Singapore Airlines KrisWorld IEM

Alright. It's the review you’ve all been waiting for. The Krisworld Singapore Airlines Complimentary IEM.

It’s those secret IEM’s, diamonds in the rough and needles in the haystack which keep this hobby alive.

The Complimentary Krisworld IEM is not one of them.

All audio was tested using FLAC files and high quality video via a mobile phone AUX.

Packaging
These come packed in a plastic puch that requires ripping the top off, however it is resealable which allows the packaging to double as a little pouch. Something you don't see a lot of from other manufacturer (Other Brands Take Note).

Accessories
This come with a single medium sized eartip and no other sizes for tip rolling providing. For the price, it's not bad, but some deeper fitting tips would have been nice.

The first thing you’re going to want to do with these bad boys is some tip rolling. Unfortunately the 2 pin in flight connector makes cable rolling an impossible task but hey, still better than MMCX am I right?

Tip insertion on the stock tips is short and doesn’t fit comfortable in the ear so pair of longer Tri Clarions was in order to bring out more bass and also get a better fit.

Cable had no microphonics and was otherwise comfortable. If you only have $4000 iems in your collection and are too scared to take them outdoors with you, then the good news is you wont feel any of that ambivalence with these. And if you play your cards right (Steal from your neighbors at the end of the flight) then you can end up with a few extra of these in case (God forbid) anything were to happen when out and about.

Design
The design is simple bullet style iem with a deep dark blue plastic shell and a classy golden Singapore Air logo on the faceplate. along with L/R indicators which I really don't think is necessary.



Overall Frequency/Sound
Disgusting is sub title Crinicle gave these back in 2018 and I believe that title is still fit for these. in fact, due to the simplification in colour scheme Singapore Air has employed since 2018 when they lost the orange colour around the nozzle, I think it's fair to say the sound signature may even be worse now than before.

It's hollow, lifeless, 1 dimensional, sibilant and missing entire frequencies.

Here is Crinicles FR Graph from 2018

And Here is Mine
Below is the FR Graph for the Krisair Complimentary iem based off technical listening and plotting of sine-waves to my ears.



Actually pretty close to Crinicles if you ask me.

Let's dig into the details!!

Bass
It’s not that the bass is bad, It’s just that it’s not there at all. If you refer to the made up FR you can see very clearly that the gaps in bass response. It feels less than 2 dimensional coming in at a full 1 dimension. Bass begins at the very final bass note giving it no body, rumble or texture. I hate them.

I never thought I would say these words but Singapore Air sure could learn a thing two from Beats audio.

crap, Raycon could probably lend a hand here.

Mids
Mids might at first seem acceptable, but it quickly becomes clear that there are entire gaps in frequencies coming through. Tonally, they’re off, violins sound like Guitars and a voice as distinct as Morgan Freemans could be mistaken for Danny Trejo.

Ok it’s not that dramatic. But it ain't good. It’s $0.07 good. Which is the feeling I have that these cost. Most likely less. If KZ or any of the chi-fi brands can pull off a $1 iem, there is no way these are costing a business in the air industry any more than 10c a pop.

Even male voices manage to cause pain which a new experience for me. So points for new experiences as well as a fantastic in flight breakfast array goes to Singapore Air.

You’ll be consistently reminded of the missing audio as you’re hit with peaks up in the upper mid frequencies which cause you to wince and turn the volume down. But then you will miss voices, instruments and other necessary parts of audio, which will make you want to turn these up again. In a way, it's a great cure of sibilant prone folks who after a few minutes with these will be begging for the shrillest consumer model out there just for a reprieve.

Treble
If I'm being honest. The best part of this IEM. The sibilance and pain comes from voices (Even male voices) but not from cymbal crashes. Extension isn't bad either tbh.

Teardown (Ok I used a kitchen nutcracker to snap them open)



Is It Worth It?
Now by Head-Fi standards the cheaper the IEM the higher the ranking, terrible IEM that cost $7? Well how do you beat that value?

Depending on how you look at it, this complimentary in flight IEM cost me either $4500 with a ticket to Europe or was indeed free and complimentary. Making it a 1 star either way.

However, I wouldn't go so far as to say “you couldn’t give these away” because they do. To thousands of people every day, who use them for hours on end (Burn in anyone)?

These might be more used than any other IEM on this site. which is the interesting intersection between necessity and quality.

Final Thoughts
It’s rare to find a set of IEM’s that perform worse than the audio output from a mobile phone. But just like exemplary customer service, comfortable seats and a great selection of inflight food and entertainment, Singapore Air has done it.

Now I would be interested to see how these perform under proper amplification. Would a Cayin DAP make these babies sing?

It remains to be seen.

I wouldn't be jumping up and down to try and get my hands on a pair but if you find yourself flying Singapore Air, a great crew member is going to great you with a smile as they hand them to you for free and it sure is hard to beat that service.