A natural Beauty
I’ll be perfectly honest, even though I’ve been in this audio hobby for almost 20 years It is the first time I was able to lay my hands ( or ears ? ) on a Pula product. I’m aware of the brand yet somehow never got to try any of their offerings for no particular reason. Im glad this changes with these beauties.
Yes ,Pula Unicrom looks stunning, the unique stabilized wood faceplates with wonderful high gloss finish are a piece of art- and being a professional artist I can appreciate when a product looks this good.
Being wood no two iems will ever look the same, which gives You an effect of surprise when opening your box for the first time. Somehow reminded me of the feeling I got when opening Christmas gifts as a child, was genuinely curious and excited.
There are a few colors to choose from:
Yellow, Green, Blue
I’ve got the green variant which suits me very well, but honestly all of them look wonderful.
Pula Unicrom Comes in a fairly minimalistic yet elegant box and despite being a sub 100$ product screams quality at every step. If someone told me this is a 500$ product judging by looks and accessories alone, I would have believed it without a second of doubt. Pula Knocked it out of the park in tis department. I think this set is a wonderful candidate for a birthday gift, which will most likely even please many ladies out there due to them looking like a piece of jewelry in your ear, subtle, elegant yet luxurious looking at the same time.
Acessories:
Alongside the iems come a beautiful green pleather case and a very nice soft to the touch dark brown modular cable with both 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm connectors, and a few sets of ear tips. The case is not really meant to be used in Your pocket, but will do just fine in a backpack or a purse.
Comfort:
I’ve made Unicrom my main day to day iem for over a week before writing this review to have a good feeling for what it is and have clear thoughts about it. I’ve worked with them, ate with them, walked with then, ran with them, slept with them.
I’ll state it right away this is a very comfortable iem to wear, both the weight or the nozzle size will not be an issues to most people. I’ve worked a many 12 hour days with them without issue, only doing small breaks when I got to stand up and get away from the computer screen to let my eyes rest. Comfort test passed with flying colors- this is an all day wear companion for You.
Unicrom is vented well, having two vent holes which prevents ANY pressure buildup, your ears will thank You for it!
They fit me very well, the cable is soft, light weight has minimal microphonics and a very functional chin slider that, surprise surprise! ALWAYS stays in place. -The only nit pick here and one of very few overall is that I wish it would be the same color as the rest of the cable instead of being transparent, which stands out on a dark cable, yet like I said earlier- a minor nitpick.
For people that like to sleep with their iems this is a good choice as well, never felt any discomfort whatsoever.
The Sound:
I was curious what direction Pula will choose for this one before first inserting them into my ears. After a few seconds the answer was clear, it is a V-shaped iem.
Now if You got turned off by this statement then wait and hear my out.
V- shape is by any means not my preferred sound signature, as my library is 90% vocals oriented and most of these songs are usually oldies ranging from 1960’s to early 1990’s.Be it classic rock ,ballads, hard rock, metal or You name it, I wen’t through it all. So I usually prefer a vocal focused warmer sets with a nice glide into the lower mids to give male vocals power and authority.
I do remember my first impressions very well, to me it sounded like a hybrid iem at first, with everything below top end being done by a DD and a BA to support the treble.
Yet this is a single dynamic driver coated with beryllium, and I must say a very capable and fast one. They way they tuned it, It sounds very spacious, is quite resolving and technical, with a good dose of proper fun Bass.
Yet unlike many, many V shaped iems Pula did inject the Unicrom with more mid bass presence, which I like a lot and this is my preferred way of delivering bass.
This gives power and physicality to the low end not just an ear rattle or a low subwoofer humm.
The vocals are a tiny bit further away in the mix as is the nature of the V shape signature, but it is done well enough that I never felt it was a true Issue to me- a vocal enthusiast.
Female vocalists will be the star here, rendered with agility and good dose of sweetness and character. Due to the more prominent 3,5-4 khz region and that 14 khz peak the male vocals sound a bit more thin or „dry” than I’m used to yet some people may not even prefer a warm and soft tuning and glide from the bass to lower mids like I do.If You are familiar with EQ this can be fixed easily with a small boost and a dip when it counts, when doing so it really needed just a slight touch to fit my ideal preference.Boosting the vocals and lowering the top end a bit.
A bit is a word that comes a lot, because it did not really needed much work at all to sway it to what I’m used to/
Despite a fun and boosted low end everything here sounds spacious, crisp and clear which brings us to the top end. The Treble. This is an area that requires some attention on it’s own.
As Unicrom has a that peak in the frequency response around 14 kHZ, this can lead to some instruments like hi-hat splashes sounding a bit too forward and metallic. Pulling away slightly from the natural character of those instruments.
Thanks to this tuning choice the detail retrieval and texture rendition is very good, but this can be a double edged sword and those sensitive to treble might feel it be a bitt too much for them.
BUT! This can always be a case for any individual as we all hear different, thanks to our individual anatomy and hearing capabilities. What I suggest is to simply tip roll and rely on a deeper insertion, which will push that peaks even further and you may not notice it at all or too much. Testing different tips should almost always be a thing with iems before landing on final conclusions, It made me change my mind about an iem more than a few times.
I landed on stock Penon or Ziigaat tips also liking the Divinus Velvet Wide bore. I suspect Final E would be good choice who wish to tame the treble.
As an ultimate solution turning this into a musical beast with smoothed top end would be to choose foam tips. I understand why Pula did Tune the Unicrom the way they did and choosing a tip can shift it to your liking while the iem will retain it’s technical capabilities and character.
The choice to slightly spice up the treble makes sure that details and clarity is not lost in the mix and all of the frequency range is rendered well without blending into a „wall of sound”. I think that majority of people should be very happy with this iem after finding tips that work for You.
I liked the Unicrom a lot for instrumental music or movie soundtracks with epic themes, but It made the likes of „The Writing on the Wall” by Iron Maiden equally as enjoyable thanks to that boosted low end which gave this song power!
I’ve listened to my beloved Random Access Memories by Daft Punk multiple times and it was super enjoyable on this set as well.
To sum it all up, this is well done V shape with a bass done better than your typical V. Spacious, clear, crisp, detailed, punchy, exciting.
Now a bonus that I see no-one mentioning:
this iem could be worn outside no problem.
The venting type is my favorite one with one vent hole being located on the inner side facing the ear itself which prevents from those nasty wind noise on windy days! I own several iems that suffer to this issue and despite them sounding great inside I barely take them outside. Pula Unicrom on the other hand passed with flying colors.
Some competition:
Now this price bracket has a lot of offerings yet I’ve chosen both Sivga Que iems to be the main competition here, thanks to offering the same characteristics. Premium Package, accessories, looks and build and sound that does not disappoint or falls behind the appearance and similar pricing.
Frequency graph credit to ATechReviews.
QUE OG:
This is an overall warmer a bit more vocal forward iem with a top end that is rolled off way more, which in turn offers an more easygoing listen. It was my preferred single DD iem for work and chill for well over a year now. But after listening to the Unicrom I do find it somehow a bit…boring now.. I still like it a lot but the Unicrom is simply more resolving and exciting and with the right tips it can be almost equally as musical, yet more technical.
The only thing that QUE clearly wins in to me are the male vocals that are more rich and earthy sounding with more authority. Unicrom is better for female vocals.
QUE UTG:
This is an interesting iem, which uses a ultra thin glass diaphragm. This is straight up bright and very technical iem, polar opposite to the Original QUE. It is even smore technical, and clear presentation, but this strikes a big hit to the musicality factor. UTG can be tiring after some time due to how much energy in the upper mids and treble is there.
Overall I’d say that Unicrom sits perfectly between the more „blunt” but musical Que OG and the Bright and technical QUE UTG.
Im not using any scale to rank an iem as this is a very subjective hobby and putting a number to anything makes little to sense to me. Instead I acknowledge to what type of audience this is catered and will they or me like it or not.
What I can say though is that Pula Unicrom did positively surprised me, and It’s a V- shaped Iem I’ve grown to like and enjoy a lot. I take it with me on the go all the time, due how light, comfortable and good looking it is, and the sound quality that follows.
I listen to a lot of instrumental and chill music the likes of Karunesh while working and I find it perfect for that role as well. With right tips this can be a good allrounder even handling vocal focused music, female vocals especially. Thanks to the venting done properly as described earlier, this is a perfect outdoor companion.
All my listening was done on Shanling UA3 dongle dac/amp, iBasso DX180 DAP and ONIX WALTZ XM10 dap.
iBasso DX180 NOS filter 2x Fir and Pula Unicrom is a magical, super spacious sounding, fun combo!
Disclaimer:
This iem was provided for review by HiFiGo, but I’m allowed to speak freely and share my honest opinion about this device, whether I’d end ups liking it or not.
HiFiGo has an early bird promotion available both on their Online store and the Aliexpress one, use the code 818UNICROM for a 10$ discount, knocking the price down to 69.99$
Regular price being 79.99$
