CCA Lyra Earphone Review (1) – Balancing a Budget Queen

INTRO

Not too long ago I reviewed the CCA CRA+ which was a pretty good budget offering, but now I have in my hands the CCA Lyra that offers yet another excellent budget earphone experience. The CCA Lyra uses a more isolating and not quite as universal shell and dials the bass and treble down to produce a frequency balanced signature from top to bottom. Well done at $18.

Disclaimer: These were sent unsolicited and free of payment showing up on my doorstep without me even knowing they were coming. I believe CCA provided them directly so I appreciate the opportunity to give an opinion.

GOOD TRAITS

• Good Isolation due to more custom universal shell
• Balanced/near neutral sound signature

NEEDS IMPROVEMENT

• Basic cable
• Shell is larger, more contoured and less universal

PACKAGE CONTENTS

The CCA Lyra is a bare bones budget set with no carrying case, just a detachable silver plated straight cable with a 90 degree plug and one set of small, medium, large starline eartips. I did happen to notice however the starline eartips for the CCA Lyra are softer and the stem is shorter than normal starline eartips. This change results in a stem length that is less than the length of the whole eartip. This appears to be a result of the shell nozzles bringing the output port closer to the ear drum.

Speaking of the shell on the CCA Lyra, it does not use the same shell as the CCA CRA+, but instead borrows it from the CCA CA16/ and KZ DQ6 lineage. It is three pieces glued together housing a single 10mm dual magnetic dynamic driver and is lightweight helping to reduce the strain of wearing heavy metal earphones.

COMFORT / ISOLATION

Isolation is well above average since the shell fills all the nooks and crannies of your ear and fits tightly. The nozzle is medium sized and made of metal with a lip, so that will help listeners who find that some larger nozzles are uncomfortable.

SOUND

Tested with LG G8, Sony NW-A55 and SMSL DO100/HO100

The CCA Lyra is a well balanced signature with only a few decibel lift in the lowest of bass registers. Extension is great hitting that fine balance of enhanced subbass without feeling slow and disconnected from the midbass region. The CCA CRA+ on the other hand had a bigger midbass boost that made it sound bassier. The Lyra instead gives listeners a satisfaction of feeling fullness without being overfed. It has a soft snappiness bass hit sound.

Lower midrange is clean but warm and inviting. Male and female vocals both feel well balanced and not recessed or forward. There is a minor “western” pinna gain of about 7dB rise around 2.5khz with a small ripple flat plateau that extends to about 5khz before dropping halfway into the presence region and keeping the 10-12khz region level with 1khz. What this does is take the bite out of guitars, snares and horned instruments and allows the listener to avoid fatigue while being immersed in everything equally.

Treble has just enough air and control to sound very true to what is expected, there are no weird anomalies giving them excellent timbre. Woodwinds and stringed instruments float through the presentation. Cymbals are not splashy but decay is smooth, there could be more definition. They might be too polite at times, but this is hunting for grievances at this point.

TECHNICALITIES

The CCA Lyra is not overly wide or narrow sounding, I call it living room listening and the staging is above average. It doesn’t sound crowded but does not deliver separation that some mid-level sets can deliver. Sensitivity is good and are easily driven with a smart phone which is a must for budget conscious folks. Detail retrieval is good, it sounds musical and that is enough for me.

QUICK COMPARISONS

KZ ESX $20 was sort of a flop for me, the bass was mucky and not well defined and the CCA Lyra walks all over it in terms of proper extension and control and didn’t even need to be boosted as much to meet this standard. The midrange and treble are perfectly in balance on the Lyra whereas the ESX was too scooped out and boring sounding in the treble arena.

The CCA CRA+ ($28) was another well received budget offering for me, with a bigger midbass boost and hotter sounding treble that really stood out. The CCA Lyra on the other hand seems to be the more relaxed sibling that knows when enough is enough, does not get into too much trouble, and doesn’t feel the need to show off.

The Lyra is an all-day listening earphone, whereas the CRA+ might be a bit of an ear-ringer after a while due the extensive boosted presence region ripples found in the frequency response.

OUTRO

The CCA Lyra is hard to find fault with given this price bracket and perhaps even higher up. It is not a giant killer by any means but an extremely solid offering I give my highest regards to in terms of finding that near perfect balanced sound signature and performance to price ratio.

It is not a basshead earphone, not a highly forward upper midrange screamer eastern tuning, or a audiophile netural lower bass absence earphone set. Instead it is where ying and yang live to bring balance to the force and give us an excellent daily earphone you can throw in your school, work or gym bag, and not worry about perfection or loosing a set of earphones.

I highly recommend the CCA Lyra to anyone who doesn’t mind a more custom universal shell, this is my current budget king or queen recommendation. Works well with a variety of music but favors towards, rock, pop, and electronic. It might even make my best of 2022 list.

SPECIFICATIONS CCA Lyra

GRAPHS

• Left vs Right

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DISCLAIMER

Get it from CCA Store on Aliexpress

Our generic standard disclaimer.

About my measurements.