Kinera Idun Golden

This is Kinera Idun Golden pre review / first impressions / review and pros / cons. I’ll be covering amped and cable rolled sections in the review. Disclaimer: This sample is provided by Kinera, my opinions are unbiased as always and all is out of my perspective. I’ll be listening off V30+ and high impedance mode on. Your experience might be slightly different.

Kinera is a brand from China. QoA is their sister. While some brands focused primarily on aesthetics, some concentrated on function and sound quality. After the days of Tyr, Sif, Seed and Kif Kinera positioned themselves in the mid tiers of premium by Idun, Freya and Baldr. They combine aesthetics and sound quality in one shell now we have Idun 2.0 or Idun Golden. Let’s start with first impressions.

Almost great transparency and everything in the flow. Timbre is neutral to dark off V30+. Great transparency is netting in monitoring ability. I didn’t hear any bass at all in David Lanz ‘piano save the songs’ orchestral minutes. So to test its bass I am listening to contrabass and dubstep. The entrance of the Final Victory the dark atmosphere is enveloping me in the grim story the song tells. Basses are heavy and 3d imaging is so enjoyable. And the flute near the ending of the sound is easily heard in its tone. The same is valid for dubstep too. Bass hits of the electronic record (Mercy feat the Arcturians) are heavy. Vocals are clean. And the sub bass is there even only fed by a smartphone. I can “feel” when the bass is pounding recklessly.

For mid, treble and other technicalities I am using my standard test track. Hans Zimmer’s Live in Prague beginning. The soundstage is huge for an iem and with the help of its transparency, instruments are selectable one by one. Stage width is almost the same as what it was in the stadium. Treble is neutral enough. Mids are quite good along with other technicalities.

Ps: my perception and conclusion didn’t change after plugging it in several hours later. Thus I had eliminated the first minute euphony.

Pros

Outstanding hand painted looks

Heavy bass

Natural mids

The soundstage

Neutrality

Big list of technicalities I don’t want to list here one by one.

Cons

Cable is reminding me of KBear Aurora

Metallic safety accessories (like Y split and the first metallic barrel) isn’t in coherence with the cable

Amplifier favoring nature

Box and Box Contents, Kinera Idun Golden and the cable

Kinera standard hexagonal box is so lovely from outside and pretty full inside with two converters (3.5mm to 4.4mm and 6.3mm), hexagonal shaped manual, wooden looking carrying case, multiple eartips for different uses and the cable + unit. This design is giving the brand an unique look and was the same till their first iem many years ago..

Kinera Idun Golden is almost jewel looking with ergonomic lines and a single venting hole plus the pig nose nozzle that is hinting the crossover inside. Backplate is hand painted carefully. You gotta see the time consuming paint job closer 🙂 And a recessed 2 pin female socket for its cable.

The cable is a thick and soft 8 cored and braided combination of blue and white lines. First connector (the barrel after the jack) and other accessories are in the same dark gray metal as well. Oh and modular too. This is a nice feature.

Kinera 7mm Titanium Plated Dome PU + 1 Knowles BA + 1 Kinera Customize BA
Impedance: 32 Ohms.
Sensitivity: 112+/- 2 dB.
Frequency Response Range: 20Hz-20kHz.
8 Cores OFC+ OFC with Silver Plated Modular Cable
Plug with 3.5mm , 4.4mm and 6.35mm

Sound

Timbre is neutral with slight darkness and more than moderate notal weight / body. The sound is natural anyway. The following sound review is done out of V30+. Tonality is its one of the strongest points and transparency as well. Soundstage at live recordings fit to the original and reach HUGE volume at Live in Prague of Hans Zimmer but compressed into a somewhat small low ceilng room where Lebowski – The Last King is recorded live.

Frequencies are not melding in each other. And the bass is not overwhelming (or even not present) where the track isn’t calling it. C’mon this ain’t a %100 neutral iem like er2se but its neutrality is enough to keep it’s bass from bleeding. Even though the success, basses can’t dive deep into sub bass levels off V30. And they carry thumpy characteristics with rounded ending of bass hits but this is a subject of neutrality because you can’t observe the same bass hits at another band.. I’ll see its real face when amped below.

Mids

Mids are wonderfully detailed and instruments well separated. Contrabass’ intro at the Final Victory is solid as that instrument must be at the records where it is mixed that way. And its helping you hear every single instrument if the record is proper.

Treble

Treble can reach high registers at the Tubular Bells of Mike Oldfield. However due to its lower treble, not ideal for Synth playing 80’s music. (Heart Mirror comes to mind here) But a slight roll off is detected in its treble. Although covering it up with the resolution in treble, might not be the perfect iem for smooth jazz sessions. But electronic treble is not disturbing and no sibilance which is good.

Amping Kinera Idun Golden Amp is Qudelix q5k. Bass strength is reduced. Resolution increased much further and treble gained sparkle than it had unamped. Mids benefited from this overall improvement as the coherency rose up into a fluid level. Layering got powered up too. Normally planar magnets show their true nature when powered up. But most probably the dual BA it contained had waited for this moment 🙂 Amp is Qudelix q5k. Bass strength is reduced. Resolution increased much further and treble gained sparkle than it had unamped. Mids benefited from this overall improvement as the coherency rose up into a fluid level. Layering got powered up too. Normally planar magnets show their true nature when powered up. But most probably the dual BA it contained had waited for this moment 🙂

Recabling Kinera Idun Golden The first thing to notice is the increase in sound level. And clarity. Bass decreased too. Even though it didn’t add up treble, now the recording is more free to give me its original.

Without its stock cable hinderance, 80’s music is more fun to listen to. Plus this whole new nature is very helpful on the tonality too and now my listening is more faithful to the record. This new revealing nature is showing me some tricks the record engineer did on the track’s main mix. But no, its not a new ER in very nice colors. 🙂