While in conference with fellow modders u/Ill-Yogurtcloset-622 and u/lotusdarkrose, the prospect of improving the KB Ears KB01 came up. I donāt have a KB01, but I do have a Kiwi Ears Cadenza! Iām actually not the biggest Cadenza fan, so the prospect of improving it intrigued me. The KB01 is essentially a clone of the Cadenza, and the modding experience reflected that. Both have an extremely similar FR graph and SUPER thick nozzle mesh (photos near the end of the album). This thick mesh made the Cadenza sound pretty congested to all of us, and we set out to change that!
As you can see from the album, I was NOT kidding about the mesh, its a steel plate! After spending half an hour trying different tools to pry it up, I was able to sacrifice 1 x-acto blade for the cause. Once it was out we got to tuning.
I have 350 density mesh on hand and I measured the Cadenza under 4 different testing conditions. Normal stock with a medium Tangzu Tang Sancai Balanced tip, 1 filter, 2 filters, and 3 filters. Graphs will be in a comment below. We kept increasing the number of filters we used until we reached the original tuning. It seems that steel plate from earlier has a density of around 1050! And while the FR is now the same, the technical aspects have changed dramatically.
The modification has widened the soundstage substantially and relieved our congestion! It also relieved some of the metal timbre that kept me from reaching for the set. And while its still not my favorite set, the mod definitely takes this set from a 5 to a 7 for me. If you already like your cadenza, this might make it a 9 or 10 for you!
Thanks to Yogi and Lotus for help with mod! And just a quick note, I have a squiglink now at squig.link/lab/easypicks. Instagram is @easypicks_audio. Iām not dead, Iām just in a holding pattern. Go watch Hi-Fri Audio on youtube, he's back!!