Kinera Celest Pandamon 2.0

Now, I want to preface this entire thing by saying this;

#1. I hate being negative, but at the same time, I have to keep it real here.

#2. While I don’t enjoy these IEMs, I can certainly see which crowd would like them.

With all that being said, I’d like to thank HiFiGo for sending the Celest Pandamon 2.0 out for review and a little photo sesh, it’s much appreciated! If you’d like to give the Pandamon 2.0 a try, please follow these unaffiliated links and get the wallets out! I guess I have to change my disclaimer now lol

HiFiGo：

HiFiGo

Kinera Celest Pandamon 2.0 10mm Square Planar Driver In-Ear Monitors​

Buy Kinera Celest Pandamon 2.0 10mm Square Planar Driver In-Ear Monitors on HiFiGo, and you can enjoy a year warranty and the best after-sales service.


Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZ98TQ1Z/celest+pandamon+2.0/

Amazon JP:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0CZ91BFX5/celest+pandamon+2.0/

Aliexpress：
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006811792383.html

You can also find all of the technical specs on the set using the links above as I usually don’t like to bog down my impressions with those numbers. It just makes the articles way longer than they need to be in my humble opinion.

Disclaimer
Test tracks

• Give Life Back to Music - daft punk - Overall clarity
• Infinity Repeating - daft punk - Lower mids control
• Voyager - daft punk - Bass line clarity/busy track layering
• Overnight - Parcels - mid bass punch
• Tieduprightnow - Parcels - bass line/sibilance test
• Everyroad -Parcels - Imaging/Sub bass @ 7 minute mark
• Daytime - Lunar Vacation - Staging/female vocals w/ heavy bass
• Days - No Vacation - Vibe test/treble energy
• Fruiting Body - Goon - Sub bass
• Wavy Maze - Goon - Mid bass
• Together - Maggie Rodgers - Female Vocals
• Slide Tackle - Japanese Breakfast - Sibilance test/consonants harshness
• Decode - Paramore - Vibe test/stage depth
• Vinta - Crumb - Stage depth/layering
• Kim’s Caravan - Courtney Barnett - Female Vocals/resolution test
• Small Poppies - Courtney Barnett - Distorted Guitar
• Lifelong Song - Men I Trust - Sub/mid bass texture
• One and Only - Adele - Female Vocals/consonants harshness test
• Waves - Wild Painting - Overall Enjoyment and stage depth/width/Bass guitar speed
• Not the One - Highnoon - Female Vocals
• Cowboy Killer - Varsity - Layering
• Alone in My Principles - Varsity - Distorted female vocals
• Summer Madness - Kool & The Gang - Treble Harshness
• They Are Growing - Renata Zeiguer - Mid bass impact

Sources

• Apple Music Streaming Hi-Res Lossless when available
• Topping D10s + Topping L30
• Moondrop Dawn 4.4
• Dunu DTC 500
• FiiO BTR7 BT

Disclaimer

Well, I guess I’m a reviewer! But just because that’s changed, doesn’t mean I’ve lost my integrity. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own and always will be. This is strictly fun for me and I’ll never compromise for any company or retailer. Rest assured, these thoughts are as legitimate as they come.

TLDR; I’d like to say that I’ve only ever tried one other IEM from Kinera and that was the Imperial Loki which I did not enjoy, HOWEVER, I understood the assignment on that IEM. I got it. The crowd was there for that earphone, I just wasn’t part of the group and that’s totally fine. The Pandamon 2.0 is similar with a boosted upper mid-range providing impressive detail retrieval that could probably rival lots of sets triple its price. However, the problem with the set lies in the same area, unfortunately. IEMs are all about compromise, right, and the way Celest has achieved that impressive technical punch is by boosting the upper mid-range to the point where vocals, guitars, and cymbals all sound unnaturally thing, splashy and scratchy in terms of their timbre and tonality. I have no doubt in my mind that someone, somewhere, would happily give up timbre for that extra bit of detail in their music, but I’m just not that guy. The Pandamon 2.0 is a beautifully built and presented IEM, which by itself, earns the $60 price tag in my opinion, but it makes too many sacrifices to achieve the sound it’s going for. If you’re looking for a budget IEM under $100 that uses an SPD driver, or if you just want to try out an SPD driver to see what they’re all about, the Pandamon 2.0 Is probably you’re best bet. But, if you’re looking for an under $100 IEM with fantastic technical ability that doesn’t have to sacrifice in the timbre and tonality department at all, I’d suggest the stuff from Simgot, most notably the 500LM.

We’ll start off with the packaging/presentation of the Pandamon 2.0 which is fantastic for a budget iEM. The Pandamon 2.0 will come in two options for your cable terminations, 3.5 and 4.4 which is pretty damn sweet for a sub $100 IEM to offer that in the first place, plus, the stock cable is actually quite nice and I would have no issues using it my self on this set and others so bravo, Celest.







You also get a small, circular case which isn’t anything special but again, if we’re comparing it to other sub $100 IEMs, even some right at $100, lots of those other popular releases don’t offer even a small pouch. The stock tips aren’t anything special or notable, I’m sure they’ll get the job done for most folks, but I landed on the SS20 tips from Whizzer to offer the best comfort and sonic properties. Those tips are so fantastic… Anyways, in conclusion, the Pandamon 2.0 knocks it out of the park when it comes to the packaging and presentation.







Speaking of presentation, just look at those faceplates…



wowzers. Very pretty. These are built very well, not just for a budget set, but just in general and I have to commend Celest yet again because they always hit when it comes to the design of their IEMs. Their sound sigs may not mesh with me well, but their IEM designs sure do. My wife also quite likes them as well and she has a background in resin design so she knows what she’s talking about. The orange tray in the marque image at the top is her creation actually!



Bass

Unfortunately, the bass on the Pandamon 2.0 just doesn’t do it for me. The weird thing is, I don’t mind planar bass at all, I actually quite enjoy the snappy nature of it. Funny enough, the IEM that really got me back into the hobby after a few year-long hiatus was the Timeless and my brain really adjusted to that sound over the 6 months I wore them every single day as my EDC, not to mention, that was the only IEM I had at the time. I have no issues with planar timbre or bass most of the time…. But the Pandamon 2.0 falls flat here in my opinion. There just isn’t enough of it here to balance out the rest of the frequency range. The focus is obviously more so in the mids here, so the bass really does take a back seat here on songs like FRUITING BODY, WAVY MAZE, THEY ARE GROWING, and the first few daft punk songs of my playlists. To be fair, the mid-bass thump on THEY ARE GROWING and Give Life Back to Music isn’t terrible, let me make sure that’s completely clear. I don’t think this IEM has bad bass, I just think there simply isn’t enough of it to satisfy even this non-bass head. I actually think that if the upper-mid and treble were tuned relative to the bass in this case, you’d have some actually nice melodies shooting into your noggin here. The Mid-bass kick is fast and snappy, and pulls and releases on bass guitar are still very groovy and do a decent job at driving the music forward. The sub-bass, however, just can’t be redeemed. I can barely hear it on my tracks here and to be quite honest, I’d need at least another 6-8 dB at LEAST.

Mids

The most contentious part of this IEM lives here, in the mids. Specifically in the upper mids, going passed 3k into 5, and 6k territory. I am not sensitive to the typical peaks like 5k and 8k, but more so around 3.2k to be exact. If this is too boosted, forget it, my brain latches on to it and just simply can’t let go. So, here we are, the area where I can’t get past. I won’t go on and start referencing songs from my playlist because quite frankly, none of them sound good here if we’re strictly focusing on the mids. The timbre is off, it’s hollow, thin, and just plain off tonally. The notes lack weight to my ears, especially the vocals of the song, but they’re also forward and jarring at times. In the effort of not sounding completely negative, I will say that the details and resolution are impressive here, punching above it’s weight in vocal clarity and texture, however, the staging is very closed in to my ears which gives this very claustrophobic effect that I am just not fond of and it does cause some muddying of busier tracks like, Decode, which isn’t even that busy.

Treble

I have to be honest, I don’t have much to say about the treble. I feel as though It’s on the darker side and not very well extended at all causing the dynamics of songs to be off-putting sometimes. Cymbals have this huge initial crash and SPLASH to them but then disappear in an instant. Vocals do stay at the front and center of the performance, but the backing instruments just get lost in the shuffle and become something like an afterthought. All in all, this IEM just doesn’t sound balanced tonally due to the shift in the treble coming from the mids.
My last review was of the Symphonium Crimson so the next IEM that was due for an impression had some HUGE shoes to fill when It came to the treble department, but still, I tempered my expectations due to the pricing category and this still disappointed me. I think the Pandamon 2.0 is lacking air, causing a closed-in effect in the music as well, forcing you to focus on the mids and upper mids. Whether you think that is a good thing or a bad thing, is completely up to you of course.

Technicalities

I will say, this is where the Pandamon 2.0 regains some respect from me. As I’ve already said the detail retrieval and overall resolution are both pretty killer for the price category. However, the timbre, tonality, stage, and layering are all very lackluster. I’ll continue to say this until I’m blue in the face, the SPD timbre is not for me, it is a crunchy, thin, and somewhat off-putting. The stage is very closed in on my HRTF so that makes the presentation pretty intimate, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it also causes issues with the layering of the music being played. Various instruments, guitars, bass, piano, vocals, etc. are all on top of each other with the vocals being right up in your face. If you are looking for a very very vocal and detail forward IEM, this would probably suit you but if you’re anything like myself, the sacrifices this IEM makes to present those vocals and details so forwardly are very apparent and quite frankly, unnecessary.

Source differences

The Pandamon 2.0 did react to different sources in my experience but not to the point where these magically became fantastic IEMs. On my desktop setup, the set came off as the most balanced, and that is where a majority of my impressions came from. For whatever reason, listening to them on the BTR7 was a disaster and quite frankly, unlistenable for me personally. Vocals became shrill, and even thinner somehow. The Dunu DTU 500 faired better than the BTR7 since it’s a warmer source, and it did help thicken up the lower mids a little bit and make the upper-mid range tolerable, however, the layering became even worse and there was a nasty peak somewhere I couldn’t quite put my finger on in the lower treble. I’d stick with a more neutral source with these if possible.

In summary, what do I think of the Pandamon 2.0? Well, unfortunately, my thoughts are mostly negative and it really comes down to the timbre and tonal balance of the set. The treble being on the darker side means this IEM isn’t for treble heads, and the mid-range being unnatural in its timbre means it isn’t for mid-heads, so who is it for? I simply don’t know, quite frankly - Maybe folks that want to experience a higher degree of detail but don’t have the money to spend over $200 for the big planar and hybrid boys? Yes. I would say that’s the crowd this IEM is aiming for. But, with the likes of the Simgots, Kiwi Ears, & Truthears being of this world, the Celest Pandamon 2.0 is a very pretty face with a dream of competing with the big boys, but ultimately, comes up short.



Thanks so much for reading! Cheers!

PS. I had a lot more images to upload, but I can't figure out how to insert them. Sorry!

Disclaimer

• Huge thanks to HiFiGo for providing a unit of the Pandamon 2.0 for me to review. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own, and are not influenced in any way.
• Please take this review with only a grain of salt, as everyone's hearing, fit, and gears may differ, so our experience may be different.

Price(MSRP)

• $59

Source(s)

• It is easy to drive. Even on my JM6 Pro, I only need 30-40% of the volume most of the time, which is lesser than most IEMs I have used.
  • Topping DX1
  • Truthear Shio
  • JCally JM6 Pro

Ear tips

• Dunu S&S

Unboxing and Quick Summary







Packaging

• Kinera Celest Pandamon 2.0
• Round, semi-hard carrying case
• Decent selection of ear tips.
  • 3 pairs of Celest 608 balanced silicone ear tips (S, M, L)
    • Has a narrower bore, more closed in
  • 3 pairs of Celest 221 vocal silicone ear tips (S, M, L)
    • Has a wider bore, sounds more open
• 5N Copper Silver Plated Cable
  • Feels a bit cheap but not bad at all.
  • Tangles a little bit sometimes but is comfortable to use.

Build Quality

• Build quality is decent, feels plasticky.
• Shell is made out of resin, is extremely lightweight and it looks stunning.

Fit

• Nozzle is on the narrower side, with an average length, but is angled, in a way that didn't really work out too well for me personally.
• Fit is decent but not great, I couldn't fit it as deep as I would like due to the angled nozzle, but is very lightweight and comfortable.

Tonality

• Mild V-shaped

Bass

• Bass is a little more mid bass focused instead of sub bass.
• Fast, snappy, and has a decent punch and texture to it.
• However, it lacks a bit of impact, weight, tightness to it.
• Quantity is on the lighter side, which is absolutely not for bassheads.
• Overall, bass is not super satisfying, as it is lacking the weight and impact of a DD, but is somewhat fast and punchy.

Midrange

• Lower midrange has some warmth to it.
  • Gives a good amount of weight and lushness to male vocals and some instruments without being muddy bloated.
• Upper midrange is very forward compared to other frequencies
  • Can be a little bit shouty at times.
  • Smooth, but the transition from the end of upper midrange to lower treble is lacking, so vocals don't really have the extension or "breathy" feeling at the end.
• Note weight has a nice weight and density to it but not overly heavy.
• Most instruments do sound great without any oddities, timbre is quite natural as well.

Treble

• Treble is on the relaxing side, but can easily get overly dull at times.
• Rolls off pretty early from the end of upper midrange, notes and cymbals lack incisiveness and sounds a little blunted in general.
• Extension is also not good, lacking a sense of airiness to it.
• Details are not very revealing due to the overly inoffensive and rolled off treble response.

Technicalities

Resolution

• Resolution and detail retrieval is average due to lack of sparkle and extension in the treble.

Soundstage

• Soundstage also has average width and height, but not really spacious or expansive.
• At least it is not overly closed in but it is on the more intimate side due to the lack of air.

Imaging

• Imaging and accuracy is average.
• Not really pinpoint accuracy due to it being blunted but still fine.

Separation

• Separation and layering is average as well.
• Instruments and vocals are not clearly separated but it is not overly congested on busier tracks due to the speedy driver.

Conclusion

• Overall, I find the Pandamon 2 to be a little niche.
  • It has a pleasing, relaxing signature yet it still retains good vocal forwardness.
  • However, the bass and treble performance is not really up to par to be competitive with the rest of the market.

Non Affiliated Link

• If you are interested after reading the article, feel free to check out the non affiliated link below.
  • HiFiGo Web:
    • https://hifigo.com/products/kinera-celest-pandamon-2
  • Aliexpress:
    • https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006811792383.html
  • Amazon US:
    • https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZ98TQ1Z/celest+pandamon+2.0/
  • Amazon JP:
    • https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0CZ91BFX5/celest+pandamon+2.0/

Thanks for reading!

Introduction:

Kinera - "Live only for honor" made an honorable continuation of the first Pandamon - Pandamon 2.0, which inherited the same aggressive presentation with a new upgraded driver SPD (Square Planar Driver) 2.0.

Kinera presents its IEMs in two color options: blue and black, featuring a circular shell form. The lightweight, about 3.5 grams, and compact shell size will provide you with a comfortable fit in the ear, while correctly chosen eartips will provide a good sound isolation and prevent bass loss.
Shells feels solid, monolithic with a great build quality. Nozzle size is 6mm, so this might be an issue for people with narrow ear canals.

Specification:

• Kinera 10x10mm SPD 2.0 ™ (Square Planar Driver);
• Impedance: 9 Ω;
• Sensitivity: 108 dB;
• Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz;
• 5N Copper Silver Plated;
• Plug 3.5mm / 4.4mm Balanced;
• Price: 59$.

What's in the box:

• 2 sets of eartips (S / M / L):
  Celest 221 Vocal Eartips ( Black ) : Enhance treble, pleasing vocal;
  Celest 608 Balanced Eartips ( Red and Black ) : Sound balanced and stereo;
• 2 pin 0.78mm 5N Copper Silver Plated Cable, 1.25m lenght;
• IEM itself;
• Leather storage bag;
• Instruction.

Sound impression:

(*I pair this set with the DAC - Qudelix 5k for a better impressions and use the included balanced ear tips, which I find best for it.)

First, let's talk about the new Square Planar Driver 2.0. It doesn't feel like a regular planar driver to me. Driver deliver sound well and do his best to provide precise and crisp sound, but i felt a lack in full-range sound compared to a planar driver.
However, let's consider Pandamon 2.0 as planar eardphones and start with the bass:

BASS:
The bass in these earphones is expressive, deep, but it decays quite quickly. It's punchy and tight.
However, I wouldn't consider it as a basshead model, and i won't recommend them for heavy bass purposes.
But for those who appreciate harmonious bass, i recommend this IEM.

MIDRANGE:
The midrange is quite informative and rich, with vocals standing out prominently while sounding full-bodied and accurate, maintaining the overall visualization of the music. The midrange is smooth with a slight emphasis on the upper midrange, as i mentioned. Both female and male vocals sound as they should.

TREBLE:
The treble don't stand out in Pandamon 2.0 against the overall sound, they feel subdued, lacking sparkle and airiness.
Honestly, there are much better models with upper frequencies for this price.

The soundstage is wide and moves the air, with an accent on percussion instruments.
But there's a slight lack of depth in the soundstage. Everything seems close to the ear.

The separation and imaging in Pandamon 2.0 are quite commendable. You can hear each instrument separately, the piano, guitar or drum strike as distinct layers.


Some Comparison:


I want to compare Pandamon 2.0 with Simgot EW200 Maze (39$):
Well, the Simgot is definitely brighter, with expressive high frequencies, superb tuning, slightly heavier, and has a metallic shell.
EW200 fit better in the ears due to their smaller size and narrower nozzle size.
However, the Pandamon 2.0 is more balanced with better-defined bass and slightly richer midrange.
Both are well-built with excellent cables.

vs Tangzu Wan'er (19$):
Wan'er is decent for its price IEM, with a nice sound presentation, warm and balanced, but in the Pandamon, it seems to be at the next level in terms of sound delivery.
The soundstage is wider, air breathing, and Pandamon 2.0 has better separation.

vs Artti R3 (21$):
So, in the Artti, as well as the Wan'er, there is a lack of the overall picture of the song. However, in the R3 and Pandamon 2.0, there is a commonality in the bass; both sound detailed, punchy and tight.
Pandamon 2.0 doesn't have as smeared midrange as Artti; the highs in Artti sound better, shinier.
Pandamon 2.0 look a more beautiful and are better assembled.


Conclusion:


Overall, the Pandamon 2.0 is a good entry-level planar IEM, offering a fairly interesting and vibrant sound. It has a warm balanced sound signature and provides a pleasant listening experience. The tonal balance of these earphones is an advantage compared to some other planar drivers, in my opinion.

So Kinera has managed to create a good update to the legendary Pandamon version.




___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Disclaimer: I would like to thank Kinera Celest for providing this unit for review.
The earphones review is my personal opinion about product. It's not a paid review, and i'm not receiving any money for it.

You can purchase the Kinera Celest Pandamon 2.0 from: