Closer Examination

These in-ears look plain, nothing extravagant on the aesthetics front. Even though they do not look exciting the conventional design fits the vast majority of ears out there. The over-the-ear cable exit type design has definitely stood the test of time and many bigger earphone manufacturers swear by that very design principle because it works great.


Yet another surprising feature is the adjustable bass response knob on the back side of the earphones. It does not change the bass amount noticeably and makes the upper midrange slightly more grainy on some recordings. My best advice is to leave it be. Also worth noticing is the red rubber cable damper.


The sound tube is the same diameter as that of Ultimate Ears in-ears which means that you can use the appropriate Comply tips with the SoundMagics as well. The sound tube exit angle is not quite as a big as that of the sound tubes on Westone in-ears and this actually means that I need to fiddle around with the in-ears a bit more while inserting them to get a proper fit, so your mileage may vary when it comes to fit. I bet some people will get a better fit with these than Westone's, so I have decided to not list it as a con.


Overall decent looking in-ears without too many design kinks.


Compared to the Maximo iM-590s which we recently reviewed, the PL30s from SoundMagic do not look nearly as good. Size wise they are about the same due to different shapes.