Yuin PK1

Portable music geeks have long-stumped for excellent reference-oriented earbuds that can match the sound quality of true in-ear canal (ECH) designs. Chinese audio manufacturer Yuin has risen to the tricky bait and produced a set of earbuds that come shockingly close to ear canal headphones but without the deep ear canal insertion and poor comfort issues of ECHs. For listeners with very sensitive ears, small-sized ear canals, or for folks who don't want to hassle with the fastidious and precise process of properly seating ear canal headphones, the new PK1 Yuin earbuds will come as nothing short of a sonic revelation. The really impressive thing is how clearly textured and well-detailed these things sound once you have a dedicated headphone amp overcoming the PK1's rather demanding sensitivity/impedance ratings. (For a great earbud that does not necessarily require an amp, check out Yuin's low-impedance PK2 model) For head-amp users, the PK1's neutral, transparent treble range extension and its tightly focused, punchy bass response is easily light-years ahead of any other earbuds we've heard -- as the PK1's rather upscale price indicates. Naturally, don't expect tons of ambient noise-blocking ability when compared to even basic ECH designs but if great sound, not great isolation, is your big driving factor the Yuin PK1s will put a gigantically pleased ear-to-ear smile on your great-sounding head.

The Yuins PK1 come with a selection of thin foam mesh earpads: A couple of pairs with the hole-in-the-middle style and one pair without the hole. Unlike the PK3's 4-ft 'J' -cable designs, the PK1 has a quality 5-ft 'Y'-cable style with even-sided cord lengths going to each ear. All the Yuin earbuds are available only with matte-black cord & earpieces. A slickster wood-paneled little gift box contains the PK1 and all accessories like the gold-plated 1/4" full-size plug adaptor. The PK1's 20-24000Hz audio response matches that of most high-quality ECH designs.

Oh yeah, one more thing: the Yuin booklet and instructions are all written in Chinese so good luck with that.