INTRO:
This audio industry is growing exponentially and everyone wants a piece of it. Existing brands are upping their ante while newer brands are introducing interesting and innovative technologies.
Copplinn Sound and Engineered is a relatively new brand with a couple of IEMs under their belt. Copplinn is very confident about the Alula. It houses a single Liquid Silicone Driver which has a thickness of just 0.1mm. According to Copplinn it delivers Best Woofer and Full-Band Sound Quality with an IPX8 protection. Copplinn has decided to equip their IEMs with hand crafted wooden housings and the Alula comes with 3 different type of wood. Alula with Walnut and Cherry wood shells is priced at $250 while the Olive wood demands a premium of $100.
Alula incorporates patent pending Frequency Filter System along with 3.5 and 13.5 kHz resonance blocking technology for the best possible sound output. Interestingly Copplinn’s wood usage is not restricted to the IEM’s shell, these IEMs ship with excellent looking wooden carry cases too. Accompanying the Alula along with the wooden carry case is a pure copper MMCX cable.
Get one for yourself from this link:
https://www.etsy.com/in-en/listing/1079098711/alula-mahogany-ffs-design-request?ref=related-5&frs=1
https://www.etsy.com/listing/926345296/copplinn-alula-cheery?ref=shop_home_active_1
Unboxing and Accessories:
The unit’s I received were for the tour but I do believe that there is no retail packaging available for these IEMs. Most of the boutique brands don’t have retail boxes so this is not new.
Unlike most of the brands Copplinn has their IEMs made with 99% natural materials and the fully wooden carry case made out of walnut wood is the prime example of that. The only thing artificial in this case is the deepening material used inside it. Open the case and the IEM is placed inside a pure leather carry case (even the draw strings are made out of leather) while the cable and set of Sony type tips are placed under it. There are a few pieces of paper and that concludes the list of accessories.
How is the cable:
This is what a cable should look like. Really, this cable compliments the IEM perfectly. The aesthetics of this cable is a bang on match with the earpieces. This amber color looks elegant. Looks aside..
This a 4 core pure copper cable with silver soldering and chrome plated connectors. The best thing about this cable is it’s lack of cable guides. That’s a huge relief. This cable is slightly on the stiffer side but the braiding is not tight, it’s the core which is slightly less supple and do have a bit of microphonics because of the memory prone type of rubber coating on it. Going over the ear eliminates some microphones but since there is no dampener is still has a bit of microphones.
Build quality of the cable is very good but doesn’t look very strong, to me. There is no use of stress reliever anywhere. The cable splitter is very small while the rubber cable slider might survive the test of time.
While placing order one can opt for 4.4mm or 2.5mm balanced termination.
Build and ergonomics:
Copplinn’s principal of using pure materials on their products can be seen with the build quality of the IEMs. These IEMs are made out of variety of wood while the nozzle is made out of titanium.
Build quality is excellent and the smaller and compact size makes it less prone to damages.
A straight barrel IEM has nothing to add or the ergonomics but the small and light weight body of these IEMs does manage to deliver a very secure and confident fit. Yes, the narrow nozzle and tips used plays a huge part here and if the Sony tips are falling out use a pair of Foam.
Pairing with sources:
Being a single DD this IEM barely needs a lot of power to sound good. Drive it out of mobile phones and the Alula with an impedance of 35ohm and 109db doesn’t complain. There is barely any agitation or clumsiness to worry about. Using entry level DAC/amps doesn’t help in bringing anything more to the table but a desktop DAC/amp like the Playmate 2 brings bigger stage and slightly better air between instruments.
In simpler words, enjoy, this IEM with LSD driver barely cares about the source used while providing best possible sound without much trouble.
Alula Mahogany FFS sound quality on Page 2
Alula Cherry sound and conclusion on Page 3
