In-Ear MonitorOverreview

Softears Studio4

Everyone agrees it is neutral. Whether that is the point or the problem — and whether your ears can live with the seal — is the whole argument.

53 sourcesUpdated
$449Typical US price

Score aggregates reviewer opinions across topics.

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Softears Studio4

The short version

What to know.

A four-BA studio monitor tuned close to neutral: a sub-bass shelf that is gone by 200 Hz, a flat lower midrange and an ear-gain peak just under 3 kHz. Sources broadly agree on the tuning, on a natural and uncoloured midrange, on precise imaging and on unusually strong passive isolation from the unvented shell. They split elsewhere — on whether the treble is smooth and extended or restrained and short on air, on whether the stage is narrow or wide, on whether the unvented, lipless fit is comfortable or a source of pressure and slipping tips, on whether the build holds up given thin accessories and a run of owner-reported driver failures, and on whether $449 is fair. Bass is quality over quantity, and dynamics are the most consistently mentioned weakness.

About this product

Softears writes it Studio4; most reviewers write Studio 4 — same monitor. The Starry Version swaps the piano-black shell for clear resin with a blue sparkle faceplate and measures the same. Not the two-driver Studio2, and not the RSV, Volume S or Edge.

Softears is the quiet half of the Chengdu audio scene — often described as Moondrop's sister brand, sharing R&D with its far more famous neighbour but mostly building four-figure flagships and leaving them on sale for years. The Studio4, released in March 2023, is the cheap way in: four balanced armatures on a three-way crossover, a plain black resin shell, a waterproof case, an extension cable for the mixing desk, and a stated goal of flat response for tracking, mixing and stage monitoring.

It is effectively the five-driver RSV scaled down to four and priced at $449, and it has become a fixture of neutral-IEM recommendation threads. More than three years on it is still listed at full price while selling well below it on sale and on the used market — which is part of why the places reviewers disagree about it matter.

A good fit for

  • Mixing, tracking and stage monitoring, where an uncoloured reference matters more than excitement
  • Listeners who want to hear what neutral sounds like before choosing a flavour
  • Anyone who needs heavy passive isolation — commutes, open-plan offices, loud stages
  • Vocal and acoustic listeners who value natural timbre over slam

Think twice if

  • You want bass you can feel — the shelf stops before the mid-bass
  • Unvented IEMs give you ear pressure, or wide-bore tips are your only fit
  • A big, out-of-head stage or obvious treble sparkle is what you listen for
  • You plan to pay full list price and expect a premium cable and tip kit

The reviewer consensus

Agreement &
disagreement.

5 / 12topics divide opinion
imagingisolationtonalitymidsbassdetaildynamicstreblesoundstagecomfortbuildvalue
2 Strong agreement5 Mostly agree5 Divided opinions

Common ground6

  • Tuned close to neutral, with a sub-bass shelf and no mid-bass lift — two dozen measurement rigs agree on the shape
  • The midrange is the strongest part: natural, clear vocals and instruments
  • Imaging and instrument separation are precise

Points of contention5

  • Treble splits: smooth and extended to most, restrained and short on air to a critical minority — and fit moves the band in dispute
  • Soundstage splits: most hear it as narrow or intimate, a minority as genuinely wide
  • Comfort splits: light and secure for most, but the unvented shell builds pressure and the lipless nozzle loses tips for others

A closer listen.

12 topics · 5 divided
Left: criticalRight: positiveTighter lines: more agreement

Tonality

PositiveMostly agree
Reviewer sentiment18 supporting sources
CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

Close to neutral in nearly every account, with a gentle sub-bass shelf; reviewers use it as a reference point for other sets. Where listeners place it within neutral varies — warm to some, a touch bright to others — and one owner calls the bass outright imbalanced.

“one of the more neutral sounding sets on the market”

VSG, TechPowerUp

“The best way to describe the Softears Studio4s’ sound signature is “neutral.””

Azzief Khaliq, Voltcave

“One of the best neutral set I’ve heard”

kesobie, AudioNotions

Measured

Twenty-four traces from independent IEC-711-class rigs agree on the shape: a shelf of about +5 dB at 20–30 Hz (relative to 500 Hz) that is back within 1 dB by 200 Hz, a flat 200 Hz–1 kHz stretch, and an ear-gain peak of +6 to +10 dB at 2.7–3.1 kHz.

vs. listeners — Cuckoo Studio hears the result as warm and blames the dip near 6 kHz; Super* Review, thaslaya and EnemySpider hear a slight bright tilt from the 3 kHz and 8 kHz energy around it. Both are on the graph. Two rigs also show the balance shifts on high-output-impedance sources: at 10–30 Ω the 1–5 kHz region rises 2–3 dB against the bass and the top octave falls about 3 dB, so the flat-impedance claim holds for ordinary low-impedance sources only.

Link to this topic

The hardware

Specifications.

Checked

Design

Type
In-ear monitor
Drivers
4 × balanced armature4BA
Housing
3D-printed medical-grade resin shell

Electrical

Impedance
12 Ω
Sensitivity
123 dB/V≈ 103.8 dB/mW
Frequency response
5 Hz – 40 kHz

Connection

Cable
Detachable
Connector
0.78 mm 2-pin (recessed)community-sourced: socket depth
Plugs supplied
3.5 mm

Manufacturer-published figures, not measurements · from hifigo.com. Socket depth not published by the maker — community-sourced from hands-on reviews: headfonia.com, twister6.com.

Follow the evidence

Sources 53

1–6 of 53 sources

Read with context

Limitations & method.

As of

What to keep in mind 8

  1. This is a read of where the reviews land as of October 2026 — a set this old has been argued about for three years, and the field around it keeps moving.

  2. There is no large retail rating to lean on. The most-cited star average, 4.6 from 16 Head-Fi member reviews, comes from enthusiasts who chose to write about it, many on review tours; the most detailed of them rates it 3.5.

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