Kiwi Ears Quintet Review

The Quintet is the latest in the Kiwi Ears portfolio of in-ear monitors. It's called such due to its 5-driver count configuration consisting of 4 unique driver types. The Quintet includes 1 dynamic driver, 2 balanced armatures, 1 planar and 1 piezeoelectric driver in each side of the IEM. The retail price comes in at $219 and is available for purchase on Linsoul.com at https://www.linsoul.com/products/kiwi-ears-quintet.

This product was provided to me by Linsoul for this review.

I have always been a fan of the majority of the Kiwi Ears releases which started with the original Orchestra, and now with the Quintet, I think this is their best release yet.

The Quintet features a resin shell with metal faceplates with their logo inscribed on the front. From a pure aesthetics standpoint, I am not a big fan of how they look. Its very plain, but also just a weird mix of silver and black, in my opinion. 

The fit is very good, and I never had any issues of soreness of felt it was loose. It is also lightweight and seems very durable. There are two vent holes on the top of the shells and a medium length nozzle.

The cable included is a 4-wire braided cable in a platinum-like color. The connectors are 2-pin and 3.5mm and are what you'd expect from their product line.

Sound Impressions

The Quintet features a well-balanced sound signature that falls very well in-line with my latest iteration target curve. This means it has a slightly elevated bass range, focusing more on the sub-bass, even mids, and a treble range that is fairly neutral. I would personally say that the treble can have a slight brightness to it that I do hear at times, which does not make this the best tonality I've heard, but it is still quite good.

This treble attack is similar to what I hear whenever the PZT drivers are included. For whatever reason, when that driver always comes loaded with a slightly bright treble range. This Quintet is not the worst offender of this though, and is probably the one PZT-featuring IEM that I can actually listen to for a long period of time. The others with this driver type are typically unbearable. 

Generally speaking, the Quintet has an incisive attack that is quick and lacks a little bit of a natural decay and resonate sound to it. That's not to say its lacking body -- it still has a good amount, but can still be considered a leaner tonality than what some may want. 

Where the Quintet really excels is its resolution and soundstage width and depth at its price point. I was pretty impressed with its imaging and separation, while still maintaining the resolution that made their extremely forward-sounding Orchestra Lite standout. In that specific model, the resolution was very good, but it also just brought everything forward and lacked any depth and dynamics. The Quintet does not compromise one for the other here, giving it a much more balanced technical result.

Final Thoughts

The Quintet is a good sounding IEM. It can be a little lean and bright for some, but for those looking for a balanced and neutral reference IEM at a relatively affordable price, this is a good option compared to other stuff out there.