDK? maybe experiment with the stacked DD setup instead of a single one? but keep the bass characteristics for the most part.
keep the same spacious shell design because I believe it has a role in why it sounds so spacious: during my review period I have compared the Quintet aganist the chopin, hexa and S12 pro.
I feel like IEM's that have higher internal air volume tend to sound more dynamic even if they were eq'd very closely. hexa and chopin sounds rather blunt compared to S12 and Quintet.

overall: 8.5 out of 10: just make sure it has a good seal and maybe lower the 7k a little.
it can be better but as it is its still a great choice.

Hi everyone Today I'm going to share my thoughts about the Truthear hexa for you and discuss somethings about the chifi industry and audiophile market as a whole.

First , Hexa.
Well it's a Truthear product. For those who don't know this company came out of no where and popped into existence with a collaboration product with Crinacle.
They just went into guy and asked him to how to develop a good product. Result was the Truthear Zero. A bassy-harman tuned IEM with a dedicated subwoofer. For some it's the endgame at first try.
I don't have that model so I can't comment about it's sound characteristics but its graph shows a very likable tuning.
Onto the Hexa. Well we still don't know if this is a collaboration or not but I don't think this matters anymore. Anyone who has a widely used measuring rig and clear understanding of frequency response graph could develop a good product. I believe it's more surprising to see manufacturers fail rather than success in this area.
In this perspective seeing Hexa with this tuning is not surprising for me. People at the Truthear obviously know what makes a good audio gear and have a clever gameplan in their head to win in this everstriving super fast market.
Hexa is competing in sub 100$ range but saying "competing " doesn't mean anything.
Most manufacturers have figured out how to use certain drivers and how to fine tune them in this price range. Dunu, Moondrop, 7hz, Tangzu, Tanchjim ALL offer great products with LCP diaphragms that tuned to have clean but thumpy bass, natural mids and generally good but a little uneven treble.
People at Truthear COULD have used a similar approach in this price range but this would put them directly against every product under 100$ segment.
What they have done is a brave step forward for not just for themselves but for the all industry.
They designed a product with a hybrid design by using the components in this price range and tuned them JUST Like a 3 to 400$ iem. Particularly Moondrop Blessing 2 or Softears Volume.
This might look trivial from a user perspective but when you look at from business perspective this is a genuinely clever move.
They are basically forcing the whole industry to bring the higher end level tuning and design philosophy into the budget range. Last product that did this was Moondrop Chu and we all can see the results now.

So how does Hexa feel like and sound?
These are made of completely solid pieces of resin. They have a metal faceplate and brushed inner texture that avoids fingerprints and stains.
Nozzle is kinda thick and has 2 sound tubes that connecting to the drivers. And in the tubes there are damping filters from Knowles. A green and an orange one.
Now I'm not ballsy enough to remove these and even if I was this would have been pointless because I don't have a measuring rig. So I don't know the sound of raw setup.
But the result sound is a smooth and open presentation. There is a laid back and linear bass rise but this doesn't feel as engaging as the other bassy neutral IEM's. This bass is there to found a baseline for an open, laid back staging. In this stage we got smooth and detailed mids and slightly hot but generally smooth treble.
Vocals are clear and open. Instruments are well defined and easily noticeable, every instrument, every note and beat is ready for you to pick up.
Imaging is definitely one of the advantages of Hexa over the others because it doesn't have that emphasis on the midbass. But for some of you guys this might feel a little sterile. If you happen to think that way, a slight nudge to 180-220 hz area should satisfy your bass requirements.
But surprisingly I find this to be more pleasing because this laidback tuning allows you to focus on the little details more than the whole presentation.
For this reason can see Truthear hexa being a great monitor for singers and artists. Open presentation is something that we don't easily see in this range.
And speaking of imaging Hexa is also a great option for gaming. Well every in ear monitor is but still Hexa has the advantage of a clear headstage. Windows spatial audio would give you a great experience with Hexa.
If there is any nit-picking I would do this would be the inoffensive tuning choices specific areas; Truthear hexa is ever so slightly shy at 2khz area. This might give you a slightly inoffensive, sterile vocal and instrument imaging in these areas. But this is not a nit-pick that I usually use on this price range, this is a level of detail perfectionism that I use for at least 200$ gear.
Al in all this is a very good if not great product.

A clear intention and arguibly a flawless execution. This is new. Over the years I've got used to hear and see marketing jargon from manufacturers and was pretty burnt out by it.
Truthear doesn't trying to sell you a product with bold claims. Their marketing material relies on description about their aim with the product. In the case with Zero this was offering a likable sound with dedicated subwoofer. In Hexa's case this is offering a 300+experience in sub100+ segment.
They know their userbase and design their products accordingly.
This kind of clear intention behind every product is something that is hard to see and satisfying to have.
Usually an audio gear manufacturer tries their luck with some vague ideas and approaches. I time they gather enough experience to perfect their offerings. But Truthear directly goes for the kill with clear understanding of industry, userbase and knowledge. Apparently they've studied their niche very carefully.

Would I recommend this product? Well of course but I don't have to. These guys already know how to convince both audiophile geeks and anime lover weebs.
The question is? What's their next move gonna be? Both in ear and maybe over ear?
Because IF they decide to compete with the established western manufacturers on their market. Oh my... we might be able to see the most dynamic market conditions in this hobby. With their tuning experience in their belts Truthear would have a huge advantage over their domestic and international competitors. Considering their attitude towards the little details they could knock their competitors out with similar but more polished products. And this is what brings you long term success.

Hmm? other tidbits that I've forgotten to mention; comfort is great but those who has smaller ear canals might want to check out a double or triple flange ear tip. Case is very soft and user-friendly but it's not a good choice if you plan to use them on outdoors; soft case isn't an action proof protection.
Driver timbre and dynamics are very tame and satisfying but these don't have the noticeable contrasty presentation that you might see in V shaped or Harman Tuned IEMs. Hexa Excels at showing the fine details on the sound than coloring it.
And speaking of coloring these show the source characteristics on the sound quality pretty easily. Using it with a bassy source would be a great pairing idea for those who want more contrasting presentation.
They don't require an amp but using one will improve the quality, more than the likes of single driver setups.

Well that's it. I know this is a weird style of review but I tend to look at from a wider perspective on my reviews. This usually allows for more information to be shared.
I'm curious about Truthear's next release. But in the meantime let's discuss about what we have here.
Share your opinions with me, I'd love to hear your opinion on this topic.
Oh btw I thank Cloris from Shenzenaudio for giving me a chance to try these. I think they are the global sales partner for Truthear. They tend to have them on stock right away every time.

Hi fellow Head-fiers I’m here to give you my impressions of the Moondrops latest budget star.

I’ve been using this iem for quite a while now. I knew it would be a hitter but to be honest who doesn’t right? Not everyone get easy recommendation from Crinacle that easily. Plus it gets a pass from a majority of the users. so we got both mass and individual approvals.

Anyway. About the Chu. Well, it's a Moondrop product; that's it, design and presentation-wise it neither overpromises (except for the metal built) nor underdelivers. It's a value pack that is so good it's almost impossible to hype for it. I genuinely like products like this. even if I would never get to try one I would recommend people to consider it. Competitive and value-packed products like Moondrop Chu are a sign that the brand behind it pays attention to user demands and is willing to go the extra mile to deliver a worthy item for customers' money. It always feels great to listened and I can see why people hype this model so much.

Also along with the hype I’ve also come across some criticisms like the lack of a removable cable or ear hooks. I too had these questions about them. But after using it for a while and thinking about it I came to the conclusion that Moondrop had actually thought about these.

Now I’m not defending anyone or read anything about the design story behind this model but I have a theory that Moondrop actually pays attention to looks and the user experience a little bit more than we think of. Most of the audiophile brands usually pay attention on function and don’t really brainstorm about the form, generally speaking of course. ALL brands follow a similar approach to looks.

I feel like Moondrop is following a similar path that Apple follows on their products.

They pay attention on how their products look and don’t add some elements like a chin slider or heat shrinked ear hooks because of the messy look that they might give. I’m not an expert but I think this is one of the reasons why the chu is so barebones. But if you really want a chin slider, well included cable strap could fill that role, its pretty effective. And rubber ear hooks doesn't do a bad job either. they are just tedious.

Oh I have one more theory: price. They are so determined on monopolizing every price range. In order to do that they design each of their products to he as distinctive as possible from both each other. This helps the people do decide easily. I’m sure they would be able to add a 2 pin connector, chin slider and ear hooks. But no matter how cheap they can be this would eventually affect the price. And guess what model stands on 40 buck range? More resolving SSR and SSP.

Being successful in every price range requires a brand to distinguish their products from each other and compete well against their alternatives and Moondrop does this exceptionally well. But this creates some confusion among the users from time to time.

I feel like I need to apologize because I haven’t said anything about the sound so far but I think I don’t have to. I mean in cases like this hype is usually right. Chu deserves to be hyped because guess what it sounds great. Considering that you are not after heavy bass.

Chu is neutral with normalized amount of subbas. This allows chu to be an exceptionally flexible choice for about 90% of the times. It's enough to enjoy the beat while not sacrificing the other parts like instruments. But hey if you want more of it than this is easier to work on EQ because it's always easier to add more bass manually than removing it.

Level of detail is average and it’s totally ok you can’t ask more in this price range. But if you’re interested in a detailed budget option but not exactly sure about your preferred tuning I’d say you should choose this one rather than a bassy budget iem because in budget range a neutral or balanced IEM always gives you more detail than a bassy one.

Now about the other part of this value package; spring tips.

First, let me give you my thoughts about the ear tips generally. For me a good eartip should be soft enough to be comfortable in my ear canal and shouldn’t cause any itching or sweating.

I’m saying this because I see some manufacturers using cheap stuff even in 50 buck price range. And Moondrop should also felt as insulted as I am because they offer their spring tips in this budget segment option while sticking with normal ones on Aria.

Don’t get me wrong I haven’t tried Aria but as far as I can see it has decent quality accessories.

Moondrop promotes spring tips heavily. As of one size fits all solution.

But I have some other opinions about it. Don’t get me wrong spring tips ARE good. but if you’re like me; prefer a textured surface on eartips so they wouldn’t catch on everything in ear canal while putting them on they might feel more handy than a normal one.

These are bullet shaped wide bore eartips. Which means if you want deeper fit but also want wide bore because you think it affects the sound than these are a great option.

But because they are so soft and have a kind of glossy outer surface they easily catch your ear canal on the early step of insertion.

They catch your ear canal so easily and when you get them out they flip every time. This can be tiring for you to deal with it. I’m used to it as of now but I wish it was easier to use like a spinfit.



If you have sensitive ears you might catch their effect on the sound. They do improve the treble response a little. But I’m not sure because it has grooves or because it has a softer material.

I would love to see a textured version of these ear tips. Since Moondrop promotes them with tweets and extra razzle dazzle in their marketing materials might as well get some variety.

Although I have some work on my hands every time I use these eartips I have to say that I like them. They don’t cause any discomfort and seal better than other options like ball shaped narrow bore variants. I just think currently they don't live up the hype that surrounds them.

When a manufacturer uses a different driver type in their products this usually turns some heads. I mean when a product segment has a relatively steady phase any difference in a product tends to peak the interest of people.

This is something that many manufacturers knows and takes some advantage of. We’ve seen many brands take an innovative approach to the IEM’s with different drivers like planar magnetic drivers, electret or magnetostatic drivers Est's you name it.

When things come to magnetostatic drivers Shuoer started the trend with their Tape and singer back in 2020 and kz followed the trend.

A magnetostatic driver is a relatively exotic driver. It's basically a dynamic driver but cannot produce low frequencies. It's detail retrieval capabilities makes it a good choice for any IEM that is under 120 or so bucks. It's definitely a better option than any BA driver that most of the budget options like kz uses. Higher end options like Knowles has a similar level of detail but sometimes lack the natural timbre that they have.

Well using this depends on how good you can tune them. In this case, shuoer and kz kinda failed. According to other reviews, tape was too shouty, singer was too sharp (haven’t tried it) and kz failed big time; both ZEX and NRA had great detail capabilities especially with the strings and vocals but damn they were bloated as hell, well not too much but it killed the details.

Why am I mentioning these? Well because I want to emphasize on how important it is to a manufacturer to understand the components that they are using.

Hidizs mm mermaid is a good example for this case. Why? It’s hybrid model that uses a magnetostatic driver. And it's tuned to be bassy. It has a lot of bass. But it's extremely well controlled.

It's V shaped. So it's a given to lose some details in the mids. This would be the case with any dynamic driver based model but thanks to magnetostatic driver in this model there’s not much of lose of detail in the mids. Yes they DO sound distant that's the case with V shaped tuning. But in the end, it retains the little nuances in the mids.

Bass is noticeable. Like I said it has a lot of it. It kinda rolls of below 50 hz. This does affect the Soundstage; it focuses everything in front of your head instead of a 360-degree bubble effect. It’s not bloated but this amount of bass will eventually mask some of the little details in the treble region.

Treble is another area where gets some extra attention. It is elevated but it doesn’t shows any sibilance or sharpness. I especially enjoyed the high hats and percussions. They definitely sound great with the mm2. But it suffers the adverse effects of boosted bass; although its fun it doesn't highlight all of the details in this area.

Also, mm2 has some filters for tuning options. They control the amount of air the dynamic driver gets. It increases or decreases the amount of bass. Don’t expect any changes in the mids with them. Depending on the filter you either get extra bass or treble. I don’t think that they are gimmicks but I so think that it's not a mandatory thing to have. I personally don’t think you need them because in the end you get the same flavor with minor changes. If there was a way to change the tuning between a warm-neutral and this V shaped tuning that would have been a better idea. I think a switch would be a better option for this purpose.



Accessories and presentation wise this is a very good product. Although I think KBEAR and BGVP has better eartips mm2 doesn’t lack that much. It is a good option for anyone who wants a v shaped IEM that has good quality mids. And also people who might want to try a magnetostatic hybrid would definitely be happy with this IEM. It's the best option right now. I would be happier if there was a more balanced alternative for this driver combination. This setup has good potential but it cannot bring its full potential with this engaging fun tuning. As a product, Moondrop Aria holds the top spot for the warm to neutral segment. Having a magnetostatic driver alternative in this segment might be a good idea. After trying a neutral-bright IEM like TKZK wave I realized that there's not many options for bright-neutral alternatives either. offering extra alternatives in these segments could be a good move depending on the tuning and detail retrieval. MM2 does have the necessary detail potential so its up to the Hidizs.
let's wait and see what the future holds.

Hi everyone. I’m here to give you my impressions of Meze Rai Solo and help anyone who might be interested in this model to understand this IEM's characteristics.

I used this model for 5 months now, sometimes switched to other models but returned to it every now and often. I don’t have a dedicated DAP or AMP yet but I have enough experience to tell the difference between the sources.

I won’t pay attention to the box contents and design because you can always check it out on the official site or even in here. All I can say about the presentation and accessories is they are enough for this product to be used for its purpose. This is an IEM that puts comfort, reliability and quality on top of everything else and the box contents are enough for that. Except for a pair of foam tips. This IEM sounds best with a wide bore tip and adding a pair of short and wide bore foams would have been better. They are not easy to find.

Design and comfort is top notch. They are neither overly flashy or underwhelming. They have a nice nostalgic color and finish that I’ve been seeing only on our old milk skimming equipment. (60 years old, been trough so much abuse yet still doesn’t shows any marks ) They feel don’t feel like a consumer electronic product, they feel more like a furniture that designed to be a part of your lifestyle for a long time.


Fit is great, since they are made of stainless steel they warm up very quickly and doesn’t cause discomfort especially in winter. This is something that bothers me with aluminum IEM’s. I can use them while walking, sleeping; they need minimal adjustment effort to fit into my tiny table spoon sized ears. If you are looking for comfort Rai Solo nails at this segment effortlessly.



Now about the sound. This is the topic where I can see most people are not exactly able to clarify or agree on a common result. It's understandable actually everyone has different tastes and they mostly expect a more neutral timbre to enjoy their favorite songs.

In order to understand Rai Solo you need to understand Meze Audio or more particularly it’s founder; Antonio Meze.

Antonio Meze is an industry designer but he doesn’t have a musician background. As a designer, he designs these products based on his personal preferences. And these preferences are shaped by his past, environment and his outlook towards life. Result? Products put reliability, comfort, and quality above everything else. I know this sounds like a marketing manifesto but this is the reality. Romanian culture has a lot of handmade elements and you can see their effects in the Meze Audio products.

The sound however is the most subjective topic in our list. In Romania or generally European traditional music culture you got mostly warm smooth sounding instruments. This affects people’s preferences in sound signature. Since Antonio Meze designs these products based on his own preferences it’s only natural to have a slightly colored sound. And he also prioritizes comfort.

The sound signature that you are getting from this IEM bears the characteristics of the culture that it originates from. So its normal for it to not have a perfectly natural timbre.

The general sound signature of Rai Solo is balanced with a little bit more focus on the bass and upper mids.

But this relatively balanced sound signature is colored. It has a warmer, thicker, sweeter characteristic. It feels like a V-shaped sound signature but unlike V shaped tuning every mid instrument is easily noticeable. Every instrument and vocals sound thicker, more intimate and this affects the best use cases.

Rai Solo performs well with almost every genre thanks to its characteristics. It reflects its own character rather than the raw character of the song that you are listening which can be too analytical sometimes. Isn’t this is why people love Spotify? it adds a flavor to the sound, aside from the convenience of course.

In instrumental or vocal-focused tracks like the Raindancer album from Erutan Rai Solo provides a cozy and intimate presentation. Every instrument has a thicker note characteristic, it's like you’re listening to the music on a warm wooden room while watching the snowflakes fall outside. (I wonder if Antonio Meze have such a memory :] ) In pop and electropop there's not much change, since this colored sound profile doesn’t change much in this genre, but it becomes smoother and more colorful. In Vocaloid albums, you sometimes crave for a more open and sparkly presentation because eastern music culture has a lot of shiny notes. Whether it's Kodo or keyboard there’s always some sparkly shining notes. But Rai Solo keeps you in your place with its performance in other parts of the spectrum. This is where another benefit of Rai Solo’s warm timbre catches your attention; it’s warm timbre adds a more emotional, more nuanced flavor. It becomes a joy to delve deep into the notes of the songs like Tsugai Kogarashi. And it's full and smooth presentation creates an addicting atmosphere with the albums like Fever by Samfree. In songs that it synergizes well Rai Solo keeps you in your position, leaving you with thoughts like ‘Ok this is not exactly the most transparent or airy set, it sounds… muddy maybe? No, details are there but they have a thicker note, its not the most accurate but man I like it’

With EDM and rock however, things are a little tricky. Everything I said above applies for these two genres as well. But by their tuning EDM and rock doesn’t excel as good as the other genres in this IEM. EDM does benefit from the meaty bass of Rai Solo. But it becomes a little overwhelming with its forward and thick upper mids. If the upper mids were a little bit more transparent it wouldn’t be a problem. But this would also have an impact on the overall performance of Rai Solo. And rock really benefits from an open, airy upper mid and treble. While Rai Solo has excellent treble detail and presence it’s too smooth and thick for a song like Invincible from Skillet.

One of my favorite ways of consuming music is watching concert recordings. Live performances have a more exciting, special experience than the originals. While Rai Solo nails at giving every little detail and nuance of the live recordings they are not exactly the best option for them. Why? Because of their colored sound profile. Like the EDM and Rock live recordings benefits from a more transparent and airy presentation. And that's totally fine.

The soundstage and separation on Rai Solo is very good. But it's colored timbre and smooth presentation might give you a more claustrophobic feeling. This is evident especially with a song that has too many instruments in upper mids. Thicker notes, a lot of instruments. Even with the good separation capabilities, you can’t get away from getting overwhelmed slightly.



Conclusion.

I tend to categorize the Rai Solo or Meze Audio products as a more of long-term tool rather than a simple consumer electronic product. You need to take a look at your past 2 years of music consumption, what do you want from an IEM? what are your most favorite songs? Do you use any eq settings? How often do you switch the bass boost button?

A sound engineer would benefit from a flat-sounding headphone or IEM why? Because they earn money from that. They need that colorless analytical sound profile.

But not all of us are exactly in the same boat. We tend to prefer a certain type of sound signature and this sometimes changes during our lifetime, when we change our preferences our preferred sound signature changes as well. Meze Rai Solo is for people who want to listen to music with a more enjoyable sound profile. It's unique and smooth presentation provides a very enjoyable, non-fatiguing experience even with listening sessions that goes on for hours. Granted it's not a perfect fit for every genre at the same time. But the other models are not any different either.

If you are looking for a more open presentation using it with a balanced cable would improve its performance in both rock and live performance use cases. According to BadSeed Tech from YouTube Meze 99 classics behaves in such a way with a balanced cable. And same goes with the soundstage. A balanced cable should improve it.

While using it you should be careful with the nozzle; it has a screen to prevent outside dirt to get in but its very thin and if left unchecked dust could reach the nozzle. While I do think the cable is not the best I didn’t had any issues with it aside from some frustration from tangling. It doesn’t change its color or get stiff over time. I wish it was a little bit thicker. Like I stated before having a pair of wide bore foam tips would be better. This IEM sounds best with a wide bore ear tip and having a foam with the wider opening is hard.

As for pairing Rai Solo easily usable with a smartphone. But smartphones tend to have warmer sound output. (at least the Samsung models) Using a neutral source would be a better idea. Or even better; using a balanced cable.



If you are interested in a Meze product but don’t have the necessary budget or are skeptical about their colored sound you can always check out 12 classics v2 as well. It is like a mini Rai Solo. I will be adding a review of it soon.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I’m sure that I’ve forgotten a lot of things that I want to add.

Would you pay extra for perfection or do you prefer to be more budget-conscious? The guest of this review CCA NRA checks both boxes to a degree.


Packaging and accessories are fine for the price range. The stock cable is different; KZ/CCA was normally using braided copper cables all across their products. This is a thick double-strand cable. Doesn't get tangled easily but it's very stiff, especially in the cold weather. Stock ear tips have a unique shape, they are different than what we see in most IEM’s. I didn’t have any issues with it but keep in mind I have small ears. People who are older than 35 or live in European countries will probably have issues with it. They mostly do.

The design of the earpieces is a mixed bag of feelings; they offer comfort with thin nozzles, I appreciate that but this is at the expense of being able to use mainstream aftermarket ear tips. Although they do have a lip for the ear tips to hold on these nozzles are tiny. You can always sacrifice one of these ear tips to make an adapter on the go. Just cut the core of the ear tip and leave it on the nozzle; budget range problems require budget range solutions.

They have good comfort and ok levels of isolation. Cable microphonics are not an issue but there is an issue that I think everyone should be aware of; the only venting hole that this IEM has is located on the bottom of the earpieces. Outside noise is not an issue but if there’s a wind blowing that will create turbulence on the venting hole. Creating a massive noise. This is the only fatal flaw I have experienced in this model. Because you cant easily avoid it; you either have to use your hoodie or just tape it; possibly affecting the bass performance.

Speaking of bass, let's talk about the sound.

CCA NRA has a detailed yet laid-back presentation with a rather balanced and sightly mid-focused sound characteristics.

Bass has good levels of detail, it's kinda soft but acceptable considering the price range. but I wouldn't count on this IEM to handle bass-heavy rock and pop genres.

Mids have noticeably good levels of detail and imaging quality. Vocals string instruments and cymbals have very good levels of detail and texture. This is something that you can’t find easily in this price range. most of the other options in the sub 30$ segment usually use cheap BA drivers or skip the BA’s all together. Leaving you with either poorly calibrated or sharp mid characteristics. Or veiled-thin vocals. Magnetostatic driver performs better than cheap BA’s in this regard. While BA drivers in this price range perform ok when they are tuned properly they don't have the texture of this modified dynamic driver.

Treble is another area where this setup shines. It's fast, spacious and well textured. Percussions and string ınstruments have a very soft yet detailed presentation you cant find in a BA driver in the budget segment. And ‘s’s ‘t’s ‘p’s have no sibilance or overly pronounced characteristics. They are detailed and soft.

Soundstage and imaging.

Soundstage is average but imaging and instrument separation is good on what this model excels. For bass-heavy tracks its not that good. But for more mid-treble focused ones it's great. The layering and the texture on the vocals is better than what BA containing hybrids.

Amp requirements and pairing is not an issue with NRA. Even the lowest end of smartphones can drive them. But they are easily reflecting the sound characteristics of the source. Its picky on the source in this area. Be sure that your source is clean.



Conclusion: in sub 30$ you usually get a slightly or overly V-shaped sound signature that performs ok on a wide range of genres. But they tend to disappoint in the instrumental and orchestral tracks. You don't get that fine detail and texture in the high hats, strings and cymbals. Yes a higher-end option like Whizzer Kylin HE-01 gives this to you easily but that model is on another level pricewise.

If you are listening to any genre that uses natural elements like leather drums, flutes, cymbals and strings this model is something that you can enjoy for a very low price. But if the songs or albums that you listen to have thicker bass notes like artificial bass you won’t be getting the same experience in this segment.

CCA NRA fits well with orchestral and instrumental tracks, jazz, and traditional folk songs. But for more modern bass-heavy genres it doesn't perform that well. Sure the magnetostatic driver performs well enough for you to enjoy the instruments residing on the mid and treble area. But the bass doesn’t have the necessary speed thickness and texture for you to enjoy the more bass-heavy tracks. It DOES provide a good experience with live recordings thanks to its transparent and detailed treble and mids but falls short with studio recordings. Had the manufacturer used a more refined Dynamic driver like the one on the TRN TA-1 that I reviewed recently it would perform well in the bass segment as well. and it would also improve the overall imaging and staging capabilities. I hope they can improve in this area. Electret drivers have good potential but the manufacturer needs to be careful with them. With proper tuning, they can shine better than BA’s but if you limit them to a certain budget the setups they are used with tend to underperform. NRA performs ok with most genres and shines with some certain ones but it could have been way better if it had a better dynamic driver and a more polished tuning on the lower frequencies.
I think the sweet spot for an IEM that uses this magnetostatic driver is around sub 40$ I appreciate the affordability but not for expense of the real potential of a component. I'm not exactly an expert but in my opinion this magnetostatic driver would work better with a Titanium dynamic driver like the one on the TRN TA-1.
While I think CCA NRA is a good option I also think that it's real potential is limited by its low budget range.
This product was sent to me by keephifi.
You can check out the CCA NRA via link down below.
https://keephifi.com/products/cca-nra

Greetings everyone. I’m here with my first ever review on this forum. With this first one lets take a close look at Tri i3 pro.

I got this product for review purposes in both here and a Turkish blog that I’m writing on. I thank Wendy from KBEAR for oppurtunity.

First I would like to mention a few things about myself; I’m fairly new at this hobby. Although I only have 3 years of experience with relatively high quality audio equipment I can understand what the manufacturers are aiming when designing a product.

I mainly use my laptop while doing critical listening. I dont have a dedicated AMP yet but I can easily notice the difference in the performance of the IEM that I’m reviewing when I hook it to my laptop.

Well on to the guest of the review.


Tri i3 pro is a redesigned version of old i3 from Tri; the sister company of Kbear. They have solid options for every price range and as far as I can see they improve on every product that they release according to user feedback. I like this constant improvement rate.

İ3 was a hybrit setup that used Dynamic driver, Planar and Balanced armature drivers. I can see what the company was aiming here; each of these drivers were used in the audio spectrum where they excelled at best. It was rather bold and innovative approach. But i3 suffered from some issues like drivability, comfort and stable connection (mmcx can be tricky)

I3 pro keeps the working elements of original model and improves on every problematic aspect; potentially problematic mmcx? We got 2 pin here. Heavy and bulky design? New one is smaller and fits my tiny tablespoon sized ears. Power managment? It’s easier to drive.

All in all i3 pro is a more easy recomendation for users.

Now lets get into details.

The presentation and unboxing is neither overkill or disappointing. When you open the nicely designed box you are presented with the IEM’s above on protective foam insert and the vegan leather case on the bottom. Every accesory that product has is tucked inside of the case; no fancy eartip presentation in here which I like. I’m not keen on dealing with unnecessary plastic waste just for presentation. I hope other companies would pay attention on this area.


The accesories are good; stock white tips are not bad, ok at their best. But the kbear 07 tips are amazing. They are very comfortable, seals easily and fits nicely. Plus they have a wider option on the sizes and also look great. Cable is a braided copper cable. Its very soft and doesn’t gets tangled easily. But for some reason sometimes they look disorganized and holds a messy shape. It doesnt affect the usage. And the microphonics are basically non existent. Its a bit heavy but I didn’t had any issues with it.
Soft cleaning cloth and cleaning brush is a nice addition. it will be useful for users who might want to stick this IEM for the long run. I can see people liking these for a long perion of time.

The design of the IEM’s are very similiar to the original. But they are smaller. Their weight is noticeable, but doesn’t affect the usage. Shiny finish is a pleasure to look at and a nightmare if you want to keep them clean. But the lobes are very durable; they are made of 7000 series aluminum; aluminum at one of its most durable forms.


I didn’t get any issues while wearing these, except I cant sleep with them; the nozzle design prevents this. They need to work on nozzle angle a little; its not particularly bothersome but with a better angle it could fit perfectly. Meze Rai Solo is a great example for this. Isolation is good but it doesn’t block outside noise as effective as Meze Rai Solo. Its because i3 pro has 4 venting holes on its upper side and it lets noise in. But I didn’t had any issues with outside noise while music was playing. And the sound leak to outside is minimal. I had some air pressure issues while wearing them, it doesnt have vent on nozzle to prevent air pressure. I asked Wendy why they didn’t ad done and she said that i3 pro was performing at its best with closed nozzle design. Take a deep breath and smile while wearing these; it prevents air pressure.

Sound impressions

I3 pro has a warm yet detailed sound signature; its fairly balanced but also has some fun and musicality to it.

The bass is provided by an 8 mm dynamic driver; I really like the speed and texture of it but it doesnt blows me away. It’s neither disappointing or mind blowing. Really good for the price range. Its very detailed but doesnt have a big footprint like some of the other bassy options like Blon’s.

Mids are provided by a planar magnetic driver. And they are the reason why you should consider these. The perfomance it has in this area is amazing; better than the balanced armature based models in this price range. They are as fast as the BA’s but they dont have that over emphasized timbre (BA timbre). the layering, texture and imaging in this area is exceptional. I don’t want to fill you with praise but as far as I know i3 pro is the only otion in this price range that can provide a mid range with such clarity and smoothness.

Treble is provided by a balanced armature driver. The details prominent and imaging is good but there are some issues with the treble area of the spectrum.

The imaging and performance in treble instruments are good but I cant feel the fine details in ‘s’s, ‘t’s, ‘p’s and other fine details in the instruments in the other parts of the spectrum. Some of the instruments in bass region of the spectrum has treble charactristics; like snare drum for example. ıt goes like “thum-ps”, that “thum” part is good, very detailed and prominent but you can’t hear the shining “ps” part. I don’t have a compatible silver plated cable to test if it provides a differnet result in this area. But I will return to this post if I can test it.

Soundstage and seperation is great; it has a wide and very detailed soundstage; you can easily feel the texture of the instruments, especially in the mids. The headroom is wide and open positioning is very good. But I think it could have been much better if it had a little bit more extension on the treble; relative lack of extention prevents i3 pro perform at its best in there. But still it’s the best option if you are looking for wide soundstage.

Power requirements and pairing

I3 pro is supposed to be more efficient than its predecessor but keep in mind that this is still a hybrid that uses a planar on the mix. Altough it is possible to use it with a phone you might face with some issues with the volume levels; it can be hard to find a perfect sweet spot with the relatively limited volume settings of a smartphone; I had to change difference level in the volume steps in audio settings from my Galaxy Note 9 to get a precise control over the volume level. But I was able to get a really good performance from it. I got a better performance from my Asus N550 laptop. The soundstage, seperation and imaging was better. But this is due to amp difference between my phone and laptop, I3 pro performs relatively similar in both sources. It’s very efficient for what it provides.

Overall experience and my feedback for the company

I3 pro is a very easy recommendation for its price range. Not just because it provides a relatively good experience because it exceeds it. It really does; capabilites of this model in mids are only possible with a planar driver. The coherence between drivers are great yet you can definetly pinpoint which driver is on the wheel when you listen. It doesn’t feel like an IEM it almost feels like a closed back.

Its a good option for a wide range of genres from edm to instrumental tracks. But I enjoyed the live recordings and concerts most. The echo of the concert hall, fine details of each instrument ( almost poor snare drum and high hats can’t shine as much as they want) are beutifully delivered.

And recordings with natural elements were also a joy to listen; the echo of the leather drum that bounces back from the walls, the way vocalist moves their lips and the later reverberations of the string instruments like harp, kodo, and zither is a pure joy with this IEM. Yes I did had a similar experience with some of the BA-DD hybrids but none of them were as detailed yet as smoth as this one. And one more thing; usually an IEM that excels at strings can be painful while listening some concert recordings like Magical Mirai. The echo of the concert hall causes a very thick and overbearing experience that causes me to lower the volume even tough it’s not that high. Well its not an issue with i3 pro; the timbre of planar driver provides a more comfortable and flexible experience. Even with high volume you won’t experience any harshness or discomfort.

What you might find disappointing is absence of some sparkle on the treble region; don't worry its not a total blackout like I experienced with BGVP NS9; treble instruments like bells and shakers are easily noticeable. But some of the fine details of snare drum, high hats and later sparkling bits of shakers are not as prominent as you might want. And this is the only area where I think some attention would be needed. I think this is happening because of the lack of crossover circuit in this model. By its design each driver is performing their tasks on their own and doing it very good. But due to power requirements of the drivers lack of some detail in treble region is possible. Balanced armature on this IEM is the most sensitive one and Planar Driver is the most power hungry one; had they increased the sensitivity of the BA we might had to deal with some static noises or hissing. So I can uderstand why they kept the BA with this level of sensitivity. But if they can improve the power divison between drivers a little bit more I don’t have a shadow of doubt that this model could be a solid option for years to come. It already has a very appealing performance, all it needs is a little bit more fine tuning on the treble area and some design improvements with the nozzle design.
And adding matte option would be a good idea. Altough they look fantastic its also problem if you are nott keen on cleaning them everytime.


I have a couple of feedbacks to the company and some ideas for us to brainstorm. While I dont think its necessary to change any of the drivers inside I can’t help but think about how it would be if they experimented with some different setups. For example mids in this model is very succesful and this is thanks to the timbre characteristics of the planar magnetic driver. I wonder if its possible to entend this particular drivers’ range to the bass region? Or full spectrum. And I wonder how it would be if they could pair this one with a magnetostatic driver like the one on the CCA NRA? The timbre on that driver is very good; its transparent and very shiny yet doesn’t have any of the downsides of a poorly tuned DD or BA and with some fine tuning it could provide very interesting results with planar drivers. Especially with the spacious performance that the planar driver provides in this model. I think people on the company should think about this idea.