:
Energetic bass
Clean and musical mids
Nice and sleek looking set
Fun tuning
Solid stage presentation
Driveablity is very easy
:
Cable earhook is useless
Treble can be sharp
Technical abilities
I got this set from CCA Hifi itself for a review and i'm not compensated with money or any other privileges for this.
CCA Xyrra uses a 10mm metal-composite dynamic driver combined with a custom-tuned 30118 balanced armature. The dynamic driver delivers deep bass while the balanced armature handles the mid-high frequencies. Impedance is 27 ohms and sensitivity is 110 dB.
Note:
This review is mostly based on my subjective feel and hearing ability. You may not hear and have the same experience as i do since different person can have different experience while listening same audio gear and different gear can affect sound differently. I don't want to roast or deny any frequency response graphs and look at them as bull$#!t or irrelevant because i found them very useful many times and that's also someone's work and time invested for community, so it would be inappropriate at the least, but they also can vary from rig to rig. Also, keep in mind that im not spending too much time while testing gear, a couple of hours or a day in most cases, so i might not give "full experience" like if i were listening to it for a week or month. I give star ratings considering the price, so you might see different price point gear with same star rating but different sound quality, so keep in mind that for example 4 star rating IEM at 10$ is worse than 4 star rating at 100$, or, 5 star rating at 50$ is better than 3 star rating at 100$.
Box:
Small and simple, gives what you essentially need, nothing more, nothing less. Front box cover has some "modern tech" design, a bit eye catching, solid picture if you like to put boxes on your shelf. On the back side is some slight info about specifications and manufacturer. As you slide out inner box you will see pretty nice shells on top and under white cardboard are cable and eartips with user manual. Not the best accessories if we compare this product with something like Phoenix but hey.
Cable and eartips:
You get 3 pairs of eartips in SML sizes. They're white colored and have somewhat narrow bore with shorter stem. They seem to be "semi sticky" but i didnt used them for this review to be honest. They feel average in comfort and average overall at this price point. Cable comes with integrated mic and 3.5mm but there are also options without mic and Type C also with and without mic. Connector is L shaped in grey semi transparent color and cable itself is transparent through which you see copper inside. It's semi sturdy, it doesnt really twist by itself and overall feeling is average at this price, it reminds pretty much on Phoenix cable. Shell connector is QDC 0.75 and it's transparent, if you ask me looks way more cool than L connector but i dont know who prefers QDC over standard 2 pin. What i dont like about cable is earhook because its useless for me, the angle is too sharp and there is no space for my ears to fit through it, maybe it will suit to someone with really small ears. I tried to "fix" it by twisting in opposite direction but you cant, it just comes back as it was, so i used these like bullet style IEM witout earhook over my ears, and they stood still.
Shells:
They come in 2 different variants, black and silver, well, this one is more like gun metal black rather than classic black, and i'm glad i got black ones, they look sleek and somewhat agressive with it's design. Faceplate material is unibody zinc alloy and it feels very nice with it's texure, i mean shells alone gives somewhat premium feeling compared to it's price, especially faceplate, i really like it. Inner shell is made of resin and it's transparent. There are no pressure ports except one small hole but there were no problems with that or comfort by any means even though i didnt used earhooks. Nozzle is not integrated into shell, it's piece for itself and it's made of some kind of metal in gold color, it's a bit longer one but not too long, so long stem eartips will work fine on these but also shorter ones. Nozzle mesh filter is black and so thin you can see through it.
Gear:
SMSL DL200, Spinfit W1 eartips, stock cable, Tidal destop app, Surfans F20 Pro, Foobar2000 local files (1200-7200 kbps)
Bass:
Almost bass cannons i would say. One of the most bassiest sets i tried for real, but keep in mind that i didnt tried any real basshead ones, by that i mean where the bass is boosted to the moon. On this IEM sub bass is a highlight but also mid/upper bass is not pushed back by any means. Sub bass quantity this IEM produces will blow you away if you're more oriented to neutral or natural sounding in bottom frequency region. I could even recommend this one to a bassheads on a buget. Rumble is a thing on this one for sure, and even texture is pretty solid for this cheap price, not the most refined or fastest but it feels "big" and very energetic with huge fun factor. Slam is also very present and feels nice, again not the most refined one but you cannot really ask for more and this one is pretty good enough with solid texture. Punch feels more neutral but still lifted with musical character, it also lacks a bit or texture, probably my least favourite part of bass regarding quality, yet good enough at given price, it's musical and fun and beginners in this hobby will enjoy it i can bet. Overall decay feels good and fast, it's quick enough in reproducing even busy bassy tracks. When it comes to instruments they sound slighly boosted and with classical music you wont notice that really and this IEM will give pretty naural feeling with neutral timbre most likely, but for example when it come to cellos or to be more exact 2Cellos track where tracks are already bassy and cellos sound somewhat "resonant" enough then with this set they will be too much boosted, but keep in mind that those tracks are made for neutral and very studio alike sets while this one is not of that kind. Also sousamphone is a bit lifted but maintains somewhat natural timbre, i didnt expected this and i was wrong apprarenly. Overall bass performance is very good for musical set at this price point.
Mids:
Naturally when bass is boosted mids will be pushed back, and it's kinda case with this one, especially if we also consider how treble is tuned on this one. However, while listening to mid centric tracks where bass and treble are pushed back mids will show themself as clean in lower region but upper bass can leak a bit depending on track and music genre, while upper region can be somewhat veiled, again depending on your preference and tracks you listen to. Female vocals appear clean and natural in lower region without lacking depth but in upper mid region i would like just a tiny bit more ear gain, but that's just my subjective nitpicking, overall it's pretty fine and even refined for this cheap. Male vocals appear more or less the same as female ones and i dont have much to add to them since they're also good, not perfect but pretty good enough and the character of them is basically the same as character of females, so good job with them, and as for musical set like this i think that vocals are put in sweetspot actually. Because of slight bass leak instruments will sound warm and clean in the same time while they might be a bit overly resonant from time to time, for example guitars in some tracks, but in other ones they're just clean and fine, also while i listen to bass guitars they might feel a bit veiled like they need a bit more liveliness and rawness if im nitpicking about them, but they're reasonably good. However violin has pretty natural timbre and it's presentation is nice and clean. For trumpets goes the same thing as for violins and also for pianos.
Treble:
Treble is also lifted and sparkly and makes this IEM musical in combination with bass. Vocals that comes into treble region can really sound spicy and also sharp, while it's not so much prominent with male vocals (although it is), it's a bit more present with female one. This is nothing which i cannot stand but i would like it lower, but given the overall tonality and musical tuning it's somewhat to be expected not to be neutrally tuned. However upper treble region feels way more neutral and comfortable to listen to and also way more refined, also i would say that it even lacks a bit of extension compared to lower treble but it's not lacking for real. Some sounds appear as too much forward, obviously because of boosted treble while other ones appear just right and pleasing, and i would say that it's not track dependent but more "track part" dependent. Another thing is with transients, same story more or less, the ones in air region sounds pretty nice while the ones in lower treble sound a bit harsh and not really refined, but for this price it's expected. Details are pushed forward of course, maybe even too much forward for my subjective preference but i can see some trebleheads loving this, i personally prefer top end extension over lower treble boost so... Instruments and classical music will sound nice and treble sharpnes wont really appear or it wont be a problem given the nature of classical music, moreover, it will sound even pleasing. All in all, im not really fan of this treble tonality and im not satisfied with it's refinement overall but also at given price, there are sets with more refined treble out there but also sounding more neutral for example to Harman target.
Stage:
"A new benchmark for hybrid gaming earphones"?. Well, speaking about price tag it could be good for gaming, but im not sure about "benchmark" although they can compete. Imaging is fine and placement of the things is done right, i heard better but at higher price tag. Again, at this buget it's fine and i dont expect miracles. As for layering goes the same thing as for imaging, it's good overall and it really doesn't deviate much from "higher end" sets, so Xyrra can boast with it's imaging and layering abilities for the price. Soundstage is a bit track dependent, while on some tracks they give really wide and spaciouss feeling on the others can be a bit sterile, yet giving solid mediocre info. Sadly, i dont play games and i cannot speak about gaming performance of this set but from what i can hear i believe they wont lack.
Technicalities:
Dynamics are not really a highlight because it feels like this set lacks a bit of liveliness and struggles to bring out emotions of music in "raw" way, it's rather soft and wont really jumpscare you if you want to be in the center of events. Transients are also a bit on slouch on this set, but what to expect at this price point if i didnt reviewed cheap IEMs in a while ? But, for someone who just want music and fun, it's not demanding user and doesnt seek for "endgame under 50 bucks" it will be fine. While this set can give you some excitement it cannot really compare to the sets at higher price tag, so it wont jump out as "punching above price point", so let that settle down. Micro and macrodynamics are on slouch a bit and i believe it's caused because of overall not so good coherence and also overall sound envelope suffers because of it. Resolution feels mediocre, im not amazed but given overall not so good technical abilities of this IEM resolution is acceptable to me. Timbre and tonal balance are a bit of because of lower treble and boosted bass so you wont buy this set because it doesnt offer natural and refined sound.
Other impressions:
Driveability of this IEM is one of the easiest i ever experienced, i doubt there is so weak output that cannot drive this IEM, it's literally joke to drive it, so dont worry about that. One important thing i want to mention about this IEM and review is that i dont play games and CCA is presenting Xyrra as gaming IEM at first place. I kinda "roasted" Xyrra's lower treble but it might be a bit boosted exactly because of gaming performance, so keep that in mind and take my view with reserve.
I give 4 out of 5 stars for this IEM. There are better options even from CCA itself at this price. This rating comes because of somewhat bad technical abilities and sharp treble for my taste.
I hope you found this review any helpful and thanks for reading,
- Steva
