Pioneer CH3 Review – Surprising!

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Pioneer CH3 is a slightly warm and a somewhat bright off neutral single DD micro-driver earphone that excels by its cohesive sound, superb resolution, and natural timbre.

INTRODUCTION

Earphones have certainly experienced quite a recent push accompanying a price decline  of balanced armature (BA) drivers. Not even 10 years ago, Sennheiser marketed their CX-300 model as an upgrade of the buds that came with your phone, and 5 years ago, their follow-up CX-300B MKII Precision was considered to be in the top 10 of earphones/headphones below $500. Both featured a single dynamic (DD) driver that reproduced voices quite well (“telephone calls”) but also generated an overly muddy bass.

More recently, people got excited over the advent of affordable multi-drivers from China, mainly because of value for money. But multi-drivers require big housings and are therefore problematic for some ears, and the interplay of the different drivers may not produce the desired cohesive, natural sound. Some companies shell out model after model in short succession attempting to get their budget multis up to snuff. On the other hand, major brandnames such as NAD, Pioneer, Focal, Bowers & Wilkins, and Sennheiser have held on exclusively to single DDs – and some boutique manufacturers also carry the odd single DD model. The brandnames did not implement practical gimmicks such as exchangeable cables and some of their pricing is rather high (i.e. Sennheiser ie800S).

One of these manufacturers, Pioneer, is a Japanese multinational corporation, founded in 1938, that today specializes in digital entertainment products. To me, Pioneer have made their good name through innovative and robust cassette decks and by the introduction of the “laser disc” (yes, I am that old). Many purists and long-time earphone wizards have also held on to single dynamic-driver (DD) earphones despite temptations, claiming that DDs re-produce sound more accurately and naturally, despite potential shortcomings in resolution detail. And they are most comfortable in the opinion of many.

The Pioneer CH3 is a low-budget “Hi-Res” labeled single DD micro-driver earphone that was brought to my attention by such an “old” earphone aficionado as being the budget discovery of early 2019. I will demonstrate in the following that good sound and high prices are not well correlated and that you can get perfect musical enjoyment for little money.

SPECIFICATIONS

IN THE BOX…

S/M/L silicon earphone tips, user manual, and warranty card.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, HAPTIC, AND BUILD QUALITY

Housing and base are made of rigid aluminum in order to minimize vibration and therefore maximize clarity. The 5.5 mm micro driver is graphene coated. The cable comes with a remote with an ergonomically good as large button is sitting on the left. The strain reliefs look sturdy enough. Since the cable is not detachable, we don’t have to worry about “upgrades” and resulting impedance issues. The connector is angled at 90°. Quite frankly, the cable will not break any world record in terms of robustness and appearance but it works for those who don’t listen with their eyes.

ERGONOMICS, COMFORT, ISOLATION, FIT, EARTIPS, SOURCE

A thin, piston-shaped microdriver has the advantage that essentially nothing but the rubber tip and cable touch the ear. It therefore cannot be beaten in terms of comfort by any other design. The included largest wide-bore tips were too thin walled  for me and I replaced them with similar looking however sturdier Tennmak Whirlwind tips. These go deep into my ears and seal very well.

TONALITY

JK’s tonal preference and testing practice

I make it short, this single DD earphone is insanely good: slightly warm and a bit bright off neutral, superb clarity, a good depth and therefore 3D reproduction, a decent attack, an unobtrusive bass with a natural decay. Midrange shows a good presence and the treble is firm, shimmering and shiny. Sticklers may find the bass not extended enough. The overall sound is homogeneous and cohesive and the timbre couldn’t be more natural.

I have used the Pioneer CH3 mainly for listening to classical music, where it shines in instrument separation and layering – absolutely outstanding. Considering its coherence, I have yet to find a multi-driver Chifi earphone to beat it in both tonality and fit.

And that’s it.

SELECT COMPARISONS

All of the earphones below are single DDs and recommended by “experts”.

Hifi Walker A1 (modded) ($24-49): the A1 has a wider but not as deep a soundstage. It is brighter, less mid-centric, with more treble quantity. The Pioneer CH3 is warmer and more relaxed. Both are great.

Blitzwolf BW ES1 (modded) (~$13): this one has a faster and tighter bass and a more neutral tonality with a wider but shallower stage. It sounds more accurate and analytical but less organic than the Pioneer CH3 and approaches the Etymotic sound. But its 3 kHz peak can cause hardness fatigue after longer listening. Another superbly resolving budget earphone.

Sony MH1C ($23-80): a perennial favourite with audio enthusiasts and infamous for its awkward J-shaped ribbon-noodle cable, the MH1C features a more prominent low end and less clarity and sense of space (less treble?) than the CH3. A good candidate to be replaced by the more refined CH3.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The Pioneer CH3 follows the footsteps of the (modded) HifiWalker A1 and Blitzwolf ES1 in that one can get excellent sound for little money. It shows that single DDs are far from dead and that recent progress is not limited to BAs. A good DD is still hard to beat when it comes to the accurate reproduction of (natural) sounds (e.g. strings, wind instruments) and COMFORT/FIT. Pioneer have gotten this one right and show that it does not take xx drivers stuffed into an more or less uncomfortable in-ear “condo building” to achieve great sound!

If you are a purist who doesn’t care about window dressing and marketing gimmicks such as “unboxing experience”, fancy cables, etc., and considering that you can fork out >40 times as much for a single DD (list price), then you will be more than happy with the superb and engaging sounding Pioneer CH3.

DISCLAIMER

I purchased this earphone for $22 CAD. The list price at the time of this review was $49.99 CAD and $29.99 USD.

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