IKKO OH1s Gems

disclaimer: I was loaned the Ikko OH1s by Ngoshawk sounds and returned them to him after completion of this review.   Be sure to checkout his blog as well for expanded coverage and to purchase your own OH1s see HiFiGo.

 

Unboxing / Packaging:

Ikko has joined the brands using Anime characters on the front of their packaging but to their credit the character is much more realistically proportioned and clothed than most that seem to emphasize certain anatomical features and then adorn them in as little clothing as possible.  Overall, the cityscape behind the character is more eye-catching and I think the package would have looked equally good with just that on the slip-cover.      The rear has an exploded view of the ear-piece as does the tray the earpieces rest in.     The box is a top-fold design and lifting the cover reveals the earpieces in a paper-covered foam surround with all other elements hidden beneath.    The closure on the box has a magnetic latch which is a nice touch for those wishing to re-use the box for storage.   The remainder of the kit consists of a large selection of tips (18 in total), the cable, a lapel pin, and a leatherette case.

 

Build/Fit:

Shells on the Oh1s are a mix of aluminum and resin with an aluminum chamber for the driver housing wrapped in an outer resin shell.  This gives the best combination of rigidity and structure for the driver while providing an easy to shape material for comfort and fit.     The shell is made in 3 parts which is not at all uncommon, but the layout used here isn’t the typical one.  Here we see a large inner shell/nozzle assembly in black with a crinkle finish followed by a narrow mid-shell in acrylic resin and finally a face plate made from the same material as the inner shell.   The inner shell makes up roughly 3/4 of the earpiece with an angled oval shaped nozzle and a large vent at the center of the driver on the interior surface.   The screens in the nozzles are replaceable and the kit comes with several spares but be cautious when changing tips as they are easy to dislodge by accident if not seated fully.   While the nozzle is an odd shape, normal tips can be used if the limpet shaped provided tips don’t form a good seal.    The mid shell is resin and is the smallest of the 3 parts while the outer shell houses the mmcx connector and a vent for the rear face of the dynamic driver along the leading edge of the housing.     The shells are best described as small/medium and fit is almost entirely in the ear.   Comfort was good once tip size issues were sorted out and I had no issues with fatigue during extended listening sessions.    I did end up looking for tips that fit better as isolation was not as good as I would have liked with the silicone tips and the small foam was too small while the medium was slightly uncomfortable for me.   Know that some tip rolling may be required to find the best option for you.

 

Internals:

The OH1s is a hybrid with a 1omm dynamic driver handling the lows and a Knowles 33518 handling the upper-mids and highs.  The dynamic driver uses a carbon nanotube coated diaphragm for added strength and rigidity.   The thing that separates the OH1s from a lot of its competitors is a cross-over that sports more than a simple capacitor or resistor to tune the interface between the two drivers.   The 33518 driver is sonically a duplicate of the 30095 with a lower price point so we are seeing a lot of budget models adopt the 33518 instead of the 30095.   The shell is also designed specifically for the dynamic driver to minimize resonance and lower noise.  Ikko refers to the shell design as Separating Vector Acoustics System or SVAS and likens the cavity design in the iem as similar to a listening room design for loudspeakers.    This seems to be a common trend among manufacturers of dynamic driver and hybrid in-ears with lots of names floating around that define very similar tuning efforts.    Nominal impedance is 32Ω with a sensitivity of 109 dB/mW putting it firmly in the class that can be driven easily by a phone, tablet, or dongle.  I used a number of dongles and daps during my testing and found the OH1s had plenty of headroom even on low gain and that offered the lowest noise floor while still getting louder than anyone should ever listen for any length of time when dialed up.

 

Cable:

The cable lies over the ear, with a stiffness I am not used to of late, but it does not bother me like older Unique Melody cables used to. With really long ear guide sleeves, and a permanent soft bend you get good fit, even with glasses. The shape can be tailored a bit. The four-wire-in-two-strands is also amongst the stiffer cables I have used of late. Above the Y-splitter, the OCC silver plated wire looks to be of two strands, but three colors. A blue tint fades to copper along with the silver strand. The blue reminds me of heated copper, so I do believe it is for the visual aspect. Some microphonics is promoted due to the stiffness, but not much. Quality metal cinch strap, Y-splitter and jack in a dark copper color makes for a good-looking cable, by not drawing attention to itself. A reinforced sheath surrounds the MMCX connection, making for a solid fit.

 

Tips:

There are 18 tips (9 sets) provided with the OH1s with six sets being keyhole limpet shaped silicones and the remaining 3 being various sizes of foams.   Ngoshawk had warned me that tips were a bit tricky to get fully seated on the nozzle and to take time to make certain they were properly affixed before inserting them as he had a situation where a tip had to be rescued from his ear with a pair of tweezers.     I found the mid sized tip (3rd from largest) to be a good fit for me and stuck with silicones for my testing as I wasn’t thrilled with the changes foams brought to the signature although they did dramatically increase isolation.

Sound:

Bass:

The sub-bass extension is less than I had expected in Ikko products as previously the OH1 and OH10 had both sported very solid lows.  Here we have a sub-bass emphasis that centers around 110Hz and drops fairly slowly through the mid-bass and mids on the north side but fairly quickly on the south side of that mark with marked roll-off becoming evident as high up as 50Hz.  This is not a basshead’s Ikko for sure.   What the OH1s lacks in extension and impact, it makes up for in control with good speed and a natural decay giving a very clean low end with good textures and no discernible bleed.    The mid-bass is defined by the same fast attack and natural decay with good textures and above average detail, but again lacks a little of that visceral impact of earlier Ikko models.

 

Mids:

Lower mids have the same energy as mid-bass giving the OH1s a very linear signature (up to a point) and preventing the mids from sounding recessed.   Mids have good details and with no big lift at the point the armature takes over the duties, both lower and upper vocals stand on the same plane.   Guitar growl was good and piano was also quite well rendered and string being nearly as good.   The one caveat here is while it would be easy to call the OH1s mid-centric, there is not a lot of note weight and voices can sound thinner than usual.  I found this somewhat dependent on track selection, but some of that is inherent to the tuning of the OH1s.  Mids are on full display here, but could use a bit more richness.

 

Treble:

Lower treble stays in-line with the lower signature and doesn’t jump above the mids as is so common on these 2-driver hybrids.  If anything one could argue it slightly tapers off as you move up through the mids and into the lower and mid-treble.   Then it comes raging back at roughly 7kHz with a burst of energy to match the sub-bass push.   Most of the time this upper push gives the OH1s the energy it needs to sound natural and gives the top end some air and space to work with.  Snare rattle is good and cymbals are for the most part quite good as they are more forward than typical but can be a bit splashy at times.   Unfortunately at other times, that same energy can be heard as sibilant.   Its an odd tuning as the OH1s manages to be sibilant at times without being particularly fatiguing in the process.

 

Soundstage / Imaging:

If treble was perhaps the weakest point in the OH1s, stage may be its strongest. It has good depth and width with near equal proportion and a good sense of height in the mix as well.  I have come to expect little from iems below about the $500 mark in terms of stage and particularly in terms of uniformly dimension-ed stage and the OH1s certainly overshoots the mark here.    Instrument separation is good making seating the orchestra straight forward and layering is good if not as exceptional in that regard.   Imaging is good although positions are not as tightly defined as some others but movement and directionality are still easy to pick out while listening.   There is some compression to the lows as tracks get increasingly busy but it isnt enough to be muddy or to interfere substantially with the overall signature.

 

Comparisons:

Ikko OH1S vs OH10.   It makes sense to start off with the OH1s older sibling the OH10.  The OH10 is slightly larger and heavier than the OH1S but to my eye is also a bit prettier with its polished finish vs the black crinkle finish of the OH1s.   The OH10 is also tuned considerably differently with bigger bass presence and more bass depth when compared to the OH1s closer to neutral tuning.  The OH1S shares a similar tuning in the sense that both have good detail but an ease of delivery that makes it sound a touch smoothed over in comparison to some other brands.   I like the Ikko house tuning but some others prefer a more detail oriented and edgier tuning so really the choice between these comes down to the OH1s is a bit more comfortable while the OH10 delivers a bit more rumble and slam with less top end.

Ikko OH1S vs Moondrop KXXs.    Let the battle of the Waifu begin.  Both makers use similar packaging and branding to sell their products and with both at the same price we have to consider these as targeting exactly the same audience.  This price bracket is crowded for sure with even Moondrop arguably making models that cost less and offer similar performance to the KXXs in an attempt to gain more market share.    Both have a natural, organic tonality so it is tough to separate the two on that.  Both are similar in size and shape with comfort running roughly equal as well.  Detail favors the OH1s with its more open top end.    Comparing the two exposes the limits of the dynamic at the top end of the signature and why we see a lot of companies adding an armature to augment that region.  When done well it can help give a larger stage and better top end.   At other times it can be harsh and strident.  Here we get a little of both so while the OH1s has more top end than the KXXs, at times that’s not a plus.

Ikko OH1S vs BQEYZ Autumn.    This is another direct price comparison with both models coming within five dollars of each other.  Both have similar sized shells but while the OH1s is a hybrid of metal and resin the Autumn is an all aluminum design.   I was wary of the filter system of the Autumn early on fearing the filters would be easily lost but it has proven better than initially thought.  Tuning of the Autumn is a bit more bass forward but both have similar laid-back presentations.  The Autumn packs in more detail at the top end but also has some tendency to fatigue so here neither is going to make the treble shy any happier.  It doesn’t hurt the Autumn that the tuning is more flexible as well.

Ikko OH1S vs Dunu Falcon Pro.     The original Falcon-C had a lot of people gushing over it when it first came out.  Likewise the Falcon Pro has received a lot of positive press and remains one of my favorites in this price class.   The modular cable on the Falcon Pro outclasses the offering on the OH1s but otherwise the two kits are similar.  Construction on both is also not going to help separate the two as both offer very solid builds out of high grade materials.   Sound wise again the two are similar but we do start to see some distance between them.   The OH1s hybrid has a touch more top end detail but the Falcon Pro is a bit more coherent and organic in its delivery.    I have said before I prefer the Falcon Pro to the Moondrop KXXs and while the OH1s struggles in its battle with the KXXs , it loses outright to the Falcon Pro in my scoring.   There is a little more top end to be had on the OH1s, but the Falcon Pro is just so well tuned it is hard to argue that the addition is either needed or an improvement.  On these two it will come down to taste.

 

Thoughts / Conclusion:

The Ikko products have so far differed by degrees in that the OH1 was a nice tuning, a little bass light, with a few rough edges, but overall a very agreeable, listenable signature.  The OH10 pushed the lows much further forward while retaining similar tonality above that point and explored redesigning the shell to better suit the driver.   Some loved it, others not so much complaining both that the bass had gone too far in the other direction and that the weight and size of the earpieces caused physical fatigue to the listener even if the signature was fairly polite.   Now we have the OH1S which is more a new model than a re-tuning of the original as to my knowledge it shares none of the same parts with the 1st generation OH1 but it does have a similar sound signature.   I really like the laid back approach and the tonality up to the 8kHz mark and then I have to say I think it needed to be backed off slightly to have nailed the tuning.   Sure, some of the time it does really well and that extra energy at the top helps with stage and air but at other times it gets sibilant and a bit shouty.  This might be more forgivable if were a case of poorly mastered tracks sounding poor, but it seems to be more a matter of tracks with good upper energy to begin with are pushed over the line while those slightly less well done are pushed into a better sounding place.    Again its a matter of degrees.  For me the best of the Ikko brand is the OH10, Lynn on the other-hand found it over-done and preferred the original and now prefers the OH1S even more strongly.   We all hear a little differently and this is likely to be a polarizing in-ear because of that.