Starry Audio Bolide Review: “Floor-Speaker” In-Ears
Ever since its establishment in 2022, Starry Audio has been a boutique CIEM/UIEM brand from Hong Kong that’s been steadily (yet rapidly) building up its fanbase. After introducing the vocal-focused Syzygy and the energetically musical Yozora, Starry Audio now returns with the latest flagship that takes yet another direction in tuning and performance. Limited to 80pcs worldwide, Bolide features a 10-driver configuration, comprised of a 2DD+4BA+4EST tribrid setup. Priced at $2,950 (HKD 22,880), Bolide sits as a top-of-the-line product of Starry Audio. Let’s go in-depth on how Starry Audio prepped this time with Bolide and its sound, as well as comparing it with some of today’s popular flagship competitors.
Premium Packaging & Accessories
Starry Audio continues with the same practical packaging philosophy used throughout its flagship lineup. The size and offerings of the packaging are similar to Yozora, but overall feel more premium and thought-through. Opening the box reveals the earpieces sitting on the right top, with the accessory box and a large, round leather case placed next to them. The included leather case is large enough to house thicker custom cables without restraining the IEMs and the cable. The case also has a built-in wrapper bag that secures the IEMs from waddling around, adding protection to the IEMs when being carried.
Bolide comes with the following accessories:
- Bolide IEMs
- Rolling Force Olive stock cable (2pin-4.4mm)
- Premium leather round case
- 3 pairs of Nostalgia Audio XWB silicone eartips
- 3 pairs of Muxi silicone eartips
- 1 pair of earpiece mesh bags
- A membership/warranty card
10-driver Design Earpieces
Using a 10-driver design, Bolide employs a tribrid setup consisting of 2DD+4BA+4EST drivers. While it has been increasingly common to feature an eye-catching number of drivers or use complicated hybrid driver setups, simply increasing the number of drivers rarely guarantees better sound. However, what really matters is to have proper implementation, crossover design, and phase consistency. Connected through a 4-way crossover, Starry Audio states the crossover and acoustic structures have been carefully tuned to maximize the potential of each driver.
Semi-custom Fit / Open-Chamber Bass Nozzles
Visually, Bolide follows the same form factors as their prior releases. The earpieces are shaped to provide a semi-custom fit, being one of the most comfortable and ergonomic IEMs to date. The earpieces are light and appropriately angled and shaped to fit well with smaller and trickier ear shapes. Design-wise, Bolide is made of a semi-transparent blue body and glitter-finished faceplates, with the Starry Audio logo on the left and the Bolide logo on the right. The finish of the shell color is something very interesting; it’s slightly transparent but also has a metallic, color-changing surface that gives a 3D feel as you look at different angles. One of Starry Audio’s features since Yozora is the nozzle form factor; unlike most in-ear earphones with the usual nozzle shapes we’re all familiar with, Bolide’s nozzle spout has an open-chamber design, where different bores of sound tubes meet before the sound transits to the eartip. This offers a fit and sound that is similar to a semi-custom IEM. This also works as an acoustic resonator for the two 9.2mm parallel DD woofers.
Special Stock Cable: Rolling Force Olive
For the stock cable, Starry Audio collaborated with Rolling Force, a custom cable manufacturer based in Hong Kong that has been rising in popularity for its excellent tuning and sound quality. Included as a stock cable is the Rolling Force Olive, a special variant of the Rolling Force Choco. Olive is a 4‑wire, high‑purity copper cable using a blend of 4N and 5N Litz OFC wires. The wires have a warm, chocolate‑brown tint (hence the name), and the overall build feels premium without being bulky. The hardware uses a matte metallic finish with grey and silver color tones.
Next Page: Sound Impressions / How does the Bolide Sound & Perform?