Pula Arc Review, on the fun sid eof things

IEMs / Other In-Ear Monitors (IEM)
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Pula Arc, on the fun side.

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Hello fellow Redditors an iem enthusiasts! Today I have the pleasure to share review of the latest iem from the folks over at Pula audio. By the courtesy of wonderful team at HiFiGO that sent me this little dance machine for a review, yet as always I’m free to say whatever I think, whether I end up liking it or not, hence something very important- honesty. Unfortunately the package was stuck in transit for far too long and I did not have the time to compare them to the iems I wanted to as work is piling up, sorry!

This is a 20$ ( discount price ) Single DD 10mm PET iem, and you can purchase it directly at HiFiGO. I’m their customer myself and had only pleasant experience so far.

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Design & Fit

Pula being Pula, we can expect a good looking iem. I always liked their designs which are either good looking or straight up beautiful ( like the Unicrom I reviewed in the past ). Arc comes in a simple yet elegant box.

Inside we are greeted with iems, they have a stylish cnc made faceplate with the Pula logo, a cable either 3.5 mm or a USBC version with an integrated dac/amp, depending on the version you choose.

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I must say upon seeing the cable first time, I was not impressed and thought it will be this KZ type of cable, but when I took it out it is actually way nicer, soft to the touch and folds well. A note here, I said I’m going to be honest and I intend to be. The first time I did try to insert the pins into the sockets of the iems I was greeted with quite a bit of resistance and had to use moderate force to insert them. After that and a cable swap I had no further issues.

There are also the tips, but I honestly think this iem deserves better ones and like always with ANY iem I highly advise some tip rolling to find the best fit and sound delivery match for your liking and HRTF.

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Arc iem themselves are very light, well made and extremely comfortable to me. During my first test I took them out for a long 3,5 hour walk and some grocery shopping. They behaved very well, just as expected. I felt no discomfort whatsoever. The isolation was pretty good too, although this is also very tip dependent. These are great out and about buddies not only due to comfort, they have a vent hole on the side facing the ear, so that the wind will not disturb you while you are enjoying your music, well thought. I always stress that this should be a standard.

All in all great design, great comfort well done Pula! ( just throw in better tips next time around :wink: )

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Sound Presentation.

Now, how does this iem actually sound? First of all those tips mentioned earlier, for me it was crucial to find a better balance so I settled either on Dunu Candy or standard Penon tip ( those grey with light green core ). Tested them with Pentaonn Coreir Aluminium or Divinus Velvet Wide bore as well but in all honesty most people buying this won’t pair them with tips as expensive ( or more ) as the iems themself. So I had to tame the „reviewer” side of things and used something more common. This comes down to sources as well, I wanted to give it their best shot and did my fair share of listing on my trusty 1200$ Shanling M7T and ONIX BETA XI2, but wen’t back down to earth and did majority of testing on cheap Fiio Tiny B dongle dac, as well as my MacBook and Mac mini jack, as some of you maye have them as your office computers as well.

Moving on, this is an iem that’s tuned to be FUN. It does not shy away from bass and has a glide from the bass region to the lower midsection of the frequency spectrum. It actually looks extremely similar to the higher priced Unicrom in this regard, however it has less upper mid in the 4KHz region all the way up to 7Khz.

This leads the presentation to sound very atmospheric, kind of unique in a way. As most iems priced under 70$ aim to sound similar in a way, more straightforward so to speak. Thanks to it’s tuning Arc sounds bassy and spacious, with a sparkle up top with peaks at 8 kHz ( though this is probably coupler resonance ) and the one I can Actually hear at around 12-12,5 kHz.

The vocals by nature are pushed further away, creating this spacious effect, however this may sound „weird” to those unfamiliar with such tuning philosophy. But you’ll most likely will quickly get used to it.

Marketing material states, that it is a versatile iem, which I will both agree and disagree with, let me explain.

If You’re the kind of person that like super clean sound signatures, with this ever so popular these days 200-250Hz Tuck, You may find Arc to be too warm and bassy for your liking as the glide to lower miss does impact the busier passages on some of the faster and messy tracks. It won’t do so well as a planar might with those hectic metal tracks.

Forward vocals lovers may also steer away from the Arc, as like I mentioned earlier on, they are pushed back in the mix.

With bass being the star of the show. It is done very well in my opinion. If you are familiar with ISN you will probably like Pula Arc as well. The bass here is powerful, impactful and full bodied, it’s not just sub bass like in many other iems. Arc can get physical.

I listen to a lot of music from the 70’s and 80’s that was mastered for the gear of that era and sounds a bit dry on modern equipment. So having a boosted mid bass and a glide into lowers miss helps to fix that dryness.

That being said the bass can be a bit overpowering at times on the already boosted tracks, unless you are into that, you may occasionally find it a bit too much.

Mids as mentioned are recessed in the mix and can sometimes feel uneven because of those mentioned treble spikes. The upper section can be emphasized thanks to that, with all the „sparkle” as we may call it.

Treble is fine, but has those spikes to still shine through the generous bass lift, it won’t blow you away with detail retrieval but it’s no slouch either.

Due to generous bass lift, the separation and layering takes a hit, but you can’t have it all folks, well certainly not for 20$ :wink:

This iem has one trick up it’s sleeve imho, the way it presents spatial ques and all those effects we can hear in the 80’s and 70’s recordings are kind of astonishing at this price point. I was seriously impressed. This shows me that it’s driver has huge potential, and I would not be surprised if they could squeeze even more out of it with a higher budget and a price tag to match it.

It sounds wonderful on the right type of music, but can be a touch grainy on older recordings with a lot of those „shimmery” sounds and effects.

Hence I have to stress it yet again, finding the right tips to balance the sound out to your liking will be highly beneficial.

The music I enjoyed the most on Arc is the one the makes you tap your feet or head bang, due to the bassy fun nature. Ot anything that already feels atmospheric, like movie soundtracks. It is a great work companion, as it sounds just right on lower volume levels and can help you focus or chillout when you don’t want to get loud. I loved it during my ( many ) walks and during long work days. Heck I’m listening to them right now as I’m typing this!

All in all this is a well done iem, that’s good looking, light, comfortable and very affordable at that. Sure it isn’t perfect, but then what is and „perfect” will be each person specific anyway.

To sum it up, this iem is NOT for someone who likes bass shy, lean, clean tunings. I’d recommend it to someone who enjoys bassier, more fun, colorful tunings that are intend to put a smile on your face instead of analyzing every micro detail there is. It is atmospheric its fun, good looking, comfortable and I enjoyed my time with it and intend to moving forward, despite daily driving 400-700$ iems. This little fella has it’s place in my collection, and if you will vibe with it’s tuning philosophy I bet you will like and enjoy it as well.

You can purchase it from the links down below ( I do not benefit from sales in any way, just for your convenience)

You can use this discount code if You wish to order from HiFiZoo over at aliexpress: PULAARC

3 Likes
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Nice review.

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Thank You! It certainly is a fun budget iem, no need to spend much these days to get a foot tapper type of an iem :smiley:

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You are welcome! The Arc really is a foot tapper type of IEM. When I initially listened to the Arc, it sounded a bit weak in the 4 kHz range. I decided to listen to the Arc for an entire evening. And then I didn’t listen to anything (as in no music at all with the Arc or any other IEM) for a solid week since I knew that my subconscious mind would replay my initial listening experience when I slept. So one weak later, I put the Arc in my ears. Surprise! The tuning was spot-on! Surprising amount of details! Even some hard-to-hear micro details! And to top it off, I did not encounter any sibilance issues even when listening at really loud volume levels. I do the really loud thing for less for a half hour.

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Exactly, these days I try to “detox” my ears and mind from our more expensive and “ conventionally” tuned iems and just give space and time to the thing I’m focusing at. I found that it is especially true for those “non typical” sets.

Like super laid back or quite the opposite very exciting. It’s easy for people like us who have few dozen sets to simply recall what other iems do differently and fall back to that. Given time and space, we then learn to appreciate it more for what they are, was the same with Penon Fan 3 for me.

TBH, this analogy would fir humans as well hah.

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