My review of the Kiwi Ears Quintet
The Kiwi Ears Quintet has been a difficult iem to review. It is different, and that is of course part of its attraction. Who, with even the slightest bit of technophile in them, could not be fascinated by a 5 driver iem with 4 different types of drivers? You have a conventional 8mm dynamic driver handling bass duties, a paired set of BAs in a single housing handling mids, a fairly unique micro-planar doing treble duty, and a bone conduction piezoelectric super tweeter adding supersonics and all kinds of crazy treble detail on top. I mean! The micro planar would be unique, but a pizoelectric bone conductor super tweeter? Even if you don’t know what any of that means, who would not want a Quintet in their collection? All those drivers are housed inside a fairly small and fairly conventional semi-custom fitted plastic shell with a super plain aluminum face plate. Simple. Understated. Functional. Amazingly, some fancy crossover work and tuning tubes, and at least one dampener, manage to blend all those drivers into a coherent iem that graphs surprisingly well, and sounds not a whole lot different than many more conventional single dynamic driver or all BA iems. Not a whole lot different…but definitely different. And there is the Quintet quandary in a nutshell.
Your first impression is going to be “whooo, this is way bright.” And I mean bright! Like shinning a 12000 lumens flashlight on the music score. At first you think the treble is just very present and forward…but it is not really that. Every note is bright, from bass to the highest frequencies…as though the high harmonics have been turned up to give each note an shimmering cutting edge of high energy…almost as though every note has been sharpened to a light saber sharp on the high side. Again, think of the music as a painting, and imagine that 12000 lumens flashlight held up close, picking out every detail in the brushwork, sweeping across the canvas, showing you things you did not ever expect to see. That’s what listening to music on the Kiwi Ears Quintet seems like, at least at first. The Kiwi Ears Quintet is all about space and detail…especially detail. It resolves very little nuance and places each note, every instrument, precisely in space and time. It can, because of that, sound a bit brittle or overly crisp, edgy, sharp, bright, until you get used to it.
You have to spend some time finding the right eartips to pull out all the bass that 8mm dynamic driver is delivering…and it is considerable…and it goes considerably deep. This is an iem that is super picky about ear tips though, so dig out all you have around and try each one. I am convinced it is not just a matter of seal, but also a matter of getting the drivers the right distance from your ear drum. I can easily say that if you are not satisfied with the bass on the Quintet then you have not found the right eartips yet. Keep looking. Once found, the bass then balances the somewhat forward mids, and the very present treble to give an accurate representation of any music in my library…from new age ambient to classical, with some jazz and vocal, bluegrass and celtic, rolled in.
This Quintet is another iem that I would class as “not your every day” iem…but one that you might want to own for those days when you want to take a really close, crystal clear listen to whatever music is on your heart and mind that day…to explore and get lost in all the finest detail.
Since the Quintet is exactly the same price, and, by the way, has the same number of drivers as the Aful Performer 5, it makes sense to compare them. The Performer 5 is a great iem, and very satisfying for day in day out listening. It is slightly warm, engaging, pleasant. It does a great job of handing just about any music you might want to listen to. Compared to the Quintet, however, it is slightly closed in, and slightly dull…the P5 lacks the stage and sense of space…and certainly the detail of the Quintet. If I had to pick one over the other, for general listening I might still pick the P5, but I already have other every-day iems for everyday listening that I like just as well as the P5 (and that cost at least $100 less), and the Quintet gives me something unique. And, once my ears got used to the bright, open sound and super crispy bass of the Quintet, it is really hard to go back to the “plain jane” sound of the Performer 5. To my way of thinking, Kiwi Ears made a strategic mistake pricing the Quintet at the same price as the P5. I think it should have been enough more to make the “this is something different! This is something special” statement.
In many ways the Quintet has more in common, sound wise, with the Performer 8. It has almost the same accurate instrument placement and fine detail as the P8…perhaps even more treble detail. However the P8 still outdoes it in the overall sense of space, the expansiveness of the musical experience. And, the Performer 8 does not have the “cutting edge” that some might find hard to take in the Quintet. Finally, I have yet to hear any iem that is as well balanced and in tune with itself as the Performer 8. The way it reproduces the harmonics of the full musical scale and they way they seamlessly mesh, gives it a sense of presence that is just not there in any other iem I have encountered.
So, the Quintet offers some things the Performer 5 does not, and that no other iem under $300 does, but does not reach the level of the Performer 8. If I were pricing the Quintet, I would put it right in between…say $290…to make it a real bargain and increase sales I might go as low as $260.
Of course, I am not complaining. $219 is within the range of many more of us than $260 would be, and this is a good thing. It just makes the Quintet another iem that, in my opinion, breaks the price of sound barriers…or makes further nonsense of current iem pricing models.
For the sake of brevity I have left out my usual detailed description of the sound profile with sample tracks. Actually it is an experiment to see if more people will watch more of a shorter review. Still, not to leave those who appreciate that kind of thing totally bereft, the songs I have been listing to with the Quintet, besides those already mentioned in previous reviews, are, for bass, Opener and New Bass Song from Nenad Vasilic, for more orchestral settings, Explosive from David Garrett and the Great River from David Arkenstone. For vocals Walk on By by Diana Krall and I’ll Get By by Avi Kaplin, for instrumentals Caldera by Al Marconi and Pocket Cathedral by Tom Canfield, as wall as Sylphs by Todd Mosby and Come Holy Spirit by Timothy Crane, as well as Paint it Black by the Brooklyn Duo. To mention just a few. All of these tracks and others from the same albums will redeem time spent with the Quintet, serving up a feast of fine detail and nuance hidden within the music…the details that make, in fact, the music the music it is.
The Quintet is unique. The Quintet is different. The Quintet is, in so many ways, a wonderfully refreshing iem. Not quite like anything else you have probably heard.
Not, certainly, your only iem, but an iem worth owning.
