Kiwi Ears Aether's Review - Affordable Performer!

 

General Info/Comfort/Build

Kiwi Ears, a name that i believe no one who’s active in the Chi-Fi community wouldn’t know, it made a splash last year coming out with several IEMs that are still being talked about, not just that, it also received a great deal of positive feedbacks (of course, there are bound to be some negatives as well as we all hear/perceive differently). Today, I have here with me another new release which is the Kiwi Ears Aether. The shell has a very pretty faceplate, but in terms of size, it is slightly on the larger side but not really an issue for me and it did not cause any discomfort at all. This is probably to accommodate the large planar driver.

In terms of packaging, the unboxing experience is quite pleasant and is definitely worthy of the asking price, however, the bundled accessories are a bit of a let down, if you had past experience with Kiwi Ears products, they are more or less similar, even the cable.

Gears used for this review

• Kiwi Ears Aether in stock form (stock cable in 4.4 termination and stock eartips)

• iFi Zen Dac 3

• Aune S9C Pro DAC -> Aune S17 Pro EVO AMP

• Fiio JM21

• Dunu DTC 800

Foreword

My review is solely based on what I hear via my equipment and I never consider my reviews to be objective in any way rather a subjective approach. Do take into consideration that everyone’s ear anatomy is not the same, so the psychoacoustics perception might be different as well, but i believe it will not stray too far

Sound Impression

The Aether to my ears, sounds like a U shaped tuned IEM to my ears, a slight elevation on the lows while remaining fairly neutral across the frequency range, being a planar IEM, i did not hear any planar timbre on the Timeless AE, it could be the case of the 3db boost on the low end that helps to slightly smoothen to top end which in effect also cause the planar timbre to smoothen out. It has got a good note weight and full sounding to my ears. Let’s take a look at the breakdown on the frequency range:

Bass

• Bass on the Aether is hard hitting, fast, and tight,especially satisfying when listening to Metallica’s track, Master of Puppets, Lux Aeterna

• Speed is good which is expected from a planar driver

• The bass has got a satisfying texture, especially evident on the double kick drum, very very pleasant experience which got my foot tapping along with it

• The sub bass rumble is nicely done on the music, i took a step further and played a trailer of Star Wars where the lightsaber fight scene and swinging the saber around produces a very ecstatic deep rumbles, and this is reproduced in a very “fun” manner listening to it via the Aether

• Mid bass is quite punchy with good texture and it doesn’t bleed into the mids

Mids

• The mids are neither too forward nor recessed,rather balanced in my opinion

• Male vocal has got a good texture to it, doesn’t sound thin or nasally, both Sam Smith and Zhao Peng’s vocal sounded very pleasant

• Female vocal such as Teresa Teng sounded sweet and has got texture to it, a slight boost on the upper mids will give the female a little boost, but overall, it is good

• Vocal positioning is not too laid back or forward, i would say it is just a few steps from your face

• No bass bleed from the mid bass to the lower mids, transition from the low to upper mid is also smooth and gradual rise, certainly not shouty at all

Treble

• Treble on the Aether is very well done in my opinion, it is detailed, airy and also smooth at the same time, impressive

• The treble is non offensive and never sibilant, i have tried a wide range of music with it and even turned up the volume (for a short period of time of course), it remained easy on the ears all the time

• The smoothened treble response is due to the seesaw effect from the boosted low end which is audible to my ears

Soundstage/Imaging

• Soundstage is quite good, with a slightly out of your head kind of rendition

• It has good height and width perception, a little lacking in the depth, but overall it is not bad 

• Imaging on the other hand is good, well layered and instruments can be pinpointed easily without sounding congested

Driveability

• Aether is not hard to drive, it can be driven easily by most of the entry to mid range dongles out there

• It does however scale with better source and also power, i observed a better bass response in terms of control, dynamic, as well as soundstage when it is being fed with more power and also better source, my desktop stack specifically

• This is not to say that you need an amp to get the best out of it, rest assured that it is already good sounding right out the box, but amping it will allow you to squeeze out more from Aether to fully maximise its potential

Comparison

7Hz Timeless II

• Timeless II offers a more three dimensional presentation in terms of soundstage, especially with the bullet shaped gold nozzle

• Bass quality is slightly better but in terms of quantity, Aether seems to pull a head slightly, mid bass punch is slightly better with the Timeless II

• Timeless II offers a variety of sound tuning via nozzle swapping, my personal experience with it, is that it really does offers changes in tuning to a certain degree

• In terms of detail retrieval and resolution, Timeless II pulls itself ahead of Aether 

Tangzu ZetianWu(OG)

• ZetianWu’s presentation is overall a little laid back, warm with a slight elevation on the mid bass

• Once again, the Aether pulls itself miles ahead in terms of detail retrieval comparing against ZetianWu(the OG)

• A very safe sounding set i would say compared to Aether which offers a bit more fun and details, I’m not saying ZetianWu is bad in anyway, it’s just that it is tuned differently and considering the price point it position itself at, it is good enough

Final Thoughts

There are plenty of Planar IEMs out there at the moment, i personally have tried several which i compared against the Aether, i am someone who prefers versatility because i listen to a variety of genre, the Aether does gives me the versatility because i consider it an all rounder which perform really well in most of my library, Metal, Rock, Hip Hop, Jazz, Live recordings and many more in its stock form (stock cable and stock eartips). To make things even better, using the Dunu’s S&S eartips offers a slightly wider soundstage compared to stock eartips, and also fits and seal better, and also gives a little bit more energy on the top end if you find the treble on stock eartips is a little smooth to your taste. I am definitely recommending the Aether without any hesitation to anyone who’s currently on the lookout for a very capable Planar IEM.

*I thank Linsoul for sending over this in exchange for this review. All thoughts are of mine and I received no monetary compensation nor was I influenced in any way to produce this review.

Interested in getting a pair? Head over to Linsoul to grab one from the link below:
Kiwi Ears Aether - Non affiliated link