Introduction

Antlion Audio was formed over a decade ago in Oregon, USA although it took until ~2016 for its most famous product—the ModMic—to mature and become known in the PC gaming community. For those unaware, the Antlion ModMic comes in a few different versions and allows you to use your favorite set of headphones with it to become a high fidelity headset. I have personally bought two ModMic USB for use both at home and work and they have more than paid for themselves with the prevalence of online calls these days, in addition to gaming sessions over Discord and Steam Chat. So when Antlion Audio started teasing something new coming up a few weeks ago, I thought perhaps we were getting an updated ModMic Wireless or another take on the popular ModMic family. I was not expecting to see a whole new product line that instead focuses on IEM users!


Antlion Audio's new Kimura collection currently consists of two microphones and two in-ear monitors. The goal here is to put forth a similar microphone experience for a more portable use case, without compromising on the sound quality the company is known for. The Kimura microphone comes in MMCX or 0.78 mm 2-pin connector options to cater to the vast majority of IEMs on the market today, and the Kimura IEMs can be considered as Antlion's debut into the IEM world, while also complementing the microphones. There's the Solo which uses a single dynamic driver and then the Duo complements it with an additional balanced armature driver. The name of the collection is based off the MMA hold to effectively indicate you will have a firm grip of the IEMs and microphone cable around the ears to not fall out of position. The company was kind enough to send over both IEMs for review on TechPowerUp so we are doing a 2-in-1 article today which begins with a look at the product specifications in the tables below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

Around the time the Kimura Solo and Duo were being shipped my way, I received an email informing me about an error on the product box of the Kimura Duo that resulted in the wrong graphics being used. This is obvious when you look at the front of both boxes wherein the renders of the IEMs are both of the Kimura Solo itself. The error makes for an Easter egg for the first production run and Antlion Audio owns up to it via a blog article explaining why it did not make environmental sense to dispose of the boxes which—let's face it—no one is going to keep anyway. Seen above is how the actual box should be and generally both are on the smaller side of average with bold use of gold lettering on a black base. On the back are more renders as well as a list of contents to be expected inside and here is also where we see tear-off strips to reveal a second box inside.


These inner boxes continue to have plenty of branding in the form of both the Antlion Audio logos as well as Kimura to emphasize these are part of the company's new product line. Then there is the use of red for the Kimura Solo and blue for the Kimura Duo, which we see extends also to the design of the IEMs. There are flaps which open up to provide more information about the products, before our eyes automatically meander over to the plastic clamshell packaging in the middle with cutouts to snugly hold and protect the IEMs and cable in addition to some of the accessories. Antlion Audio goes for a uniform unboxing experience across both products and includes silicone ear tips in sizes S/M/L in addition to foam tips in size M. There is also a Y-adapter that takes two 3.5 mm TRS plugs and outputs a single 3.5 mm TRRS plug, so you can use the Kimura microphone cable with PCs/laptops/consoles that have separate headphones out and microphone in connectors or a combo jack that this adapter will come in handy with. There are subtle marks to indicate which of the inputs correspond to which connector too.


The pre-installed cable goes over the side and underneath where we see it ends up inside a round, small form factor storage and carry case. This is a hard case that can actually fit the IEMs and the microphone cable inside, although you do need to bend and curve the microphone section to do so. The case is all black with a fancy K (for Kimura, presumably aiming to be a Japanese game inspired font) on the front, although I would have liked to see a larger zipper tag than what is currently used. We also get paperwork in the form of a quick start guide which walks you through the use of IEMs, if you are new to them, as well as the cable and adapter itself. Note also the shirt clip that comes attached to the cable—it will be quite handy to reduce microphonics in use.


Before we get to a closer examination of the IEMs and the cables separately, I had to first separate the IEMs from the pre-installed cable. A quick look here reveals the use of MMCX connectors that I was pleasantly surprised with to note are among the better such implementations on the market. Indeed, Antlion Audio mentioned that it took a while and plenty of trials to come up with MMCX connectors the product team was happy with—not too loose, not too tight, and rated for increased durability so you need not worry about mishaps as with a few other IEMs. Carefully dislodge the connectors by holding one of the IEM shells in one hand and applying outward pressure on the cable connector with the other without wiggling things sideways or up/down. Repeat this with the other side and you are good to go!