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Softears Studio 4 Review

Cuckoo Studio

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Reviewer
Joined
Aug 13, 2022
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We will be looking at the Studio 4, which was sent to us by Softears.

New Softears IEMs for professional mixing and stage monitoring.mov_20230319_224127.966.jpg


Below are text and graph content. If you prefer video version:


We have previously reviewed Softears' flagship RS10, which is priced at $2,099. The Studio 4 is their product at the $449.00 price point. The packaging comes in a small box with an industrial style and contains egg foam inside. The Studio 4 is positioned as a professional mixing monitoring and stage monitoring and its design is restrained with an overall black color scheme. they use medical resin material and each earphone without an ear tip weighs 5.6g.

New Softears IEMs for professional mixing and stage monitoring.mov_20230319_223957.840.jpg

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The Softears logo and Studio 4 model are located on the front of the left and right sides respectively, which are sealed inside. Therefore, the outer surface still has a smooth texture.

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The sound outlet is the same as the RS model, with three openings, which is reminiscent of the crossover design of a three-way speaker . In fact, the Studio 4 has a 4-driver 3-way crossover design inside. The cable is also pure black in color. Compared to the various designs in the HiFi market, this overall understated design is very easy to integrate into a professional studio environment.

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Let's take a look at its sound performance.
Frequency response: Based on the Harman 2018 target curve, Studio4 highly conforms to the target curve from 20Hz to 5KHz. There is a high-frequency attenuation near 6KHz, with an amplitude of about 9dB.(23/3/20 update: adding 4195 data,similar position but less 6KHz attenuation) The high-frequency part above 10KHz has a slight gain. The main difference compared to our RS10 is the high-frequency attenuation. This is a pair of headphones that sound warm.

STUDIO 4 frequency response.jpg



Distortion: The second harmonic and other harmonics of Studio4 maintain excellent levels, but the third harmonic shows a more significant amount, which is likely to be related to its use of Balanced Armature drivers. The distortion can be controlled within 1%. Gradually increasing the sound pressure level, the relative amount of the third harmonic following the increase in sound pressure level does not show significant changes, indicating that the music will not continue to be distorted when listening at high volume levels, similar to the situation at normal sound pressure levels. The distortion in the left and right ears remains consistent, and there are no problems with quality control.

New Softears IEMs for professional mixing and stage monitoring.mov_20230319_224203.941.jpg

New Softears IEMs for professional mixing and stage monitoring.mov_20230319_224211.171.jpg


Let's enter the Cuckoo Studio mixing space.

The flatness up to 5KHz maintains the correct sense of quantity for the main instruments and vocals, as well as the main parts of percussion and bass. The attenuation at 6KHz mainly reduces the volume of high-frequency percussion and sibilance sounds and also affects the high-frequency harmonics of some instruments, making the overall sound warmer. The consistency between the left and right ears is excellent, and the nearly perfect frequency response matching gives STUDIO4 an extremely robust center image. The third harmonic will cause some distortion in the overall playback, and usually, the third harmonic sounds harder than the second harmonic. However, due to the aforementioned high-frequency attenuation characteristics, the overall subjective listening experience from the frequency response level is warm, and this characteristic is not particularly prominent when considering parameters. On a subjective level, the emphasis on the fundamental frequency and harmonics of the main functions makes the instruments and vocals feel very close.

New Softears IEMs for professional mixing and stage monitoring.mov_20230319_224232.858.jpg
New Softears IEMs for professional mixing and stage monitoring.mov_20230319_224216.989.jpg


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Softears earphones are usually mid-to-high-end products, and their prices are usually not low. STUDIO4 is a price reduction specifically for the professional field and a lower threshold opportunity for you to experience Softears products.

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Last edited:

heraldo_jones

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2020
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Hello, sad not to see any responses here! This model has been in my target since a few days. I have a lot of iems in the 100$ range and find the Truthear Zero (at 50$ or so) the most balanced ones. Also I really love how wide they sound. Usually iems tend to be like very upfront sounding, and the Zeros sound like a normal headphone to me. Also I have mixed a few songs with them and they translate very good. Did you @Cuckoo Studio had the oportunity to compare them? I must add I always use eq correction with any headphone usually targeting harman or Kemar 10db. I'm in the search of an iem with the same wide/soundstage as the Zeros but with extra resolution and micro details for the best mixing experiencie (the most similar I could get to my headphones https://drop.com/buy/drop-dan-clark-audio-aeon-closed-x-headphones).
 
Last edited:

Human Bass

Addicted to Fun and Learning
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Nov 25, 2018
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Just bought one last week. Im actually excited for the very even smooth sound signature. All reviews seem to indicate it is an extremely "correct" iem with no major flaws
 

heraldo_jones

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2020
Messages
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104
Just bought one last week. Im actually excited for the very even smooth sound signature. All reviews seem to indicate it is an extremely "correct" iem with no major flaws
How good is the punch in the kick/bass area and the transient response?
 

markanini

Major Contributor
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Feb 15, 2019
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I would personally appreciate if the reviewer continued publishing graphs from his IEC711-compliant coupler, like previously. Thanks for the review!
 

Matias

Master Contributor
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I have considered buying this IEM several times before but the Truthear Zero Red is just too good and I kept them instead.
 

Human Bass

Addicted to Fun and Learning
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Nov 25, 2018
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Now that I have spend more time with it, I can say the bass is incredible, way more massive than the graph seems to imply. Guess BA bass isnt lame anymore lol
 
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