Kinera Celest Plutus Beast

Celest, a sister brand to Kinera has been quite active in the budget segment of in-ear monitors. And they are not just randomly launching products, but thoroughly designing stuff with some new and innovative driver configurations. They debuted with the Celest Gumiho introducing that Squar Planar Thing. Celest further worked on improving the tech releasing successful products such as Pandamon and Phoenixcall. Now we have got a super solid new IEM from them, the Celest Plutus Beast. Just like every other IEM from Kinera and Celest, the Plutus Beast also has a solid lore. Before I delve into the review, let’s know some of the lore as presented by the Celest themselves.

Lore Behind Plutus Beast:-

Plutus Beast(also known as Tianiu, Bixie, or Baijie) is a strong mythological character from the tales of Ancient Mythology. It holds a notable position among the five auspicious mythical creatures in the tales. It is a distinguished character and is also believed to be the “Heavenly Creature of Fortune”, and as a symbol of wealth. I personally love how deeply Celest goes on to depict the character and design inspiration for each of their products. The package is also designed thoughtfully to describe the same. Celesst Plutus Beast has a three-driver tri-brid configuration. It houses three different kinds of drivers featuring a Bone Conduction Driver unit for solid bass response, a full-frequency SPD unit, and a high-frequency BA unit. At the time of this write-up today, the pair is supposed to be released soon with an expected price of around 100$-120$.

Short Disclaimer Before I Begin My Review:-

This unit was sent to me by HiFiGo as a part of the Review Tour. I would like to thank them for this tour in India. You can buy the unit from their store(release is supposed to be 10th January as per their store page). The link is available below(non-affiliated link). One point we all need to add here, “All thoughts in this review are going to be mine and mine only. I am not being paid or affected by any store or brand to write positive or bad things about the same”. Man it feels like I am standing in front of a judge with my hand on the holy bible and will only speak the truth .

https://hifigo.com/products/kinera-celest-plutus-beast

Design & Ergonomics:-

I personally love the craftsmanship by Celest and its parent brand Kinera. Both brands design some of the best-looking products in the industry. I am ready to pay some premium when the products look such beautiful. Good thing here is that Celest is focused on the budget category, so the hole in the pocket is not huge. Celest’s latest Plutus Beast has amazing looks and a compact shell design. The shells are small, they fit perfectly into my ears and provide good comfort while listening. I am sure the comfort of these will be better than the Phoenixcall (thanks to god my medium-sized ears fit everything nicely). The face covers look beautiful with hand-painted patterns. The review sample here has 3.5mm termination, I put on my own KBEAR 4.4mm cable. It fits the pair both sonically and aesthetically, the black shells are complemented by the black cable(see in the pictures in this review). As mentioned previously here, the Fit is perfect, and the Isolation is also really good. No complaints about either the design or fit of the pair for me. Although I would have loved a 4.4mm cable bundled with the set itself. Also, as you might be aware, for BCD driver IEMs as long as the pair fits perfectly, you are good to go. Any issues in fit would not bring the pure BCD experience for you.

Driveability:-

Driving the Plutus Beast is not very hard, a decent USB DAC/AMP or handy portable audio player will do the job for you. I personally used mine with AFUL Snowy Night, Questyle QP2R, HiBy RS6, FiiO M15S, and Shanling EC Mini. Never faced any issues in driveability even when I used it with my MacBook using the provided 3.5mm cable. So don’t worry much about driveability and enjoy the Plutus Beast with your choice of source.

Sound Impressions:-

Plutus Beast for me is probably one of the safest tunings by Celest yet. I have experienced all of their releases so far including the debutant product Gumiho, and the previous launch Phoenix Call. I have loved all of them, even when the Gumiho didn’t receive much love for being brightish. I was saying, Plutus Beast is probably the safest tuning yet. I would also like to add to my statement that it also has one of the strongest bass responses in its lineup. The BCD works well and provides a soul-soothing bass that hits hard. It slams like a truck adding a lively and fun factor to the sound for me. Sub-bass reach is deep and rumbles hard with perfect slams in the mid-bass. Although I would say it is not the cleanest bass out there, but definitely the most juicy one.

SPD Driver delivers a clear, crisp, forwarded midrange. Upper mids, especially vocals are a bit forward. Although I don’t find them shouty or piercing for me. I am personally a vocal lover and i adore the voice of Gloria Gaynor singing I Will Survive on the Plutus Beast. Celest has done a great job with these SPD drivers, they are fast, clean, and precise. I love the midrange clarity here. But as I said some people might find the Upper mids a bit hot and too forwarded.

Treble is safe and sound. It is delicately tuned in the treble region. Considering the strong bass and forwarded midrange, the treble is a bit darkish but still satisfying for me. Plutus Beast is not as detailed or as revealing as the Phoenixcall, but it does a great job in providing a pleasurable and enjoyable listening session.

Technically, Plutus Beast delivers a decent performance. Soundstage has a surrounding feel, and the width and depth are both above average producing a 3D-like presentation. Instruments are very well separated and have good air between them. Imaging and layering could be better and instrument notes could have slightly more crispiness to them, other than that everything sounds really good and solid.

Plutus Beast or Phoenix Call:-

I personally loved both the Plutus Beast and Phoenix Call. Both IEMs bring us great sound. Here would be my comparison between them.

>Plutus Beast has a stronger bass response, and Phoenix Call has more defined bass notes.

>Plutus Beast midrange is more forwarded than the Phoenix Call.

>Phoenix Call produces more details, micro details basically. I would say it has a brighter signature compared to the Plutus Beast.

>Phoenix Call stage is also bigger, Plutus Beast is more surrounded and has more things going around you.

>Instruments sound crispier and sharper on the Phoenix call when compared to the Plutus Beast.

>Both the IEMs look beautiful, Phoenix Call is the best-looking one out there, and Plutus Beast has better comfort for us listeners.

Like I said, I love both the IEMs, they both have different sound signatures and offer great sound in their own regard.

Final Words For Celest Plutus Beast:-

Plutus Beast brings a unique flavour to my lineup of products. Its strong bass complements the vocals and its relaxing, smoother treble is there for a pleasurable listening session. You know it’s an iem that finds its place in your everyday carry with its captivating sound and great comfort. Personally, the set was with me for a little over one week and I absolutely enjoyed its sound. I guess I am going to miss it when it goes out on the tour tomorrow. Well, that’s it from my side for the Celest Plutus Beast. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this one. I will soon come up with a video review on my YouTube, stay tuned for that one.

Thank You!!

Kinera Celest Plutus Beast :: $89 :: 1 Bone Conduction + 1 Balanced Armature + 1 SPDSquare Planar Driver

After launching a sub-brand named Celest, Kinera introduced the Gumiho and Pandamon to the market with its in-house developed planar driver, the SPDSquare Planar Driver.

These two models were praised for their excellent performance for its price. The new 'Plutus Beast' builds on the SPD driver of the previous two models, adding a balanced armature driver and a bone conduction driver.

-



Driver Configuration : 1 Bone Conduction + 1 Balanced Armature + 1 SPDSquare Planar Driver
Sensitivity : 108dB
Impedence : 8 ohms
Frequency Response Range : 20Hz - 20kHz
Cable Length : 1.2m
Interface : 0.78 2-PIN

Huge thanks to HiFiGo for providing a sample unit for this review.
However, this review fully reflects the my honest opinion without anyone else's interference.

Btw, are you more familiar with Korean?
So am I, and If that's the case, I think you'd be better off reading my review written in Korean here.

This entire review was translated from Korean article using DeepL Translator with some refinement by myself.

-




The unit is nicely packaged with handful of components.

- High-purity 5N silver-plated copper cable (0.78 2-pin, 1.2m)
- 3 pairs of Celest 221 vocal eartips (black core)
- 3 pairs of Celest 608 balanced eartips (red core)
- 'Plutus Beast' metalic bookmark
- English/Chinese manual
- Carrying case
- Cleaning tool

The metalic bookmark is based on the illustration of 'Plutus Beast', which inspired Kinera designing this unit.
An Mythical creature of ancient Chinese legend - the 'Plutus Beast' is said to bring luck and fortune while warding off disaster.

It's a unique component that's hard to find in other products, making it feel special.




The circular leather carrying case has fairly good overall quality.

The internal space isn't quite as roomy, but there is a compartment to stash eartips or silicagel inside.



There are two types of eartips that come with the 'Plutus Beast' -
Celest 608 balanced eartips with a red core, and Celest 221 vocal eartips with a grey core.

Compared to the red balanced eartips - which follow the general shape of the eartips,
The grey vocal eartips have shorter stem, a wider shape, and a slightly larger sound bore.

With these characteristics, the grey eartips naturally encourage a shallow insertion of the earphones, bringing the treble peak a bit a forward, which in turn can have the effect of slightly accentuating the vocals.

I'll explain more about this later.



The quality of the cable is also quite good.
It has 48 strands of high-purity 5N silver-plated copper wire.

As you'd expect from a company that's been making custom cables for so long, the quality of the ports and other components are good, and the wire is quite flexible, making for a comfortable fit.

I also like the fact that you can choose either 3.5mm or 4.4mm port at the time of purchase to suit your personal preference.




With a seamless black resin shell created using 3D printing technology,
Its faceplate is impressively designed with a sparkling backdrop that reminds me of the blue Milky Way.

Said to be hand-painted, the 'Plutus Beast's faceplate has a seamless finish that makes it look like it's one piece with the high-precision 3D printed unit.



While the overall shape does feel a little bulky, it isn't that huge in person, even though the unit is packed with several drivers.

As a result, there's considerably less strain on the ears, making them comfortable to wear.

If you turn the unit around under the light, you can see the SPDSquare Planar Driver, an in-house developed planar driver in a square shape, as shown in the photo. It's hard to tell due to the dark colour, but I'm guessing there's a balanced armature just in front of the nozzle to ensure the sound is directly headed to eardrum, and a bone conduction driver behind the SPD driver.



At the bottom of the internal view above, is Kinera's bone conduction driver.
You can see that it has a very different design compared to Sonion's bone conduction actuator and the piezo-driver-based bone conduction driver.

It's hard to tell exactly how Kinera's bone conduction driver works, but based on the internal view of the product, it appears to have a very similar structure to the 'Linear Resonant Actuator (LRA)' which can be easily found as a linear vibration motor in smartphones.

This speculation is somewhat supported by the fact that you can hear the sound, which feels like a mass attached to the spring bouncing inside, when you tap the unit with your finger while wearing it.

Of course, since no one wants to have smartphone-level vibrations pounding into their eardrums(...), so it's hard to say that the design is exactly the same, but it does seem to have a very favourable design for generating 'vibrations', which is the key to 'bone conduction'.

-

Measured with IEC 60318-4 (711) while maintaining 94dB@500hz.
The sample used for the measurement does not represent the characteristics of the entire product.

Following Measurements are available at dchpgall.squig.link - a collective 711 measurement database by Korean audiophile community users.




The 'Plutus Beast' has a unique design based on the previously proven full-range SPD planar driver, with a bone conduction driver and balanced armature driver.

With a planar at the heart of the sound, there is an inherent bass texture throughout that is very responsive, with clean reproduction all the way down to the sub-bass. With that said, I felt a unique depth of resonance that was different to what I've ever experienced with planar driver IEMs.

I suspect that the bone conduction drivers used to complement the SPD driver's bass range contribute to this unique texture, which is hard to describe in words - it's as if they pull the focus of the planar bass - which stretches all the way to the very bottom - slightly towards the mid-bass. This gives the impression of a more emphasised bass dynamics and soundstage than traditional planar products, but it's not quite the same as the reverberant bass of a dynamic driver.

The balanced armature drivers also make a difference in the treble range.

Compared to planar IEMs, which are often criticised for being a bit harsh in the highs, the highs are quite subdued. Points where people might find irritating are pressed down enough that it's hard to feel sibilance, so it's a bit of a departure from the crisp, clear treble of Planar Driver.



That said, the vocals don't get too distant, and they maintain a decent amount of distance and presence, so they do a good job of delivering what you'd expect from what you are listening.

'Plutus Beast' is one of those IEMs where your impression of the vocals can change a lot depending on your eartips, so if you find the vocals to be lacklustre, you may want to try a different pair of eartips.

The measurements shown at the first - were taken with the insertion depth controlled, without taking into account the characteristics of the eartips. So it's hard to tell the difference in sound between the two ear tips.

In practice, if you use the grey eartips, which are more suited to wearing the earphones in shallow insertion, you may find that the treble peaks are pulled back and the vocals are accentuated - as shown in the green graph.

By contrast, if you reduce the size of the eartips, or use red eartips for deeper insertion, you would get the effect of pushing back the treble peaks, reducing the impact of the highs- as shown in the blue graph.

-



So far, we've taken a look at Kinera Celest's new Planar hybrid IEM, the 'Plutus Beast'.

It's now 2024, and it's not uncommon to find IEMs with planar drivers. With so many different manufacturers releasing their own variants, it's clear that Kinera's 'Plutus Beast' is a product that has thought hard about how to differentiate itself from the market.

With a combination of bone conduction drivers and balanced armature drivers, 'Plutus Beast' adds a new colour to planar IEM market and has a unique appeal.

If you've ever been intimidated by the harsh highs of conventional Planar IEMs,
or you're a basshead looking for something fresh, this is a product I can easily recommend.

Thank you for reading!

-

Non-Affiliated Link (if you're interested)

HiFiGo Web：https://hifigo.com/products/kinera-celest-plutus-beast
Amazon JP：https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0CR63TMB2/kinera+celest+plutus+beast
Amazon US：https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR5QNDD9/kinera+celest+plutus+beast
Aliexpress：https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006408658667.html