Little Dot Cu Cen Review

Today I share my impressions about the $414,99 USD priced Little Dot Cu Cen Universal IEM.

Disclaimer: The Little Dot Cu Cen was provided to us by Little Dot US. You can purchase the CU Cen here.

About Little Dot

Little Dot, as we all know, is a brand that is notorious for building amplifiers and DACs. The foundation of the brand happened in April 2006 by Mr. Yu Quan Yang. Since then, Little Dot has developed many popular products and the brand has many users around the world. Their solid-state and tube amps have been precisely the most popular ones.

Now they’re opening to the U.S market, and they also created their first set of IEMs. Today I’m showing you the CU CEN model but I also checked out the Cu KIS, which has a higher price bracket and it is the current flagship IEM from them.

Little Dot Cu Cen

About Cu Cen

Cu CEN is currently the vocal focused mid-tier IEM of the brand and it consists of 2 drivers. 1 of these is a dynamic driver and the remaining one is a balanced armature. So naturally, the dynamic driver is responsible for bass and the other takes care of the rest. It has 0.78 2-pin connectors in the cable and has an impedance of around 21 Ohms.

The shells are completely aluminum and the internal design is quite smart to keep the IEM small and compact. The drivers are in and alignment after each other to prevent reverberation. Little Dot calls this design a “multilayer looping structure”. The cable has silver-plated 6N OCC copper wires.

Package

The new Little Dot IEMs arrive with a generous packaging with 9 pairs of tips including foams. You get 2 carrying cases as well. One is a rectangular case that has quite a room inside but if that one is too large for you to carry, there’s also a classic round case at your disposal. I liked the rectangular case more.

The box itself presents a nice unboxing experience as well. Overall I appreciate the packaging for these new models from Little Dot.

Design & Build

The design of the Cu Cen is very compact, round, and obviously red. Its color is certainly eye-catching and cool. The cable completes the design very well with its black connectors and white wire color. Aesthetics is always a subjective matter but I liked the overall design since it’s not a copy-cat from others.

Cu Cen has two main aluminum pieces that come together to shape the IEM. The structure is very solid. The nozzles sit tight and give a very nice and sturdy impression. The 2-pin connectors have covers around them to limit their movements and thus, preventing wear-out or a possible break.

This is a very thoughtful design but it also means that you can’t use this cable with other IEMs. You can use other cables with the Cu Cen though. The connectors sit very tight and the design ensures their stability and long-term durability.

Little Dot Cu Cen

Fit

The fit is very comfortable thanks to the small footprint and ear-friendly rounded design. There are lots of tips in the package including quality foam tips to ensure you have the best fit possible for your ears. In my case, I found the Cu Cen very comfortable and easy on the ear.

The isolation is a little above average since this is not a deep fitting IEM. You can of course try some aftermarket tips like we all do, for a deeper fit such as double or triple flanges. However there are 3 air vents in this design because of the dynamic driver, so the isolation is not at the utmost level. It’s certainly enough on a daily basis though.

The review continues on page 2 about the sound.