Introduction

Kiwi Ears is an Asian audio brand that made waves a couple of years ago with the release of the Orchestra, an all-balanced armature set of in-ear monitors that competed favorably against hybrid and even tribrid driver IEMs in its price range. The company was quiet for a while and then recently we saw the budget friendly Cadenza that comes in four color options and looks way more expensive than it actually is. Indeed, the Cadenza is worthy of its own article in due time because the team behind it shares talent with ThieAudio which we have covered many times before. I was also told that the tuning of the Cadenza took much longer than it does for far more expensive products and this was going to be the new status quo with Kiwi Ears that would pride itself on taking the time to put out an impressive product, or not at all. So when I heard about an Orchestra Lite in the making, I was certainly intrigued.


The Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite is, as the name suggests, based off the original Orchestra which still continues to be sold for $499. This shares the same amount of drivers and the same all-BA configuration too, and yet the price point is much more attainable to where I was left wondering whether this was a loss leader for the brand or even a gamble into taking volume sales into account over single-item margins. Kiwi Ears clarifies that the drivers chosen are less expensive and yet they pushed them to put out a sound signature that can potentially best the Orchestra itself depending on your preference! It comes in two striking color options, including the blue seen above and the green I have here, and thanks to Linsoul for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp as we begin our coverage with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Packaging and Accessories

Linsoul sent over a sample which I thought was the retail unit only to find out later that Kiwi Ears made a couple of small changes to the unboxing experience. For example, the first photo above shows the product box that comes with a decorative sleeve on top of the inner cardboard box which is what I got. The inner box is mostly black and made of thick cardboard with the company logo on it. The lid can be removed to gain access to a thinner pamphlet containing paperwork in the form of a multi-language user manual that goes over the set up and maintenance of IEMs if you are new to them. Underneath is a foam sheet with machined cutouts to snugly hold and protect the IEM shells themselves and a smaller accessory box that has three plastic zip-lock bags containing the various ear tips provided.


Kiwi Ears is generous on the ear tip front providing three different types of silicone tips each in sizes S/M/L. Note that the retail units come with black colored tips instead of the all-gray here, but otherwise they should be identical. The different types differ in flange stiffness as well as the overall length of the bore so you can try them out and see which ones work best for you. The final accessory is a carry/storage case which is the third change to note and arguably the biggest one. The case I got here does feel more premium than what the retail one is, which is pictured above in black. On the other hand, the actual case is probably more functional in taking up less room and has a zipper to keep it closed. Inside will be a cleaning tool and the cable itself and there should still be plenty of room to store the assembled IEMs/cable/ear tips combination inside.

Closer Look

The cable that ships with the Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite should be an example for others to follow given how good it is compared to those that ship with much more expensive IEMs. Indeed, I was immediately taken aback by how supple this is without any memory retention or kinking. It's a 4-strand cable that is thicker than many other cables too, which makes this behavior all the more impressive. I do wish there was an option for a 4.4 mm balanced connector for those preferring it over the default 3.5 mm single-ended plug we get here. The connector housing is made of machined aluminium that is smooth to the touch and has plenty of strain relief wherever applicable. The cable conductor is claimed to be 7N (99.9999% purity) oxygen-free copper although it sure looks like silver-plated copper to me! Not that it should really matter in practice given this is a low impedance cable either way. The splitter is low profile and composed of the same polished aluminium and then we get an actually functioning cable cinch that holds the split channels in place where you desire them to be—a nice departure from the many cables I've used recently where it was simply too loose to be useful. the two channels then have pre-formed ear hooks with plastic sheathing over them being terminating in 0.78 mm 2-pin connectors with clear or red plastic inserts helping identify the left and right channels, respectively. The metal plugs are gold-plated for oxidation resistance as usual these days.


The good impressions continue with the actual IEMs, which may feel larger than typical once you take them out of the box. I have the green color version here and both this and the blue Orchestra Lite have decorative face plates which get a silver-colored Kiwi Ears logo on both sides for branding. The base itself is a decorative swirl of lines and curves with some iridescence to where it goes from darker to lighter shades depending on the viewing angle and incident light as seen above. I'd put the Orchestra Lite high up on my personal list of pretty looking IEMs for sure, especially given the shells are clear and nicely polished to give you a good look at the drivers and assembly. Kiwi Ears says everything is hand-assembled by trained technicians with years of experience and it shows with the clean solder job throughout, including on the crossover PCB we see here. Note the two larger sub-woofer BA drivers from Knowles for the bass and then the smaller BA drivers that are handling the rest of the frequency response. A look from the side confirms the relatively thick nature of the shells which can be an issue for those with smaller ears, and the female cable connectors are flush with the shells. There is also a slight indent at the top which should fit into the concha for most people but can be a fit/comfort dealbreaker for others. The nozzle is part of the resin shells and is slightly stubby to where it can also get in the way of a deeper fit. It also widens outward slightly to be ~6.1 mm at the widest point and terminates in three holes for the acoustic tubes from the drivers to lead into. There are no other filters in use here and cleaning the nozzle after use is a must for regular upkeep of these IEMs.


Here is a look at the three size M silicone ear tips installed on the right shell of the Orchestra Lite. I mentioned before how they mostly seem to differ in the flange stiffness so you can see what works best for you. There is no notch in the nozzle to help secure the ear tips although the nozzle going wider at the end helps keep them in place naturally. The end point where it meets the shells also helps provide you a definite stop for the ear tips themselves. Note that you may also end up having different sizes for the two ears depending on the size of your ear canals, given these biological features won't necessarily be the same for everyone. Installing the cable is simple enough with the pre-molded ear hooks that go over the ears and L/R indicators helping identify what goes where. Push the 0.78 mm 2-pin plugs into the IEM connectors as seen above, and friction will do the rest in keeping them in place.

Fit and Audio Performance

Seen above is the right side of the Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite installed in an anthropomorphic pinna that does well in showing my own experience with these. I have average-sized ears, and found the size M softer black flange red bore silicone tips to work better. Part of this is because the shells are already on the larger side and the nozzle is somewhat thick and stubby, so a more flexible ear tip would be ideal to get as deep a fit as possible. I was able to get a decent enough fit since the indent at the top of the shells did fit into my ear concha well enough but the shells still protruded out purely because of how thick they are. The semi-ergonomic shape as well as the cable providing additional support points came in handy to help keep the IEMs in place, even if I would have preferred to see angled housings on the cable where it connects to the IEMs. There's no physical fatigue otherwise given the shells weigh ~6 g each, and I was able to achieve good isolation with the stock tips too which should not be a surprise given the all-BA construction here without any vent on the IEMs. Indeed, we saw how the Orchestra Lite goes with two large Knowles balanced armature sub-woofers for bass, four custom BA drivers for the mids, and another two custom BA tweeters for the highs to make for a 2+4+2 3-way passive crossover driver configuration here. It's one of the easiest sets to drive given the relatively low rated impedance of 16 Ω and high sensitivity of 112 dB/mW. A basic dongle will be plenty enough thus, and I paired it with the Qudelix-5K and Questyle M15 for most of my listening experience.


Testing was done similar to all other IEMs, such as the recently reviewed MOONDROP Blessing 3. Seen above is the measured frequency response for both channels of the Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite, which can be inspected further here if interested. Channel balance is very good on this sample, which is good to see since Kiwi Ears makes a point about having all units undergo left/right channel matching as well as two rounds of quality checks—something not really seen in the price range this operates in and one of the ways the brand wishes to be taken seriously in the crowded audiophile IEM market. Interestingly enough, Kiwi Ear's goals with the Orchestra Lite was to maintain the "natural and balanced tonal signature" of the original Orchestra in order to have a studio monitor caliber for pros to use in music monitoring too. The overall tonality lends favorably to this courtesy a clear bass shelf focused on the sub-bass to have clean mids. At the same time, the mid-bass isn't lean or tucked in given the bass shelf begins from ~300 Hz for a net 6-7 dB hike. I noticed a slight dip in the sub-bass in contrast to what Kiwi Ears shows on the product page and even here I would not describe the bass from the Orchestra Lite as being punchy or quite impactful. Those Knowles sub-woofers used are unfortunately not the best for bass reproduction and perhaps this is a result of the cost cutting done to get the Orchestra Lite to hit its price point. As such, in practice the bass comes off less than it measures and closer to my target above. If you care about bass quality over anything else then this may not be the set for you.

The mids are where things get serious with excellent layering and channel separation. The custom BA drivers, all four of them in fact, make for detailed vocals which are forward-facing and well separated instruments with excellent imaging too. I did feel the soundstage was slightly cramped up but not enough to be a dealbreaker by itself. The upper mids can be overly forward for some though, resulting in nasal female vocals if you perceive it as much. Otherwise the ear gain for me was about perfect and the lower mids were executed without fatigue or being shouty to the ears. Pop and jazz especially were quite nice with the Orchestra Lite with string instruments and the saxophone playing a small concert in my head. Unfortunately I can't say the same for orchestral music in general because the tweeters don't have too much energy in the mid-high treble at all. I was reminded of the LETSHUOER Galileo for the same reason wherein I had strong mids but no treble. Some air or sparkle would have gone a long way in getting me to be more positive about the Orchestra Lite and there's only so much you can do with EQ to help here—not enough in my books.


The price range that the Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite belongs to is an exceedingly competitive one. You have single DD sets in the $200-250 range which can compete with better bass impact and a more natural timbre although I suppose the 7Hz Eternal is not one of them given its worse tonality and fit issues too while having similar treble darkness on top. Then there are the hybrid sets such as the AFUL Acoustics Perfomer 5 with its intricate crossover circuitry and electronic filters which do hit the right notes when it comes to bass quality while maintaining clean mids and a smooth, extended treble. It also fits better in the ears to where personally I'd go with this over the Orchestra Lite, and the small cost savings are a bonus on top. If you prefer to not have any dampening in your IEMs then perhaps the likes of the JQ 4Upro might interest you, albeit it's more more mid-forward in a manner that reminds me of the more expensive 64 Audio IEMs. The issue in general is I am not convinced what you get with the Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite is enough to make a compelling purchase argument for it, especially when you note it costs $249 from Linsoul as of the date of this article. There are certainly plenty of positives to note but the weaker bass and lacking treble extension mean it's a niche set for some and not a recommendation for everyone.