Queen Of Audio Pink Lady Review – Shaken Or Stirred?
Pros — Low impedance/high sensitivity; look fashionable.
Cons — Middle of the road tuning; too bassy for most; lacks coherence; big earpieces; no nozzle lips: tips tend to get stuck in my ear canals.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Queen of Audio Pink Lady is a warm sounding, earphone with mainstream tuning and a potential basshead appeal.
INTRODUCTION
Queen of Audio is a young company. It was established in 2018 by two audio queens, the sisters Sophie and Youco. It is a spinoff of Kinera and the company mainly utilizes Kinera’s technical team. Emphasis is laid on fashionable, yet simple and therefore effective designs.
Traditionally, Pink Lady has been a gin-based cocktail with quite a long history. When reviewing this earphone, I wished I had a few of them as it was a very labourious job characterized by toilsome effort. You will soon find out, why.
SPECIFICATIONS
Triple Driver: 10 mm DD and Dual BA driver unit
Impedance: 16 ohm
Sensitivity: 112 +/- 1 dB
Frequency Response Range: 20 Hz – 20k Hz
Cable: copper+SPC Cable with 0.78mm Two-pin interface and 3.5mm termination plug
Tested at: $119
Company website: http://www.qoa-audio.com/
Product link: hifigo
PHYSICAL THINGS AND USABILITY
The Pink Lady comes with:
The Earpieces
One 8-Core Hybrid Cable with 3.5mm Termination Plug
Three Pairs of Black Silicone Ear tips
Three Pairs of White Silicone Ear tips
One Pair of Foam tips
One Zippered Carry Case
User Guide
The earpieces are made of resin, reminiscent of KZ models, and the shells are rather bulky. They stick quite a bit out of my ears but are reasonably comfortable. The nozzles lack a lip, which causes a lot of havoc with the tips getting stuck in my ears. Isolation is quite good. Haptic and build are ok but behind, for example, the $70 TRN-VX. The 8-core cable is a copper and silver-plated copper hybrid and it is well shielded. It is nicely supple and comes with a chin slider. In the box are also two sets of silicone tips and a pair of foam tips, none of which worked for me. The roomy round pleather case may actually be real leather and it is positively distinct from the usual fare. The design and accessories required a couple of additional sections…and a few real Pink Ladies.
THE ART OF TIP ROLLING
The Queen of Audio Pink Lady, in combination with my ear canals, is very tip sensitive. In fact, super sensitive so that I had a very hard timing finding the right tips. The included white wide-bores on the short nozzles created a super U-shape with overly recessed mids and a really pounding rubbery bass (“early KZ multis”), the black narrow-bore stock tips were good but they did not stay on the nozzles and remained in my ears every time I pulled the shells out. Azla SednaEarfits produced yet another very unpleasant mid-bass hump that pounded mercilessly against my ear drums, and the Spinfit CP145 slowed down the bass (in my perception) and muffled the midrange. JVC Spiral Dots and KZ Starline tips created a really dull sound.
Now what?
I pulled some super old narrow-bore tips out of my drawers, the ones that came with the early KZ single DD earphones such as the EDR1. They were similar in design and sound to the black stock tips – but they actually stayed on the nozzle for most of the time. These also dialled the bass back quite a bit, which brought the vocals forward, and this also made the upper midrange more audible. Overall, the nozzles are a design flaw, created a lot of havoc, and it took me a lot of time to get the right sounds out of the Pink Lady.
EQUIPMENT USED
This should not be its own section but the problematic tip question created a lot of additional testing work.
Sources: iPhone SE (2016), Macbook Air/iTunes.
Decoding/amplification: ifi Nano BL & hip dac, Earstudio HUD100.
TONALITY AND TECHNICALITIES
My tonal preference and testing practice
The Pink Lady is a warm sounding earphone characterized by an L- to U-shaped tuning depending on the tips used: a solid but somewhat rubbery bass, recessed mids, and a polite upper end. This tuning appeals to the new hobbyist and the mainstream listener rather than to the expert.
The low end is well extended but not overly tight or fast. Depending on the tips used, the varying degree of perceived mid-bass hump and the slow bass kick (“early KZ multis”) resulted in varying degrees of fatigue. Surprisingly, the KZ tips I used cleaned this up to some extent. Reducing bass quantity improved the overall sound quality. The KZ tips provided for a leaner, more controlled bass – and – most of all, this brought the vocals towards the front where they belong to. However, that bass control was only perceived as the speed hadn’t changed – but the human ear hears the whole frequency spectrum in context. Please note that the bass is still not the fastest or tightest and that it still pounds upleasantly against my eardrums even with the most favourable tips, just less so.
The lower midrange is recessed to varying degrees – again depending on tips – but is reasonably intimate by itself with the KZ tips. Male vocals get a bit of a push from the upper bass and are reasonably dense. In fact, their reproduction is quite good but can get somewhat overwhelmed and muffled by the low end. The perception of the upper midrange is controlled by the bass quantity (yes, you read it above) as our ears hear the whole frequency spectrum in context. It is never piercing or fatiguing but also does not add any sheen. Nevertheless, the coherence between low end and midrange is poor.
Treble is well behaved and could offer a bit more – both in quantity and resolution…but don’t look at the right side of the graph, it is the bass that gives you this treble perception.
The tuning does not allow for the most vivid presentation, dynamics could be better. Clarity is only soso as the bouncy, rubbery bass – even when toned down – affects the midrange. Soundstage is not very wide – compromised by the overwhelming bass – but has an average depth. The other technicalities such as spatial cues, separation/layering are also only average. I would expect quite a bit more at this price.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
Here you have it: sometimes reviewing can be a pain and the “free samples” can be entirely undesirable. But beggars can’t be choosers and reviewers often have to eat what’s on the plate….or rather drink what’s in the glass. I have to admit that I rather prefer a dark ale over a sticky, sweet Pink Lady.
The Pink Lady received very positive reviews on Head-Fi and elsewhere – but very little criticism. And I find this disgraceful. It shows that you have to read as many reviews as possible – but also read them with critical eyes.
To me, the Pink Lady remains an easy to drive earphone with a very common L-/U-shaped tuning dominated by a slow, excavating low end. The newbie may be delighted by the sound but the advanced listener may have heard such signature many times before – and sensitive ears may be deterred by the bass. The same generic appeal accounts for its design. At its price, the Pink Lady does not stick out of the crowd other than through its nice and unusually feminine colour (but “male” size). It may appeal to people, who want to make a fashion statement on top of enjoying music.
Until next time…keep on listening!
You find an INDEX of all our earphone reviews HERE.
DISCLAIMER
The Queen of Audio Pink Lady was provided unsolicited by hifigo. Thank you very much.
Our generic standard disclaimer.
You find an INDEX of our most relevant technical articles HERE.
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