CCA PLA13 IEM review

02 April 2023
An affordable planar magnetic IEM for the masses.

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they literally plug that IEM to the iphone 5s😭😭😭

    > In effect, planars are to dynamic drivers what OLEDs are to LCDs

    Wow, that's actually a pretty nice way to put it. The funny thing is that, just like how OLEDs are known for its artificial color reproduction, Planars are also known for its artificial sounding high frequencies. Most of the chi-fi planar IEMs in the midrange market segment suffer from artificial harsh treble timbre (e.g. 7Hz Dioko, Letshouer S12). The only exception is Tangzu Zetian Wu, which I bought and is likely the most "friendly" planars of the bunch.

    Honestly I wouldn't recommend buying into the Planar hype, at least for the budget to midrange market segment. A DD + BA hybrid is likely still your best bet for a properly tuned IEM.

      • M
      • MR45
      • j2e
      • 03 Apr 2023

      I used to get interested in IEM a year ago and in those times the VK4 and Blon 03 were the most acclaimed. Out of curiosity, I bought the VK4. While its sound was richly amazing and crystal clear, I have learned through it that I am sensitive to high notes. So I lost interest in IEM because of their very clear sound and sparkling high notes and for now I am just using a wired earphones from JBL and an ANC TWS from Huawei. Their sound may not be the best but at least they are gentle to my ears.

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • 8ta
        • 03 Apr 2023

        I find it rather funny to see an old iPhone being used for the IEM. It clearly does show that headphone jack never go outdated and out of fashion. It always remain relevant in 2023 and always will be forever.

          • L
          • Lu
          • sv4
          • 03 Apr 2023

          I do not own these but I own a KZ PR1 omong other planars that I have. Testing planar iems without a serious dongle dac/amp is rather pointless. I use KR1 Pro on E1DA-G3 that outputs 320mw per chanel on 32ohms balanced output, and that is tons of power and headroom for the PR1 pro to work properly. Maybe these have a different tuning, but nothing saind in the review is comparable to my experience with the PR1 Pro. They have very clean lows with a tiny bit of sub-bass bleeding, unbelievably smooth midrange and somewhat too bright highs, but not fatiguing. I was literally shocked that the vocal oriented music sunds as good as on my Audeze LCD-3 which cost around 35 times more. Also be aware, for this price they have no time for factory burn-in of the drivers. The first few hours were the worst, ZERO bass and dull mids with very harsh highs, they settled well after 4-5 hours of play, and even better after a few days.

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