BEHIND THE BOX: CCA Hydro 

With the price and information finally revealed, I would like to share my first few days impressions of the CCA Hydro. This is CCA’s current flagship IEM featuring 2DD and 8BAs. For the price of $120 for the standard model and $130 for the upgraded cable, how does this IEM coming from the brand known for its budget IEM compete against the $100 market?

Normally I don’t talk about the unboxing experience of CCA/KZ IEMs as they’re all virtually the same. But in the case of my hydro, this came with something I did not expect CCA would do. Changing their cables. 

Gone with the cheap silver plated cable that everyone ends up replacing as the cable that the Hydro comes with is a genuine chonker of a cable. It’s a very well built, 8-strand, 784 core silver.blue cable that feels and looks out of place coming with the stock experience. In short, it’s a damn good cable for a stock CCA IEM. 

But enough of the cable, let’s talk about the IEM itself. The CCA Hydra features a XUN-7 2DD setup with 8x 31736 BAs  If you’re familiar with the CCA Rhapsody, you’re essentially getting the same fitting on the Hydro (for better or worse). This also goes for the air pressure build-up that you might have experienced with the Rhapsody The main difference is the faceplate which honestly looks better than the Rhapsody’s with the exception of the lettering. Please CCA just go back to your old style of putting very minimal lettering or none at all on your IEMs. 

Finally, let’s talk sound. What does a $120 CCA flagship sound like? Well, it sounds like the peak of the recent trend of CCA and KZ using the Harman Bass Boost sound signature. Big bass (that you can either crank up or tone down), open-sounding mids, and a very sparkly and energetic treble. This is a step up from the Rhapsody’s slower, sloppier bass with a somewhat unrefined and occasionally splashy-sounding treble. The tuning of this sounds like a mixture of the Rhapsody’s big Harman V with the CCA Trio’s mature and somewhat neutral sound, refining the overall sound and then jacking up its technical ability to 11. You can really tell CCA paid attention to the critiques and feedback from their previous sets to create this behemoth (quite literally) of an IEM. 

Currently, my favorite tuning mode is 1110 as it has the tigh but impactful bass and cleanest mids but not as tucked mids

I’ll be doing more intensive comparisons in my full review on this, but all I can say for now is that this is currently the peak of CCA’s tuning

FULL REVIEW COMING SOON! 

Thank you for reading my impressions on the CCA Hydro. if you would like to order one, consider using the non-affiliated link below: https://www.kztws.com/products/cca-hydro