Kiwi Ears Cadenza Review – Lost In The Mail

INTRO

Kiwi Ears Cadenza comes from a newcomer to the playing field of IEMs originating from China for the low price of $34. Opting for a single 10mm Beryllium dynamic driver wrapped in a swirly painted 3D printed medical grade resin plastic shell, it produces a mostly balanced palate restricted bass profile with sweet midrange with a somewhat pumped but clean treble.

DESIGN COMPONENTS

Kiwi Ears opted to use a 10mm Beryllium dynamic driver which being lightweight yet rigid should improve treble response. There are lots of materials used to promote “the best” sound, Graphene, Beryllium, Diamon like Coating (DLC), Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP), Carbon-nanotubes, but the truth is no one material is the best despite what Kool-aid flavor they are selling this week or the next. It’s all about tradeoffs, pushing resonances higher in frequency in attempts to squeeze out extra details, or just absorbing it as best as possible while losing some detail. Maybe the goal is extreme bass, or light and airy treble. Compromises and tradeoffs.

The Kiwi Ears Cadenza cable irritated me as a phone user with a case. The plug does not have a big enough spacing to bump it out past a case. Thankfully we can change the cable or use a DAC dongle, maybe they assume everyone has an Iphone and use a dongle? Works fine with the Hidizs AP80 Pro-X.

The mostly black 3D printed shell is beautifully available in swirly Red, Purple, Green or Blue, however its loosey goosey in my right ear – must be a combo of a weird angle shorter nozzle and the small shell. I sometimes have fitment issues on the right ear with some of the universals. The large nozzle, small stem is like trying to put on a pair of skinny jeans after gorging on food over the holidays.

Eartip choices appear the same, just 3 different colors white, black with a red stem, and gray. Something about the smaller shell size, nozzle length or angle had me using their large sized eartip in one ear and the medium in the other.

SOUND

Kiwi Ears Cadenza had the best treble out of the recent single dynamics I have tested recently. The Tinhifi C3 had an overly zealous peak that created a ring, while the Truthears Hola had the harmonic flavor removed that left it tasting only full of salt and no other spices.

Sounds effortless through the midrange and a little volume pumping it keeps everything separate with minor congestion. Bass thins out sounding a little hollow due to missing some fatness, but this helps highlight the midrange. Similar to acoustic suspension speaker designs, the bass hits tight but the lower end tails off, sounds like the suspension parts of the driver are limited in travel. It has a high efficiency driver snap reminiscent of large PA drivers. Weirdly, the frequency response measurements indicate a sub-bass centered bass boost, and while I can hear it it does not translate to a sub-bass tuned earphone for me.

The Kiwi Ears Cadenza staging is more wide than deep, timbre is great. It handles extra power from the SMSL HO100 with ease but is not required to listen on a daily basis. I do not normally read other reviews but given that my review set was forgotten it was hard not to come across a general positive attitude. I would say these are great balanced set competing up until about the $80 range where there is stiffer competition.

COMPARISONS

Going up against the BLON BL-03 (~$29), the Kiwi Ears Cadenza bass thins out and the fuller thicker BL-03 doesn’t sound as nimble. The Kiwi Ears Cadenza do not color the upper midrange as a result of less midbass thickness. Upper mid and lower treble have a loftiness that just sounds effortless on the Kiwi Ears Cadenza. The BLON BL-03 sounds like it has to work harder to deliver the same feeling.

Putting the Kiwi Ears Cadenza up against the Tinhifi C3 ($49) is another common request as they are near price competitors and single dynamics. The C3 cable is thicker and better accommodates cases and also fits in my ear better due to the larger size. The bass is more of a throbbing sub-bass jumping into the street without a care in the world whereas the Kiwi Ears Cadenza stops at the corner waiting for the all clear signal with its snappier PA bass presentation.

The Kiwi Ears Cadenza has a minor cleaner more defined upper midrange and treble whereas the Tinhifi C3 I feel like what you hear is the driver break-up through the treble vs actually cleanly trying to produce the music. It is going to come down to focusing more on sub-bass or want a cleaner top end between these two. They measure very similarly generally, but there are sonic differences.

FINAL REMARKS

The Kiwi Ears Cadenza deserves the praise in the under $50 category albeit with the physical drawbacks mentioned previously. Its bass-lite balanced tendencies might turn off some folks, but the cleaner treble is the draw here. The Kiwi Ears Cadenza gets a passing grade from me especially at $34, you may or may not need to source an extra cable for an additional cost.

Disclaimer: I am grateful for Linsoul providing these at no cost allowing Audioreviews to share our opinion, they were quick to rectify a lost order.

SPECIFICATIONS

GRAPHS

• Left vs Right
• Kiwi Ears Cadenza vs Tinhifi C3

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Our generic standard disclaimer.

About my measurements.