Cozoy Hera C103 Review – Little Luxury
Pros — Wonderful timbre -> natural sound, warm midrange; small, well-built metal shells/connectors; excellent comfort and fit.
Cons — A bit polite; fixed cable.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Cozoy Hera C103 is a modern old-school single dynamic driver earphone of warm tonality that impresses by its natural reproduction and outstanding tonal coherency.
INTRODUCTION
I am a big fan of single dynamic-driver earphones – mainly because I am a man of timbre. Accuracy of sound reproduction is of utmost importance to me – way ahead of resolution and other technicalities. As a rule of thumb, single DDs don’t resolve as well as BAs or multidrivers, but they sound more organic and coherent – and they have a much lower harmonic distortion, which means you can play them loud. Single DDs are also typically small and therefore very comfortable. My favourite single DDs “if all time” are the fabulous $250 JVC HA-FDX1 [my review], which have rather large and heavy metal housings – and they are actually not the most comfortable ones.
When I recently saw the beautifully crafted Cozoy Hera C103, I expected an interesting tonal signature – thanks to Cozoy for giving me the opportunity to test them.
Cozoy is a relatively young company out of Hong Kong, extablished in 2014. The company has designed a good handful of products and appears to focus on high-quality products in the mid-price sector. All but one are dacs/decoders with the Hera C103 being their only earphone model. The company’s signature is sleek technical and optical designs with high-quality metal finishes. I am introducing my test results of the the Hera C103 in the following (and the Cozoy Takt-C dongle dac/amp in the near future).
SPECIFICATIONS
- Driver Type: 9.2mm diameter dynamic driver with composite diaphragm
- Sensitivity: 103 ± 3dB @ 1 kHz 0.126v
- Frequency response: 10 Hz to 20 kHz
- Impedance: 32 Ω ± 15%
- Rated Power: 2 mW
- Cord: L=1.2m
- Plug: 3.5mm gold-plated
- Company page: http://www.cozoyaudio.com/
- Product page: http://www.cozoyaudio.com/hera
- Tested at $160
- Purchase link: http://www.cozoyaudio.com/store/hera
PHYSICAL THINGS AND USABILITY
The Hera C103 come in a snazzy pleather case reminiscent of my late mum’s bedside jewellery box – just smaller. Nice, different, good quality, but not the lightest and most portable case. The Kevlar-coated cable is not braided, it has a round cross section – and it is fixed to the small earpieces of polished metal – and so are the chin slider and the 3.5 mm connector – all of very high quality. Haptic is great, the earphone looks and feels luxurious and noble. While people have become picky with cables, frequently as jewelry-type accessory, this kevlar-shielded cable is relatively tangle free, very pliable and more than just fine for my idea of aesthetics and functionality. Included are also 3 pairs of silicone tips (S/M/L and one pair of foam tips. The largest included tips worked well for me. Fit and comfort are great owing to the approximate barrel shape and a reasonable lightweight. Isolation depends on insertion depth/tip size selected, but is good for me. The Hera 103C are rated at a standard 32 Ω with a sensitivity of above 100 dB, which means they can be driven well with any standard phone (but they need a bit of juice). I used my iPhone SE (2016) with the earphone jack, the Apple Audio Adapter, and the AudioQuest Dragonfly Black v.15.
TONALITY AND TECHNICALITIES
My tonal preference and testing practice
The sound of the Cozoy Hera C103 is characterized by a slight warmth from the bottom up, well sculptured, warm mids, and an organic timbre.
The low end fuels the image with cozoy temperature (forgive the pun). Bass is well extended into the sub-bass, attack and decay are not the hardest, fastest or tightest but they are very natural…there is no mid-bass hump that adds artificial punch and tortures the eardrums. The low-end is nevertheless definitely NOT wooly. A very pleasant, natural bottom end.
Midrange is warm and reasonably intimate. While a tad relaxed, male and female vocals are nicely sculptured and dense, which can occasionally result in minor congestions. There is basically no sharpness as the upper midrange is not peaky. Very enjoyable.
Treble is not the most extended as seen in many recent single DDs – which also means that there is no fake resolution and sparkle added. The lower-treble peak at 6 kHz adds a bit of energy to the midrange, particular to the voices in the lower midrange.
Soundstage is rather wide for a DD, and more wide than deep, with a good height. Spatial cues and three-dimensionally are good for a single DD imo. Resolution is particularly good at the low end and, as said, it can get a bit crowded in the mids. Like most other single DDs, the Hera C103 cannot compete with its technicalities with similarly priced multidrivers (which, on the other hand typically lack timbre).
Impact and attack/decay of the Cozoy Hera C103 are more on the soft side. Great for naturally generated sounds, but a bit polite for hard & heavy rock music. Here, a tad more kick would sometimes be desired. But since the Cozoy has very little harmonic distortion (much less than comparable multi drivers) you can crank the volume up without regret — which somewhat compensates for the rounded-off sonic edge.
WHY WOULD I WANT THE HERA C103 (AND WHY NOT)?
I could not think of anything much better for classical music than a polite single DD. Apart from the timbre, the interplay of low end and midrange yields a wonderful natural sensation of string instruments. Take J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites or Fritz Kreisler’s “Liebesleid”: absolutely marvellous. Vocals are also nicely crafted and realistic. That’s where the money is in the Cozoy Hera C103. Since single DDs compromise resolution for timbre and coherency, the Hera, like so many single DDs, is only better average for electronic music.
A word on the fixed cable: it is just fine. 3 years ago, nobody would have complained about the lack of connectors. Sennheiser, Focal, B&W, and other brands also still rely on fixed cables, even in higher price categories. Fixed cables have one advantage: one contact point less, which means one less sound bottleneck. We really don’t want an MMCX connector.
COZOY HERA C103 COMPARED
The $109 Moondrop Starfield [review] has a tighter bass and a more neutral and thinner midrange — and a narrower soundstage. The $79 KBEAR Diamond [review] has a stronger bass than the other two, and the midrange is more recessed than in the Cozoy Hera C103. All three share a modest treble extension. The Hera also has a wider soundstage and a better midrange resolution justifying its $160 price tag. The recently discontinued Cambridge Audio SE1 [review] has a similar timbre and imaging, but everything is a bit thinner and leaner. This accounts particularly for the midrange which is much pointier and leaner in the SE1. One of my recent favourites, the 4+1 Cozoy Form 1.4 cannot point in terms of timbre against the Hera C103, but has a better resolution, more punch, and a bigger “headroom”. It is a philosophical question what kind to prefer.
The $250 JVC HA-FDX1 single DD [review] are bulkier, heavier, but they have a detachable cable. The JVCs have more attack and bite from their tighter bottom end and sharper, pointier vocals because of their slightly boosted upper midrange, which makes voices less intimate and a bit more recessed. This also stretches the soundstage a bit in comparison. The JVCs also have a better midrange separation. The Cozoy Hera C103 play generally softer and warmer without being dark and they don’t run danger of becoming shouty, which the JVCs sometimes do.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The Cozoy Hera C103 is an undiscovered and therefore underrated single old-school DD marvel that will particularly appeal to lovers of naturally generated sounds. No hype required for this one – it is more like slow food for purists, for people who enjoy music rather than gear. The Hera C103 is one of these iems that is here to stay in one’s collection – and ears. It is timeless quality in terms of both, sound and build.
Until next time…keep on listening!
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DISCLAIMER
The Cozoy Hera C103 was provided by Cozoy upon my request and I thank them for that.
Get the Cozoy Hera C103 from Cozoy
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Just bought them for ninety bucks, very happy with them. Resolution is only tad above average though (strong c+ maybe on infamous crinacle scale) but they’re very pleasant. That lack of detachable cable is a shame though, once they’ll die they’ll most likely stay dead.