My only real issue with these is how short the nozzle is. I keep swapping tips trying to find what feels right. Overall they’re a fun interesting IEM though. Well worth owning for the price.

I’ve also ordered a pair of MKiii’s and I’m glad to hear they play nicely with the Tri Clarions. I’m a huge fan of those tips these days.

I think I nabbed mine off Amazon with same day shipping haha

That dude is a fucking joke and it’s baffling he’s gotten any traction at all. The idea that people are trusting “reviews” from someone who’s never heard the headphone is a profound bummer.

His Monarch MK3 “review” is hysterical. Like dude, you’re literally missing 5 drivers and you think this is useful information?

Then I’m not sure what exactly you’re looking for here.

Exactly. Just because a frequency sweep “looks” the same on a graph, does not mean those frequencies are delivered in a good or bad way to your ear.

Here’s my new set of Kiwi Ears Melodies.

I picked them up as a bit of an impulse purchase because I don’t have a planar IEM and I already own the Kiwi Ears Quintet and I like what that company is doing. The idea of a bass focused planar from them(a very different sound from the Quintet) for only 90$ was something I wanted to check out.

The included cable is fine, a little stiffer than the one that comes with the quintet, but perfectly usable and a nice feeling cable. The cable in the photo here is the Tripowin cable that everyone buys, and it turns out that’s for a good reason. They look and feel great for 15$. The IEM itself is solid feeling, not much to report about a pretty low-key shell. I like it, but I like boring looking IEMs.

Onto the sound, this thing really is bass focused, but not to the exclusion of everything else. The bass goes deep and has a really fun thump to it, but it has a really warm if slightly stepped back vocal presentation.

The mids a little dropped as you might expect for this much of a v-shape but that’s kind’ve the idea, but as mentioned above, I don’t feel like I’m missing much.

As far as treble goes, it has fun zing, and it’s on maybe 1 in 20 songs where I can hear a little planar sizzle, but mostly it’s crisp, clear, and fast, and overall really enjoyable.

The soundstage is odd. It’s pretty narrow, but everything feels like it’s pleasantly like 10 feet in a relatively wide angle front of you. I’d describe it as being in the front row of a show rather than on stage with the band. Imaging is actually pretty good, but this odd soundstage plus the lack of upper mid/lower treble makes it pretty bad for games(something the Quintet does exceptionally well).

Overall this is a really fun IEM, and I find myself reaching for it a lot because a lot of the music I listen to is fairly low-fi but pleasant sounding EDM and Synthwave, which just plays really nicely with this flavor of IEM tuning, and it’s a blissful reprieve from the “Harman with a bass bump” standard these days. For 90$ it’s a super easy recommendation as a first IEM or something to have in the collection.

What does the Z1R do well?

Man same. The Mk3 backorder is killer right now.

Just grabbed a pair to try myself. Very curious.

Uhh…is this a copypasta from another sub or something? I need a shower after reading that.

I’ll measure my Quintets later, but honestly they’ve fit most tips fine, and my ears fine. They look big but they’re not especially large.

The Hexa rips. Not mindblowing, but super solid across the board.

And this right here is why I don’t want to touch EQ lol I’d rather find headphones that naturally produce the sound I like and then leave it alone.

I’m more inclined to trust a reviewer who’s borrowing a product than one who needs to justify the fact that they spent over 3000$ of their own money on a pair of headphones and would understandably want to make that feel worth it.

Yup. I’m very happy with my Elex purchase because it sounds great, but also, that thing is black as hell.

With kindess, are you not aware of what embargos are? Sorry if I missed the /s lol

I feel like if I spent as much time as I wanted to making people listen to that album I’ll be labeled a shill, but goddamnit it’s so rad. Ascension and Temple of Fervor have been on repeat for weeks.