KB Ear Lark: A Melodious Pleasing Avian

“Larks are one of the most adaptable species of birds out there, they can produce that melodious and high pitch singing especially on their call to mating ritual and even to a simplest communication, they can mimic some of other birds' chirping and churrs too.”

 

Oi! welcome to my another IEM review article and I'll do another product review  from one of the fastest growing audio companies in the current market, KB Ear.

  I previously done some reviews on their product twice, KB Ear KS1 and the successor of this product, The KB Ear Robin. If you are interested on their other products, you can check it out the links below after this statement.

KB Ear KS1:

https://euphoniareviews.blogspot.com/2021/03/kb-ear-ks1-kilo-sierra-uno.html

KB Ear Robin: https://euphoniareviews.blogspot.com/2021/11/kbear-robin-good-decent-performing.html

  What I have here is the KB Ear Lark, this is the first product from their line of “Birds” series. As I mentioned that I’ve done a review on its successor unit, both have a hybrid driver system but this one has a single BA (balanced armature) driver as opposed to a quad BA drivers to its successor. KB Ear Lark has a 10mm dynamic driver that handles the low end and a single custom BA's made by Bellsing for mids and highs frequency range that were regulated by an electronic frequency divider.

 The shell of KB Ear Lark has different materials on each section as its face plate is made of zinc alloy, an opaque polycarbonate plastic on its cavity base ( mine has pale purpleish colour)  and an aluminium alloy on its nozzle. The shells a little bit on a hefty side but It was well-constructed and of a good quality standard. The metal face plate has a debossed honeycomb pattern and very fine, laser-etched “KB Ear” word at the bottom. It has a 2-pin connector that reminds me from the one’s implemented on TFZ's which sturdy and proven design.

 

Ergonomically-wise, when it comes on fitting and comfort. The shells' contour fits alright in my lug holes as I don’t feel any unpleasant experience as it has smooth finish on its sides without any roughness or misalignment construction on the sandwiched polycarbonate and metal. As I insert it into my lug holes, I feel that it has an average sealing that it barely blocks the noises from external source due to the nozzles are bit wobbly into my ear canal.

 

When it comes to packaging and inclusion of accessories, KB Ear is the few audio companies are impeccably generous on putting up some contents and on how they are place in orderly that make unboxing experience pleasing and enjoyable. The box itself has a white colour cardboard sleeve with the picture of the product at the front and some basic information on specifications and address at the back.

Here are the following contents that you will find inside the box:

·        A pair of KB Ear Lark

·        Three (3) pairs of black ear tips of different standard sizes.

·        Three (3) pairs of white ear tips of different standard sizes.

·        A white 4N SPC cable with a L-shaped 3.5mm termination plug.

·        A canvas zippered IEM case.

·        Instruction manual.

   As for connectivity from its source, this IEM is easy to drive as they can use to decent sources such as laptop, smartphones and tablets. Putting them on a more better sources such as good quality devices with DAC/Amps will scale them even better as they sound even more fuller and produce better resolution.

 

The sound signature of KB Ear Lark is more on v-shaped tuning as bass and treble are more prominent that the mids’ placement is more on neutral and deep-seated in the audio frequency spectrum.

 

Here are some of my observation on each segment of audio frequency spectrum.

 

LOWS/BASS:

  The bass is prominent on this IEM as it sound more punchy, precise and definitely has an ample slam, to think that sub-bass is more prominent on the bass region.

 

  The sub bass is quite impressive as it has a good extension that it really produces a grumbling when I play some bass-intense tracks. Mid bass has decent amount of weight note to give a substantial texture on bass kicks, bass guitar and some male vocals. Authoritative bass kicks, a growl and more earthy sound of bass guitar and a more throaty quality on bass-leaning male vocals.

 

  Overall, bass quality is decent enough that some ardent bassheads will probably accept the Lark's bass as sufficient and satisfying.

 

MIDS:

  In this part of audio frequency spectrum, here will I layout my critique on KB Ear Lark. In my impression, I find it subdued, recessed and leaner that it doesn’t suit my preference as I want my mids has more forward vocals and more natural, well-textured and accurate timbre on instruments.

 

  Despite of my skepticism on its midrange, It still find it as a clean, neutral and detailed. The vocals of both gender performs well as male vocals has a decent and leaner weight note but still deliver a clean and definition while the female vocals will be more benefited on this one as its has that more transparent and openness as their voices has that pleasant and sweet quality albeit it is sound a bit thinner.

  When it comes to the tone colour of each instrument, I find it more benefited more on strings and wind instruments rather than percussions due to it more brighter timber as it gives off a more crisper  sound of a guitar, more reverberating quality in violins and shrilly and edgy sound of a sax. Percussive has a less penetrating, sustaining, crackled and less detail sound especially on snares and bongos.

  Despite on my reservations on the quality and quantity of the mids, I still find it more mature and pleasant to listen compare to some contemporary IEMs at almost the same price range.

 

HIGHS/TREBLE:

  The trebles performs decently but here some of my observations; It has an enough brightness just to give a crisp, sparkling and decent airy extension.

  In most tracks, it delivers that uneven smoothness as I noticed that’s it shows a  sibilance if the tracks was intendedly mix to be sibilant and a hissy one a bit and a hint of strident and gratin sound to high pitch female vocals in some vocal-centric tracks (probably due some adjustments on fixing the first tuning of Lark which reported to more boosted that cause a harshness but treble on this one sounds leaner and leaning towards being brittle sounding).

 

. Cymbals strikes has a satisfactory shimmer and natural airy extension while hi-hats sounds less muted as it has ample definition and harmonic range.

 

  Summarily, if I rate the quality of treble, I just give it a barely passable mark as they don’t really sound bad nor spectacularly impressive.

 

SOUNDSTAGE, IMAGING AND OTHER TECHNICALITIES:

 

  In my estimation on overall dimensions of its sound field, it has an above average on width, just enough depth just to be able to sense a deep and  more emphasis on height. Imaging performs up to the mark one, not the most accurate on pinpoint the exact location as I hear in some IEMs but for its price range compare to other products at the same price bracket, KB Ear Lark performs well.

 

  Separation has a little bit sense of gap and spacing on between instruments and vocals, Just have an enough distance if I perceive but the layering aspect is laudable, the fact that on how the rows and its placement of each instrument has a good overlay and stack on each segment especially on orchestra that plays classical and movie scores.

 

  Driver coherency performs decently for a hybrid that they sound well-balanced without being uneven phasing and imbalance sounding. When comes to the timbre, it has bright and has “BA” tonality due to sounds metallic.

  The DD is more a bit more sedate as its transients speed is performs sluggish and decay has a gradual pacing.

 

As I render my verdict on my assessment on KB Ear Lark, if you observe that I'm quite pointing out some of its flaws and inadequacies to sound more of a critique on this product rather than being buoyant and yet I still give a 4-star mark, one of the reasons is that KB Ear gives an importance on its customer’s satisfaction on how they present their product very well-organise and very presentable with a substantial amount of included accessories compare to its competitors that usually provided their set with just bare-bones accessories. Second is their products aesthetics and presentation for its quality and in well-organise manner and lastly, their tuning which is more mature and refined compare to some IEMs when it comes to V-shape tuning.

It will be a hard to sell that I will recommend this one to a more experience audio enthusiast who were more attuned to neutral and less coloured sound signature, But for a starters and beginners who want a better sounding and decent technicalities set than their previous more casual “consumer-friendly” tuning earphones then KB Ear Lark is a better option.

  The KB Ear Lark pricing is around US$29/£22 and still available to all e-commerce sites.

SPECIFICATION:

 

MODEL: KB EAR LARK

IMPEDANCE: 16Ω

SENSITIVITY: 106dB

FREQUENCY RESPONSE:  20Hz - 20KHz

CABLE LENGTH: 1.25M

PIN TYPE: MMCX CONNECTOR

PLUG TYPE: 3.5mm

DRIVER UNITS: 1 DYNAMIC DRIVER AND 1 BALANCED ARMATURE DRIVER

PROS:

·        Sufficiently balance-sounding IEM.

·        Good all-rounder set.

·        Elegant looking shell.

·        Smooth and mature tuning.

·        One of the most generous audio companies on putting up a substantial amount of included accessories.

·        Decent technicalities.

·        Ample resolution quality for its price value.

 

CONS:

·        Too recessed and laidback mids especially on vocals and percussive instruments in my liking.

·        Treble quality needs more refinement.

·        Wish for better stock cable.

Some Tracks Tested: ( * = 16-bit FLAC, ** = 24-bit FLAC, *'* = MQA, '*' = DSD, *'= .WAV)

Alison Krauss -When You Say Nothing At All *

Jade Wiedlin - Blue Kiss**

Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks **

Mountain - Mississippi Queen *

Queen - Killer Queen **

Guns N' Roses - Patience *'*

Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven '*'

Sergio Mendes- Never Gonna Let You Go '*'

Pearl Jam - Daughter **

Roselia - Hidamari Rhodonite *

Assassin - Fight (To Stop The Tyranny)*

Celtic Frost- Visual Aggression *

New Order - Blue Monday *

The Corrs- What Can I do (unplugged version) *

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Voodoo Child *

The Madness- Buggy Trousers *

Metallica - Motorbreath **

Mariah Carey- Always Be My Baby *

Destiny's Child - Say My Name *

Malice Mizer- Au Revoir *

Mozart - Lacrimosa *

New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Dvorak- Symphony 9 " From the New World." *

Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold (Sting cover)*

Michael Jackson - Give In To Me *

Exciter - Violence and Force *

Diana Krall - Stop This World **

Debbie Gibson - Foolish Beat *'*

P.S.

  I am not affliated to KB EAR nor receive monetary incentives and financial gains as they provide me a review unit for an exchange of factual and sincere feedback from yours truly.

  Once again, I would like to thank Wendy Li for this providing this review unit, I truly appreciate on her generosity towards me and other reviewers.