TechRadar Verdict
For audiophiles looking for a great pair of wired monitors, the Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 is a solid option that boasts of a sound range above its price tag. It's not for everyone, but for the correct users, it's one of the best options.
Pros
- +
Very comfortable
- +
Replaceable cable
- +
Attention to detail
Cons
- -
Cable prone to tangling
- -
Inaccurate bass
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Whizzer is one of the more popular Chi-fi (Chinese and high-fidelity) audio brands in India, but we will forgive you for not having heard about it. Chi-fi products are basically high-end Chinese audio products that are relatively inexpensive. You’ll find dozens of these on AliExpress, but in India, the options are few and far in between. The Kylin A-HE03s offers great bang for your buck.
Before diving in, you also need to keep in mind that these are not meant for day-to-day use such as calls or gaming. In-ear monitors are designed to give you a more accurate representation of the music you're hearing, as close to the timbre as possible.
Price and availability in India
In India, the Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 can be purchased for Rs 9,999 from Headphone Zone. Available colours include grey, red and blue.
Design and fit
While we don’t usually give a lot of consideration to smaller Chinese OEMs, the Whizzer Kylin definitely punches above its weight (and price) when it comes to the design. Even before you get to handle them, the unboxing experience will get you warmed up for something special.
The box contains the earphones with a braided cable, 3 pairs of silicone tips and 2 pairs of foam tips and a fancy little faux leather case where the earphones can be safely stowed. The earphones come detached from the cables but can be assembled with a snap.
Once attached, the buds may seem a little big but they don’t protrude out all that much. The bent drivers make them really comfortable to fit in, and over-the-ear cables help spread the weight off. These are quite possibly the most comfortable in-ear earphones we’ve tried. The fit also inherently brings some bit of noise isolation, even when you have nothing playing.
The cable, however, is braided with four individual wires splitting into two pairs (for each ear). We all know how notorious these earphone cables can be when it comes to tangling, and having twice the number just makes it even worse. Even simple accidental drops would add a couple of extra twists to the cable. If you wear glasses, then the stems are also likely to get stuck within the cables.
Sound quality
The Whizzer Kylin A-HE03s house triple drivers, consisting of two Knowles balanced armature drivers and a third 10mm one for bass and the lows. It has a frequency range of 12-40,000Hz and an impedance of 16Ω.
These have a V-shaped sound signature with an emphasis on bass and treble. This, however, doesn’t really affect the mids and the lows, and the stronger bass is often preferred by listeners. The clarity of the audio output is great and precise. The highs will seem refined without getting bright. Of course, this makes them less balanced or neutral, but is often a more preferred owing to the better loudness or crispness; not quite how the artist intended it to sound though.
The excellent clarity is carried forward to smartphones and other digital players as well, where you’ll be able to hear aspects such as softer instruments way better than other earphones. Basically, a lot of the softer tones which often get masked will be unraveled here.
Another area that could have been better is the A-HE03s sound stage, which basically means the spacing between the instruments when playing music. IEMs inherently aren’t great at this, but the lack of actual isolation also adds up. Even with that, there is a high level of sound separation between the different components of the music.
Not a surprising omission, but the Kylin A-HE03, does not have an in-built microphone or in-line button controls, once again reminding you of what the actual purpose of these is.
Verdict
At a price tag of Rs 10,000, the Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 is in a unique spot where it can attract entry-level audiophiles as well as enthusiasts who are looking to try out something more high end. Its performance makes it suitable for a lot of genres of music, and thus, to a lot of consumers.
The beautiful design that doesn’t shout 'cheap', upmarket set of accessories and an actually great, if not slightly inaccurate sound profile make these a great entry point for budding audiophiles.
