Emerald is one of the new products after Coffee Bean and Plume. The other brother (or twin. They are same priced) of Emerald is Melody. Both cheap and proesteticalled looking, Emerald is the nicest of them all. Now we’ll be seeing if the sound is that nice too + cable and amp effect will be discussed as well.
Box, Box Contents, Specs, CCZ Emerald And Cable
Box is the tiny budget box we and I are used to. Plain colored with iem’s illustration at the front and specs in both (Chinese and English) & The Emerald’s contents doesn’t differ from the others. They are just enough for their jobs. S, M and L silicone eartips, detached cable and some documents tucked in the small box.
Brand: CCZ.
Model: Emerald.
Color: Green； Blue.
Interface/Connector：2PIN 0.78MM.
Plug type: 3.5MM.
Impedance: 16±2Ω
Sensitivity: 110±3dB.
Frequency response：20hz-20KHZ.
CCZ Emerald is looking surprisingly emerald (genius!). Emerald colored backplate and prosthetic looking emerald colored earpiece that is filling the concha cymba. Body of its case is transparent, comfort is so high with its concha cymba extension and the cable is replaceable. Its one of the iems you can lay your head on while sleeping.
Cable is a mediocre looking tightly machine braided black cable. While the single line of its cable does look weak and poor, the cable’s main line consists of 4 plastic insulated copper lines braided around each other and thus we have a boost at strength here. First connector is L shaped and Y split + chin guard pieces haven’t been forgotten. This is nice considering its price tag. You shouldn’t expect a thick cable at this tag.
Sound
Timbre is dark, nearly pitch black dark like one of the famous stars many already know of (e1k) and warm to neutral. Presentation is forward (as many budgets do with a purpose) but airy to an extent* and layering is not that poor. Thus I didn’t get the compression impression. Stage is between okay and wide. And I am not hearing synthetic soundspace where the instruments are all real. This naturality (of course keeping the budget price in mind) is one of it’s good points. And speaking of good points, driveability is soo high. 40/100 volume on LG G7 is like 60/100 to my ears at Emerald.
10mm DD driver and customized BA driver. Tonality and 3d imaging are so so at Emerald. These are due to first forward nature (and it’s vocals too), drivers selected to keep the iem at budget and slight blur at the background. I have a hard time tracking 6 different stringed instruments playing calmly in the background. And I won’t push my luck with other bands with multiple (6+) instruments. Clarity is one or two marks better than tonality. Even though it’s poor in monitoring, at live recording of a band of 4 members it is showing some promise. Separation is good enough when the background performance ain’t muddy. And able to keep everything separated most of the time. Body is not strong when it’s most needed**
*Both the general feeling and air around the instruments or drum hits.
**At Evergrey or Dream Theater I had expected a thunderous bass with body and speed but the result I got might be because of the cable and the tip most probably.
Bass is adequate for gentle genres with moderate BPM values. Fast and complex is hazardous for it. Electronics? Nay.
Mid is good enough to do it’s job. I had begun to appreciate its technical parameters with more time listening to Emerald. Take my word.
Treble is not great. And for this price segment, it’s impossible / so rare to find one. But you are not having a synthetic treble fest that tires you shortly after beginning to listen.
Cabling the Emerald
Used 6N OCC cable. I know its not smart to use a cable more expensive than the iem but I wanted to see how it goes.
Treble and extensions gained power. Now the Emerald can dig only an inch deeper. But the body at it’s sound hugely improved & separation of the vocal and instruments rose up. Overall clarity and dynamics improved more than body and separation.
While a 6N pure copper cable can get this results, even a 5N would be good too.
Amping the Emerald
50mV of Q5KQ5K didn’t turn into an ear hurting experience. But moved the vocals nearer than the level that cable change did. Body improvement is at it’s max so music can be congested when the traffic is high in a track. But basses at dubstep increased to an insane level! And left me with an impressed face..
Anyway, using an amp to listen to Emerald is totally unnecessary but fun. If explosions in bass are your thing, I’d suggest you look elsewhere.
CCZ Emerald Review Conclusions
Airy feeling and not narrow stage + comfort of the drivers body is resulting in a nice experience. Not having clogged moments or sibilant vocals are adding points to its final score. Even though the cable rolling is adding high value to the Emerald, it is still good enough (%75) for it’s price.
