Update: I have added the link to my Headfonia review of Sakura Plus.
Subject: Ocharaku Flat4-SAKURA Plus
Ocharaku’s skin is showing its Grado. In four years, Ocharaku have released about as many earphones, all of which have evolved at a snail’s pace. Not Grado GR-series little, but close. Flat4, for instance, has kept the same shape, swapping metal for wood, and vice versa. For nut lovers, a great-sounding acorn branched away from the main family.
On a conservative scale, Ocharaku is right there… at the right.
And that is a beautiful thing. High-end Ocharaku earphones come in a wooden sake box, wrapped in a bit of man-made velvet, under which hide Spin-Fit and Comply ear pieces. No one but Ocharaku could continue on continuing on in the same vein whilst overseeing rising yearly demand.
Wooden Flat4s are from first touch, magical. They age, deepen, and cure, throughout ownership. Shared among all Ocharaku earphones is one of the comfiest cables in the industry. Until Sakura Plus and Akazakura Plus, it conservatively did without a neck cinch. The same earphones have also been fitted with an extra conductor line, for a total of four.
A week and a half ago, I riffed on Sakura Plus and highland tea, both things warmer than hitherto druthers. After reflection - and copious time with both -, the two have become things I’d not want to do without. Tomorrow, my full review of Sakura Plus will go live at Headfonia. I expect it to read like an apology: I judged Mr. Yamagishi’s latest too soon.
Sakura Plus is warm - it is mid centric - it is more melodic than the earphones for which I regularly reach. But at almost every turn, it has convinced me that it is Ocharaku’s best, more assiduously tuned earphone. Which, considering Ocharaku’s conservative, steady, and studied slant, is saying a lot.
Relevant links:
ohm image: ohmage to the Ocharaku Flat4-KURO
ohm image: A date with Ocharaku's Sakura Plus & Akazakura Plus
Headfonia: Review: Ocharaku Flat4-Sakura Plus – Atmospheric
Headfonia: Ocharaku Flat-4 KAEDE Type II - Tremendous Wood
Headfonia: Ocharaku Donguri Review
TouchMyApps: Ocharaku Flat4-KAEDE earphone