Page 2 - Physical Look - Hardware
Regarding general appearance, the Belle has a clean presentation. The metal backplate has the Kiwi Ears branding, with an exposed metallic bezel that contrasts nicely with the matte finish. The body of the IEMs curves nicely to fit in your ears, and the eartip attachment point holds eartips on very well, although it can be tricky to get the eartips on initially. There is an R or L on the top of the body to indicate which side is which, alongside small lettering reading "Kiwi Ears Belle". The Belle is available in two colorways, black and silver. The combination received for review was the black colorway with the 3.5mm standard cable, which they abbreviate as "STD". Other versions available include 3.5mm with mic and Type-C with mic. The Belle measures approximately 2.0cm in length, 1.9cm in width, and 1.9cm in height, with a weight of 3g for each earpiece.
As for materials, the Kiwi Ears Belle has a CNC-machined metal backplate and a resin body, with silicone eartips as mentioned. The backplate solidly resists fingerprints, while the black resin of the body makes them nearly invisible unless you look for them under good lighting. Additionally, Kiwi Ears advertises that the Belle is hand-assembled, with the 10mm drivers measured and matched individually to ensure a balanced sound. I have been using the Belle daily over the last few weeks, and after this time, the only signs of wear I can detect are a couple of extremely small scratches on the exposed metallic bezel, which I had not actually seen until I inspected it to write this section of the review. This is after it has been jostled around in backpacks, carried around in my pocket, and dropped several times on various outdoor and indoor surfaces, so I would consider the durability to be excellent all things considered.
The eartips come in six variants, small, medium, or large, with a clear and black variant of each size. They are made of silicone and provide a consistent seal against the ear canal. These in-ear monitors are made to sit inside your ears. A thin layer of porous fabric lines the inner portion to prevent any direct contact with any hard surface. I found the medium-size eartips to fit the best, but this will depend on the size and shape of your ears.
Inside the Belle, Kiwi Ears houses a 10mm DLC dynamic driver with a custom Diamond-Like Carbon, or DLC, diaphragm. The diaphragm is marketed as capable of less than 0.1% total harmonic distortion, or THD, at 1kHz and a perfectly linear phase curvature. The drivers have a frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz, matching the standard human hearing range. The rated sensitivity is 103dB. Its impedance of 32Ω makes the Kiwi Ears Belle easy to drive whether connected to a computer, tablet, or smartphone.
In terms of comfort, I found wearing the Belle IEMs to be very satisfactory. I found the medium-size eartips to fit the best for me and the seal to be very good, dampening outside sound very well. The cord is an over-the-ear design, so the weight of the cord is supported by the ear itself, rather than working to pull out the earbud, which was one of my largest pet peeves with wired audio in the past. The actual body of the IEMs fits the shape of my ear very well, although the backplate does extend a few millimeters out of the ear, which does not bother me personally, but if you are looking for a more discreet option, it is something to keep in mind.
I am not an extremely tall person, but in the past, I have found that the cables of some wired earbuds were too short to comfortably carry my phone in my pocket without putting enough tension on the cable to pull out the earbuds while walking or otherwise moving around. The Belle avoids this issue, from a combination of the already mentioned over-ear cable design and the 4 feet cable. As aforementioned, the combination received for review was the black colorway with the 3.5mm STD cable.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
