IEM discussion thread (Part 1)

I DD(Foster), 2 mid BAs, 2 high BAs, and 4ESTs.

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I hope they heard all the feedback and changed the tuning. I tried the prototype and it was really bad.

They have an upcoming 1BA iem loaded with tech that blew everyone’s mind tho. Keep an eye on for that one.

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I have too many IEMs. My favorites are the Tea and Tea 2, but I have many of the under $100 sets that are good for rock ( EA500, Olina, Kailua, Kai, Z300, QKZxHBB, PR2, Galileo ), plus the P1 Max, S12, and Timeless. The Tin T3+ is right at the edge for my ears, but that is more about the shape.

That graph looks decent and seems like something new for KZ tuning, the ZNA is $23 on linsoul, and is a DD/BA hybrid ( KZ was the first hybrid under $50, so is isn’t that big of a surprise ).

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Haha yea I’d call myself Mr.KZ

Here is my private collection of KZ notes

Knowledge Zenith
ZST Pro : old pair nothing stands out

ZS5 :
2BA+2DD, you can see DQ6’s
Dual DD spirit from this ancient model. A V-tuned, very fun IEM that piqued my interest in Chi-fi. Still to date, I find ZS6’s 2BA+2DD a fun set to listen to. The shell is undoubtedly copy from campfire’s. KZ has minor updated ZS5 to fit with modern market tuning demands, I will cover this topic on another post.

ZS6 :
ZS5’s successor with 2BA and 2DD.

ZS10: another hybrids, but fun 2DD is gone. Remaining typical KZ-V. Dry and energetic but somehow old school tuning now.

ZS10Pro: couldn’t find anything special

ZSN : sounds like down-sized ZS10

ZSN ProX: nothing special

AS10: KZ’s full BA attempt, actually pretty good.

AS12: 2nd attempt in full BA. Pretty amusing at a time.

AS16 : 8BA model of full-BA series, actually well tuned and pretty low in distortions. A new AS16 Pro is out. But not competitive enough as you see HEXA’s shadow around competing range.

AS16 Pro: After 4 years of AS16, KZ renewed it as AS16 Pro, it has 30ohm high Impedance model. I actually quite like it as very colored yet fun W-tuned IEM, for $40, it’s good for KZ fans.

ASX : Extremely bass heavy V-tuned 10BA. Yes I complained about treble to be too edgy, and KZ completely cut that for AST while retaining extremely (ridiculously) high bass shelf.

AST : Bass dominant, hard to drive, ultimately listener picking IEM of KZ. If I see someone in love of AST, I can see it’s
a knucklehead-in-a-positive-way of KZ. It takes a great effort to make AST to make a great performance, pretty fun IEM to play with.

AS24(Black) : 12BA Reshoots of AST with much better refined tuning and crazy 8switched per side. Finally 3D printed acoustic tubes, and KZ finally managed to make a good sounding IEM that is competitive around $70USD.

DQ6 : one of KZ’s breakthrough. Fun and nice sounding W-tuned 3DD. Still one of my favorite, there are tracks only DQ6 is capable of reproducing the “feeling”. Your younger days, rough, but energetic days that DQ6 is programmed to recast.

DQ6S : not sure why HBB copied U12t, but it’s basically inoffensively tuned DQ6 with u12t’s FR + HBB’s high bass floor. Pretty good IEM that still scores great sonic output for HBB’s favorite rock/classic rocks. Yes, many old rock had terrible recoding/mix, the roughness matched with DQ6, and this DQ6S. This is a tuning I can say well done by HBB, not just the regular copy and paste warm-harmans we see being thrown to the market every week.

ZAX : V-tuned 7BA(old generation)+ 1DD(old gen), vented shell, but crossover design was not ideal. It let single DD to handle full sprectrum, and let all 7BA to add Layers to it. Imaging took hit as a result of this Disney’s electrical parade. It was pretty good at a time, but now, it’s outdated performance.

ZAS : ZAX’s successor, W-tuned 7BA+1DD, best of KZ IEM in terms of performance (except those new Planars which I haven’t touched yet). If I see successor of ZAS, I’ll buy.

EDX : $6 single DD, has internal plastic shell resonance that Tangzu managed to tune it as a part of final product, where LZ left it as a weak point. Price to performance wise, a pass, not too bad. But has competitors like TRN’s MT series, KBEARS KS series. There are latest gen of EDX but I have no interest trying those.

ESX : 10 year’s anniversary model. Utilizing newly developed 12mm ”liquid crystal” ultra-thin diaphragm. Tuning is somewhat Mild V, not bad but not as competitive as HOLA or other model LCPs.

S1D : TWS with 1BA + 1DD, predecessor of SKS, OK level

SKS : TWS with 1BA + 1DD, actually best tuned TWS of KZ, quite good.

SK10 : TWS with 4BA+1DD, not too bad besides tuning

Z1Pro : TWS with XUN single DD, not bad

ZEX : Pretty Good, still stands out with its resolving capabilities for being $sub 20. Typical KZ V-tuning, but good part is it is less dampened, the driver’s output is directly rendered to the final output.

ZEX Pro : Avoid, I regret buying BOTH, ZEX Pro and CRN.

CRN : Avoid, it sounds like a nightmare.

ZES: Latest line up for MST hybrid. Comes with latest KZ’s in-house developed 12mm semi-LCP. Bass-Rolled Neutral, highly recommendable.

ZNA : 1BA+12mm DD, not exactly same “Liquid Crystal” 12mm which was used on ESX, but it certainly has deep reaching bass. This what KZ should sound like in 2023. Not too aggressive, but not boring either. Recommendable.

PR2 OG : an affordable $30 ish fullsize real planar, from Bellsing. When compared to planar flagships like S12Pro, Timeless, and very close tuned Wu Zetian OG, the transient is a bit mushy but acceptable at the price with very good technicalities and Planar sound. Very low sensitivity and hard to drive.

T10 : Avoid, not worth your money. A mainstream Beats headphone like one note bass tuning with subpar driver.

CCA

CS10 : OK…nothing special worth noting.

C10 Pro : Hmm, ok

CA16 : pretty good, somehow non-KZ tuned, V-shape with mid-focus.

CS16 : Hmm, ok. Nothing special though, too V shaped.

CSN : actually fun tuned 1BA+1DD, simple enough, no hard tech to make it sound bad.

NRA : Avoid, you can’t listen it over 10minutes.

CRA+ : quite impressive driver spec, tuning is W shape specialized for pops, pretty good, the golden shinny shell is a let down to me.

Above all, KZ ZAS, ZEX, ZES, SKS, DQ6S, and an odd ball renovated current issue of ZS5, CCA CRA+ and CSN are what I consider as KZ/CCA’s IEMs that are still comparable to modern market of IEMs.

For ZAS, it is near HEXA ($79)’s line, so maybe not competitive anymore. My score for ZAS from my memory was in 70s/100 while HEXA is 85/100.

Other than ZAS, they are still worth a time to try.

My personal favorite is still the first KZ that I was interested with its fun V-shaped tuning. ZS5.
It is discontinued but still can find from third party retailers. It’s just a belsing 2BA + old KZ’s DDx2, but pretty fun in V-tuning.

AS24 is also worth a try for bellsing’s best effort to put an affordable 12BA for the price range of $70.

HEXA was the gate keeper there but AS24 is as technical as HEXA now. AS24’s timbre still has got a metallic one though.

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I would say comfort wise they best the p1 max and olina. I don’t have a good memory of others I have tried in your list. It’s bigger the performer series but smaller than say the Yanyin canon and serial from memory. Sorry if that doesn’t help much

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Reviewing a kick-starter :joy: get the fuck outta here :man_shrugging: :joy:

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I dont like that either and have told them about it as well.

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Hold on, it isnt out yet?

Just released an hour or so on kickstarters.

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well this is a new record to me. After receiving monarch’s mk3 yesterday i can count 9 hours with them on.

last 4 hours in a row lissen to all my favorite songs.

The honeymoon is so special :joy:

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Just added to my shit list…

1 IMR

2 KZ

3 Hidizs

4 Elysian Acoustics

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They were sent out to reviewers like 3 weeks ago (at least they have been here for at least that long).

It is a bit of a strange way of doing a kick starter but the IEMs are pretty decent.

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Yeah, they did send them out some time ago.

How can a company send out a product for review that they’re trying to kick start?… absolutely dumbfounded’s me on all levels.

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Yeah, they arent using it the correct way.

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So, I didn’t like the review, but I rarely like reviews. We will wait for other reviews. Dolphins and whales keep dying by the way… :face_in_clouds:

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I do have one pair with bone-conduction drivers, but it’s hard to say. I’m usually pretty good about rotating my IEMs throughout the week. I’ll have to do some more experimentation. :joy:

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