Unfamiliar with the brand initially, I really did not know what to expect going from the Ikko OH10. What I can tell you is that these IEMs are unlike just about anything else, starting with the build quality itself. In a pinch, you can take these off your ear, disconnect the cable, and throw them at someone to cause serious harm! My ears understood why Goku used weighted clothing to train in Dragonball, with other IEMs and true wireless earphones feeling weightless after these. At nearly 16 g each, the OH10 earbuds are two to three times as heavy as any other in-ear audio solutions I have had to date. The copper base for the shells combined with an external titanium coating and inner platinum coating are the reason behind the weight, with Ikko claiming that these metals help reduce harmonic resonance distortion. Indeed, even the dynamic drivers used here employ a titanium diaphragm, albeit as a polymer backbone.

The dual-driver hybrid system is not new to the OH10 or Ikko, and we see the use of a Knowles balanced armature for the mids and highs and aforementioned 10 mm dynamic driver for the lows. The lows are definitely where the OH10 shines tremendously, with a warm and punchy sound that will satisfy most bass-heads even without the use of a standalone DAC/amp. With an impedance of 18 Ω and a sensitivity of 106 dB, you can easily drive these with the average mobile phone, but I will argue that at ~$200 for these alone, it might behoove you to get a portable DAC/amp anyway if these are a purchase you plan to use with different sources over the long term. This will add to the user experience with tuning the EQ further without losing much clarity, which can be handy in the midrange and for predominantly vocal tracks, where the OH10 falls short relative to the bass and even the treble. Okay, falling short might be an overstatement. A neutral profile in the midrange is generally a good thing, but male vocals do feel like they will benefit from some third-party help.

The other thing that will benefit from help, which will depend on your ears also, is how well these fit and whether the higher mass of the earbuds will adversely affect long listening sessions. The OH10 is generally well isolating, and I found the fit adequate, but adequate was not adequate enough over time. Perhaps it is the stock cable, or the stock ear tips, but the combination paired with the heavier metal shells became a real source of pain to my ears until I swapped over to different ear tips, which helped. I do wish the stock cable in particular was better since the rest of the package is really giving you more than the price point would generally get you.

The Ikko OH10 launched nearly two years ago globally from what I can see, and pricing has remained nearly the same since. Such IEMs are usually a better value now, especially in an age where copper and other metals have increased in cost so much over time. There is a lot of competition in the $150–$200 price range alone, with some recently launched ~$150 planar magnetic IEMs that can potentially challenge the Ikko OH10 for some people, including myself. But in the absence of direct comparisons to those, and taking general audio impressions across over-ear headphones and in-ear earphones, including the true wireless type, there is so much good going on here that I am happy to say I would have definitely bought these myself had I listened to them in a store while in the market for some IEMs.