Ocharaku Co-donguri Shizuku review by Ta-ke




茶楽音人(さらうんど) カナル型イヤホン Co-Donguri-雫
Ocharaku Co-donguri Shizuku 
- Artistic design and pleasant sound at just $50 USD

Review by Ta-ke.


Pros: Good bass texture and clarity, quality build / cable feels premium. Controlled treble
Cons: recessed high-mids and treble shy with original tips,

Co-donguri雫, inheriting the ''donguri'' acorn-look-alike design, is the lowest priced release within the Ocharaku range. A few weeks after the release I purchased the Dawn Blue version at e-earphone, reaching around 100 hours of run-in before my impressions are written.


 The body looks like Scrat's Acorn as the name suggests

The Co-donguri features a glossy uni-body metal front chamber with an artistic vented rear chamber, coated in a classy matte finish. Similar paints can be seen in some high-end tea wares or copper wares and雫 (water droplets) seems to represent the paint coating theme on the rear chamber. There are 4 colors and the orange color is a special version available at e-earphone.


Co-donguri definitely looks outstanding and feels sturdy. The splitter labels the unit is assembled in Thailand and the package comes with 3 sets of spin fits (with 3 sizes).


 Ocharaku suggests the Co-donguri can be worn both ways

Moving on to the sound.
The Co-donguri is tested with the following source :
Macbook Pro mid 2015 rev., iPad air 2, iPhone, Chord hugo, ak 100II, mass kobo 385 amplifier, tomahawk amplifier from RSA. Tested with 16/44.1 .wav files extracted by EAC.

As expected the Co-donguri doesn't come with the brand signature phase correction design, justified by the price and Thai manufacturing. First impression on ipad it is a bit mid shy, the deep insertion seems to filter down the higher treble. Bass is slightly congested and sub-bass is well present with good texture and depth.
The overall presentation is a bit v shaped, average soundstage, sounds decent with female vocals in J-pops and some animation music, but may be thick and close for heavy instrument-based music and male vocal. Likely the slightly high impedance and dynamic driver configure is making it power hungry.

I tested the same combo on a noisy street with my iPhone and it seems to be more balanced having the bass cancelled out by ambient noise, isolation is average. It is a bit tiring to listen to in the library and the volume need to be pushed up to make the vocal sounds right as dap/ phone lacks gain/ power, plugging the iem into my Mac while i type this then i realized it is leaking a bit when I push the volume up on my Mac.

I am expecting performance and presentation to be improved after burn in.

The unit is left to burn in for a week (pink noise around 100 hours on a PC, at normal listening volume)

Testing with my Mac and iPad the bass has tighten a bit after burn in and the overall impression remains, treble seems to open up a bit more and there is a more bass control after burn in. The bass is still a bit over sufficient but not considered bass heavy.

I continue to feed the Co-donguri with relatively low-output devices and the earphone sounds best and most balanced when connected to Hugo and other source. It is more bassy with tomahawk, guess the synergy will be good with most low end daps and tracks with little bass presence. The highs to me lacks sparkle but may be good for many non-audiophile recordings especially jpop and kpop.


 The test moves on with higher end sources
(Hugo opened up for cleaning the glass observing window)

Higher end gears with high output definitely helps open up the treble. The pairing with Hugo gives much better control and pull the vocal and treble out of the mud, the treble sparkle is back and the combo has more air and separation. Further adding an amplifier helps push dynamics levels up and makes the presentation more engaging.
I swapped the tips with other tips I purchased from ebay and from bic camera and shorter tube lengths help getting out more treble details and makes the presentation more balanced.



The Co-donguri scales up with better gears and bass texture is noticeably enhanced through better power and control. Mid-highs texture is still a bit recessed and relatively less detailed.
While I find the Ak100II pairing remains quite bassy and highs are quite attenuated. My preference is to use clean sounding outputs to power up the earphones.

The verdict
Good bass resolution and excellent build, sounds good with phones and kpop or jpop, could be too bassy for lower end outputs listening to audiophile tracks. Separation with low end source is lacking, amping the earphone with higher gain factors help opening up the sound but may pick up some noise.
The Co-donguri is still a great purchase at the price point considering the build quality and design however it is more friendly with higher end outputs, to a kpop/ jpop listener like me.

Impressions are given after ~10 mins of listening and with various songs including recent and old Jpop, Korean pop, classical music (mainly romantic period) and modern mixes with heavy digital content.

Specs:
10mm dynamic driver
Output:103dBSPL /mW
Max input:200mW
Impedance:18Ω
Weight 16g
Cable length:1.2m
Accessories SpinFit S/M/L and warranty card/ user manual

About Author: Ta-ke
Loves to find the best pairings for his gear to make them shine, loves photography and tea




3 Comments

  1. Hello Ta-ke i want to ask about shizuku , is this suitable for slowly female vocal?like aimer especialy after dark album( i love this album) , and did you encounter driver flex with shizuku?? Many local review was encountered driver flex with shizuku , this is from factory or it just human error.. thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. It is true that TTR is the company that makes Co-Donguri with Tornado Equalizer technology license from Ocharaku.
      Yet in Japan they were usually just referred to as Ocharaku co-donguri Shizuka on release which is when this review was published and are often still referred to in that way in Japan stores.

      Point taken though as to the modern parlance.

      Delete

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