The Kiwi Ears Cadenza II Might Be All You Need to Start

Upfront I’ve always been a fan of a good single DD, I have the original Cadenza and while I haven’t reviewed it I thought that it did a great job at its price point and recommended it to a few friends who were looking for a good entry into the hobby. The new Cadenza II comes in at $49.99, so $15 higher than the OG, does it make a case to be considered at the price point? Let’s find out.

The Cadenza II comes in a small box, when you open it the two IEM’s are displayed nicely. Under that you have the cable and two sets of tips in three sizes. Standard and wide-bore. The wide-bore tips included are the perfect tips for the Cadenza II in my opinion and all my impressions are based off those. The cable is also decent for the price point and I have no complaints at all about it.

The shells are quite nice, the faceplate is metal and looks great, the shells feel great to touch and feel great in the ear. I had some extended listening times with these and had no pain/urge to remove them.

I listened out of my Cayin N6iii with the R2R motherboard for the majority of my time with the Cadenza II, listening to anything and everything.

Onto the sound!

Bass:

The bass here is controlled and textured. It doesn’t sound like $50 bass, I’m not quite sure what magic is happening in these but if I didn’t know better I’d say the pair was in the 100-200 bracket. It handled everything I threw its way well, with slam and impact when needed, rumble where the track calls for it, again all extremely well controlled. It’s not a bass focussed set, but it delivers when a track calls for it. Running through my standard bass test tracks I was continually impressed by how well the Cadenza II handled them all. Great job!

Mids:

The mids are just lovely (from a musical sense). With the bass being handled superbly you don’t have any bleed into this region, so they come across clean and articulate. Similar to the bass the DD is doing a better job than I would expect for the price point, and wouldn’t have been surprised if it was more expensive. It also has pretty much the perfect amount of weight for my tastes, this would obviously be a personal preference but I was impressed from the get go, when I popped them in my ears for the first time the mids fit me like a glove.

Vocals are also great across male and female vocalists, they come across quite natural with just the right amount of weight to them. At this price point sets are usually too thin, or too thick for vocals, the Cadenza II is pretty much perfect. They are also placed where I would expect them in the stage, they come across articulate when they should, they step back a bit when the track calls for it, great!

Where they show their price point would be in detail, while everything sounds somewhat natural it doesn’t have the level of detail to the sound that you get with a more expensive DD or hybrid setup. It’s not a problem, and when you’re listening you don’t notice (unless you’re comparing), but the detail is punching at its price point.

All up, very impressive mids at this price point, probably my favourite at $50 now.

Treble:

When I listen for reviews my brain knows what to listen for in each region, but it’s generally looking for variations from a baseline. I find it hard to write about the treble on the Cadenza II as it’s close to whatever baseline I have in my brain. What does that mean? That the treble here doesn’t do anything magnificently well, nor anything that would be a cause for alarm. I originally had written that it’s safe, but I don’t think that’s fair, I think it’s well connected to the tuning that they’re going for here and that most people will be perfectly happy with how it performs.

Technical performance:

The stage here is what I’d call standard, it’s certainly not narrow or congested with enough space for music to envelop you. Imaging is decent, not pinpoint, but enough that you get a decent idea of where things are within the stage. There isn’t much ability to dig into the layers of music, it’s more like a curved movie screen around you. Perfectly acceptable at its price point.

Subjective thoughts:

It’s an impressive little set. If this were a $200 set I’d have some reservations in recommending it whole heartedly, but at $50 I have no such reservations. The wide bore tips were a great move from Kiwi Ears as they pair up perfectly with the DD in this set. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to music on the Cadenza II, no matter what I threw at it I was delivered an enjoyable music experience, and with the right tracks I was left being impressed. The mids are the standout for me, you’re getting something that you’d generally need to pay at least double for.

Overall:

Recommended. A great follow up to the OG Cadenza, it’s a little more but you get better shells, better cable, better tips, and a better musical experience. It’ll replace the OG Cadenza as my entry point for people when they tell me that they want to get a ‘cheap but good’ IEM. Well done Kiwi Ears.

Scorecard at $49.99:

Category	Score	Notes
Bass	4.5/5	Controlled, textured, and genuinely impressive for the price. Not bass-head tuned, but delivers slam and rumble when asked.
Mids	5/5	The standout. Natural weight, clean, musical, and shockingly good at $50. Vocals are nailed.
Treble	4/5	Well integrated and natural. Doesn’t draw attention to itself, but nothing offensive or missing either.
Technicalities	3.5/5	Stage and imaging are solid for the price, layering is limited but expected.
Build/Design	4.5/5	Excellent shells, great fit, no fatigue even in longer sessions.
Value	5/5	One of the easiest recommendations at $50 right now.
Overall	4.5/5	Mids and value elevate this to higher than the average for me. You always compromise at this price point, you’re not compromising on much at all with this set. A very strong recommendation.