Goober's Journey Into the IEM Game or "Why Are You Not As Good As....?"

IEMs / Other In-Ear Monitors (IEM)
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My Impressions of the Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite or Wait a Second, Who Let You Into This Party?

So it is my turn to go through the tour box that you’ve heard @MMag05, @VIVIDICI_111, and @cal_lando talk about in the last month or so. For those that may not have followed, we all shared some of our best and favorites, and what made it back to me (because I had already heard @Sonofholhorse’s MEST Mk II and U6T and sent it ahead at the beginning of the tour) are as follows:

  • Symphonium Meteor
  • TinHifi P1 Max (Giant Panda :panda_face:)
  • Yanyin x HBB Mahina
  • Xenns Up
  • Sennheiser IE600
  • Softears RSV
  • Thieaudio Monarch (the OG)
  • Tangzu x HBB Wu Zeitan Heyday

My intention with these impressions is to go in reverse order of my preferences of these sets, from the bottom of the pile to the cream of the crop.

Which brings us to the subject of these impressions: What is the Orchestra Lite here? Well, while I was waiting for my turn with the tour sets, I went ahead and grabbed a couple of sets (these and the Juzear 41T) to try out and put up against the competition.

So how does the Orchestra Lite fare?

THE GOOD

  • Tuning is clean, a bit of a bass-boosted neutral, in the vein of the Aful Performer 5
  • This had decent midbass slam, not the most impactful but tasteful with the tuning
  • The upper midrange and treble are smooth and well handled

THE BAD

  • This has lacking BA sub-bass. If you need that good quantity of sub-bass, dream on
  • Not as engaging as P5 and I didn’t find that to be a standout in that department
  • Calling this set “safe” isn’t fair, but it’s favorite tv show was old Dragnet cause it wants “Just the facts, ma’am”
  • Technicalities don’t really do anything special for the configuration (8BA) or price ($250)

What Does It All Mean?

This is the definition of a “fine, but” set for me. It doesn’t do anything very wrong but it doesn’t do anything to inspire more either. If you wanted a set to dip your toes into how an all-BA configuration competes this is fine enough, but this is not the best representation of what all-BA IEMs can do.

We’ll get to that soon enough. But with that I’m done here for now, see you next time!

Rank For Orchestra Lite: B
Rank With Personal Bias: B
Rank As a Food: Unseasoned Grits

(no butter though…)

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