Audio Technica CKR9 - Impressions
Disclosure: I was generously included on a loaner tour of these, for which I am thankful. They have since moved on to those who have posted their impressions before me.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Anything to do with timbre is my personal very own opinion. Everything else is cold hard fact.
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A bit plasticky, but very solid and what feels like reasonably thick plastic. I have no concerns of them breaking if, say, lightly stepped on by accident. The cable was mostly tangle resistant and felt thick enough to instill confidence. Besides the chromed ring on the outside of the earpiece, they have a very industrial look and feel. I like the design of the plug, a la recent Sony, and strain reliefs were adequate to instill confidence for those that worry about that being an issue. Other than that, it generally lacked any other flourishes that would make one go oooh and ahhh. I didn't have the original case or accessories to be able to comment on the entire package, but they did come in an Audio Technica case that was apparently from one of the BA based earphones and that was very nice case, but it is not the same as the one that comes with these, so if you want a nice case, look at the ATH balanced armature earphones.
But realistically, i've developed pretty low expectations for finishing touches and especially design for earphones that aren't a ridiculously expensive universals, where the company's feel that if they don't make an effort on the design front, that people will complain about the price.
Fit
They are a bit, and surprisingly, large (not Red Giant A03 Ossicle ridiculous or anything, but large) and became mildly uncomfortable to the concha after about half an hour. Smaller ears may have a problem even fitting them inside the concha, which would make them very difficult and uncomfortable to listen to for any reasonable period of time. Over ear fit was not happening for me.
Dat Sound
The sound is something I've been coming to terms with for a while after they've been gone. It was harder for me to form an opinion on than most other earphones I've heard. This is mostly because it comes about 80% of the way to greatness, but then is just held back. I've mentioned in a few PMs that this is an earphone that takes two steps forward and one step back, and I feel now that this sort of defines the sound as a whole. Everything is almost there. And while that's great, its also disappointing, because nothing makes it out of that hole to be spectacular.
Its all about that...
bass has great detail and speed with no real complaints about extension or being overemphasized. It is on the other hand slightly on the softer size of impact and the lighter side of weight. And for all the detail, it just has kind of a fluffy softness to the edges which hurts texture a bit, which is in stark contrast to it's upper midrange. The bass is also generally, imaged very near the listener, pretty much feeling in front of everything, not in terms of amplitude but just placement. It doesn't mask anything; it's place just feels... out of place. The VSonic GR07 CE has a similarly imaged bass in the foreground, if possibly a couple of dB more emphasis, but with similar speed and detail, and with better impact and cleaner edges to the bass notes, it can get out of the foreground better and has more inducement to a toe tapping experience. The Aurisonics Rockets on the other hand have less low end amplitude but have a much cleaner and more heft to the low end notes, no directional bias to the imaging and with better timbre.
The
midrange is interesting. It's, again, not lacking for detail. As a matter of absolute fact, the peak at 4KHz that I hear, and that's has been corroborated by the CKR9ing masses, makes for a delightfully crisp midrange, which likely helps imaging. There seems to be a very slight dip in the lower mids in comparison to the bass and upper midrange in which dulls some vocals. Also, I do hear a significant drop in amplitude around 5KHz. While the detail in the midrange is crisp, it also feels very edgy and almost brittle at the tail end of notes. This is likely due to notes that flow across from 3-5KHz not being able to cleanly finish and almost cut off due to the drop after 4KHz. And this is probably what others have mentioned about the flaw in the sound. I hoped at first that this was due to fit or tips but trying a wide assortment of tips and insertion depths did little to alleviate this section of the frequency response. Timbre is generally good enough in the midrange, better than a lot of earphones, but suffers due significant frequency response shifts hurting tonality which aids timbre.
Treble was pretty non-offensive. Not much to write to be honest. No sibilance, etc. Nothing really special either. Nothing really jumped out at me, pro or con, so that's where this ends.
One of the more interesting aspects is
presentation. While not particularly wide, depth was solid and height was surprisingly good. Images were a little smaller than I'd like in comparison to the stage height, proportion-wise, but nothing critical. Due to the softer more diffuse bass across the front of the stage images were both crisp and clean, but at the same time, they were a bit... stifled. They were set in a stage which felt a bit thick. This is where they reminded me of the Sony XBA-H3. It's a bit more cohesive that the H3, from memory, but it also didn't have that bright fireworks in the sky on a dewy night feeling, that spark of imaging wonder that felt at the least new and fresh for an earphone. This has that same kind of dewy feeling, except it wasn't out in a park, it was more in a large warehouse. A lot to be excited about in its imaging prowess, but it didn't emotionally hit that high note for me.
What I get from the CKR9 is a solid performance that doesn't wow me but doesn't bother me. I never had the feeling that I wanted to get them out of my ears quickly, which is definitely a great thing, but I never felt a reason to really want to put them in my ears either. They have a lot of offer but also a lot of missed opportunities, which is what I get from a lot of earphones these days, from low all the way to the high range. What I told people via PM as my first impressions of them I think is still the best expression of them that I have: They are a two steps forward and one step back kind of IEM. But hey, that's still one step forward.
The CKR9 is a product I think has a few first gen bugs to be worked on. Nothing horrible but worth noting.
