The Punch Audio Portazo is a steal of a deal in terms of producing best-in-class bass for under $200. They’re a solid choice for those wanting to try out their first set of IEMs without breaking the bank, especially those who enjoy EDM, DnB, House, or Techno. You can’t find another set of natural and powerful bass-forward IEMs in the price range along with stock accessories that feel like they’re built to last. Punch Audio is definitely an IEM brand to watch if you’re in the business of feeling every single beat of your favorite track!
Happy New Year! We hope that you have had a fabulous break and a great time setting up your new audio, visual, and gaming peripherals. We sure did!
In our 2025 Holiday Gift Guide, head honcho and Elgato aficionado Nathan included the ZIIGAT Crescents as some of the best audio experiences he has had to date. In conversations with him outside of DigitalChumps work, he’s expressed great pleasure in being able to test out IEMs and us as an outlet sharing our thoughts on HiFi audio with readers. You haven’t experienced HiFi audio nirvana until you’ve put down your AirPods and tried a set of in-ear monitors that have been expertly tuned to emphasize your favorite music’s qualities.
To kick this year off, our colleagues at LINSOUL have provided us with two new sets of IEMs to share with you all. Let’s start with the Punch Audio Portazo!
The Punch Audio Portazo are a set of IEMs with 1DD + 2 Planar drivers. Punch Audio has positioned these IEMs as those capable of delivering “thunderous bass, clear mids, and extended treble for a spacious, lifelike soundstage.” In simpler terms, these IEMs are meant for those prefer their audio to be bass heavy, ideally music that can be heard and felt.
Check out the Punch Audio Portazo on LINSOUL’s website by clicking here! (non-affiliated URL)
I am relatively unfamiliar with Punch Audio, but that may be because they seem to be a relatively new sub-brand under the LINSOUL umbrella of IEMs. The only other Punch Audio IEM I was able to uncover during this review period was their Martilo, a higher-tier of bass-heavy IEMs that go for just over $300. I’m inclined to believe that Punch Audio, as a brand, specializes in bass-heavy IEMs that can compete against overpriced wireless earbuds that rhyme with “FairFods” and “Meats.”
Upon opening the box, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the accessories that came with the shimmery jade green IEMs. The Portazo come with an oversized leatherette carrying case, multiple silicon eartips, and a thick black braided cable. In the sub-$200 price range, I’ve come to expect accessories to be flimsy, unwieldy, and/or otherwise cheap as a means of keeping the device cost low. For the Portazo, the Punch Audio-branded case feels sturdy and contains enough internal space to hold the IEMs without needing to crush them to get them to fit. There is space for the additional eartips and spare connector, too!
The cable deserves another shoutout in terms of its weight. Punch Audio has included a braided cable that is wrapped in a thick rubbery material. Punch Audio claims that it’s composed of 4 cores of “ultra-pure oxygen free copper strands.” While I wasn’t able to cut the cord open to check the insides, they felt sturdy enough to be wrapped up and taken in-and-out of the carrying case without fear of breaking or tearing. It’s rare for a stock cable to feel this good in-hand.
Moving onto the Portazo’s construction and weight, they’re on the medium-small side of the spectrum. When fitted with the appropriate eartips, the IEMs felt natural in-ear and well enough to stay put. The stock eartips were comfortable, too, but the point here is that these IEMs were far from bulky. They did not feel like they were stretching my ear, nor did they feel as though they were dwarfed by my ears in terms of being “too small.” These are a set of very comfortable IEMs that I enjoyed wearing for several hours at a time while I was working.
I mentioned at the top of this review that the Portazo are bass-heavy. This is overwhelmingly true. Frankly, these little IEMs contain the best bass reproduction and representation of any sub-$200 IEMs I have tested to date. Bass-forward tracks feel bull-bodied, punchy, and lively, while the mids were decently represented with some textures. The trebles, while extended, avoided the sharper territory. The overall listening experience was fun, yet lively, featuring enough warmth to benefit almost all music genres.
That said, the bass-forward nature of the Portazo meant that music was immersive instead of detailed. Here’s what I mean by this: When I was listening to David Guetta’s remix of RAYE’s WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!, the drop that emerged at the ~0:23s mark felt impactful to the point of nearly overshadowing some of RAYE’s background vocals. The same could be said of Aktive’s Home (feat. Maria Mathea) in that I could feel the punch of the bassline, but the synthetic melody and Mathea’s vocals felt underrepresented and lacked the details I had come to enjoy when listening with other IEMs. Put differently, these IEMs immersed me in a contained party atmosphere where I was enjoying the feelings of the music rather than emphasizing the nuances of the tracks I had selected.
With the Portazo’s airy and broad soundstage, the bass remained balanced without treading into tinniness. The bass was consistently dynamic, which is very much praiseworthy. But when wanting to enjoy instruments like electric guitars (notoriously “crunchy”) or male vocalists, these won’t really bring out those nuanced details that you may prefer.
There’s nothing wrong with bass-heavy IEMs, for the record. Consumers gravitate towards things like AirPods and Beats because of their pronounced bass, along with some of the smart features. Powerful bass can make music feel “alive,” recreating the liveliness and fun of being in a club. If you’re that kind of listener, then the Portazo will feel like a valid and worthy purchase just so you can experience what “good” bass sounds like. The Portazo excel in producing some of the best overall listening experiences I’ve tested thus far, assuming the music contains fun and punchy bass.
The Punch Audio Portazo is a steal of a deal in terms of producing best-in-class bass for under $200. They’re a solid choice for those wanting to try out their first set of IEMs without breaking the bank, especially those who enjoy EDM, DnB, House, or Techno. You can’t find another set of natural and powerful bass-forward IEMs in the price range along with stock accessories that feel like they’re built to last. Punch Audio is definitely an IEM brand to watch if you’re in the business of feeling every single beat of your favorite track!
