Ikko OH10 in-Ear Monitor, Detachable Design in-Ear Headphone/Earphone,10mm Dynamic Drive + Knowles 33518 Balanced Drive Dual Hybrid

Product Information

There is no point in giving some music examples, as I will be arriving at the same conclusion that OH10 is clean, detailed and undistorted if you don’t go overboard with the volume. The IKKO OH10 bring the rumble down under! Do the OH10 bring the rumble down under? Yes, yes they do. Thank you for asking. Midrange

I would like to thanks Watson from IKKO audio for given this opportunity, and the review will be based on my honest opinion through the music I listen to. As usual with high-performance IEMs, you can spot two very small holes in their bodies, one will move excessive air pressure behind its dynamic driver to the outside world, while the other will normalize the air pressure between your ear-canal and the IEMs themselves, for a more comfortable fit long term. While, they indeed are slightly heavier to usual IEMs, their perfect size and shape seriously improved comfort, I’m using them for several hours now and they still don’t bother me at all. Their body is smaller to usual multi-driver IEMs and their body is not pressing against my concha, again improving comfort in long listening sessions. I found them to pair well with copper cable,it will kinda tame down the upper mids a little for those who find them to be too glaring Headphone Amps: Benchmark HPA4, SparkoS Labs Aries, Flux Lab Acoustics FCN-10, Musician Andromeda, Burson Soloist 3X, Gustard H16, SMSL SP400Apart from that, OH10 appeared clearer and more detailed to the Meze RAI Solo, to the Moondrop Starfield and I really don’t have much to complain about them in here. If you keep your volume lower or equal to 90 dB, you’ll be controlling the whole bass region a lot better, resulting a clearer and less distorted output from the OH10. Yes, I’ve heard subtleties and a lot of nuances in my tunes, those were well preserved, with clean leading edges and contours, I’ve spotted mastering errors and others sounds that shouldn’t be there. OH10 scaled better with a higher quality source, the higher I went, a higher number of details started appearing on my radar. OH10 appeared even clearer to all wireless earbuds and IEMs that I’ve tested so far, including expensive Sennheiser, Apple and Sony units by a long shot. The W40 are U shape sounding IEM with fairly neutral timbre, it has tight and well controlled bass, with well balanced and slightly warm midrange, and fatiguing free treble. On soundstage and imaging there’s no game: A3000 is holographic and extremely precise. Layering and separation are I would say on par though. A big thanks to Ikko for sending over this unit for me to review. I receive no compensation that will affect my evaluation towards this IEM. They are medium to drive, any high quality DAP will do just fine, like the Shanling M3X, FiiO M11, or iBasso DX150. The comfort is not exactly perfect because they are a bit heavy, but the silicone ear guides do an excellent job at supporting that weight in such a way that you don’t really feel it.

Overall, the frequency response of OH10 resembles quite a lot the Harman target curve that works phenomenal with fast and punchy music. These are not a bass-boosted pair of IEMs, and they impart an impressive level of clarity and coherence. Thankfully, the Gems do this without all-too-common unpleasantly harsh-sounding peakiness and remain natural and fairly smooth throughout the audible frequency range. I don’t consider them recessed, nor bass-light, rather I hear their tuning as more neutral and flat, without being too sterile for enjoyment. IKKO Gems frequency response graph as measured on a IEC 603118-4 compliant occluded ear simulator (OES). Bass Within the unusual chambers of the OH10 are a fairly standard (that is to say, proven and tried-and-true) hybrid combination of a 10mm dynamic driver and a Knowles 33518 balanced armature driver. The dynamic driver is a titanium-coated polymer design. I’ve never run into IEM shells constructed like these ones. You can use basically anything to drive OH10 as it is not sensitive to hiss, and not overly power hungry either. The overall presentation of the IEM is balanced-neutral, so any source works well with it. I used Lotoo Paw 6000, Astell Kern SE180, and iBasso DX300 the most while writing this full written review. As mentioned, I had fit difficulties with the included silicone tips, but all was resolved when I moved over to the medium-sized foam tips. The usually shallow shape of the foam tips may actually be more comfortable than normal for those who tend to prefer silicone. The small size, combined with the lightweight cable make these some of the most comfortable IEMs I’ve tried, and remind me of my ancient tiny Shure IEMs. InternalsTwo much more reasonably priced IEMs are OH1 and OH10; OH1 was IKKO’s first IEM, and it was followed by OH10 in an attempt to further improve OH1. I therefore think that it is quite appropriate to review both of them at the same time and see the similarities and differences between them.