Hello, I’m Alexander, and today we are checking Kiwi Ears Melody planar magnetic IEM. I would like to thank Linsoul for providing the sample for this review. I’m not paid to make this review. I don’t offer any specific opinion and all thoughts expressed in this review are my own.
Kiwi Ears Melody is the first planar magnetic IEM from Kiwi Ears. Of course if e don’t take into account Quintet IEM that has a micro planar driver in its configuration. It features 12 mm planar magnetic driver that is turned to have an emphasis on bass, lightweight shells & de-attachable cable.
The IEM comes in a small box. On the front of the box, there is an illustration of IEMs. On the side of the box, there is a list of technical specifications. By the way, in the illustration of IEMs on the box only one face plate carries the Kiwi Ears logo.
Inside the box:
- Kiwi Ears Melody In-Ear Monitors
- De-attachable cable
- 6 pairs of silicone ear tips
- and a warranty card.
The impedance of Melody is 18 Ohms, and the sensitivity is 102db.
Design & build
The shells of Melody have two parts that are glued together – the shell itself, which is made from a rubberized resin, and the faceplate, which is made from a lightweight alloy. Both face plates also carry the Kiwi Ears logo. The shells are medium in size with a slightly shorter nozzle. There is also one vent hole located on the top of the IEM near the connector and an additional one close to the nozzle. The build is okay, there is nothing fancy to see here, and it corresponds to the price tag as well.
The cable is pretty basic too. It’s 1.2 meters long, there is a 3.5mm connector on one end and 0.78mm 2-Pin connectors on the other end. The connectors are gold-plated. The cable itself is average in thickness and has a metal splitter, chin slider, and pre-molded ear guides. In general the cable is okay, It’s low in microphonics and has a tidy braid.
Talking about comfort, the Kiwi Ears Melody is lightweight, but it has a short nozzle and it required some tips rolling in my case as I was unable to find a good seal and fit with the provided stock ear tips. The reason is the nozzle length and angle. In addition, it’s quite hard to put on the stock ear tips, due to their inner diameter, which is rather surprising. At the same time, the IEM is lightweight, which is good as it won’t be tiring if you plan to use it during long listening sessions, still, the generic fit might not suit everyone’s ears.
Kiwi Ears Melody sound impressions
Now let’s talk about the sound. As always, all sound impressions on my channel are completely subjective so they should be taken with a grain of salt. Melody does require some power to open up and shine, and my Samsung Galaxy S10 was struggling in this regard. I highly recommend pairing Melody even with a basic dongle that can provide 50 or more milliwatts of power at 32 Ohms. Kiwi Ears claims that when they were creating Melody, they had musicians and sound engineers in mind. But in my opinion, this statement is true only in certain aspects.
Melody has quite a prominent bass, which a lot of people will appreciate. The bass is fast and clean. The sub-bass and mid-bass are almost equal in quantity with no clear separation between them. While some other planar models on the market aim for the prominent sub-bass and more neutral mid-bass, the Kiwi Ears takes a different approach and makes mid-bass quite punchy and well-rounded. The bass is still north of neutral, so I don’t think the stock tuning will suit the sound engineers, but the good thing is that the bass is not bloated, despite being boosted and carries quite a good amount of details.
The bass bleed into mids makes the lower midrange sound warm and full, but overall the midrange is recessed and it takes a back seat. While the timbre is accurate, the whole midrange lacks clarity and energy due to such tuning. The upper midrange is detailed, yet also a bit in the background, which is not surprising, as Kiwi Ears Melody is a quite V-shaped IEM. I personally found the midrange also lacking some definition, and for example, instruments like electric guitars lacked some bite.
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You probably remember that I mentioned the company’s statement regarding musicians and studio engineers that they had in mind when they were making Melody. And that’s where Melody’s treble steps in the game. It’s surprisingly detailed, crisp, energetic, and airy. It reveals a lot of details and nuances and is quite ahead of some of the competition in the sub-100 US dollar bracket in this regard. I need to admit that Kiwi Ears did a really good job tuning the treble, which also works well with the boosted bass, making the V-shaped tuning quite prominent and strong on this pair.
The Melody soundstage is above average in width, but it lacks depth and while instruments hold their particular places in space well, the soundstage sounded a bit congested to me. Still, the imaging is good and detail retrieval is good as well, especially compared to a lot of the competition in this price bracket, so I feel there is no need to be exceptionally picky here.
Overall if neutrality and analytical sound signatures are what you value with planar-magnetic drivers the most, I’d advise you to take a different route as Kiwi Ears Melody, despite its resolving treble, is more oriented to bring fun and excitement.
What I liked
- Fun V-shaped sound signature
- Lightweight shells
- Fast planar bass with a strong emphasis on mid-bass
- Airy treble
- and good price-to-performance ratio
What I didn’t like
- Fit may vary
- Stock ear tips are hard to put on
- Midrange lacks clarity and definition
- The cable is basic
- and there is no case or pouch included with the IEMs
Kiwi Ears has released a number of very interesting and well-turned IEMs in the past 1 year, and while Melody in my opinion is not as exciting as some other offerings from the company, it provides a relatively inexpensive entry point to the world of planar-magnetic IEMs. In addition, it’s tuned differently than many other planar-magnetic IEMs currently on the market, and if a V-shaped sound signature with a fast planar bass and crisp treble is what you are looking for, then Kiwi Ears Melody might be a very good IEM for you.
And that concludes my review for today. If you want to see more content like this consider subscribing to my YouTube channel for future updates. Thank you for joining me, and until next time, goodbye!
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