iKKO Asgard OH5

Welcome to the written review of the IKKO OH5 of Critica Actual.
In this review we are going to talk about the Ikko OH5. An iem from the Chinese brand Ikko, a company that, as I said in the previous video, I have the feeling is little recognized on YouTube. It has various products such as dongle dacs, bluethoot headphones, iem type headphones...
In the previous videos and reviews we talked about the Ikko Oh10. A good and beautiful iem to enjoy various genres of music. Did you want what is "commercially called" an upgrade? You will like that product.

The ikko oh5 for me is a renewal and improvement over the OH10. Of course, keep in mind that we are already talking about more than double the price. It has a retail price of just under €500, you can find it on the web for a little less. It should be noted that Ikko usually launches offers and it is easy to get it for €430. Still it is a considerable price.
I'm going to give you a spoiler, is this iem worth it? Yeah. Since I tried it, it has become one of my favorite iem and one of the best listening experiences I have ever heard under 600€..but I recommend that you read the full review.


When we open the box and see the contents of the product we already appreciate that this looks expensive. We have many accessories or sweets as I call them. But this time I consider that there is nothing left over. We have a case as God intended. It is rigid, strong and wide. The headset fits completely without having to tighten it excessively. We have a spectacular assortment of tips of all sizes of two types. Silicone and memory. Pay attention to this part.
There are 3 pairs of memory wide toe, 3 pairs of memory narrow toe, 3 pairs of silicone wide toe and 3 pairs of silicone narrow toe. The tip pairs are small, medium and large in size.

Do you want maximum isolation? Use the memory tips.

Do you want the best sound quality? Use the silicone tips.

This iem is quite sensitive to the tip used. I think the silicone tips give the best possible quality. Specifically, I prefer the ones with a narrow mouth.
On the other hand, we have the cable a "Mr. Cable". Honestly, if this cable were sold it would be for no less than €60. It is rigid, modular and elegant. In addition, it has a considerable thickness which prevents it from getting tangled easily.
They want more? Well, we have 2.5mm – 3.5mm – 4.4mm connectors included in the box. Will they say a 4.4mm connector is necessary for an iem? Well wait and I'll answer you. But I'm telling you yes.
We have a keychain and lastly we have the classic Ikko pin.

-DESIGN-
Ikko usually makes iems with quite nice designs. I consider that this iem is not the prettiest of the brand or the most striking I have had. It's not ugly, I don't want to say that, but I don't think it's as pretty as others.
Its design with marked angles reminds me of a sports car. I don't really like that purple, but that's just a personal opinion. Apparently I wasn't expecting a good fit in my ears because of its shape, but I think it's pretty decent. Maybe not the best, but I think it fits enough to be comfortable and not fall off.


With this Oh5, Ikko aims to take the listening experience it has been offering one step further. His Oh7 was not a sales success, its value of more than €800 and the fact that the brand is not as media-friendly as others did not help. Its quality-price flagship was the ikko Oh10. This Ikko oh5 will give you even better musicality and dynamics.
The signature
I consider his profile quite neutral and conservative. You could say that it is warm across the spectrum although its signature depends on the tips used. I would dare to say that his signature is in a W but not very marked. It will not have reinforced treble, a very forward midrange or exaggerated bass. Everything is tuned so that it sounds very coherent, allowing it to deliver one of the best tones I have ever heard. I will talk about each frequency spectrum later.
Isolation
The insulation is good. Similar to the Ikko Oh10. With memory tips you will improve your insulation. It has no sound leakage because it is a completely closed headphone. Nothing out of the ordinary in this regard.

Will a powerful amplifier be needed?
Yes. On paper we have an impedance of 32 ohms and a sensitivity of 112. A decent mobile phone should be enough. That's how it is. But after several tests I have been able to verify that this Ikko Oh5 scales very well with extra power and its sound improves. With the sonata hd pro, a dac dongle that delivers 120 mw at those 32 ohms moves it very well and you can see an improvement in dynamics, bass forcefulness, stage expansion...I would certainly say that at least a dac dongle is necessary.

SOUND SECTION – TECHS-

To analyze the headphone I used an IFI hip dac. A portable amplifier capable of generating more than 250 mw at 32 ohms through the normal output. I have tested it with the 4.4 mm connection by connecting it to the ikko oh5 with its modular cable and found a few improvements, but it is true that with those 250mw of the normal output it seems that it is enough to move it to 99% of its performance.
As in all reviews, only music in Flac quality at least is used in testing and analysis.
Before starting the sound analysis, it must be made clear that this iemt is intended for enjoying music or audiovisual content. It may not be the best for looking for hidden details, but I still think it could do a more off-road function. For audio editing, I do consider that they can be perfect due to their neutral-warm character but with good resolution.

-SOUNDSTAGE-
The left-to-right auditory rendering on the Asgard OH5 headphones was extremely smooth and crisp, delivering pans that glided naturally from one ear to the other. Sometimes it seems that sound tends to appear rather than sound.
The Asgard OH5 gave me a pretty good sense of depth, especially with amplification. Note that with the silicone tips, in my case I use the narrow mouth ones, their stage expands. And, I repeat, the more amplification the better. Without it most of the three-dimensional qualities seemed to be inside my head and more diffuse.
To sum up its soundstage, image and layering were as entertaining as they were attractive. It is not a massive stage but I find it very balanced and broad on both the x, y, and Z axis.

-THE IMAGE AND INSTRUMENTAL SEPARATION-
The image is a strong point of this headset. I recommend them for well-recorded classical music tracks. You will be able to define where the instrument is easily and you will notice the air. It is a pleasure to listen to classical music with this headphone. It represents two clear leaps from the Ikko Oh10 in that "soundstage construction". I think that the imaging is better overall than OH10.
I also consider it better in this aspect than any planar iem I have tried (Timeless, S12, Raptgo). It offers a more immersive and 3D scenario. It may not be as precise as Hook at times but I honestly think it's still worth it.

SOUND SECTION – BASS-
The Asgard OH5 are characterized by their natural and authentic sound. From my point of view it does not exaggerate but rather shows what the seriousness is. This sounds surprisingly realistic, deep without interfering with the upper transients.
Like the rest of its tonal balance, the bass response of the Asgard OH5 seems to fall in an ideal zone that would deeply satisfy the vast majority of listeners. In the subbass we are not going to notice a presence like that of a Hook, but neither is non-existent.

SOUND SECTION – MIDS-
The Asgard OH5's performance was exceptional no matter what genre of music it was subjected to. A really notable feature of the Asgard OH5 is how it handles vocals, striking a perfect balance between fundamental tones, harmonics and layered spaces. There is a perfect balance between attack and dacay.
The media is one of the star sections. Resolving media, full-bodied, very dynamic, with texture…the best I have ever heard. Its naturalness is comparable to that of an Sv023, open over-ear headset.
Acoustic instruments, especially drums, benefited greatly from this precise and clean balance.

SOUND SECTION – TREBLE-
We now come to the balance feature that sets the iKKO Asgard OH5 headphones apart from almost all other IEMs. Two words that are usually antonyms in this world. Detail and softness. High frequencies are presented with impressive clarity, as if the Asgard could handle them effortlessly. It will give you detail without wheezing. The near-perfect treble representation brings extremely satisfying, crisp realism to hi-hats, cymbals, vocal air, harmonics, and countless transients. This is something you would expect to find in expensive planar drivers and not a sub1000 dynamic set.

We reach the final part of the review. I will be frank with you. I feel bad about recommending expensive iems. I know that it is a significant expense and I don't really like the idea of recommending every headset that is displayed on the channel. Keep in mind that I speak from my opinion. They must know if what the headset offers is what they are looking for or not.
This ikko oh5 is what I have been looking for in an iem for years. Good modular cable, pure sound, good image, full-bodied sound, texture, a certain neutrality with a warm touch present...but it also offers impressive musicality and dynamics.

I´m also on YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtfbMXFzOKe07X-ZstZ_Bg

It’s with great interest that I received a sample of Ikko’s latest OH5 “Asgard” model, considering the very high consideration I have for the other 2 models I assessed in the past, being OH10 (read here) and OH1S (read here).

OH5 can be bought from Ikko’s website for approx $495 before promos. There’s a nice giveaway promo going on right now, and I have been hinted that a xmas promo is also coming up so stay tuned on their website in the coming days

Full Device Card​

Test setup​

Sources: Apogee Groove / Sony NW-A55 mrWalkman / Questyle QP1R / E1DA 9038SG3 / Questyle M15 – Radius Deepmount tips – Stock cable – lossless 16-24/44.1-192 FLAC tracks.

Signature analysis​

Tonality

OH5’s tonality is warm-balanced, and the timbre is bodied and polished.



IKKO OH5 frequency response graph (official one supplied by Ikko)


Sub-Bass

Sub bass is there but doesnt shine enough. Looking at the graph it does not seem too much rolled off but from actual audition you can check that rumble may use some help to be more evident, and this also impacts negatively on spatial drawing of course. Mid bass elevation tends to cover it, too.


Mid Bass

OH5 have an evidently enhanced mid bass which is key to their global tonality in a positive sense on one hand, but paired to somehow “dampened” transients it also contributes to limitating overall resolving power.


Mids

OH5 mids are very well positioned in terms or relative relation with bass and trebles – not forward, not recessed – to the general purpose of obtaining a globally balanced, horizontally-calibrated presentation (much more so than the graph seems to say). Their tonality is very well “centered”. Highmids ramp up quite rapidly and deliver quite some energy, thus sometimes (although rarely) resulting in some minor inconsistency with the mid and lower ones. Those overly sensitive to 3KHz might be a bit “touched” on some tracks (I’m not in that category, rather the other way around), yet I cound’t hear sibilance which is great of course.


Male Vocals

Vocals on OH5 are good, with particular regards to male vocals. While midbass sometimes gets too close (and does sometimes overlap baritones) they come across very organic, especially on tenor registers.


Female Vocals

Female vocals are also good. A clear preference has been given to energy vs smoothness here. Purists of flutey sopranos may not consider OH5 as top of the block – but apart from that this is another spot where a good job has been made on the OH5.


Highs

OH5’s treble is nice, somewhat airy, and most of all energetic, sparkly while also staying combed, smooth though, so they are in the end not offensive while still staying engaging. The 4.5KHz peak gets hot at times, and depending on eartips selection and/or personal preference/sensibility it may want to be tamed by surgical equing. Other then that, a nice job was done here.

Technicalities​

Soundstage

OH5 draw an average sized stage, with a decent width, some height but very limited depth.


Imaging

Macro dynamics (imaging) is good, although primarily in the sense of stereo separation given their flat-ish spatial rendering capabilities. Central panned instruments and/or mono tracks, suffer from OH5’s limitation in terms of layering/separation.


Details

Detail retrieval, like instrument separation, is dramatically sub-average for this price class. It’s quite evident that the entire tuners’ effort has been concentrated on delivering tonal pleasantness and a specific musicality tone, sacrificing resolution and analithical skills.


Instrument separation

Layering and instrument separation are the other major Achille’s heels of OH5, together with detail retrieval as previously noted. There’s little chance to appreciate various voices’ / instruments’ nuances in their singular identities even on acoustic, well mastered, uncompressed tracks.


Driveability

It’s not difficult to drive OH5 as their sensitivity is relevant, and their impedance is on a level where many amps deliver their best current, or near that. A decent phone should be enough, and surely not particularly powerful sources will be.

Physicals​

Build

Housings offer a convincing impression of solidity, and sport a very pleasing design style.


Fit

In my case OH5’s shape and size are the right shape and size to fit my concha without difficulty, filling it up almost completely. The nozzles are not very long so long stem tips are in order for me as pushing the housings in beyond a certain point is a no go. In the end I settled for Radius Deepmount.


Comfort

As long as I adopt long stemmed tips, OH5 are very comfy for me once fit. Their weight is also “right” (not too light to “disappear”, not to heavy). They’d become unbearable however if equipped with short stemmed tips, as their housings would hit my antitragus (this is a common issue I have with similar shaped housings e.g. Final A and B series, Tanchjim Oxygen, etc especially on my left ear)


Isolation

As housings do fill my conchas quite well, some level of passive isolation is achieved in my case.


Cable

I found stock cable is quite nice. In addition to good sonic behaviour and very nice haptics, it comes with a modular plug system and 3 termination plugs included in the package (3.5, 2.5 and 4.4). Modular plugs miss a lock-in mechanism but they seem quite firm in position anyway so all OK on that front too.

Specifications (declared)​

Considerations and hints​

What positively hits you about OH5 is its musicality. Somehow the tuners managed to reach a particular tonal balance, adding a quite personal color to the music being played, and such color is indeed pleasing. The sound coming from OH5 is bodied, vibrant, warm and enveloping. It’s energetic but also rounded off, smooth – there’s no sharp edge, no rigid brick wall, and no floppy surface either.

You got to love OH5’s particular color to appreciate that, of course, which might not happen to you. If you do like its timbre, however, chances are you might develop a particular affection for OH5.

On the flip side, I find OH5 compromise quite dramatically on key technicalities, first of all layering and instrument separation. I am no EQ guru, so I couldn’t (and I wouldn’t) find out inhowmuch the situation is due to aposteriori tuning or to the driver’s specific nature. What I did is play with Roon’s PEQ and after some fiddling I could devine some touch-ups wich make the situation a bit better (for my tastes of course)


The 150Hz demotion helps making midbass much more polite and somewhat faster. The low shelf adds some missing “rumble tail” to bass notes. The 950Hz (or thereabout) pushup also helps de-dampening midbass and lowmids and the 4.5K dip takes some hotness away from metal notes.

All those figures are not carved in stone, take them as ballpark values, but if you try you will hear instrument separation and clarity improving, a more detailed bass, and a quite evident opening on stage drawing especially in the depth direction. Play with values to learn how sensible each one is to the final result.

An alternative possible intervention is adopting TRI Clarion eartips. In such case the pushdown on 150Hz or thereabout is not needed anymore, however a more generous dampening intervention gets required on the highmids – I would add a -2dB or so to 3Khz for example, in that case.

Lastly: some care is in order about ideal source pairings. OH5 do not welcome bass-strong sources too much. Questyle M15 or QP1R, and E1DA 9038xx dongles all OK. Groove on the other hand excites OH5’s “artistic” midbass too much, yielding a too dark result, thus not even being able to help OH5 on adding space depth which is amongst Groove’s specialties in general.

Comparisons​

Final E4000 ($149)​

The epitome of IEMs featuring strong musical personality (color) which grew on me since the day I got them and won’t ever leave me, even now that I have technically better alternatives, are Final E4000. And guess what: E4000 and OH5’s personal “voicings” offer quote a few common points.

Both are warm, smooth, musically “pop” and deliver a very particular balance between smoothness and strenght, energy and pampering. Compared to OH5, E4000 are… more japanese: silkier, a bit (even) more elegant in a sense. OH5 feel more energetic – in a good sense.

OH5 are braver on the trebles compared to E4000, even at the cost of minorly overdoing sometimes. E4000 on the other hand are very good at layering and separation, where OH5 is dramatically lacking, especially on the mid and low segments.

E4000 are much more demanding in terms of source power, and they have the not secondary advantage of costing one third of what OH5 do.

Oriolus Isabellae ($500 street price)​

Isabellae’s musical personality is evidently different from OH5’s insofar as they deliver a V shape presentation, with relatively recessed mids and important, enhanced sub bass and bass (for the connoisseurs: something more in the ballpark of Ikko’s other model, the OH10). This alone of course already imprints a big part of the comparison between the two products.

Beyond that, Isabellae’s high mids are smoother, and trebles are less energetic, yet airier compared to OH5. Mid bass is definitely more textured and detailed on Isabellae, while still staying on the relaxed and buttery side in general. Sub bass is OK out of the box on Isabellae while it requires some help on OH5. Most of all, layering, resolution and detail retrieval is obvisouly better on Isabellae, which are also equivalently undemanding in terms of source power as OH5 are.

Dunu ZEN ($699)​

Zen’s bass is arguably as good as the industry gets at least until pulling Softears stuff to the comparison table: perfectly calibrated mix of punchyness and body, volume and texture. ZEN also has beyond outstandind microdynamics and layering capabilities – on both fronts, that’s very much unlike what happens on OH5. On the opposite end, trebles are marginally but perceivably airier on OH5, although highmid sensitives as previously noted my consider that segment on the limit or even a bit beyond their preference. Taken as a whole, OH5 have a stronger musical personality (love or hate, of course), ZEN are more “technical”, and 40%+ more expensive. I’m referring to original ZEN model, not the subsequent Pro version (which I find less nice then its sibling).

Conclusions​

OH5 are a nicely and coherently colored set. As such, they can be target of “unquenchable hatred and indomitable love” – like that other well known invididual from some 200 years ago, you know – depending on one’s own ego. Simply put, if you are the uncurably curious audiophile addict you may want to check these, knowing chances are you might viscerally love them, or find them as being “not your cup of tea”. I hope my article did convey at least some hints to educate your guess before you actually carry that out.

In summary OH5 deliver a bodied, vibrant, warm and enveloping musical experience. They are energetic while also smoothed. An evident accurate job has been carried out behind the curtains here to get to such point.

Their major downside is on resolving power and layering proweness, which can be helped a bit albeit not solved – without revolutionising the entire presentation – by means of some surgical EQ as I also tried to hint you about, here above.

The OH5 sample covered in this article has been delivered to me courtesy of Ikko staff which I warmly thank once again for the opportunity.

This article originally appeared on www.audioreviews.org, here.

iKKO Asgard OH5 Single Dynamic Driver ($489.99)

Introduction & Caveats

I've known the iKKO brand from seeing mentions of the popular OH10, but up to now had not yet tried any of their products. When they announced the OH5 a few weeks ago, I was intrigued by the fact they use lithium-magnesium for the driver, which apparently is an industry first in an IEM, but more commonly used in speaker systems - this along with the price (as it's potentially ambitious to hit this mid-tier section of the market), grabbed my attention.

I purchased the OH5 directly from iKKO with a small discount in exchange for a review. As always, thoughts are all mine, with no input or pre-reading from the brand. The OH5 is available directly from iKKO Audio HERE

As is evident in my signature on Head-Fi, I have a huge passion for single dynamic drivers and always curious to hear the various signatures across the price segments.

Finally, I’m not a professional reviewer, I enjoy sharing impressions of various sets I try with the Head-Fi community.

Specifications



Unboxing & Accessories

The unboxing experience is very good, a nice presentation with jewellery style tray containing various accessories such as the tips and case.





I like how the shells sit in this upper segment - however, they were actually difficult to extract, it took me a couple of minutes to shift them, I would suggest to iKKO that they provide a ribbon/string or something to pull them out.







Cable

I'm not a fan of the cable as I find it too rigid and thick - I don't mind a heavier cable on some IEMs when I don't plan to move about, but I typically use single DDs moving around the house, out walking, and travelling - the stock cable from my perspective is not suitable, but this may well be subjective. A design flaw however is definitely the modular system for the various jacks - there is no locking mechanism, and if you don't unplug nearer to the connection on your audio device, it is very easy to detach. It's an attractive looking cable, and certainly feels well-built and premium, just not to my taste unfortunately... YMMV!

The cable is terminated to the shells with a flat 2-pin plug.



The aforementioned modular system - which as noted, does not have a locking mechanism. To be fair, it does feel quite solid when connected, but I have accidentally disconnected a couple of times - it would definitely make more sense to have some sort of locking mechanism, as per the likes of DUNU. The cable is supplied with 3.5mm, 2.5mm, and 4.4mm connectors.



Case

A nice case, even if quite big - I guess that's to accomodate the cable as it's not really possible to wrap up in a small bundle due to the thickness and rigidity.



Tips

There are an excellent selection of stock tips provided, to include numerous sizes in two varieties (oval and circular) of both silicone and foam. I really like the oval foam tips with the narrow bore.

Design & Fit

The shells are a weird shape and certainly look like they might cause some ears a bit of bother. I am finding that I'm ok for about an hour or so, after which I can feel some fatigue - nothing awful, I've had much worse and I could actually keep listening, but I do note that it occurs. I still need to explore more 3rd party tips in my collection, and determine if that helps - as noted however, I do really like the shorter stock foam tips from an SQ perspective, so they've been on most of the time.



Listening Impressions

I listen to a very wide range of genres, and tend to enjoy most IEMs in some shape or form, as I will most likely find synergy somewhere in my collection. These genres range from ambient to techno, acoustic to indie rock and pretty much all in between. It is incredibly rare that I land upon an IEM that I simply do not like - maybe I'm easy to please, or not especially fussy!

A lot of my listening has been via the Lotoo Paw 6000, and at times also the Shanling M9.



The OH5 is a set for those who prefer an overall warmer tonality, with a prominent bass focus - treble is somewhat subdued, but has reasonable presence. It is the sort of set that in my experience sucks you in to its silky smooth, lush presentation, one I’m finding is often making me just sit back and get lost in the music. The soundstage is relatively intimate (more on this later), but with a very good sense of imaging and layering. They definitely require some brain burn-in, especially if switching from a more resolving set - they can sound a bit too warm, or even somewhat muddy at first, but after a few minutes they reveal their charm. Just to note also, for the purpose of the review, I did use the stock cable.

Bass

The theme of OH5 is probably clear by now: warm and emotive tuning, which is very evident from a bass perspective as it forms the foundation for this signature. There is excellent impact to mid bass, with very good slam when called for. Sub bass extends well, with nice rumble and good distinction from mid bass. I can certainly point to sets that offer more sub extension, IE600 or IE900 both great examples, but I doubt many will be left wanting here.

Mids

Lush, captivating, and highly emotive mids - but still with good clarity, albeit not the most airy. There is ample room in the mids for even the most congested or busy tracks, and with extensive listening, I've not heard any difficulty here, even with the most complex of tracks. Vocals typically sit very central, and I would say pretty much in-line with instruments for the most part.

Treble

The treble is distinct, but very smooth - it won't have the absolute sparkle that some might seek, but it has good energy in percussion or instruments that extend into those higher ranges. It's actually quite interesting, as when I listen to tracks with complex percussion for example, I can clearly hear hi-hats, snares etc with excellent timbre, yet they have a smooth finish, maybe just falling very short of sparkle... the big plus here is that it is highly unlikely you will encounter any harshness or sibilance. I actually love what they've acheived here in the tuning, and wonder whether the use of lithium-magnesium plays a role.

Technical

The soundstage is mostly within my head, maybe extending somewhat outside - iKKO note in their marketing materials that it is a 'home theatre in an IEM, with an opera like soundstage' - I guess it depends on the size of the home theatre as it's not massive, but does indeed render in terms of imaging, layering, and overall separation incredibly well - it is easy to pinpoint sounds etc within the stage, even with the overall lush/warm/smooth tuning. I think it's probably fair to say the soundstage is somewhat holographic, and occupies a large area within my head.

Genre Compatibility & Test Tracks

I'm going to use a method I tested in my review for the Turii Ti in October, and more recently with Fir KR5 - that being a list of tracks/genres, and how suited I feel OH5 is to each genre following my testing. The ranking equates to how suited the track is to OH5, and the genre confidence level represents the extent to which I feel confident of the broader genre suiting OH5 - this is mostly based on how much time I've listened to each genre. Again, this is experimental, and I'd appreciate any comments on how I might tweak this moving forward - the idea being to try give a sense as to what genres I feel work best with an IEM. Overall, I found OH5 is better suited to more recent tracks, and recordings that are of a higher quality of production - 'Laika' from the below list is a great example, which sounds fantastic - 'Northern Sky' by Nick Drake not quite so good, but not bad either - I wouldn't buy OH5 if this was a genre of focus, likewise punk as another example.


Comparisons

Penon Vortex ($199)

Where OH5 goes for warm, emotive, lush tuning - Vortex is a clearer, more resolving listen. There is significantly more bass with OH5, and much warmer mids - Vortex is brighter overall, and as a result not only has better detail retrieval, but will be more suited to genres such as acoustic, vocals, etc. As an aside, I've not listened to Vortex in a while, it really is a fantastic DD and offers huge bang for buck. Oh and for those who know/own Vortex, I have removed the filters.

Sennheiser IE600 ($699)

The IE600 is again more resolving, but is more comparable versus OH5 in terms of bass - I would say it has greater mid bass impact and density, possibly as the mids are less lush in comparison to OH5 - sub also extends deeper. The IE600 treble has more extension, so again as per Vortex, there is superior detail retrieval. I would say soundstage are quite similar in size, the IE600 probably has the edge with the brighter uppers. Personally, I prefer the OH5 as I find it more engaging overall - this will be quite subjective though, and others may prefer the higher resolution of IE600.

Conclusion

I'm a big fan of the OH5, I find it an incredibly engaging, and highly emotive listen where I'm not focusing on specific details - it allows me to just become truly immersed in the music. I've found myself drawn to listen to them several times over the last few weeks, even with far more expensive sets nearby. It works well as an all-rounder, but I would suggest looking elsewhere if you are in the market for something more resolving or airy. I think it's fair to say it's quite 'safe' tuning, and one that anyone could enjoy, with pretty much any genre. Overall, I think iKKO have done a fantastic job with this IEM. I deduct half a mark due to the cable and shell shape, otherwise I would comfortably score a full 5/5.