Craft Ears Craft Six Review

Craft Ears Craft Six

Build quality, Ergonomics, Customization

 

Build Quality

The build quality of the monitor in general is good and the Craft Six features clean internals, good quality shells, perfect face plate closings and nicely flush 2-pin connectors.

The shells itself are very small and that’s always good if you ask me. The canals are short and perfectly incorporate 3 bores. On the inside of the shells you’ll find the serial number on both sides, but nothing else.

The only negative thing to mention regarding the BQ, is that after multiple week of intensive use, some small pieces of the top end of the nozzle have chipped off. Maybe you can see it in the pictures.

With my sample, plugging the cable in and out is very tough, so it’s not something I recommended doing a lot if you experience the same.

Fit, comfort

As said, the ear pieces are small which isn’t really a surprise as they only need to house 6 drivers. Together with the short canals and perfect custom fit, it makes the Craft Ears Craft Six extremely comfortable to wear. I love it.

The fit is perfect, not too tight and certainly not too loose, so they perfectly sit in your ear at all times. The cable isn’t very heavy either so there’s no downward pull on the earpieces either. Wearing the Craft Six for many hours without pause is not an issue at all. They don’t annoy you in any way and it’s a completely painful and simply pleasant experience.

As these are customs you get a nice -26dB isolation as with most of the custom monitors. I personally love not hearing any other sounds. It brings me in my happy zone when the fit is good and when the sound quality is high, as is the case here. Bit of a spoiler? Yup.

Top marks for fit & comfort.

Craft Ears Craft Six

Design

For the moment Craft Ears is still updating or constructing their online customizer, so I really can’t say anything about the process of personalizing your set of monitors at this stage.

I myself didn’t choose the design of my review set either, I just showed some examples of what I liked and told Craft Ears to make something to show off with. You can check out many of Craft Ears’ design on their Facebook & Instagram pages, or via their online “Works” overview here: https://www.craftears.com/works.

The design Craft Ears finally chose for my set is simple but very stylish: a green type of exotic wood on a lucid green shell. It’s very classy and the wood is stunning. The Craft Ears logo is present on both face plates, in a shiny silver color. You can find the official picture of my set right here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CMjinASsoaT/.

Beautiful, right? I also do like their “galaxy” designs a lot, though everyone seems to be doing that lately. Anyway, let’s hope the online tool is ready when we review the next Craft Ears model.

Sound

Intro

According to Craft Ears, the flagship Craft Six creates the perfect balance between an audiophile neutral and smooth sound, with excellent dynamics and lifelike imaging. We will find out of that indeed is the case very soon.

Many of the newest reference IEMs have a multitude of drivers incorporated in their design, but it has been refreshing to see that Craft Ears hasn’t gone that way yet. It’s also very interesting as it really shows what Craft Ears manages to with only six drivers. We all know it’s not only about the driver count, but it does help.

Craft Ears has described the sound of their Six more in detail, but even I found it to sound a bit too Marketing-ish, so let’s find out how they really sound!

For the part on sound we used a series of DAPs such as the SP2000, Cayin N6ii – R01, Paw 6000, Hiby R8 and the L&P P6Pro. We used the stock cable and as such it was used in a single ended configuration.

Craft Ears Craft Six

General Sound

The Craft Six has a balanced tuning from top to bottom and it is a very coherent and mature tuned monitor. Overall it has a high mid and lower treble focused presentation making it sound more to the front. The Craft Six amount of body depends on the source used (see later) but in general has a normal/natural presentation in this regard. The Craft Six is not especially warm sounding but it is musical and it has just a little bit of smoothness in the delivery.

The overall sound quality is high, with great clarity and excellent detail retrieval. The focus absolutely is on the clarity, I can’t stress that enough. The Craft Six has excellent speed with a good sound stage. The sound stage isn’t the most remarkable part of the Craft Six, but it’s good non the less. The same goes for the spaciousness and airiness.

The Craft Six’ depth and layering are good, especially for the price and limited driver count. I find the separation to be excellent, especially in the mid area. The Craft Six’ left/right balance and stereo imaging is impressive. You get superb positioning, it’s really impressive..

The Craft Six doesn’t give you the intimate type of experience but it’s not a full out of your head experience either. The Craft Six at all times sounds natural and realistic and frankly, it doesn’t feel like you’re missing out on anything at all. It just has a really good overall tuning.

Detail and precision wise, the Craft Six also is an excellent performer and you get really good note extension on top of it. It’s something I really find important in a monitor’s tuning.

Craft Ears has delivered a monitor with a good transparency level, and you will hear the effect of your source on the Six’s presentation/performance.

Tuning wise the Craft Sic’s bass is accurate, the mid timbre is impressive but also the upper frequencies really excel. Let’s have a closer look.

Craft Ears Craft Six

Classics

The Craft Six’s bass has a good punch and kick but depending on the DAP in use, it is different in presence, impact and presentation. It in general is a normal bass presentation and with a good source, the bass – when needed –  will show up, impress and go ultra-low (like with the N6ii DAP and Billie Eilish playing) . The sub bass presence absolutely is there when needed and the quality is high, very well done. The quality of the bass is really nice and this is a the typical case where it’s quality over quantity at all times.

That actually isn’t only the case for the bass section, as the Craft Six from bass to highs has a very normal amount of body, but with excellent detail and top level precision. The mid timbre is really nice and they have a natural and musical presentation, with just a slight touch of smoothness in the delivery.

The mids have excellent separation, good extension, great speed and top level detail retrieval. The vocals are very clear and as said earlier the upper mids and vocals are a bit more to the front, giving the monitor a lively presentation. The spaciousness and airiness are natural but they aren’t the Craft Six’s strongest point.

The treble section has excellent clarity and speed and the notes extend nicely. However, the treble, even though it’s excellent and precise, isn’t the most extended we’ve heard but again this doesn’t feel lacking in any way. Treble has a natural feeling, with a good amount of energy and a focus on the lower treble part.

All-in-all the Craft Six has a presentation that’s natural and easy to like. It’s mature, clear and it comes with excellent detail retrieval. It doesn’t really excel in one particular thing, but its strength is in its coherency, overall timbre and high technical level.

The part on sound continues on the third page. Click here or use the jumps below.

Page 1: Intro, Craft Ears, Craft Six, Technical Specs, Package & Accessories

Page 2: Build quality, Ergonomics, Customization, Sound, Intro, General, Classics

Page 3: Driveability & Sources, Comparisons, Conclusion

4.3/5 - (90 votes)
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Lieven is living in Europe and he's the leader of the gang. He's running Headfonia as a side project next to his full time day job in Digital Marketing & Consultancy. He's a big fan of tube amps and custom inear monitors and has published hundreds of product reviews over the years.

2 Comments

  • Reply October 19, 2021

    Marek

    Hey, how would you compare these with Lime Model X? I’m looking for CIEMs in around 1000€ made in Europe. Thanks!

    • Reply October 26, 2021

      Lieven

      I didn’t do the X review, so I couldn’t say, sorry

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