URBANEARS Kransen – Review

URBANEARS Kransen

URBANEARS Kransen

| 10 mm Driver |



? URBANEARS Kransen, a very clean designed earphone from the famous URBANEARS which are mainly specialized in headphones, bluetooth speakers and earbuds. The URBANEARS Kransen have nice looking housings that are solidly built with a rubberized finish and a metal front section, the rear side of the earpieces have a magnetic snapping function similar to what we have seen in our past reviews of the MEMT X5 or the Plextone X41M. This snapping magnetic system allow you to take them out of your ears and snap each earpiece together by their backs. Overall the design, though minimalist, looks detailed and polished. Inside the housings there is a fairly large 10 mm dynamic driver which will be taking care of all the audio frequencies. The nozzles are angled and allow a deeper and more comfortable fit. The form factor and size of the housings are kind of inline with the Xiaomi Mi Piston Fresh Edition or the Xiaomi Mi Piston Basic Edition. The stereo mini plug has an L shape (90 degrees angled). The cable is divided in 2 sections made of different material, the section coming from the earpieces is rubberized; coming down through the cable a while after the inline mic/control there is a spherical piece that separates the first section of the cable from the 2nd one. This 2nd section of the cable is braided and remains like this until the stereo mini plug. The 2 material cable style (first rubberized then braided) is something that is commonly found in many Xiaomi and 1More earphones such as the Xiaomi Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro. Through the cable a fabric tab is found which has the “URBANEARS” name written on it, also a rubber piece with a hole can be found on the cable which allows you to “plug” the stereo jack through it giving a better wrapping experience. As we just mentioned, there is an inline mic/control which allows you to answer/reject calls, skip songs and play/pause music. The inline mic/control is made of plastic with a rubberized feel like the housings. You can buy the URBANEARS Kransen and choose among one of the largest variety of colors that we have ever seen, at this moment there are precisely 14 colors to choose from, which URBANEARS names as follows:

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A

Accessories & Packaging

The URBANEARS Kransen come inside a modest small cardboard packaging, inside there 2 extra eartips and a branded sticker provided.

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B

Bass & Sub Bass

The bass coming from the 10 mm dynamic driver of the URBANEARS Kransen has punchy mid-bass and good, deep sub-bass. They will never struggle to provide fun sounding sessions and they will be able to fulfill any genre’s bass requisites. Applying an EQ, there was a strong increment of mid-bass and sub-bass but they will mostly become a bass-only earphone with not much space left for mids and highs. We put the URBANEARS Kransen through our extreme bass tests and they were able to handle up to 49% of the maximum power of a Fiio E12 Mont Blanc portable amplifier; while using a custom basshead EQ, setting the Fiio E12 to high gain and turning on it’s bass boost function. The results of these extreme amplification was a noticeable increase of punch and depth with a bit of distorted sub-bass and no basshead rumble or impact.

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M

Mids & Vocals

Mids of the URBANEARS Kransen are very warm with lower vocals sounding congested and distant. Mid-bass is kind of out of control and bleeding onto midrange frequencies, mostly over lower mids and lower vocals. Higher mids are less recessed but still noticeably rolled off while they remain free of any harshness. With an EQ a vast improvement of the higher mids was perceivable but may get harsh at times if overdone, instead lower mids still sounded too recessed.

gramophone-256605.5/10


H

Highs & Treble

Highs have some brightness and a slight level of detail with an overall muddy sounding sensation. There are no piercing highs but sibilance was frequent. Using an EQ there was a noticeable increment in brightness but still their overall clarity and quality was not great. Piercing highs remained under control while sibilance became too strong.

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URBANEARS Kransen
BANEARS Kransen

SL

Sound Leak

The sound that leaks out of the URBANEARS Kransen is about average with a slightly more leaking level of audio in comparison to most average earphones. In normally noisy situation their sound will blend without issues with environmental sounds but at less noisy situations or by setting a higher volume they may become clearly hearable

gramophone-256606.5/10


SI

Sound Isolation

Noise isolation was also acceptable but with a bit of less than average performance. To provide a better level of isolation it will be imperative to set a moderate-high to high volume.

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C

Comfort

The form factor, fit and overall construction quality of the URBANEARS Kransen allow them to be extraordinarily comfortable to use, handle and wear. You will not have to worry about any pain or in-ear discomfort while using these earphones and can feel safe that even hours long listening sessions can be achieved with them with no worries on the comfort department.

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EQ

Response to Equalization

The response to EQ was fair but never excellent, some improvement was provided but nothing outstanding. Bass got clearly enhanced but they became just bass with no space for highs and mids; mids improved in the high-mids section but not at all in the lower-mids; highs and treble showed a very needed extra quantity of brightness but were still unable to sound right.

gramophone-256606.25/10

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Scores Scores

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Specifications

TypeDynamic
Driver Unit10 mm handmade
Sensitivity100dB/mW
Power Capacity5mW
Impedance16 ohms
Frequency Response20-20,000Hz
DiaphragmUnknown
MagnetUnknown
CordY-type, round cord
Cord LengthUnkown
PlugStereo mini plug
WeightApprox. 20g
Supplied Accessories3x Earphone tips

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DISCLAIMER
We highly discourage anyone from trying to apply our testings to your own earphones, the risk of damaging or permanently breaking your iems is absolutely probable to happen. With our standardized equalization and amplification tests we push the limits of the earphones to the extreme. If anyway you decide to do so, we cannot be held responsible of the damage done to your equipment. Do it at your own risk.

URBANEARS Kransen

6.9

SCORE

6.9/10