Kinera Urd is on our bench after a generous loaner from one of our followers. First of all; do not lay your head down on a pillow when wearing Urd..Just saying 🙂
Second, prepare your cable like Dunu Amber or any cable which ignites its tri engine
Third, enlarge your concha while it is on your way, if it already isn’t so. I know it can create some issues but if you follow 2nd, 3rd is mandatory.
Kinera is a seasoned company with lots of IEMs targeted at higher segments. However, they have not botched their sub 200 releases since their first days of releasing premium IEMs. Kinera Urd’s looks are intimidating, but looks are only looks, and they resemble the sound too. Let’s hear Kinera Urd’s sound through Mahir’s words.
Pros_
Organic, Neutral
Smooth
ER character
Cons_
Lack slam
Lack instrument separation in certain recordings
Size
OG cable is dragging it down
The Sound
The listening is done with its 4.4 plug installed on its stock cable. Organic is the best word to describe my words if I am asked “How does Kinera Urd sound like” and neutral is my second word. Neutral but with boosted basses like its gigantic (considering iems) shell size.
Background is dead silent, there is plenty of body and with Urd and you can catch everything that moves in live recordings. It is producing great joy in live performances and brilliant layering if you don’t mind the low res upper treble extensions.
Crowd control is magnificent though the stage looks diminished a little. Urd is not a fan of Hans Zimmer and the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra. Layering is deep too, this is helping its stage control. However, this diminishing is creating some laid back vocal production and near to each other in live performances. BUT hearing some tracks in its OG details and tonalities are priceless. Is it necessary to say that it depicts a quarter of the ER character?
Bass is a magnificent feature of it by producing enough sub bass. The already normal to slow bass speed is incapable of creating slams but the bass is really satisfying. Thanks to its neutral to dark timbre off dx300. Being good at math rock (Ichikoro and Playing God) gave me a smiling face. Handling complex tracks and genres well is a merit of it. This means attacks and congestion are no issue. I want to see it with other cables too 😉
Cables__
With Leonidas II
Boy, this ain’t the some millennia ago deceased kings rope. But pay a grand and grab a rope from its resting place.
Leo added a tone of crispiness in it. And smoothed its layering and added resolution in all levels. Created a living thing through live recordings. Adding life even in 3.5mm is something. The treble and vocal extension improved as the brightness was reduced. Now the experience is great with modern good recordings. As a result, you lose some body AND subbass capacity while gaining some low end from Urd.
With Dunu Amber
Now we’re talking! Leaving aside the oddity of a $100 cable sounding better than a $1000 cable (this is called synchronicity), bass can now descend to subbass levels and have great treble (and upper treble too). Basses have sharper edges on top of their ER/4 layering capacity, and they aren’t crashing parties with Urd’s mid-bass. It had great potential, but the deceased king’s rope wasn’t a good handler for our Urdie 😉 math rock is very good now with all the Sonions and Knowles and ESTs’ perfect potential unleashed..However, it seems that it’s ignoring the background of the stadium wide stage of live performances.
Kinera Urd Review
Verdict
Only after switching to a high-spec cable and activating the high power balanced output on the H-gain DX300 has the Kinera Urd begun to make progress toward its original goal. After all, if you have an extra $600 to spend on an in-ear monitor, you would construct a wire similar to the one Amber has here. And imagine that what would a cable do unto other Kineras that are reviewed so far.
In my perspective, the introduction of Urds is a step in the right direction for Kinera. It not only looks fantastic, but it also performs admirably in terms of acoustics. It also has several shortcomings in itself, the most notable of which are to its size and price in relation to its performance. Additionally, the treble should be airy. When I paid more attention, I discovered that the Urds had a more refined tone to them. Other problems, or things I didn’t like, were just me being picky, and Kinera did a great job creating and improving the URD as a whole.