Whizzer is an up-and-coming brand from China trying to leverage their technical know-how to charm the Chi-Fi market. However this market is saturated, and you can find a new IEM being released every week. Despite that, Whizzer caught my attention with their original A15. Its warm sound signature was mellow and heavy without sounding bad, its construction was solid, and its packaging was… thorough. So in my mind, I imagined that the A15 Pro would be a refined extension of that. And in many ways, it is. But it also deviates sharply from the mantra of the original A15. Is it for the better? Well, let’s talk about it.

You can find the Whizzer A15 Pro for sale on Aliexpress and Penon Audio for roughly $125.

Disclaimer: This unit was provided to me free of charge for review purposes. I am not affiliated with Whizzer beyond this review. These words reflect my true, unaltered, opinion about the product.

Preference and Bias: Before reading a review, it is worth mentioning that there is no way for a reviewer to objectively pass judgment on the enjoy-ability of a product: such a thing is inherently subjective. Therefore, I find it necessary for you to read and understand what I take a natural liking to and how that might affect my rating of a product.

My ideal sound signature would be an extended sub-bass with a leveled, but textured, mid-bass. The mids should be slightly less pronounced than the treble, but still ahead of the bass. I prefer a more bright upper range.

Source: The A15 Pro was powered like so:

HTC U11 -> USB-C adapter -> earphones

or

Hidizs AP100 3.5mm out -> FiiO A5 3.5mm out -> earphones

or

HiFiMAN SuperMini -> earphones

or

PC optical out -> HiFiMe SPDIF 9018 Sabre DAC 3.5mm out -> earphones

All music was served as MP3 @320Kbps or as FLAC.

Sound Signature

Initial Impressions:

I did not like the A15 Pro on first listen. I found it to be boring and uneven, much in the way I initially disliked the Kinera H3. But as the story goes, I grew to really like it. Rather than the tradition V-shaped sound signature I’ve come to expect from Chi-Fi or the warm-yet-competent sound signature of the original A15, I found myself confronted with a gentle U-shaped sound signature with a mellow bass, slightly elevated treble, and mildly emphasized vocal range.

Treble: Songs used: In One Ear, Midnight City, Outlands, Satisfy

The treble is unremarkable but in a good way. I mean to say that rather than always being in your face (despite the fact that it is indeed the most emphasized part of the sound signature) it just melts into the song. It is precise, well-weighted, and of a good timbre.

I found myself absolutely captivated by the upper end of acoustic guitars and drums. A particularly remarkable display was Rise Above This by Seether. There’s a lot going on in the upper register, and the A15 Pro doesn’t have any problem dealing with everything; from the two guitars to the generous use of the drummer’s high-hats, it didn’t even flinch.

Unfortunately, the A15 Pro does exhibit some mild sibilance on poorly mastered tracks, and Satisfy did sound harsh and uninviting.

Mids: Songs used: Flagpole Sitta, Jacked Up, I Am The Highway, Dreams

Interestingly, the A15 Pro opted to abandon any sort of neutrality in the mids. The upper mids are bumpy with peaks here and there. The vocals are notably boosted, providing them with a good amount of clarity and separation. The lower mids and mellowed out giving the Pro a light and airy feeling.

The rhythm guitar in Flagpole Sitta was clear and distinct for the duration of the song, and the drums kicked with precision and purpose. But due to the mastering style of the song, it did come off as too clinical during some parts of the chorus.

Bass: Songs used: Moth, Gold Dust, In For The Kill (Skream Remix), War Pigs (Celldweller Remix)

Bass was clearly tuned for the likes of Moth — clarity takes precedence over emphasis. And this philosophy is liked the reason Whizzer gave this IEM the “Pro” moniker, marketing advantages aside.

Gold Dust did suffer a bit from the more “professional” tuning that Whizzer opted for. While the bass is absolutely present and audible, it doesn’t have the weight behind it to really move me.

Fortunately, it’s not all bad news, the A15 Pro has notable levels of extension. It’s just stingy with how much bass it is willing to give you at any given moment. In For The Kill highlights this behavior; it manipulates the cascading bass line with no effort at all, but rarely ever lets it get aggressive enough to cause rumble or the sensation of impact.

Packaging / Unboxing