ROCK JAW ARCANA Dual driver IEM

ApplesRevenge

Head-Fier
Pros: Great value for money, fun sound stage, excellent bass depth and great clarity with minimal microphonics
Cons: Little extras, minor sibilance on lower end DAPS and has a fixed cable.
ARCANA IEMs:
 
Rock Jaw offers a variety of IEMs and headphones, aiming to provide great value, reliable and robust devices, with self proclaimed minimal packaging and overhead to help minimise cost.
Rock Jaw ARCANA IEMs are a solid entry level dual driver IEM offering a fun sound signature at a remarkable value for money.
 
I have so far racked up 40 enjoyable hours of use with the ARCANA IEMs from various sources; Rockbox’d Clip+, FiiO X3 and ODAC. As far as I can tell there has been no significant noticeable audible changes.
 
Packaging, accessories and build quality.
 
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Rock Jaw managed to provide an excellent value for money, however in doing so they have made a few cutbacks; no travel case was provided and I found the three IEM tip sizes provided to be low end plastic. Admittedly, I have weird shape ear canals, resulting in my ears being picky about IEMs, this caused me to quickly replace the provided canal tips.
 
The ARCANA IEMs are encased in a robust metal shell, utilising a fixed strong tangle resistant cable with a built in microphone and sliding clip. Personally, I find the design significantly more aesthetically ‘mature’ looking than the Rock Jaw HYDRA with its bright yellow cable.
 
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Sound Quality
 
Rock Jaw ARCANA provides, what I find to be, a thoroughly enjoyable and fun sound signature; with a rich and excellent depth of bass, slightly recessed mids and highs with good detail and clarity, with a somewhat crisp sound. I found sibilance to occur on lower end DAPS, e.g. Clip+, which quickly reduced and disappeared as the source DAP quality increased, e.g. X3, with the same file data.
 
To Recap:
Advantages:
Great value for money
Fun sound signature
Excellent bass depth
Great clarity
Minimal microphonics
 
Disadvantages:
Little extras
Minor sibilance on lower end DAPs
Fixed cable, however at this cost it is not a deal breaker.
 

Verdict
 
Rock Jaw provides a fantastic entry level dual driver option with the ARCANA IEM, offering a fun sound signature for a great value of money at the loss of ‘fancy’ extras. Rock Jaw have my attention and interest for their other models, in particular the ALFA GENUS and KONTROL IEMs. I would also be significantly interested in a future higher end design with a detachable cable.
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