CCA CXS review.
The CCA CXS is one massively over-performing iem hiding in a quirky looking alien shell and offering a great value for money for anyone looking for great technical value on a budget.
Price: $19.99
Link:
https://www.kztws.com/products/cca-cxs
Accessories:
Copper cable, 3 sets of starline tips (S,M,L)
Packaging:
Typical CCA/KZ packaging. Plain white box with standard accessories.
Specs:
Impedance: 16ohm
Sensitivity: 109db ±3db
Frequency response: 20-40000Hz
Cable length: 120cm ±5cm
CCA CXS Pro's:
Great balanced tuning
Smooth timbre
Good resolution.
Good bass quality.
Good dynamics.
Good mid-range quality.
Good macro-details.
Good imaging.
Good layering.
Excellent build quality.
Detachable cable.
CCA CXS con's:
Moisture buildup (this is a personal issue but other people might have the same issue.)
Dip in the mids can make some vocal a little recessed however the imaging and presentation make up for it.
Overview:
Cable used: silver plated cable.
Eartips used: stock starlines.
Sources used: Qudelix 5k, Ear Studio ES100MKii.
The CXS is the latest single DD budget offering from CCA.
It features a newly developed 10mm dual cavity DD with a small gap between the coil and magnets.
Also features 6 axis CNC machined shell with open back cavity design.
The iems are very well built like a tank, so much so that you could break a pane of glass with them or bust a toe if you dropped one on them.
They have a funky design with a hole shaped cutout that goes through the iem and a open mesh back to allow the driver to breathe.
Fit:
The fit is very pleasant. They are weighty but not too heavy and do not fall out of the ears. They stay in nicely and despite the cutout in the iem they still isolate very well.
Listening tests:
Burn-in time: 50hrs
The iems present very well, layering is fantastic, I can hear every detail floating around my head, every instrument has its place and positioning is fantastic! Stage is great, width is not extremely wide but is wide enough to satisfy my listening preferences and instrument placement and imaging are fantastic for the price.
Bass:
Bass is not the tightest ive heard but for $20 is still superior to any iem ive heard in the price range and it still has plenty of impact, plenty of dive and is well separated from the rest of the mix.
Mids:
The vocal are slightly tucked back and emphasis is given to the bass and treble "the u shape tuning" but because of the excellent technicalities, the vocals rest nicely in their place and have plenty of room separate from the instruments and the rest of the mix.
T
reble:
Treble is good, clean, crisp with its upper emphasis more around the 12-13khz mark it seems with the majority focus in the mid to lower treble.
Air is sufficient although my personal preference is more air in the higher region i.e. 15khz.
There is no harshness, no sharpness, nothing unpleasant.
Listening tracks:
In summary:
I cannot do any comparisons to other iems in the price range because of the nature of how I teardown iems so I will leave the comparisons to other members of the community but as far as I see it the CCA CXS is a technical monster hiding in a budget iems skin.
The imaging, layering, separation of instruments are all killer. Resolution is above average for the price range and for a U shaped tuned iem the FR is well balanced, vocals are a little buried but still present nicely and timbre is pleasant for a sub $20 iem. All in all the CXS is a fantastic package for anyone looking for a iem with good technicalities.
xxx
