WATCH FULL REVIEW HERE: https://youtu.be/3v8_UjkzQXY

PRICE: $120

PROS:

• The most technical CCA/KZ IEM
• Comes with a surprisingly premium cable (add $10)
• Good coherency
• Punchy but clean bass
• Open, clean mids
• Sparkly, well-detailed treble
• Good technical ability
• Tuning switches can drastically change your listening experience and fit your preferences (from basshead to somewhat diffused field)
• Good scaling ability

CONS:

• Comfort (shell too big)
• Slightly metallic-sounding timbre
• Lacks bass tactility
• Might be too bright for some

WHO THIS UNIT IS FOR:

• People who love the Rhapsody, Castor Bass and Trio
• People who want the most technical sounding CCA/KZ
• People who want a high driver count hybrid with good coherency
• People who want a refined version of the Harman bass boost
• People who want a fun yet detailed set

WHO THIS UNIT ISN’T FOR:

• People who want natural timbre
• People who want a very tactile sounding bass
• People who want a smaller sized IEM
• People who don’t like tuning switches
• People who hate midbass tuck

RECOMMENDED GENRES:

• Most genres (very versatile IEM overall)

SHORT REVIEW: 

CCA have their most refined and most technical IEM with the Hydro by far. The level of maturity while keeping the KZ’s fun and snappy sound is impressive and goes to show the work they did in this IEM. Very technical sounding with a refined version of their Harman Bass-Boost makes this a genuinely fun set. And while I do think that it struggles to stand out in the tough $100 market, it lives up to being CCA’s true flagship IEM. RECOMMENDED!

FULL REVIEW:

When David was pitted against Goliath, everyone thought that David had no chance. He was just a man after all and Goliath is a giant. But against all odds, David beat Goliath and proved everyone wrong. But what happens when David becomes Goliath? What happens when the giant slayer becomes the Giant? What happens when a company known for great value in-ear monitors comes out with a $130 flagship in-ear?

DISCLAIMER: The KZ Hydro was sent over by KZ in exchange for my honest impressions. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity. I was not paid. Rest assured, my thoughts and opinions on this product will be my own honest opinions and will not be affected by the facts beforehand.

STEPPING UP, STEPPING OUT!

KZ and CCA are often attributed to the best value in-ear monitors that you can buy in the market. They’ve been providing some of the best budget IEMs for years and non-audiophiles are probably aware of one or two of their IEMs. 

What they’re not known for are flagship in-ear monitors. Particularly, anything more expensive than $100. Sure, there are sets that go beyond $100 like the AS24, but that’s the exception and not the rule. So when I found out that CCA is coming out with a $130 IEM, my interest was piqued and I wanted to know exactly what set this apart from the other CCA IEMs? Let’s find out!

UNBOXING

The unboxing experience of the CCA Hydro is basically the same as other KZ/CCA sets. The difference is that this is closer to the unboxing of the CCA Rhapsody with a black box and a paper print of the details of the IEM. I guess we gotta save costs.

Here are the inclusions:

• CCA Hydro IEMs
• 784-core cable
• KZ Starline Eartips
• Tuning stick
• Manual

To keep it short, the tips are fine and the inclusion of the manual and tuning stick is necessary

BUILD & FIT

This is where the Hydro starts to justify its $130 price tag. Starting with the internals, the Hydro features 2 Dynamic Drivers and a whopping 8 Balanced Armature Drivers. The DDs are their patented XUN-7 and the balanced armatures are their 31736 that were found on the CCA Rhapsody a few months back. 

Aesthetically, it fits the other CCA sets. Really nice-looking faceplate that is ruined by the typography. Please CCA, just go back to not putting stupid fonts on your IEMs. Do what you guys are doing with the ZSN or ZS10 where it’s clean and minimal. 

Anyways, aesthetics aside, the fit is also quite reminiscent of the Rhapsody. Big, chunky, and hurts your ears after a few hours of wear. It’s to be expected considering this has SO many drivers packed into it, but still something to consider. Stability is VERY good and the seal is also fantastic. However, it unfortunately has air pressure build-up like the Rhapsody which means if you’re sensitive to feeling like your ears are being choked, then this will not be comfy. Otherwise, very stable and well-sealing set. 

But arguably the most shocking aspect of the Hydro is the fact that it comes with a good cable. No seriously, I know I’ve expressed my satisfaction with the stock KZ/CCA cable but this is actually a different cable. This is a 8-strand 784 core beefy cable that feels quite premium and heavy.. This means adding $10 on top of the $120 price tag, making this a whopping $130 with the upgrade cable. But it’s worth it to distinguish this from the normal budget CCA set. 

SOUND

NOTE: As the Rhapsody has 5 official tuning modes, I will be describing the sound of the stock (ALL UP) configuration and compare the other tunings in their respective sections: 

Sound Signature:

The Hydro’s sound signature is the modern iteration of the KZ V, which is basically a Harman Bass-boost that they started with the Castor Bass Enhanced. This means big but tucked bass that minimizes bloat and midbass bleed, clean, open but somewhat recessed midrange and a forward, sparkly and snappy treble with good air extension. This is by far the more refined iteration of the sound signature and it should for $130, but still suffers slightly from a little bit of incoherency between the slower bass and snappier treble, but that’s to be expected from hybrid in-ears. 

Drivability

With an impedance of 15-20 ohms and sensitivity of 102dB, the Hydro’s are expectedly easy to drive. It’s harder to drive compared to their other, more budget-oriented sets which also allows the Hydro to be quite the scaler. On lower-powered sources, it sounds adequate and enjoyable. But throwing this into a more powerful and warmer source will give it the much-needed tactility and shift the treble to sound smoother and cleaner. 

Bass

As a Harman bass-boost set, the Hydro presents bass in one of the cleanest yet most engaging ways that I’ve heard in any KZ IEM. It’s fast, it’s snappy but completely unintrusive to the midrange and still retains a solid sense of impact and punchiness. It’s not as big as the graph might make it look like and sounds more balanced with slight emphasis around the 80hz region over the 20hz region. This gives it more punch and less rumble which is both good and bad as too much subbass have the tendency to mask over the midbass when pushed too far. My problem lies with the overall tactility and the fact that it is tucked. The bass of the Hydro isn’t the most tactile bass in the sense that bass guitar riffs and kick drums may sound well-defined, but don’t have that extra oomph or texture on the attack of each note. The tuck is more of a personal preference, but the switches do actually shift the tuck quite a bit and this comment only applies to the UUUU, DDUU, and DDUU configurations. But in the stock configuration, it affects the body of the lower mids which I’ll be talking about later. 

Listening to D’Anglo tracks, you get a very immersive sense of bass that goes quite deep but isn’t quite as textured. It’s smooth but to a respectable degree, nothing too problematic but I would’ve either preferred a deeper bass or a more tactile midbass. 

Mids

To be expected from a Harman-bass boost set, the midbass tuck is quite evident with male vocals sounding quite thin and occasionally distant on certain tracks. It doesn’t sound as recessed compared to other IEMs that do the Harman tuck, but it’s definitely not the most bodied or natural-sounding male vocal presentation that I’ve heard. Female vocals fair MUCH better and sound absolutely lovely where they’re rendered with such energy and nuance that is often a highlight for KZ/CCA IEMs. The Hydro probably does this the best out of all the KZ/CCA IEMs that I’ve heard so far. This carries over to instruments with bass guitars still retaining a good body and note weight, but lacking tactility as mentioned earlier. Air instruments sound absolutely fantastic, particularly flutes and trumpets. I will say though that the transition from bass to lower mids doesn’t feel so drastic that I’d be able to tell where the bass ended and the lower mids started. 

I found instrumental and orchestral tracks to really fit the Hydro’s midrange. Listening to Diving In by Vincent Diamante, the combination of the deep drums, the flutes, and the trumpets provide such a harmonious listening experience on the hydro that I was genuinely surprised by how nuanced the mids of the hydro were in the upper frequencies. The trumpets sang and the flutes followed beautifully in the climax starting at 00:30 where the ensemble comes into form. Such a beautiful listening experience!

Treble

The treble of the Hydro is surprisingly smooth despite being as bright as it is. It’s no EM6L smooth, but it’s damn smooth, especially for a CCA IEM. The level of refinement brought to the treble here is genuinely impressive as it sounds very energetic and lively while keeping it free from harshness or edginess. It might come across as a little too bright for some, don’t get me wrong. It’s no treble-sensitive sets, but that’s something you can expect from KZ/CCA IEMs. But this is the most refined that I’ve heard their treble sounded. My only gripe is that the metallic timbre here is quite noticeable, especially in the all-up configuration where they tuck the bass earlier which loses the midbass to contrast the treble. Nonetheless, it’s a very snappy yet refined-sounding treble. 

Listening to Game of Love by Daft Punk, the cymbals sound absolutely lovely and compliments the basslines and synths very nicely. It’s definitely on the hotter side when you crank the volume to balance out the mids, but it sounds very satisfying hearing the splash of each hit. 

Technicalities

This is, by far, the most technical-sounding CCA IEM that I’ve heard. Solid separation and layering ability, decently immersive staging and imaging, and crisp and pretty good transients and resolving ability. Probably the worst aspect about the Hydro is the dynamics as I find it sorely lacking, especially in the low frequencies. Bass nuances aren’t the most well-defined and don’t really provide that tactile sensation that I look for. 

REAL WORLD USAGE

Casual Use

Media consumption is fantastic on the Hydro. The combination of big bass and energetic treble makes watching movies absolutely fantastic here. It’s extremely immersive and I never feel like I miss out on anything. My problem is comfort. I cannot watch an entire movie without needing to take these off and give my ears a break. At the very least, these have great passive noise canceling that blocks off the majority of the sounds while commuting or in a noisy place and would be a great alternative to active noise canceling buds in my experience. It also has superb stability, so you won’t find these popping out of your ears while you walk

Gaming Use

Like the Rhapsody, Castor, and Trio before, the tuning of the Hydro perfectly fits gaming mediums, both competitive and immersive. Competitive games want a lot of bass, but clean enough to not sound muddy. It also wants a shoutier set to bring out the upper-frequency details without being too harsh. The Hydro does that absolutely perfect and I genuinely loved using this for competitive gaming. Immersive gaming is also fantastic as playing games like Sky: The Children of Light (which is where the Vincent Diamante song came from) with the slow and relaxed moments followed by big set pieces are perfectly rendered on the Hydro. It’s a fantastic gaming set and I highly recommend it for that.

VS OTHER TUNING MODES

DDDD (0000)

• This mode is basically the untucked version, a more v-shaped version of the KZ Harman bass boost. The bass is admittedly on the muddier side, but it smoothens the treble in turn. It takes a hit on overall cleanliness and separation ability as the bass tends  to bleed into the midrange. 

UDDD (1000)

• This pushes the bass up very slightly from the all-DDDD configuration. Not that big of a change in my opinion, but it slowly starts being a basshead set

UUDD (1100)

• Basically the basshead setting for the Hydro. VERY deep and engaging bass that is honestly perfect for hip-hop and other bass-heavy genres. If I was a basshead, this would be my favorite tuning. Otherwise, it’s quite muddy and bloated sounding.

DDUD (0010)

• Closer to the UUUU configuration but takes the bass slightly down, similar to the UDDD configuration but in reverse. Not that big of a difference from the all-up

DDUU (00110)

• The treblehead setting, aka almost my favorite setting. Due to the tuck in the lower mids, I didn’t enjoy this setting as much. The treble sounding a little bit metallic also made the midrange sound a little thin and stale. But this was the most sparkly and energetic tuning and fit the classical/instrumental/orchestral genres the best. 

UUUD (1110)

• Arguably the best setting that balances the bass energy from the DDDD setting with the energetic DDUU setting. Basically the most balanced setting out of all the tuning modes.

COMPARISONS

vs CCA Rhapsody

In short, the direct upgrade to the Rhapsody. Better, more refined bass, cleaner mids, cleaner treble, better technicalities. The bass sounds a little deeper and more engaging on the Rhapsody, but is quite sloppy and lacks definition. The only thing they have in common is the balanced armatures as well as that ridiculously massive shell that also has air pressure build-up

vs CCA Trio

Oddly, I actually find the CCA Trio to be better tuned than the Hydro. The bass is a little bit cleaner while having more body in the midbass and the mids generally don’t sound as recessed. However, the Hydro is considerably more technical and refined sound, especially in the treble region compared to the Trio. 

vs KZ Castor Bass

Basically the same comments as Rhapsody, but CONSIDERABLY more technical and more refined sounding. Oddly, the shell of the Castor Bass is more comfortable to wear than the Hydro

vs Celest Phoenixcall

Two jam-packed sets in terms of driver count but varies in presentation. The Phoenixcall has a more bodied, richer, and more natural-sounding vocal presentation (odd I know) compared to the Hydro, but the Hydro is better extended on both ends with a snappier overall sound. Technicalities have to go to the Phoenixcall, particularly in how much cleaner the separation is on the Phoenixcall. The Phoenixcall also has less of a metallic tinge to the treble region compared to the Hydro. 

vs Simgot EM6L

The EM6L sounds considerably smoother than the Hydro, but both suffer from a lack of luster in bass texturing and a slightly metallic-sounding treble. Timbre is slightly better on the EM6L. Technicalities are similar on the EM6L, but with slightly cleaner separation on the EM6L

vs Simgot EA500LM

The EA500LM sounds considerably more natural than the Hydro despite being quite bright on its own. Dynamics are also considerably better on the EA500LM and the overall coherency is better. The EA500LM sounds more technical than the Hydro overall but maintains a similar resolving ability with the Hydro. 

CONCLUSION

In a vacuum, the Hydro is a fantastic IEM. Very engaging and punchy bass, open and clean sounding mids, sparkly and detailed treble, and a respectable level of technicalities. In fact, I’d even go as to claim that the Hydro IS the best CCA/KZ IEM that follows their modern tuning standards TO DATE. If you liked their previous Harman Bass-Boost set, I can guarantee that the Hydro is the best of the best with that kind of tuning. The fun yet clean overall sound makes it such a good performer in the entirity of KZ/CCA’s catalogue. 

Unfortunately, it landed itself in a very awkward price range. You have sets like the Celest Phoenixcall being all weird but quite technical and the Simgot EM6L and EA500LM redefining how good IEMs could be around the $100 price range. Even for its barebones price of $120, I struggle to find anything that makes the Hydro stand out. And that’s my biggest gripe about it. Not that it’s a bad IEM, far from it. But CCA played it so safe with the Hydro, pairing their “flagship” IEM with accessories that literally come with their $5 IEMs, barring that cable. KZ/CCA has always been known for great value, and the Hydro, despite its very refined tuning and technical ability, lands itself in a very safe spot that doesn’t make it stand out in any way compared to other non-KZ/CCA sets. For $130, you start expecting more than just a well-tuned and technical-sounding IEM. If it’s not the listening experience being unique, it’s the package that it comes with. And that’s where I believe the Hydro falls short.

Regardless, I have to give CCA the props for creating basically their ultimate Harman Bass-Boost IEM. The most refined, cleanest, and most technical CCA IEM that I’ve heard by far. This outcompetes every single KZ/CCA IEM that has been released that follows this kind of tuning and if they keep this up and slowly trim the price, CCA might just have something that can spark a budget revolution like they did years ago.  And I think that’s worth mentioning as it really lives up to its flagship nature in that sense. 

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