Ikko certainly likes to add a tagline to its IEMs, be it the Obsidian OH10 or Musikv OH7. The all-new OH1S gets tagged "Gems," and it is fitting, too. The textured design clearly based on the company's OH1 and OH10 is given a glamorous twist in the form of a resin layer between two aluminium alloy ones that make up the shell. There is method to this madness with all three layers working harmoniously as part of Ikko's SVAS (Separating Vector Acoustics System) we covered in more detail on the previous page. The two color options, gray and blue, are not doing enough justice to what you ultimately get with a purple resin reminiscent of a nebulous cloud bursting with color in contrast to the darker gray, and a see-through light blue resin allowing a closer look at the hardware inside.

Ikko is using a similar hybrid driver setup as for the OH10 in that there is a 10 mm dynamic driver paired to a balanced armature driver. The latter is the same Knowles 33518 as before, and it remains a strong contender for a single BA system to cater to the mids and highs. The dynamic driver is different, however, a new flagship driver from Ikko using deposited carbon onto a nano coil. There isn't much information available about this, and it may well be the tuning, but dynamic it is not. The bass response is mild, especially on one of the samples here. This is a good segue for the other issue I have in that there does seem to be sample variation that has a tangible effect in the bass response. The second sample had more punch here, so I don't know what you are going to get.

Irrespective of this, the tuning is more warm neutral than the bass-heavy OH10. This is going to please those who want detailed vocals with high tonal separation, of which there are not many options in this price range. The Ikko OH10 sold for $139 before going out of stock, and the OH10 has the same MSRP of $199 but is on sale for $159 as this is written. The OH10 has better build quality, but impractically so, to where I'd much rather be wearing the OH1S. Add the included upgraded cable here and the price is easier to justify for an audio device that looks really nice and wears even better.