Kinera, Chinese name "King's Era", is a veteran headphone manufacturer with a history of more than ten years, the early foreign trade and OEM-based, 16 years of formal establishment of the King's Era Kinera label, into the HiFi headset market, currently at home and abroad have good sales, and many times shortlisted for the Japanese VGP Awards, in the domestic JD and other e-commerce platforms also have "comments exceeded 10,000" star items, its market sales also indirectly illustrate the strength of its products.
About the name, appearance and accessories
Kinera often uses Norse mythology to name products, and URD is no exception, "Urd is the name of the eldest sister in Norse mythology who is in charge of the three goddesses of fate, she is in charge of the "past" in fate, she often looks back, as if she is thinking about the past people or things, she records everything that happens in the world into the magic book, and teaches the gods and humans the valuable experience of the past." The URD headphones were inspired by the place where the three goddesses settled, the meeting place of the gods, and the fountain of Ould, on which Yggdrasil, the tree of the world, lived.
URD through the "face value" is a good presentation of the spring water overflow and deep artistic conception, is one of the most matching headphones for design inspiration and naming, after all, there is a brand with a special painter's hand-painted appearance, the details and texture are also full, no need to describe too much, see the picture, this set of pictures I also only use a lamp to complete, because the product itself is beautiful enough.
The packaging is still Kinera's representative hexagonal "mooncake box" design, and the back has detailed product parameters and frequency response curves, showing professionalism.
Accessories are still rich to exceed the standard, especially headphone covers, there are four categories, namely balanced sleeves, vocal sleeves, memory foam sleeves and Japanese Final E sets (genuine license)
The wire is made of monocrystalline copper + monocrystalline copper silver plating + monocrystalline copper exclusive three kinds of mixing, the wire is delicate and soft, and the standard can replace the 4.4mm and 2.5mm balanced plug, as well as the 3.5mm standard stereo plug, ready to use, no tossing.
The appearance of the headphone box is also quite high, and the robin blue PU material
Overall, urd packaging, accessories and details are quite careful, especially the appearance is unforgettable. However, I have a small complaint, the font of the URD on the right earbud is a bit over-straightened, or there is a serif font, and it may be more natural to change it to a handwritten style.
About acoustics and sound performance
Since last year, there are more and more plugs for the mixing of static electricity, moving iron and moving coil, AND URD has also adopted this configuration, and its core is composed of a new generation of EST65DB01 composite dual electrostatic unit + 8mm titanium crystal coaxial double dynamic ring + Kinera custom K11021 moving iron unit, which is responsible for the high, low and medium frequency bands, and plays the advantages of the unit itself to jointly create high-quality sound performance.
Mixing units generally have two pits, one is that the frequency band connection is not there will be a sense of disconnection, especially some instruments with a relatively large range span, and the other is whether there is a difference in the transient performance of different units, and whether there is an obvious sense of inconsistency in timbre.
URD is a perfect avoidance of these two pits, one is the choice of unit transients are very fast, including the low-frequency part of the dynamic unit, using 8mm micro-dynamic design, and is a titanium crystal diaphragm, rigidity and toughness are excellent, good transient, consistent with moving iron and electrostatic unit, so there is no sense of disharmony. The band bits are also very well done, the transition bands are smooth, and there is no obvious disconnection and stacking.
URD in the sound, what impressed me the most is the sense of delicacy, is the whole, not a certain frequency band and or a certain type of music style, whether it is a large opening of the classical music and movie soundtrack, or a lyrical voice or ACG burning music, a very delicate, very gentle, very comfortable feeling, in essence, should be the advantages of the three units together, and a certain degree of reconciliation, there is no sense of rigidity and abruptness. Of course, URDs are also neutral, clear and moist HiFi routes.
Medium frequency and vocals, URD in this frequency band is mainly responsible for the moving iron unit, the unit is customized for Kinera, find some unplugged or live vocal vocals, will find that the tooth sound has modified polishing marks, but does not affect the singer's own voice, whether it is a magnetic male voice or a sweet female voice, can be accurately restored, the performance of the vocal part is quite good, the sound is precise, gentle, delicate, especially in some very "burning" ACG tracks, the vocals can also be well highlighted, not covered by low frequencies, Nor will it be snatched up by the C position by high frequencies.
The low-frequency and very low-frequency parts are responsible for the coaxial micro-dynamic unit, the dynamic and transient core performance is not bad, the ability to write and martial arts, in the pure low-frequency audition song such as "Drum Poems", the low-frequency diving is deep enough, the different drum sounds are layered, the residual sound is moderate, not dragging, and the most important thing is that the sound is not boring. In the repertoire of chamber music or field recording, the spatial position and junction reduction of low-frequency instruments are also good, very restrained, not too much squeeze of the mid-frequency, not too weak, lack of sense of atmosphere.
High frequency and very high frequency part is responsible for the new electrostatic unit of the sound yang, compared to the previous generation of unit high frequency sound overall increased by 3 db, so the sound is no longer auxiliary, but can independently play its own sound characteristics, in addition to the same extremely high frequency extension, brightness and line sense, compared to the moving iron and dynamic unit also has a more delicate feeling, a modification is not obvious delicacy.
On the restoration of the soundstage, THE URD belongs to the middle and upper level, left and right open, before and after is also good, the overall order, the sense of boundary is not obvious (this depends on personal taste), the overall band live level of the track is no problem, the large compilation of classical can also be a rush (but personally feel that it is not too appropriate)
In terms of style collocation, URD is not suitable for hardcore rock and metal style, because the overall sound is not hard enough; it is not suitable for large classical, although the sound field restoration and timbre can match, but the low-frequency part of the sense of volume is weak, can not restore the "sense of oppression".
In addition to the above few styles, most of the pan-pop and ACG tracks are no problem, delicate, protruding from the style of mid-frequency interpretation, can be competent for most of the vocal repertoire, and the unique sense of delicacy can also pull back a lot of stimulating ACG songs and correct the vocal parts.
With collocation, personally recommend choosing a small tail with excellent quality, or some mid-range players, without deliberately looking for a warm front end, the URD itself has a good sense of music.
end
I don't want to deliberately associate the name of the URD with the sound, but the sound of the URD really has a deep spring-like quiet overflow, deep, clear, gentle texture, but also has a good quality and excellent sense of hearing, coupled with a unique appearance, in the same kind of headphones is a very competitive existence.
Balance is beauty, symmetry is beauty, balance is beauty!
April 14, 2022 by Stray Reflex