Accutone Pegasus C Review: Colored Shells, Colored Sound
Today I’ll be reviewing the Pegasus C from Accutone. Coming in at a cool $40, the Pegasus C is among Accutone’s cheapest offerings. On their website Accutone claims that the Pegasus C has “colorful sound”. Let me tell you, they aren’t wrong about that. What they are wrong about is whether or not having colored sound is a good thing.
You can find the Pegaus C for sale here, on Accutone’s official website.
Disclaimer: This unit was provided to me free of charge for review purposes. I am not affiliated with Accutone 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 Pegasus C was powered like so:
Nexus 6P -> 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 am unimpressed with the Pegasus C. Just to acclimate myself to this price range I spent about ten hours listening to the KZ ZST, an IEM that is half the price of the Pegasus C. In the pursuit of powerful bass it seems that Acctuone completely neglected the rest of the sound. The midbass is very large, but has no real impact. Treble is boosted, but the mids are pushed down pretty far.
Treble: Songs used: In One Ear, Midnight City, Outlands, Satisfy
Treble is boosted along a typical consumer V-shaped model. High-hats are clear, but not nearly as much as I would have liked it at this price point. Extension is mediocre, but not that bad all things considered.
Midnight City’s electronic synths were audible during the intro, but tended to get lost during the choruses and bridges, changing much of their timbre once instruments in the mids were introduced to become more warm and choked.
Nero’s Satisfy showed, unsurprisingly, that the Pegasus C is without sibilance. That’s a good thing, though it doesn’t make up for the generally uninspiring performance of the treble.
Mids: Songs used: Flagpole Sitta, Jacked Up, I Am The Highway, Dreams
The mids are, frankly, not too good. It’s a classic case of what I call the Accutone Muffle, a sonic artifact present in most of their bass-boosted IEMs. If you’ve read some of my other Accutone reviews then you should be reasonably familiar with what I am talking about.
Guitars are audible and have some texturing to them, but are poorly separated from the rest of the sound. Their timbre also leaves much to be desired, as they are very warm and soft. I can’t really make out much more (in terms of instruments) in many rock songs beyond the lead guitar and the cymbals. While the occasional strum of the bass guitar and chord from the rythm guitar may come through, it’s not consistent.
Vocals are the least affected by the Accutone Muffle but are still far too warm. I found that female vocals suffered more than male vocals, but were not that impressive either way.
Bass: Songs used: Moth, Gold Dust, In For The Kill (Skream Remix), Leave Me
Bass is, confusingly, not that powerful. While I could make out Moth’s bass guitar well, I found it to not be as well defined as I would have liked. Similarly, I found Gold Dust’s bass to be lacking much of the definition I was seeking. There is little impact, and even less real rumble.
In For The Kill, ironically, confirmed my suspicions that the bass was neutered as well. Sub-bass extension is mediocre, and mid-bass impact is completely meh.
Packaging / Unboxing
The Pegasus C has some nice packaging. It comes inside a lot of plastic, and I’m left wondering about a Pegasus C where the cost of packaging had been allocated towards the drivers of the IEM instead.
Build
Construction Quality
The Pegasus C has some respectable construction. The driver housings are made from a colorful matte plastic. There is a beveled Accutone logo that is painted into the side of each housing, giving the high-gamma color scheme some much needed contrast.
The cable is made from a standard plastic, though it doesn’t feel frail. It has ample stress relief given the very light weight of the driver housings. The cable terminates with a right-angled 3.5mm jack.
There is also a set of inline controls located on the Pegasus C’s cable. It is of reasonable construction quality and appears to be structurally identical to the one that comes with the Gemini HD and the Pisces BA (Accutone’s two most expensive IEMs).
The controls work well enough, and the internal mic gave me no problems. When talking with other people they had no complains about my volume or clarity.
Comfort
The Pegasus has some unique geometry to it, but is still comfortable. As I mentioned earlier, it is quite light. This is great for when I am moving about as they develop very little momentum, giving them no real chance of slipping out of my ears.
Accessories
Accutone stocked the Pegasus C with fairly little in terms of accessories. Had it sounded better, I might be able to give them a pass. However that’s not the case, and I would really have preferred a better variety of eartips.
Inside the box you’ll find:
- 2x sets of extra silicon eartips
Summary
The Pegasus C is not a reflection of Accutone’s best work. It is the sign of growing pains that every company must go through to develop competitive and high-value products. Unfortunately, due to the Pegasus C’s lackluster sonic performance and sparse accessory offerings, I’m going to have to recommend that you looks elsewhere for your cheap IEMs.
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