Review: Kiwi Ears Ardor wireless headphones
Review unit provided by Kiwi Ears
Kiwi Ears Ardor is a Bluetooth so-called audiophile headphone with dual drivers and ANC with a price tag of USD 99, and sometimes can be found on Amazon for USD 79.
My review is from the perspective of a budget conscious non-technical person so there won't be any frequency charts. If you need frequency charts, check out the head-fi.org reviews.
Pros and cons at a glance:
+ Good looking design
+ Comfortable
+ Lightweight 286g
+ Comes with carrying case
+ Good audio quality for the price
+ Dual driver
+ Long battery life (140hr normal, 72hr with ANC)
+ Decent ANC and pass-through
+ Affordable
+ Can be paired to two devices
- Build quality feels cheap (because it is cheap)
- No proximity sensor
- No companion app
Specifications
- Bluetooth: 5.4
- Noise Reduction Depth: -32dB±3dB
- Drivers: Dynamic 40mm + 10mm (Coaxial)
- Audio Codecs: SBC, AAC
- Sensitivity: 100±3dB @1kHz 1mW
- Frequency Response: 20Hz ~ 40KHz
- Impedance: 32Ω
- Battery Capacity: 1100mAh
- Battery life: 72 hours (ANC on), 140 hours (ANC off)
- Fast Charging 10 mins = 8 hours playback
Things included
- Headphones
- USB-C charging cable
- 3.5mm audio cable
- Carrying case
I was quite surprised the company had included a rather good and sturdy carrying zipped case.
Design
These headphones look good. They are foldable and can be compacted into smaller size.
Main downside is the build quality feels cheap, because the headphones are cheap. I don't suppose they will break apart on their own unless they are physically abused so I'm not too worried about the build quality. For the price of these earphones, build quality would be the main compromise.
Top of the ear cups has this leather-like material with the Kiwi Ears imprint. There are physical buttons for volume control, power, ANC/pass-through/normal mode. There's also a 3.5mm audio jack.
Ear cups are big enough to cover my small ears completely. Cushion also has the leather-like material and is very soft. The cushion is so soft it can form contours easily over my spectacle frame.
Overall comfort is good for wearing for long period of time. They do become sticky when my face sweats though, so I don't think these are good for warm and humid climate unless you have air-conditioning.
Audio specs
Audio codecs supported are SBC and AAC.
The dual driver setup uses a 40mm driver for mids and bass, and 10mm driver for treble.
USB playback with its built-in DAC/AMP chipset, allowing for high-resolution music playback across Apple, Android, and Windows devices.
ANC provides up to 35db of noise reduction. ANC is quite effective, even at cancelling out a noisy vacuum cleaner around me. Pass-through is quite clear.
Audio quality
Audio quality is surprisingly good for headphones that are just USD 99, with a carrying case included.
There's good amount of treble, mids and bass. There's good clarity with voice. I am incredibly impressed by the audio quality. With the right songs I could feel the chills when listening with such cheap headphones.
I'm comparing this with the USD 999 Mark Levinson no 5909 and has slightly better sound separation and other features (companion app, proximity sensor, LDAC and AptX codes). So it's either the Kiwi Ears Ardor is delivering incredible value or the ML5909 is seriously overpriced (probably is).
It is difficult to complain about the audio quality given the price point of these earphones. You can get better headphones (better sound and build quality) if you spend another USD 100 but chances are those headphones won't be two times better, and hence that's where the Kiwi Ear Ardor's value clearly shows.
Battery life
Battery life is rated at 72 hours with ANC on, or 140 hours without ANC. A quick charge of 10 minutes can you get 8 hours of listening time.
Having such a long battery life means the headphones rarely needs to be charged. And that means you won't be able to run the charge cycles up, which means the battery health can last for a very long time, e.g. years.
Other notes
These headphones can be paired to two devices. Switching between devices is as easy as pressing the Play button on the device you want to use.
There's no proximity sensor so media will not pause when you remove the headphones. I did not realise how much I miss this feature until it's not available.
There's no companion app but it's not as issue as the audio sounds great out of the box.
The headphones do not show any power light when it's powered on.
Conclusion
These headphones feel cheap, are cheap, but the audio quality is surprisingly good, comparable to competitors that are several times more expensive.
If you're looking for cheap and good headphones, these are the ones to consider seriously.
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