Kiwi Ears x B_Media Chorus iem - Do too many cooks spoil the broth??

The Backstory: When a Reviewer Enters the Kitchen:

Review by Andrew Barlow

https://www.linsoul.com/products/kiwi-ears-x-b_media-chorus

We have all seen it happen MANY times before. An audio reviewer spends thousands of hours telling multi-million dollar corporations what they are doing wrong, and eventually, a manufacturer snaps and says, "Fine, you build it." That is exactly how the Kiwi Ears X B_Media was born.

Kiwi Ears teamed up with Axel Bostrom (the no-shit-taking mind behind B_Media) to tackle the most cutthroat arena in the audiophile world: the sub-$50 ultra-budget market.

Instead of chasing the usual "Harman-target-or-bust" tuning clone, Axel wanted an IEM meant for real-world, long-session listening. The result is a reimagining of the Kiwi Ears Belle architecture, featuring a massive flower-shaped structural vent on a CNC metal faceplate designed to eliminate ear canal pressure.

Unboxing & Design: Premium Looks, Featherweight Hooks

Build & Ergonomics

The shells weigh a microscopic 3 grams each. Combined with an anatomical, wavy inner-shell mould, they sit in your ears like they were custom-poured. They really do fit well.

The big talking point is the CNC-machined metal faceplate featuring a stylized open-back vent. Aside from looking like a high-end relic, this vent actually relieves pneumatic pressure. You can leave these in your ears for a gruelling 6-hour marathon session without feeling like your brain is being vacuum-sealed.

Accessories & Cable

The unboxing experience is standard budget fare, but the included silver-plated dual-core cable is the BIG bug-bear for me…….

I’m not sure if I was offered a choice but I received the usb-c termination with internal Dac. It’s a nice enough looking cable BUT I hate it!!!! I’m old school 3.5 or 4.4mm and that’s it! I don’t deviate haha!!! But that’s not why I hate it.

I can’t change the volume on my Dap as it only has analogue amplification. When I plug the usb-c cable in, it bypasses that and the digital volume takes over with no option to raise or lower volume.

Yes, I did test it for a small time with the volume set (quite loud even for me) on the supplied cable. But it just didn’t work for me. It sounded just ordinary (ok I was biased by now haha) and some songs were too soft, and the majority were too loud. It sounded congested on some tracks too.

I thought to myself “Well this isn’t going well”….

I remembered I brought with me, a lovely quality NiceHCK “Fall” cable, terminated in 4.4mm, so I swapped out and began my review again.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh…….read on iem-lovers!!!!

Sound Signature: Comfort Food for Your Ears

1. The Bass (The Sub-Woofer Experience)

The Chorus leverages its modern DLC diaphragm to deliver a heavy, satisfying 10dB sub-bass hump. It handles modern pop, hip-hop, and electronic sub-bass drops with an organic rumble that replicates a very decent desktop sub-woofer rather than a cheap club system. The mid-bass punch carries plenty of weight and body. It does bleed just a tiny bit into the lower mids, but it’s not a deal-breaker.

I threw all genres at it but I had a thrash-heavy-old skool metal craving so the Chorus got handed Slayer, Megadeth, early Metallica, System Of A Down, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath et al.

And with the Fall cable, I was LOVING it!!!!

Maiden’s Trooper allows Mr Harris to shred that bass guitar!!! It goes deep with authority and power. He leads the charge allowing Mr Dickinson to soar above as he does so well.

Mr Ellefson’s bass run on Megadeth’s Symphony Of Destruction could awaken the dead!!!! It’s deep, powerful and bloody exciting. I’m banging my head with a smile from ear to ear. And at the start, Mr Mustaine’s vocals are rich, low and raspy. The Chorus/NiPO N2 combo allow this song to explode.

Mr Osbourne (vale Ozz-man!!!) just tears it up on Iron Man and Mr Iommi makes me want to throw chairs out my hotel window while vomiting on too much vodka and tequila……..

Mr Ward’s bass drum starts out right of my nut. It’s got balls. It’s powerful. Then it moves all around me and Mr Iommi comes in deep and heavy to the right also. Distortion is spot on!!

You can actually hear some subtle details in the quiet background, it’s probably Ozzy   lighting up some illicit drugs……..

Mr O then explodes in the middle and the song goes off like a bride’s nightie………

This song rocks on the Chorus. It‘s warm, full and has a huge presence right throughout the spectrum.

During the guitar solo, Mr Butler is also going off like a frog in a sock in my left ear and he’s deep and separated well from Mr Iommi in my right ear. This song is mixed VERY well and spaced out beautifully. The bass is magic here.

2. The Midrange (Velvety Vocals)

Thanks to that gentle mid-bass warmth, lower male vocals sound thick, chesty, and incredibly full-bodied. Kiwi Ears implemented a wonderful tonality and naturalness to vocals. This prevents instruments and vocalists from getting completely drowned out by the heavy low-end. Acoustic guitars and smooth vocal tracks sound intimate and velvety.

Again on Symphony Of Destruction, Mustaine shines. He’s front and centre but not in my face. He’s got weight and serious body (and I’m not talking about his hair!!!). He’s not drowned out by the band either. He’s the main man up front!

On Iron Man again, Oz-man just tears it up on the Chorus. He has a great weight and power and isn’t overtaken by the band.

On System Of A Down’s Aerials, strings come in clean and subtle. Mr Malakian’s guitar then enters stage right(ish). It sounds natural and full, with very decent resolution. Mr Tankien’s vocals are commanding with Goliathan weight and a very good natural timbre.

3. The Treble (Clean like soap without bite)

The treble profile features a slow, gradual decay but no roll-off. There are absolutely no piercing, sibilant peaks here. If you are incredibly sensitive to sharp "S" sounds or harsh high-hat cymbals, the Chorus is your safe haven. To prevent the IEM from sounding completely dark, there’s still plenty of detail and resolution to keep cymbal strikes and acoustic overtones alive. It gives you just enough energy to keep things engaging without making your ears ring after an hour.

On Guns and Roses’ Welcome To The Jungle, Mr Slash comes out clean, bright, rich and exciting. He’s not rolled off and Mr Rose is sharp and clear with great vocal clarity and depth.

The warmth comes from the awesome bass of Mr McKagan- he provides a lovely depth to this track and it sounds great on the Chorus!

Things can get a little muddy at times on the more frenetic parts but for $40, they do a bloody decent job!

On Iron Man, The T-dog Iommi’s solo is clean, bright and resolving. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on any treble info to be honest.

These things are warm but with the Fall cable and NiPO N2, they punch well above their price range.

Slayer’s South Of Heaven has a great clean guitar intro. It’s handled very well by the NiceHCK/NiPO/Kiwi Ears X B_Media combo. Hats off to all three brands I say!!!

There isn’t a roll off in the upper regions, mids have a great weight and naturality to them and bass has gone 6-feet under……..

Technical Performance:

Soundstage and Imaging & Separation:

Because of the open-back vent design, the stage mostly handles congested tracks without feeling claustrophobic, and there’s a lovely wide left to right stage. Choppers start out way left, go through my head (it’s not holographic) and finish way right. They linger much longer than many iems out there. I’m impressed.

There was some slight congestion on frenetic tracks but that was definitely not the norm.

On Metallica’s Fade to Black, everything is separated well inside my head, and imaging places instruments away from each other, so they aren’t all cramped on top of each other.

When the cacophony erupts, there can be a slight congestion but they are still very competent monitors.

On Maiden’s Fear Of The Dark, the intro is all around but Mr Dickinson is separated so well from guitars and the rest of the band when he’s singing at the 1:30 mark.

Left-to-right panning is completely accurate for casual listening, movies, and casual gaming. However, if you are a competitive gamer trying to hear footsteps through three walls of digital drywall, I would imagine that the more left to right (not 3d) staging means macro-detail separation isn't clinical enough for professional esports (the 0.043% of people on the planet). On the Nintendo Switch though, it separated sounds well for me, although I play casual JRPGs not frenetic 1^st person shooters.

Detail Retrieval: The Chorus focuses heavily on macro-details (the big picture) rather than micro-details (the dust settling on the violin string). This is NOT to say that it’s lacking detail, boring or vanilla. It’s not the end-game in resolution and micro detail but we’re in a budget bracket here folks and it provides enough resolution and detail to satisfy most folk out there. It’s a really competent all-rounder.

Comparison time – Cozoy D1

The D1s are a new player on the market- I just reviewed them on my YouTube channel a week ago. They retail for $31 USD, utilize a single DD too and come with similar cable quality (except 3.5mm termination) and accessories.

Both iems look great but the Chorus are slightly more premium.

The D1s have a slightly more energetic presentation, especially up top.

The Chorus are a tad smoother, but certainly without a lack of resolution. The Chorus have a fuller bass that extends deeper with more body and weight, but the bass on the D1s is no slouch either. The Chorus lean a tad warmer than the D1s and the bass really gives them a slight edge in my opinion.

On Fraser Edwards’ The Ghost, resolution and detail were similar – I could hear the same subtler details equally. Vocals on My Chemical Romance’s Welcome To The Black Parade, were slightly closer to me on the Chorus, but neither pair were too forward. The D1s came across a little more V-shaped, the Chorus, a little more W shaped.

Staging and imaging were very similar also, with neither presenting a grand stage. Imaging may initially have gone to the D1s by a hair, but then I listen to Avalaon by Roxy Music and the Chorus image really well too!!!

And same again on Heart’s Stranded. Image is very similar.

I really liked the tuning of both, so I will recommend the Chorus if you crave deeper, fuller bass, a slightly warmer tuning but still great resolution with  richer and more forward vocals (male), and the D1s if you want a brighter, more energetic experience with a more vibrant sound from female vocals, crisper, non-fatiguing treble and a slightly more exciting sound signature.

Both excellent value iems, trust me!!

Final Verdict: Is It Worth It?

The Kiwi Ears x B_Media Chorus is a triumph of real-world usability. For $40, it offers an incredibly premium-looking metal faceplate, a virtually weightless chassis, and a fatigue-free sound signature that turns harsh recordings into smooth audio butter with a surprise kick.

Axel, you can keep the cable (more so as the internal Dac hijacked my Dap’s analogue volume), but hats off to you sir and to Linsoul for nailing a budget iem!!!

I do ask though – why don’t budget brands offer a cable free package for $5 or $10 less (depending on the iem price of course)???

Most iem listeners are rabbit-holers, just like me and own multiple pairs. I’ve seen some collections that would put some online retailers to shame…….

And tips, cables, cases?? These are all a ROLLER’S Nirvana!!!!

We all own multiple cables, and spare rooms full of just tips so maybe give us an option of buying JUST the iems………I reckon I’m onto something here!!!!

Anyway, I digress - If you are looking for an ultra-detailed, bright, analytical tool to map out audio waveforms, keep looking. But if you want a deeply musical, bass-rich, incredibly comfortable daily driver that you can keep in your ears all day at the office or on a long commute, the Chorus is one of the easiest budget recommendations of the year.

Thanks to Linsoul for providing the Chorus for review, and I am paid for this review, but I am not in any way influenced by anyone except my eyes, my ears and my gear.

See you in the next one!