KBEar KW1

We are set to review KBEAR's newest bullet earphones, which boast a strikingly sleek design featuring a single-DD driver and shell made from Rosewood.

DISCLAIMER:​

• I have no affiliation with KBEAR and have not received any monetary compensation during or after writing this review. Keephifi provided this unit to me in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
• As a non-professional reviewer, I aim to use simple terms that can be understood by both beginners and experts in the hobby.
• Please keep in mind that the opinions expressed in this review are subjective and based on my personal experience with the unit. I encourage you to try the product yourself to form your own opinion.

PACKAGING​

The packaging is very straightforward. Inside the box, you get a case where everything is already included. Here's what we have inside the box:

• KBEAR KW1
• 6 pair of eartips
• Case

BUILD QUALITY​

Wooden shells are a rarity in budget earphones, but KBEAR KW1 has achieved this distinction. Typically, earphone shells are crafted from resin, metal, alloy, or a hybrid of these materials. Witnessing something distinct like wood is undeniably refreshing. The KBEAR KW1 offers two versions: the 3.5mm variant, which I received from Keephifi, and the DSP variant. It's important to highlight that the KBEAR KW1 features a non-removable cable, and at a price point of $35, this aspect might be a deal-breaker to some. It has a microphone at least!

SOUND​

The KBEAR KW-1 stands as a bass-heavy earphone, boasting a satisfying punch that accompanies a dark tonality.

BASS
This is the star of the KBEAR KW-1: its bass is both impactful and punchy, characterized by swift attack and brief decay. Despite its bass-heavy nature, it maintains clarity and control, avoiding any muddiness as much as possible in its sound profile.

MIDS
There is a noticeable midbass bleed present, which leads to a somewhat obscured midrange. Vocals lack the engaging and euphonic quality one might hope for. Instruments like guitars come across as somewhat lacking to me. My initial expectation of a vibrant and natural quality is unmet, resulting in a rather unremarkable sound.

TREBLE
The treble lacks resolution and airiness. Given the earphone's bass-heavy nature, I expected a compromise in the treble performance. It lacks a distinct bite and energy and somewhat projects a subdued quality. Essentially, when the track isn't rich in bass, the overall sound tends to lack a certain depth of flavor. No traces of sibilance or harshness are observed when listening to these earphones.

TECHNICALITIES
This is a no brainer, and typically, bullet earphones tend to fall short in terms of technical capabilities. The soundstage, in this case, is fairly average, presenting itself in a rather two-dimensional manner. It lacks notable depth and immersive qualities, ranking as average at best. The imaging capability is also middling, although it does succeed in establishing a sense of placement for both vocals and instruments.

TEST TRACKS​

CONCLUSION​

Pros:

• Passable as a bass-focused earphone.
• The rosewood material looks sleek and sturdy.
• Inoffensive sound with less piercing details.
• Can be immersive if bass is present.

Cons:

• Treble almost sounds muted.
• Veiled mids.
• Dark sounding profile might not appeal to everyone.
• For $35, cheap consumers might want to ask for a removable cable (me included).
• Not the best in terms of technicalities.

The KB EAR KW-1 exhibits a dark sounding profile which offers elevated engaging lower frequencies but suffers from retrieving finer details. Dark sounding earphones tend to be more extreme for some and tends to be less popular than U-shaped sound profiles. If you prefer an extremely warm sound with not a care for those fine details, then the KB EAR KW-1 might be suitable for you. Then again, the fixed cable can be a deal breaker for some.

Rosewoods are an endemic species of trees found in South Asia to Southeast Asia and South America. They have this distinctive brownish hues and colour with darker stripes and veins. Their woods are known for its strong and pleasant sweet scent that it exudes and they are usually used on woodworks, furniture and musical instruments. Speaking of musical instruments, its hardness and easy to polish properties are a valuable choice for acoustic and electric guitars, violins, some woodwind instruments and marimbas as it also produces a good acoustic effect.


Oi! Welcome to my latest IEM earphone review and what I have here is KB Ear's latest budget range product, The KB Ear KB-KW1. I did some product reviews of their products before and I'm glad that I was able to do a product review for them once again.



KW1 is an IEM earphone with single dynamic driver and enclosed in a preform rosewood shell chassis with non-detachable cable. Its dynamic driver has an 8mm size along with its diaphragm made of LCP (Liquid Crystal Polymer) for better dynamic response and resolution capabilities. As I mentioned a while ago about the rosewoods' acoustic resonance properties on some instruments, KBEar also tried to implement it here too. The wood shell chassis seems to have been coated and they are quite light too.



Wearing the KW1 is quite comfortable as it rests well into my lugholes without any discomfort issues.



Since it is non-detachable, KB Ear offered two options of termination plug types for their silver-plated copper cable; a 3.5mm SE, 3.5mm with mic and a USB type-C with built-in DAC inside. It has HD-grade microphone with some basic function buttons like volume keys and pause and play.



I will also insert another KB Ear product here. This one is their latest budget wireless bluetooth module for IEMs, The KB-BT5. It is an ear hook-style wireless contraption and it was rated to have a Bluetooth 5.1 as it uses a Bluetooth chip from Jerry JL, JL-AC6956AP which also has a DSP integrated chipset for improved signal clarity, less latency and better transmission range up to 10m. The said bluetooth chip also have power regulator for low power consumption for either active use or standby mode.



KB Ear offers three types of bi-pin connectors; QDC-type, TFZ/NX7-type and the more standard 0.78mm. As for audio protocol, it only supports a lossy standard format like AAC and SBC, So no LDAC or APTX/HD codecs for listeners who want a more advanced Bluetooth module codec.



It has a small built-in lithium-ion battery inside with a rated capacity of 110mAh that can store a decent amount of energy for up to 6 hours for both playback and standby mode. It takes an hour to fully charge it via its built-in type-C connector at the line control console. It also uses OFC wires on its cable for better signal transmission and better resistance handling.



The overall material of BT5 is somehow decent and durable enough as it is made of high quality plastic on its consoles while the insulator on its cables are made of environmentally friendly PVC material and it is quite light to wear for any activities.


On its line control console, there is a LED light indicator for charging and connection status. There we can find the three basic key buttons, two for volume adjustments or next and previous tracks for one-second press and the other one is for play, pause and power mode. The play button also serves as for basic call/answer button option, press click once for answering or to end the call and press one-second for rejecting a call.



Both KW1 and BT5 have a plain product packaging with rudimentary inclusions. Both of them are packed in small rectangular boxes.



Here are the following contents inside of each product:


KW1

● KW1 earphone
● 3 pairs of grey-coloured ear tips in different standard sizes.
● 3 pairs of white-coloured ear tips in different standard sizes.
● IEM storage bag
● Instruction manual




BT5

● BT5 ear hook-style bluetooth module cable.
● A short type-A to type-C USB cable.
● Instruction manual



With an impedance rating of 16 ohms and a sensitivity level of 105 decibel, KW1 is an easy to drive set. With a decent amount of power output from its sources either its from smartphones or DAP (Digital Audio Player), it will be able to amplify its sound with full dynamics.



As for tonality, KB KW1 has a warm U-shaped sound signature. It has more emphasis on bass and treble and a tad notch midrange.




LOWS/BASS:

The bass quantity of this set is definitely robust and full. It has a boomy, authoritative and slams very aggressively that will be a detrimental factor to the qualities of other parts of the frequency range. In the low frequency region, the mid-bass part is more dominant over sub bass as it shows more heft and texture on its note weight of instruments and vocals. This is indeed a bass-head's bass response.

There's a substantial rumble as I felt it from sub bass-focus instruments like octabasses, low-tuned bass guitars and synthesisers. The treated rosewood seems to have acoustic effects on dampening some excess reverberation effect. As I said about its dominant mid bass response, it affects the tonal characteristics of certain instruments and vocals. The bass kick drums have a heftier and boomy sound, while bass guitars have that weighty and earthy tone, and then bass baritone vocals have dark and gravelly tone as it reach its farthest depth drop.



MIDRANGE:

Due to boomy nature of bass frequencies that encroaches across the frequency range spectrum. It really veils that it gives a warmer and lusher tone particularly on male vocals and some brasses and percussive instruments. It is also noted they tad recessed and a bit laidback in general midrange presentation.

On male vocals, baritones have that too warm and robustness on their voices particular on deeper types like Kavalierbariton and dramatic. Dmitri Hvorostovsky's excels on this as it has a rather steel, power on it. Eddie Vedder and Billy Idol also excels on the heftiness and fullness too. Tenor especially lyrical types appears to have warmer but lack of brightness and spiciness from them with likes of the two great tenor singers, Placido Domingo and Jose Careras. Luciano Pavarotti which has a slight different type of tenor seems to have very robust power but less emotive in my opinion. On countertenors, they have this agile and smoothness but I noticed that its too broad and tad warmer and less tender in which mezzo-sopranos share almost the same characteristics. Contraltos have a bit much of being husky and strong tone to the point that it is quite unwarranted on accurate depiction of the said vocal type. Both mezzo-sopranos and soprano won't fare on this one as they sound unusual that there's almost no distinction of them as they sound almost similar due to that inherently veiledness that suppresses energy and gleam that affects the sweet, ethereal and expressive sound.

On instruments, it makes all strings more warmer and throaty sound like guitars, especially acoustic ones have these rather warm and "woody" dry tone (probably that rosewood have similar properties with mahogany that somehow dampens the acoustic reverberations) while violins have less vibrant and lively that they sound a bit austere and muffled. Percussive like toms and field drums have warm and booming sound from them while snares have cracking and dull sound from them. Pianos seems have a warmer tone from them while marimbas have the wooden and earthy sound from them which is quite closer to the accurate sound on live orchestral performance. Brasses like trumpets and trombones have a fuller, overpowering and solid tone. Woodwinds like flutes won't sound well on this one as they are less airy and don't sound ethereal and poetic but on saxophones and clarinets, they sound rounded, warm and sombre.


HIGHS/TREBLE:

That warm characteristic affects the quality of treble quality, it is unusually too silky smooth and leveled to the point its leaning of being dark sounding. The upper mids to presence treble were somewhat subdued and muted as it diminish the clarity, brilliance and most details but there is silver lining on this one, it will be highly recommend to the highly treble-sensitive folk out there. That muted and damp nature will quashed any chances of jarring, sibilant and harshness.

The cymbals sound rather lustrous, dry and dull sounding while hi-hats sound quite accurate with their typical short chick sound. It seems that sparkle with its amount of harmonics were quite restrained while the brilliance air has paltry extension.


SOUNDSTAGE, IMAGING AND OTHER TECHNICALITIES:

In general sound field proportions, it has narrow to fairly average lateral span while it has a reasonable height ceiling reach and good depth that gives it an unusual intimate yet not that congested head room.

Imaging appears to have a typical two-dimensional stereo presentation that I was able to locate the position of instruments and vocals but not the most pinpoint as I hardly grasp the exact cues within perceive spatial auditory. Separation and layering are quite dismal in my opinion and it performs crudely arrange the tonal and frequency layering that it will be an issue to more complex tracks like jazz and symphonic orchestra.

Coherency of its drivers seems pretty alright though for an LCP diaphragm dynamic driver, it is quite a tad sluggish compare to some sets with the same drivers with faster transient response and better handling in decay.

Regarding its resolution capability, it's a tad mushy in my opinion as its quite burnish on its macro-dynamics to the point that it loses the solid notes while it has a weak micro-detail due to its blunted definition.


PEER COMPARISONS:

KZ LING LONG

■ LING LONG takes a bullet-style form factor and it has a smaller dynamic driver. Its shells are made of aluminium alloy. It has a similar product presentation with equal amount of accesories. Although it has some driver flex in every time of insertion which is quite bothersome. It is also noted that it is also harder to drive given its micro dynamic driver configuration.

■ As for its tuning, LING LONG has a U-shape balanced-warmish tuning but it sounds more balanced compared to KW1. It has a more controlled bass response that doesn't smudge and veil over the other frequencies. On technical capabilities, LING LONG has a wider soundstage size and better resolution capabilities.


TANGZU PRINCESS CHANGLE

■ Compared to KW1, CHANGLE shells' are also made of metal alloy and it is more ornate. Like LING LONG, CHANGLE is hard to drive which makes KW1 more power efficient on amplitude requirements. While it has better product presentation, its contents are way more meagre compared to KW1

■ Tonality-wise, it is similar to KW1 in which both sets have a U-shaped sound. CHANGLE has a less warmer and somehow cleaner sound as it has tighter bass response with just ample textured midrange and a tad brighter treble response. Technicalies-wise, they are quite similar with the exception that CHANGLE has slightly better resolution capabilities particularly on micro-dynamics.


As I concluded my review on KB Ear KW1, KB Ear takes a different road map for their budget range as they are aware some of their competitors always have similar driver configuration at cheap plastic shells and offer it at dirt cheap pricing. It is quite unusual to see an earphone in a wood chassis and Its should be noted that Rosewoods were also used on some headphones and enclosure panels of loudspeakers.

As for their BT5, it is quite functional and easy to operate. As it didn't have a support for more advanced bluetooth audio codecs, BT5 can still deliver a sufficient sound output, with almost no interruption and quite clear sound due to its latest Bluetooth version.


Both KB Ear KW1 and KB Ear BT5 are now available on KEEPHIFI, Check the link below if you are interested.


★★KB KW1 - KEEPHIFI★★

★★KB BT5 - KEEPHIFI★★




SPECIFICATION:

MODEL: KB EAR KW1
IMPEDANCE: 16Ω
SENSITIVITY: 105dB
FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 20Hz – 20KHz
CABLE LENGTH: 1.2M
PIN TYPE: -N.A.-
PLUG TYPE: 3.5mm, Type- C
DRIVER UNIT(S): (1) DYNAMIC DRIVER



Some Tracks Tested: ( * = 16-bit FLAC, ** = 24-bit FLAC, *'* = MQA, '*' = DSD, *'= .WAV)


Alison Krauss -When You Say Nothing At All *
Jade Wiedlin - Blue Kiss**
Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks **
Mountain - Mississippi Queen *
Queen - Killer Queen **
Guns N' Roses - Patience *'*
Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven '*'
Sergio Mendes- Never Gonna Let You Go '*'
Pearl Jam - Daughter **
Roselia - Hidamari Rhodonite *
Assassin - Fight (To Stop The Tyranny)*
Celtic Frost- Visual Aggression *
New Order - Blue Monday *
The Corrs- What Can I do (unplugged version) *
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Voodoo Child *
The Madness- Buggy Trousers *
Metallica - Motorbreath **
Mariah Carey- Always Be My Baby *
Destiny's Child - Say My Name *
Malice Mizer- Au Revoir *
Mozart - Lacrimosa *
New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Dvorak- Symphony 9 " From the New World." *
Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold (Sting cover)*
Michael Jackson - Give In To Me *
Exciter - Violence and Force *
Diana Krall - Stop This World **
Debbie Gibson - Foolish Beat *'*
The Sisters of Mercy – Lucretia My Reflection**
Suzanne Vega – Luka **
Lauren Christy – Steep *
Ottoman Mehter - Hucum Marsi *
Diana Damrau - Mozart: Die Zauberflöte*
Type O Negative - Black No.1 *
Felix Ayo - Vivaldi: Presto **
Three Tenors - Nessum Dorma *
Mercyful Fate - Witches' Dance *

P.S.

I am not affiliated to KB EAR nor receive monetary incentives and financial gains as they provide me a review unit for an exchange of factual and sincere feedback from yours truly.

Once again, I would like to send my gratitude to KEEPHIFI for providing this review unit. I truly appreciate their generosity and trust towards me and other reviewers.

Disclaimer:

• I don’t read FR graphs. I only use my ears, as how earphones should be used.
• KBEAR sent this unit to me in an exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Rest assured that this review will do its best to devoid from any bias/es as much as possible.
• The following remarks and observations shall be made and owned only by me.
• No monetary compensation is/was involved before, during, and after the period of creation of this review.
• Your mileage may (and always, will) vary.

Burn-in time: 4-8 hours per day, 5 days.

Source/s used:

• - Hiby R3 Pro Saber
• - Fosi Audio DS1
• - Shanling UA1 Plus
• - Sony Xperia X Compact
• - Non-HiFi smartphone (Infinix Note 12 G96), PC.
• - Local Files via Foobar, YouTube Music, Deezer, and Qobuz with UAPP.

IEM/Earbud/Setup configuration: stock small eartips, any form of EQ or MSEB off, 3.5 SE plug, 40-60% volume, low gain and high gain.

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Sound signature:

• The KBEAR KB-KW1 sports a warm, v-shaped sound signature without any signs of fatigue or harshness throughout its sound. However, there is an obvious veil or “a blanket” type of presence in its overall frequencies, affecting the sound negatively, most of the time.

Lows:

• The lows are elevated, thick, and midbass focused. Attack and decay leans to the slower side, and will sometimes sound boomy. Midbass bleed is evident, making things muffled most of the time.

Mids:

• Mids are recessed, thick, smooth, lush, but suffers from veil, making things sound congested or nasal most of the time. This also in return hinders the detail and texture of this IEM . Upper frequencies are clear enough, but lack sparkle and air. No sibilance or any form of harshness are perceived in this region.

Highs:

• The highs are not that extended and will sound rolled off most of the time. It lacks air and sparkle. Details are average and not for critical listening.

Soundstage, Imaging, and separation:

• Due to the veil present in this IEM, the technicalities are also affected negatively. The soundstage is average in terms of width, height, and depth. Soundstage and layering are below average as the congestions are a bit apparent, and the imaging is accurate most of the time.

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Pros:

• Fun, all rounder, warm sound signature.
• Chunky, elevated bass.
• Thick mids.
• Non-fatiguing upper frequencies.
• Excellent fit, build, and isolation.
• Lightweight, easy to use design and form factor!
• Clear mic quality!
• Very good fit and comfort!
• Very good amount of accessories!
• Very good design language (highly subjective)
• Fairly easy to drive.

Cons:

• The veil affects the overall sound quality of the IEM.
• Technicalities are below average for its asking price (due to veil)
• Mids are muffled and congested (due to veil)
• Treble is quite rolled off to my liking (subjective)
• Cable microphonics are apparent.

================================================================================================================

The KBEAR KW1 is one of the company’s newest products that goes within the “EDC” or everyday carry motif. During my real life, practical tests, they held up pretty well when used outside, particularly during commutes and calls-on-the-go. As for the hobbyist or “audiophile” side, this may not be the first option that you’ll be recommended with, but it is one of the options, that’s for sure!

Pairing recommendation/s:

• Source: Both products are more than fine with any smartphone, but the KW1 sounds better when paired with a neutral DAC.
• Eartips: Eartips are fine for the most part, but you may always use your preferred eartips.

Thank you for reading!

Non-affiliated product link here!: https://keephifi.com/products/kbear...wired-headphones?_pos=38&_sid=8e45f0643&_ss=r

Additional Photos Here: