Introduction

I receive, on average, 15-20 emails each day soliciting product reviews. Given the two primary categories I deal with—audio and keyboards—are in the middle of a long boom period, I suppose it's no surprise that many of these emails tend to come from Asian brands, many of whom I had never heard of before. A lot of these products end up being sold by a paper company which has contracted an OEM partner/factory to manufacture the products so we end up with a lot of similar stuff as well as many less-than-impressive products too. Given also how the in-ear monitor space in particular has been just exploding in popularity lately, there are so many new brands popping out of the woodwork that it becomes extremely hard for a genuinely impressive product to get its fair dues, let alone a debut entry from a new brand. I have saved you readers from going through loads of mediocre e-waste as a result, but every once in a while something comes up that reminds me why I like to review products. Two years ago we saw Truthear have an impressive debut, and today it appears to be the turn of I\OAudio.


I know the people behind I\OAudio, which is why I am typing it as so after having checked with them multiple times and not as I\O Audio as you might expect—blame trademarks for this! I\OAudio is based out of Shenzhen in China where it would seem >80% of everything in the personal audio space is manufactured today. The people behind the brand have been involved with IEMs for a while now and learnt the tricks of the trade enough to decide they want to show what they can do. This begins today with the VOLARE, a tribrid set of IEMs boasting a 1 DD/4 BA/4 EST driver configuration that tends to be in sets costing well over $1000. Add to this a luxurious unboxing experience and accessories collection and I started to think this might well cost over $1500, especially with the shells that remind me of some very expensive sets I have here. I feel positive enough about the I\OAudio VOLARE to say it deserves plenty of attention, especially seeing as how it actually costs closer to $500! Hopefully this helps persuade more of you to go through the entire review and not just dismiss this as yet another random brand trying its luck in the crowded IEM space, so let's thank I\OAudio for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp and begin with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications