The Queen Of Audio Pink Lady is a 2BA+1DD Hybrid 3 Driver universal monitor with an SRP of $148.75. You can find it on HiFiGo currently for $119 here.
Disclaimer: The Queen Of Audio Pink Lady was sent to us for the purposes of this review and does not have to be returned. Thank you to the team at Queen Of Audio for giving us this opportunity.
To read more about our hybrid universal monitor reviews on headfonics click here.
Note, this review follows our new scoring guidelines for 2020 which you can read up on here.
In today’s latest adventure, we look to royalty with The Queen of Audio Pink Lady. The world of budget-friendly IEM’s is beyond dense and plentiful in this era, so I am extremely curious to see how they’ve innovated with this latest model. To the Gauntlet!
The Package
There isn’t much to write home about here, just a standard cardboard box and a hard case, complete with some ear tips. I do enjoy the stock memory foam-ish tips, I seem to get a fantastic seal with them and I do not have any need to venture outward into other 3rd party ear tip replacements that I do have.
More often than not, another headphone brand’s tips will end up with a better fit for me on an entirely different business’s product. Such is the world we live in…but, thankfully, not the case here with the QoA (Queen of Audio Pink Lady for short).
Design & Cable
The Pink Lady feels very solid in the hand, as well as being fairly large. It might be one of the larger IEM’s that I’ve had for review in the past few years.
The stock cable is lovely and braided, giving it a high-end custom cable vibe which has become the industry standard recently and thank the audio deities for that! I cannot stand standard fabric and boring looking headphone cables. I find them to house excessive microphonics and an “always grinding on your shirt” sound that travels all the way into the IEM housing.
With a smile, I can say these types of stock cables, such as the one on this, does not offer this type of a problem. Sadly though, I find the fit rather uncomfortable and overly bulky. The headphone protrudes a great deal out of my ear and tends to loosen itself fairly quickly over a short period of time.
The Pink Lady is on the heavy side and very thick, the sheer weight of the IEM is forcing an unsatisfactory fit for me. But again, as most of my readers know, I’m fairly short at about 5’5 tall and those with larger ears may find the fit pretty good. I think if you are a smaller person like me, you might not obtain a great fit unless you have larger than normal ears for your height.
Comfort & Isolation
Is the Pink Lady comfortable when set in my ear? Absolutely. I don’t have any physically negative comments to make over it.
The negative thoughts I have are in regard only to the heft of the IEM. I simply do not find them a proper size for me. Perhaps, if I were taller and my ears a bit larger, I would get a great fit. IEM’s like the Pink Lady reminds of why I prefer standard hanging style earbuds for casual usage.
Oddly, I have a new Bluetooth Shozy IEM that is much smaller and has a better fit from me. I don’t see the need for such a large IEM housing in today’s market. We’ve hit a point in the technology where a 20khz – 20hz response, one that isn’t dipping very low, to begin with.
Those that do not have a lot of drivers inside should not be this large when a smaller housing that is entirely Bluetooth enabled can exist right next to it.
Sound Impressions
Bass
Holy smokes. For $119? I regard the Pink Lady as offering the smoothest, yummiest bass experience in an IEM that I’ve used in this price tier.
I feel very safe in saying that those who like a soft, but moderately deep response, are going to really love this one. However, that is only if you bass boost. If not, you are going to miss out on the solid quantity factor that combines with a very buttery smooth physical impact on the low end.
In fact, dare I say, when a +5dB on the bass end is added into the mix, that this Pink Lady IEM is bar none, the most bass-smooth IEM I’ve ever heard in this price bracket. Yes, it sounds more smooth than my Empire Ears Zeus Custom IEM on smooth impact force factor.
I am not referring to bass quantity, purity, or any other sonic feature other than the smoothness of the physical strike factor. This isn’t a bassy IEM, it just offers up a very slick feeling low end.
Bass Response
It takes a bit of tinkering to get it just right, so I am going to say that this product is a bit finicky towards responsiveness to EQ. But, once it is properly implemented, you are rewarded with a nice sound.
As mentioned, adding in a few dB on the low end really kicks up the physical slam factor, but not in a negative manner. It ended up feeling like some of the most smooth low ends I’ve heard in a long time for an IEM in this price tier.
It is only after roughly +5dB that the Pink Lady stops responding, as the difference between +5dB and +10dB is almost unnoticeable. Usually, products in this tier will physically sound more potent at the cost of adding in a ton of mud to the sound field. However, almost nothing happens on my set when adding in upwards of +10dB of bass.
Midrange
This IEM is moderately forward in feel and physical tactility. That means that the experience is not super-forward, nor is it recessive. It feels more than engaging enough for wide-field recordings and also for intimately recordings that are up close and personal.
Engaging factors are fairly low in terms of physicality, meaning the Pink Lady is soft on approach, easy to listen to and not slamming in a harsh manner.
This is the type of experience I enjoy most for older Jazz tracks, as there is noticeably warmth in the upper bass areas and lower midrange that makes the sound field feel a bit thicker than usual, more vivid and velvet-like.
Slow recordings, Jazz standards, to be more specific, are portrayed superbly! There have been times where I have sat down somewhere nice and let Tony Bennet and Lady Ga Ga’s Jazz album play through entirely, only to restart it again in DSD and enjoy the hyper-slick and smooth appeal the entire spectrum vibes toward me.
I really enjoy this IEM, subjectively, for this type of music. I don’t find it particularly good for fast-paced music with a vocalist though. There are other models out there I would recommend for that before this Pink Lady.
Treble
While I enjoy the low end and middle areas of the response of the Pink Lady, I am not overly fond of the reversed treble this headphone has to offer. There are times where I would like more substance, more bite and more of an engaging quality when listening to certain genres.
However, that entire curtain falls when I prefer to listen to something softer, more relaxing and suitable for chilling out on my chair, or in bed. While rock and metal genres are not this IEM’s forte, I do consider the Pink Lady to be a bit of a Jazz master.
In fact, as mentioned before, I think it might be due to the excessively smooth low end that lacks a high impact phase of the experience. I really enjoy that type of bass smoothness, so this only adds to the experience as a whole for me.
Relaxed
As with the low end, so too, the treble side of the spectrum is a bit milder than most. While not as supremely buttery smooth on impact as the low end is, the top end of the Pink Lady is fairly reserved and relaxed feeling in the physical setup. By that, I mean it feels lacking on harsh impact and instead offers a tonally moderate dynamic kick.
Again, I rate the bass end as tonally low in dynamic kick, so there is a bit of a tactility difference between the top and bottom of this IEM that I find noticeably obtuse. But, don’t take that in a negative manner.
Either the low end needs a little boost in dynamic kick, or the top end should be even more reserved to make this IEM one of the slickest, most easy listening headphones I’ve heard in a long time. Either or would have been great in my view.
Staging
The soundstage of the Pink Lady is certainly deeper than it is wide or tall. While not lacking in any one area of the imaging experience. I think it is very obvious that, regardless of the source and amplifier being used, the Pink Lady ejects a sense of a cavernous feel over the sense of width from left to right.
This, again, makes it great for truly enjoying the slower-paced tracks out there that offer a solid sense of dynamism in its staging factor for the depth of field needs. Older Jazz tracks again reign supreme on this IEM and so do casual YouTube podcasts, even audiobooks. Really, anything with a focal point on vocals will be great for this product.
I consider the width factor and height factor to be slightly above average at best. But, perhaps, that is a good thing. Too much width would stretch the image to a point where the midrange may be impacted negatively, as I’ve not seen many budget tier IEM’s offer a strong sense of midrange, smoothness, fantastic depth of field and also strong width and height.
I hate to use flowery language in this manner, but “fluffier” is a term that comes to mind when I reference the imaging prowess of the Pink Lady. If it tonally deeper than it is wide, but also very smooth on impact while not sacrificing solidity in tonality from top to bottom.
It feels airy, but not sharp. Very smooth sound combined with a more intimate physical setup of soundstaging makes this IEM one of the best physically relaxing IEM’s out there, especially so if you can pump the low end up just a bit.
Synergy
Don’t worry about your amps, just grab yourself a good and solid DAP and forget about amplification needs. The Pink Lady doesn’t require anything special and doesn’t benefit anywhere from more juice pipped in.
It does benefit from tonal matching and rig pairing. For example, my Xduoo Plus Amp/DAC sounds smoother than my Monolith portable amp and I would very much prefer the Xduoo with the Pink Lady due to that smooth tonal rig match.
Highly neutral amps like the Monolith will sound great, don’t get me wrong, but I prefer to match smooth IEMs with smooth amps, neutral IEM’s with neutral amps and so on. In this case, dropping into my Burson Conductor 3 does nothing for it beyond what the Monolith portable amp does for the Pink Lady. Swapping from my Airist Audio Heron 5 does nothing when coming off the Xduoo.
Tonality is key with this one, so try to stick with something intimate in the midrange and regarded for a very smooth presentation.
Gaming
Since smoothness it the name of the game here, I tried to dabble in the gaming field with this IEM and found the end result to be fairly positive.
No, the pinpoint accuracy isn’t special, but single-player campaign driven games, like The Witcher 3 or Borderlands 3 were both sublime. Borderlands and any other game, that is gunfire, heavy usually tends to offer high wince factor with explosive sounds and sudden machine-gun fire, or powerful hand canon usage.
Such is not the case with this Pink Lady, so I recommend this IEM for the casual gamer who does not want that high wince and OW factor. You’ll instead obtain a sense of smoothness, at least, more so than most IEM’s out there with this Pink Lady.
No doubt there, as I found the entire Borderlands 3 rerun for me was highly immersive and focused on dialogue, instead of vastness and a sense of pinpoint accuracy. Perhaps, I’d run the game on the first playthrough with something else entirely, but my casual and “for fun” playthroughs would be optimized for the Queen of Audio Pink Lady usage.
Our Verdict
The Queen of Audio Pink Lady is a steal if you ask me. At only $119 yet? I don’t consider this IEM a genre master, so if you are looking for an all-round handy IEM, this isn’t for you.
If you are interested in a very smooth and relaxing sounding experience that requires little to no amplification, then this is probably your go-to product for this budget range. I really enjoy this Pink Lady for Jazz and slower musical tracks, as well as for Podcasts on YouTube. Just being able to never wince in pain or require anything but my 3.5mm jack on my phone is a lovely thing.
And yep, I had a Oneplus 6t as my primary phone and recently downgraded to a Sony ZX1 Compact, just so I can get microSD and normal 3.5mm support back. I found the Pink Lady to be smooth enough to be useful and enjoyable right out of the ZX1 Compact and that is really saying something about how smooth the experience can get with this Pink Pady.
Pink Lady Specifications
- 2 BA DRIVERS+1 DYNAMIC DRIVER
- Impedance: 17ohm
- Sensitivity: 112±2db
- Rated power: 3mW
- Frequency response range: 20Hz-20kHz
- Connector：2 pin
- Cable: detachable 3.5mm with
- 1.2m length
