The Kyoo-Up O42 in-ear headphones have flown under the radar of many headphone reviewers, which is a great shame. Kyoo-Up is a young company that has spent nearly four years developing and perfecting headphones, with a goal to give you a fantastic listening experience on the go. Kyoo-Up’s headphones use high-quality materials, despite costing significantly less than headphones from more widely known manufacturers. This is nothing new. Less known companies across virtually all industries must try harder than the industry leaders to convince customers they should choose them instead of one of the top players. With such a refined product as the Kyoo-Up O42 in-ear headphones, the convincing isn’t all that difficult, as you’ll see in this review.

Build and Design

Built from pure copper, the housing of the Kyoo-Up O42 headphones is engineered to prevent unnecessary vibrations, giving you better, clearer, and more refined sound with an increased depth. What’s more, it increases the overall durability of the headphones as well as their visual appeal. The combination of black with gold reminded us of expensive jewelry, and made us wonder how is it possible that these headphones cost so little.

Even the in-line microphone with a single-key multi-function button for music and phone call control is made from metal, instead of plastic. Depending on the context, a single press of the button either answers or hangs-up a phone call or plays or pauses the music playback. A double-click skips one track forward, and a triple-click goes to the previous track. The microphone proved to be more than adequate for all our phone-calling needs, and it never failed to exclude unwanted background noise from our phone conversations.

Extra-large stress relievers on the cable protect it against damage, and the L-shaped plug at the end is plated with gold for maximum audio quality. The only criticism we have in regards to the build of the headphones is the fact that they are heavier than most in-ear headphones on the market. The extra weight makes any comfort issues more noticeable.

Sound Quality

The Kyoo-Up O42 in-ear headphones rely on advanced 8mm Neodymium dynamic drivers to reproduce music with utmost clarity and precision. Coming into this review, we were expecting something quite different. When we were greeted by a tightly controlled sound, our prior expectations quickly vanished.

Originally, we planned on testing these headphones mostly with EDM, hip-hop, and other bass-heavy music genres, but these turned out not to be the ideal match for the Kyoo-Up O42. As all fans of these genres will confirm, bass is what makes or breaks the entire experience, and these headphones simply don’t have enough of it—at least not without a help from a software EQ.

When we broadened our selection to include jazz, classical music, movies, video games, spoken word, oriental music, and rock, the Kyoo-Up O42 lit up and showed us what they are capable of. Considering their affordable price, these are some of the most versatile headphones on the market.

What’s in the Box?

Apart from the Kyoo-Up O42 in-ear headphones, the packaging also includes a slim pouch for storage and several pairs of replaceable eartips, including a pair of Kyoo-Up’s double-flange eartips for extra passive noise isolation.