Review: M&G Retro Edition K314P Earphones

Why did the K314P earbud climb to 1000 yuan?

Back when I bought mine, it just sounded like a bright, airy earbud with a bit of a bass deficit. Though to be fair, I never listened that closely… I just figured:

At this price, an earbud is only good for making some noise…

Turns out the K314P made quite a name for itself with that noise. According to the various audio gurus, the K314P’s treble can match or even exceed the K3003—you know the K3003? The big hybrid flagship!

And then it got discontinued… and nothing else reaches that treble height.

So the price went up.

When I found out the earbud I roll around with in bed every day suddenly went from just over 100 yuan to a thousand, I panicked and put my K314P away somewhere safe.

So when I heard that M&G, of all companies—a stationery maker—had put out a K314P clone, my heart did a bit of a Duang. On one hand, worry: if this reissue succeeds, won’t my treasured K314P lose its value? On the other, hope: if it succeeds, I can buy another and keep enjoying that treble. Honestly, I do like the K314P’s sound—it kept me company through a lot of Galgames and a lot of female moaning.

Also, M&G’s MX500 reissue had a very authentic flavor, so I was looking forward to what they’d do with the K314P.

The packaging is quite presentable—at least from the outside you can see that M&G’s earbud already matches the K314P in shape!

There’s a frequency response curve on the back, but what country is the “kiwi” the national bird of, and why is it a fill-in-the-blank question?

Once unboxed, it’s basically a rose-gold K314P. I couldn’t wait to start listening! I was hoping for that treble to reappear…

And then…

Not quite.

This M&G reissue of the K314P does lean bright, but it’s not the K314P’s sound—it’s closer to an 8.

I don’t really feel like going into detail. Bass is a bit thin, the mids sit slightly back, the treble has some sibilance, and the soundstage is actually a little narrow. Bottom line, it gets thoroughly crushed by the Creative Air, and it really is just “making some noise” tier. On the plus side, it doesn’t lean toward thumping bass, and since a lot of M&G’s customers are students, it probably does some good in shaping decent listening habits for younger folks.

As it stands, the K314P will probably keep selling for over 1000 yuan on eBay for a while. Plenty of people say what you’re buying is nostalgia and it’s really only worth 100-something, but sometimes a lot of what we buy is nostalgia—Sony, Nexus, Apple, all of it.

At least on the nostalgia front, the K314P’s thousand-yuan asking price is still unbeatable for now.