CVJ CSN

CVJ CSN Review - Hybrid at a steal?

Intro

CVJ needs no introduction in the budget scene as they’ve churned out several budget oriented earphones and also a highly praised model among reviewers which is the CVJ Mirror. Although CSN has been released for quite some time already. Let us take a look if it is able to hold itself in such competitive space today.

CSN consist of 5BAs and a single DD. 2BAs for the mids,3 for the highs and a single DD for the lows.

Source

Foobar2k -> E1DA 9038G3 -> CVJ CSN
Cayin N3 Pro - CVJ CSN

Packaging

CSN’s packaging is fairly straightforward and no BS. A box containing the L and R IEM, silicone eartips, a brown colored cloth carrying case. Not complaining anything as the savings on the packaging is passed on in order for a better sounding IEM.

Comfort/Build

CSN is built from aviation class aluminium and mixed with magnesium according to their marketing material. It does feel a little hefty on hand and it gives a solid feeling. The unit does not look/feel cheap at all. Safe to say build quality definitely looks a little premium albeit the lack of any fancy design/paint on the unit itself.

Despite it being fully built from metal. It feels very comfortable in my ears. Using it for several hours straight without feeling any discomfort.



Sound

Tonality wise, I feel CSN is U shaped. The vocal does feel a little recessed but the overall balance is still there. Neutral and slightly bright to my ears. Timbre wise, I feel there’s a slight tinge of BA timbre. Just slightly. It’s okay overall.

Bass

Bass response of CSN is rather fast and clean. Doesn’t feel bloated or interfere with other spectrum of the frequency.

Basshead will want to stay away, rather this is a set of clean and depiction of accurate bass reproduction. Nothing is over emphasized here in the lower spectrum of the frequency. The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights opening sounded very clean. Bass response is clean,tight and punchy. Fired up Slipknot’s Duality to test the driver speed, the driver responded very well and was able to catch up with the drumming to not make everything else sounds muddy.

Mids

The mids of CSN are of good quality. Detailed presentation. Guitar plucking of Muddy Waters’s Big Leg Woman sounded very lively. Vocal presentation is not intimate but there is a tendency of it feeling recessed on some songs. X Japan’s Endless Rain in particular.

Treble

I would say this is the highlight of CSN. It is energetic, but thankfully it is not sibilant and it’s comfortable to listen to for long hours. Depending on the source you are pairing it with, it is advisable to pair it with neutral/warm source to prevent it from getting shouty.

Details are good and there are a lot of sparkles, but as mentioned earlier, CSN does have the tendency to sound a lil metallic and some perceive this as unnatural.


Soundstage/Imaging

Soundstage is average. Not huge nor feeling boxed in. Average. Channel transition from left to right is well perceived without feeling too boxed in or too wide.
In songs like KItaro’s Matsuri, an adequate sense of instrument separation is perceived. Percussions and other instruments being played simultaneously can be identified and pinpointed easily.


Driveability

CSN can be driven by most DAP or even dongles. However, it does scale well with more power. Swapping in the stock cable with a balanced SPC cable, everything sounded more open and the bass is more controlled. Unfortunately, the recessed mids are still there.


Final Thoughts

It is very refreshing to see such tuning in the Chi-Fi market at this price point. Most of the IEM at this price point is leaning towards a certain signature preferred by the majority of people, warm and fun sounding. I might be wrong as I do not have the exact data, I for one is okay with clinical sounding or warm and fun sounding, depending on my mood during the session. So, are they worth the asking price of 55 USD at time of writing? Yes. Why? Such tuning is refreshing and the performance it offers is splendid, although the experience of unboxing is below average, but the sound performance of CSN says otherwise.

Will I recommend this? Yes. If you are able to look past the slight, just slightly BA timbre, then all is good, because everything else is just on point at this price point. I don’t have anything else to nitpick at such a price point.

*A big thanks for Janet from CVJ for sending this for me to review. Appreciate the opportunity given and the generosity. Despite being given the review unit, my opinion remains unbiased and honest.

Greetings, mates and welcome to my IEM review here in Head-fi and I'll do a comprehensive review about this particular IEM from CVJ, The CVJ CSN.
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This is my fourth CVJ product review and you are already familiar here in this blog on how I have a positive reviews on their products as how their tuning were quite unique compare to its budget range contemporaries who were the still almost the same v-shape tuning. All of their line-up products are distinguishable on one another when it comes to tuning from the neutralish-bright sound sig of a CS8 to an almost flat sound sig of CVJ mirror.



This is CVJ CSN, It has a hybrid set-up of 5 balance armatures to handle the mids and highs and a 10mm mono dynamic driver on each side. This set cost around US$ 45 up to $48.



The packaging box of CVJ CSN is a small rectangular shape that is identical to the latest packaging box of CVJ Mirror and CVJ CSE ( The older batches of CSN has that wooden jewelry box-style packaging which is one of my favourite in entry-level segment.) The contents are the pair of IEMs itself, a dark brown velvet pouch, a two (2) pairs of silicone eartips ( small and large), The black stock 4 core cable that you usually found on all CVJ's IEM with a 3.5mm termination jack, a vecro strap organizer and some paperworks like warranty card and instruction.




The CVJ CSN shell is made of CNC-milled aluminium for durability with a matte-like finished paint job, It has a recessed 2-pin connector which is the best connector in my opinion as it is very stable and proven to be more sturdy. The overall design of the IEM housing is very natural and well- design as it ergonomically fits very well in my ear contours and its nozzle insertion in my lug holes fits snugly. It has also decent sound isolation from external noise source



Scalability wise, CVJ CSN is a low impedance device that can be driven by decent source like smartphones, tablets, DAPs and Laptops/PC but it will be can benefited on better hifi DAC/Amps for more fuller dynamic range.

The sound signature of CVJ CSN has a balanced, mild U-shape tonality that leaning towards neutrality as it has a slight emphasis on lows, more unmalleable nature of mids and slight lift on highs.

I'll pointing out the sound characteristics of each part of audio spectrum of CVJ CSN.

LOWS/BASS:

The bass quality is tight, incisive and organic as it has that dynamic driver that provide better transients and fast decay. It has a decent presence of rumble as it penetrate well in the sub bass region. It has also a good midbass texture as bass guitar has that sustaining growl, and resonating full-bodied fret and the bass kicks has a good thudding. This is not a basshead's bass but it is quality bass that some audiophiles wants.

MIDS

The mids has a slightly recessed presentation on this one but it is still delivers a transparent and clean with a good amount of details. The vocals quality of both gender has a good texture and vivaciousness especially on high range female vocals as it is more affront, borderline aggressive nature and that well-define clarity on its timbre while the male has more smoother and organic presentation. The percussions, rhythm instruments and woodwinds has a good presence details, natural and articulateness. The plucking of guitars are lively and resonating especially on acoustic and lead guitars. The sound of a piano has that rich, full bodied and tangible mellowness. This is indeed has good sound characteristic on the mids frequency.

HIGHS/TREBLE:

I describe the treble of CVJ CSN has that bright and sparkle with a decent airy extension. Since it was driven by a pair of tweeter BAs, it has that hint of metallic timbre which might perceived it as unnatural and peaky especially on the upper mids. Good thing that sibilance is very minimal to none in this set as it still deliver a clean and decent resolving on micro-details. The crashing sound of cymbals strikes are decent enough but I still want more shimmer and vivid as it has still lack of extension range in my hearing perception.


SOUNDSTAGE AND IMAGING:

The width of soundstage is above average, with a decent depth and height, It has an adequate sense of separation of each instruments along with vocals. The imaging performs admirely as you pinpoint the spatial cues on panning of instruments' and vocalist's placement and positioning point, And there is no overlapping and smudging on a each segment on layering of instruments.



As I end my review here, There are a lot of contemporaries of CVJ CSN that shares the almost the same built, design and driver set-up cues but the tuning are just mediocre and unpolished, And this is where CVJ CSN separate themselves to their entry-level competitors which is their impeccable matured and balance tuning on their specific products. They know the basic fundamentals on catering and diversifying their products on different set of audio enthusiast consumers.





Some Tracks Tested * = 16-bit FLAC, ** = 24-bit FLAC, *'* = MQA, '*' = DSD, *'= .WAV)

Alison Krauss -When You Say Nothing At All *
Jade Wiedlin - Blue Kiss**
Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks **
Mountain - Mississippi Queen *
Queen - Killer Queen **
Guns N' Roses - Patience *'*
Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven '*'
Sergio Mendes- Never Gonna Let You Go '*'
Pearl Jam - Daughter **
Roselia - Hidamari Rhodonite *
Assassin - Fight (To Stop The Tyranny)*
Celtic Frost- Visual Aggression *
New Order - Blue Monday *
The Corrs- What Can I do (unplugged version) *
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Voodoo Child *
The Madness- Buggy Trousers *
Metallica - One **
Mariah Carey- Always Be My Baby *
Destiny's Child - Say My Name *
X-Japan - X *
Mozart - Lacrimosa *
New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Dvorak- Symphony 9 " From the New World." *
Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold (Sting cover)*
Michael Jackson - Give In To Me *

SPECIFICATIONS:
MODEL: CVJ CSN
SENSITIVITY：108dB
CABLE LENGTH：1.25m
IMPEDANCE：22Ω
PLUG TYPE：3.5mm
FREQUENCY RANGE RESPONSE: 20Hz - 40 kHz
TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION：0.2%
DRIVER CONFIGURATON: 1 DDs and 5 BAs
PIN TYPE: 0.75mm 2-pin connector


I am not affliated to CVJ nor receive monetary incentives and financial gains as they provide me a review unit for an exchange of factual and sincere feedback from yours truly.

I would like to thank Janet Hu for providing this unit, I truly appreciate on her and CVJ team's generousity.

CAN I RECOMMEND CVJ CSN AT $60?! HELL YEAH I WOULD! EVEN AT $120 I WOULD!
re
It's safe to say CVJ has less attention than any brands out there but mind me, they deserve more attention for tuning CSN and Mirror quite well. Let me tell you why.

Got it at 10 am and here I am now still listening to it. It literally got burned in inside my ears, nothing much has changed but was performing excellently right off the bat.

PROS:
Heavily engaging(im a 35 yo metalhead and found myself dancing on hiphop beats)
Highly textured sounds (some are eargasmic)
Wide staged (bar with 300 pax mosh pit)
Above average imaging
Fast transients
Deep and punchy bass
Highly holographic
Drilling micro details
Airy mids
Very good layering
Good sealing/fitting
Weighty metal shells
Zero flexing
Stock cable thats better than any other black budget stock cables out there
Tips that doesnt need to be replaced
EQ sensitive
Very easy to drive, even bt20s pro did not struggle
Design is quite neutral and can go for any fashion
Very affordable, which is why the unboxing is straight forward nothing is included unecessarily

CONS:
Mildly U shaped, like slightly.. Just because the bass is prominent and sometimes get warm but the mids and trebles are performing quite well.
2/10 mids test tracks had recessed character
Sometimes lacks sizzle but it's there when needed
Since the IEM is heavy, it gets dented quite easily when dropped
The mic buttons are sticky
Could have been available in other colors

Bass ★
Mids ★
Trebles ★
Imaging ★
Layering ★
Microdetails ★
Soundstage ★
Spatial Panning ★
Timbre ★
Tonality ★
Affordability

Overall rating ★

Comparisons:
Kc2 - has the same holographic sense but wins in most aspects specially on the bass reach
Ta1 - performed better than knowles in this iem. Even mids is better on csn than ta1
Summer - summer has the deepest and smoothest bass i have right now. Slightly better mids and trebles but lack the texture and detail that csn has. Csn also has faster transients giving it more holographic sense than summer.
Toneking t4 - t4 has knowles ba, csa dont but they sound similar. Especially in making badly recorded albums sound great!
Adonis - adonis feels like youre wearing a helmet of sounds..great sounds! While csn feels like youre listening to full ranged monitors with the same great sounds. Its even more holographic!

Tested on LG V30 Quad Dac

Final say:
To be honest, I didn't expect much on these until I listened to them and I felt my mistake immediately. Despite all the good reviews im seeing I had to try em on my own to prove it and CVJ has all my respect specially in providing a fair price on such great sounding IEM. I can't even imagine myself comparin it on a sub $200 IEM. If there's anyone out there who wants to exceed what their $60 is worth, CSN is the answer! As far as my shuffled playlist is concerned, these are very versatile. Perfect for mood setting since it's very engaging.

It's nice to have IEMs that can squeeze your creative juices like these! Great Job CVJ and thank you dearly Janet Hu for sending me these!

#berrywhitegamingandreviews #cvj #12drivers #CSN #LGV30 #quaddac