Kiwi Ears, a brand known primarily for its IEMs, decided CES 2025 is the perfect time to show off its upcoming series of closed-back headphones. We already saw a couple of more budget-friendly DJ/monitoring-style headphones from the brand late last year, and Kiwi Ears followed up on this with two different ANC wireless headphones to appeal to the more mainstream crowd. The Aventus and Ardor both use two dynamic drivers—a 10 mm DD on top of a 40 mm DD in a coaxial configuration—for a novel driver configuration in headphones. Both of course have RGB lighting in the ear cups to further appeal to the mainstream market, and will be launching later this month. The dual driver headphones theme continued with the Kiwi Ears Atheia, which foregoes the plastic RGB ear cups in favor of machined walnut wood and now goes for a 50 mm DD + 14.5 mm planar magnetic driver hybrid configuration. This seems similar to the Noble Audio Apollo from last year, which uses a similar driver setup and adds wireless ANC connectivity on top. The Atheia is also expected to launch later this month, so Kiwi Ears is set to have a busy few days ahead.

Also at the show was yet another wooden ear cup set, although this currently uses the same body as the Atheia. This unnamed model—feel free to suggest a name for Kiwi Ears in the comments—is also closed-back in nature, and is using a single large planar magnetic driver. This is arguably the toughest type of headphones to get sounding correct, at least in the ~$400 price range that Kiwi Ears is aiming for. There's still work to be done with the tuning, and I provided feedback which is hopefully going to help the brand out. I used all of these headphones with my phone thanks to an upcoming Kiwi Ears dongle-style DAC/amp, the Allegro Pro, which connects directly to the Type-C port on your phone. It uses a customized DAC and a dedicated amplifier section, offers both 3.5 mm SE and 4.4 mm BAL outputs, and even has three onboard EQ profiles you can toggle through a button on the underside. The Kiwi Ears Allegro Mini should be launching within the next month or two, helping wrap up a great showing for Kiwi Ears at CES.

The EPOMAKER x LINSOUL booth at the 2024 International CES had a lineup of ThieAudio in-ear monitors. We begin our tour with the Hype 10. The name apparently stands for "hybrid performance." Each of these IEMs comes with two 10 mm composite diaphragm drivers arranged in an isobaric design to make a subwoofer. These offer a broad frequency response range from 10 Hz to 40 kHz with 105 dB/Vrms @ 1 kHz sensitivity. ThieAudio has these priced at $900 a pair. Next up, is the more feature-packed Prestige LTD, with 1DD + 4BA + 4EST Tribrid setup, and an electrostatic driver that provides a broad 10 Hz to 20 Hz frequency response. Each earphone contains 4 Sonion electrostatic drivers, plus 2 Knowles mid-treble balanced armatures, plus 2 Sonion low-mid balanced armatures, and a 10 mm dynamic subwoofer. The maximum frequency response thanks to this setup is as high as 80 kHz. Sensitivity tops out at 98 dB @ 1 kHz. ThieAudio prices these at $1,300.

While ThieAudio focuses on audiophiles, the Kiwi Ears series is for the mass market that just wants better sound. Kiwi Ears Forteza is an entry-level IEM by ThieAudio, with a much simpler 1 High-Mid balanced armature (BA) + 10 mm Mid-range dynamic driver (DD) + 10 mm Bass DD setup; a regular 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response, with 103 dBSPL/mW @ 1 kHz sensitivity; at an attractive price of just $59. Winding things up is the Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite, a more premium product positioned above the Forteza; with an 8 BA multi driver setup consisting of Kiwi Ears customized HI x2 + Kiwi Ears Customized MID x4 + Knowles LOW x2, per earphone. Available for pre-order now, the Orchestra Lite is priced at $249. Lastly, we ran into a number of face-plate customizations by Kiwi Ears.