SoundRhyme Prado - Flagship impressions
Thanks to AG and (Penon) SoundRhyme for the review unit of the Prado.
All views of the iems are mine and are not compensated for in any manner.
OVERVIEW
SoundRhyme have been making waves with their SR and DTE lines of iems in their mid-budget segment with very good value fun tuned iems.
The Prado is their flagship (
https://penonaudio.com/Sound-Rhyme-PRADO.html) sporting an incredible number of drivers - 4 EST and 12 BA drivers.
With a nicely speckled shell and faceplate, the iems are relatively small and compact for the number of drivers in the iems. The shells are resin with a sparkle effect
and a very light construction. The iems use the 2pin connection and have a medium large nozzles leaning on the broad side a little more.
The iems sport 2 tuning switches per side with the following configuration according to the product info on Head-fi
1, 2 off: pop music
1, 2 on: wide sound field
1 off, 2 on: clear voice
1 on, 2 off: deep bass
DRIVEABILITY
The iems are fairly easy to drive off dongles (middling 40s on the Lotoo PAW S1 and the Questyle M15i. I drove them off the 4.4 balanced output of both dongles.
OVERALL SOUND SIGNATURE
The iems are tunable via the switches, and the sound signature does change a bit with the switches on and off.
With 1 and 2 off, the signature is a relatively fun sound without overemphasis on either the bass or the treble end. The mids are decently present in this configuration
With 1 on, the bass is more pronounced and more forward. As a result the sound is quite warm, but with decent amout of details. The mids take a slightly recessed position.
With 1 off and 2 on, the treble is a little more extended and offer a lot of detail retrieval. There is a touch of brightness that creeps in with poor recordings.
With 1 and 2 on, the V profile is very prominent with deep bass and treble extension.
With the bass switch on, there is a lot of bass rumble, but there is a little bit of muddiness that is felt. Decay is slightly off with a little more sustain on the bass, with a thud being more prominent than a slam.
Fun tuned for sure, and a lot of fun can be had. Also I reached for the toothpick to change the switches for each genre change that I did as part of the audition, and the iems did change the sound quite significantly.
CONCLUSIONS
The Prado is a nice looking and compact flagship with a large number of drivers, and a fun tuning with a lot of promise.