Nice write up! Perhaps I need to break in more.. Have the grey for sale for $350... PM me.Wowsers these are AWESOME (speed and detail unmatched by anything I have heard...)
Whilst it would be unfair for me to wax lyrical about the AK Zero1 IEMs given my extremely limited exposure to them, from what I can gather there are a few elephants in the room that might need be addressed.
Firstly - I believe good audio parts manufacturers build for the resultant sound (after 'break-in/burn in, also known as 'settling' of the product), rather than the 'out of box state'.
It is fairly easy to establish that the few graphs measuring the performance of these IEMs (so far) have been done without much 'break in', even to the point of having very obvious channel imbalance generally seen in the 'planar' driver range of the sound spectrum..
This could simply be that they were not broken in with a mono'd sound source, and, ever since the Beatles established to the masses a 'layout' for setting a stage, lets face it.. different frequncies come from Left/Right speakers in 'typical music'.
With 'just a little break in' the differences in measured performance across the channels might have contributing factors that have made this so, but also leads one to concur that 'with more break in time' those 'peaks and troughs' on the graph might totally smooth out. (likely 'as intended')
I myself have witnessed various driver material compositions as altering the 'break in time', and certainly different technologies (such as the included balanced armatures/dynamic driver and planar unit) taking different amounts of time to 'find their best' performance...
The most overt showcasing of this, for me, was some metal foil dynamic drivers that took 1200 hours to 'tame their screechy peaks'.. (after which point they sounded considerably better than they did 'out of the box'.
Small dynamic drivers of a hard composite can take a long time to find their best stride.
Unbroken in planars sound HORRIBLE to me.
I have too limited experience of balanced armatures, but when the tech first came to market, my experience was against my expectation that they would not need much/any break in at all...
This isn't acclimatisation as many from the audio science sub section will demand... (and I have a back ground in tertiary psych going back to the early nineties... ; please 'lets not argue our subjective opinions on this... )
Generally I won't listen to anything straight from box...
But 'wowsers' these are so good... (even without ANY front to back imaging as a new pair 'give')
So - what was is my experience with only thirty odd hours on them... (mostly mono'd prodigy fat of the land and some holosync 'meditation' tapes, some orchestral pink floyd, and live performance by Dead Can Dance...)
OK- straight from box- incredible detail and speed, great left to right imaging.. not much reach beyond left ear/right ear boundaries... also atrocious decay that removes all positioning information as sounds do not drop off gradually but, like a square wave.. 'now you hear me/now you don't)
3-10 hours - HEIGHT info has kicked in... (very unusual, this usually is very gradual (if at all for 'many headphones'), and typically turns up slower than 'front to back' soundstage.. (which still is only a few feet deep (if on a stage), slightly better than out of box, but still not really there at all)
30 hours: sweet- some front to back staging is kicking in.. but, best of all- echo and decay is coming in strong (yes, these correlate totally)
At this point I would be dissapointed if no further front to back staging happened. To have so much height in the stage, and exceptional detail and imaging, to be without a nice stage depth would be a big achilles heel for these to be anyones 'endgame'.
I have ZERO doubt (pun perhaps?) that more than thirty hours IS needed for these to net their ultimate sound quality and designed for performance.. I have had a few pieces of headgear settle reasonably around the fifty hour mark, but they were not comlex multidriver parts (that all are playing on their own 'break in' timetables.
Anyone with a set of these with 1000 hours on them would find, in my not so humble opinion (in this case) a coherency and smotthness in the frequency plot that would be very different to those posted.. (15dB drops in 10-15khz range is not something to design for... )(unless you know the parts and what happens after some break in)
break in on 5.6mm dynamic drivers takes LONG time. Planars of such a small size is something I have zero experience with, but having broken in a couple of sets of Audeze and some Hifiman Sundara's; I'd believe that the region to kick in the most after a little break in, and 'most usefully' after a LOT OF BREAK IN, will be the Planar driver..
BAsically: three different techs all break in differently/differing times
decay time inside of 3 hours/10 hours 30 hours has shown that these are no where near being 'done'
Observations regarding the Zero1 based on the instore demo set revealed that four different amp qualities (And 'technologies') delivered wildly varying bass definition and texture.. (QP1R DAP is 'current mode' amplification, whereas a Sony PHA3 is 'class A' and of a decent quality near equal to decent desktop stuff, the iFi Diablo and the direct outputs from a FiiO M11+ and AK SE700 all being middle grounds to those extremes...)
Some reviewers have noted that these scale well with better equipment.. I wholeheartedly agree.. but I'd take the statements further (the internet reviewers qualifying that statement listed 'budget' equipment as 'upgrades' and that set a ceiling in my mind as to the tiers of equipment that these would make use of... (I figured their might be some wall of quality limited by the 'very complex'(manufacturers press notes) electronic crossover.
What is objectively confirmable is a couple of things:
Astell and Kern previous coalaborations with Jerry Harvey and Campfire was to 'lift their technologies/research and design with regards to multidriver and multi technology IEMs. (the first line of text on the product box explicitly states this)
A very knowledgeable engineer of seventeen years expereince with Knowles brought a lot of 'know how' to the implementation of the Armatures, and the customised design in this part is no doubt unique.
Clearly these were a gift to consumers to put together such an incredible part, properly, leveraging A&K market strength, ability to 'take a loss' (or 'less profit') if needed to launch a product line and gain reputation..
These are definitely a market 'litmus test'; and I would hazard are a great marriage of tech evolution/knowledge and ultimately 'achievement' in bringing something outstanding to very dense IEM market space.
With so many parts vying for our attention- many consumers do the internet 'research' thing... generally meaning a few early adopters can shape the wave of enthusiam for the product..
These 'budget' IEMs have detail akin to my 4x the retail pricepoint Ultrasone Edition 5s -
Basically anything but my best OVER EARS are slaughtered by their performance.S
ure they don't have the low bass rumble of the Sony MDR Z7, nor the front to back staging* (*yet(?!))
In their unbroken in state they are addictive to listen to.. the amount of clear lyrics and nuanced details in a range of recordings has proven their current worth (even if their sound prfile changed not one iota in the future)
I'd definately want these on my 'short list'/audition list, but then would be at the mercy of comparing a lightly broken in set that might not be representative of their ename sound.
not an issue so much if doing apples to apples comparisons, ie looking at other IEMs using three driver technologies with the same configuration (some use the planar in the mids with BAs doing the highs, where as there are other IEMS with a similar configuration to these (BAs for mids and planar for highs)
As a person who understands the value of good crossovers in speaker design (for the longest time I used AR LSTs as my mains (speakers) whilst rotating through some world class 'best' ancillory equipment), I have come to favour simplet two way speaker designs over 'more complex' multidriver designs.. the notion of multidrivers isn't a drawcard for me...
On the day I auditioned these I tried a seven driver BA IEM from a much higher price bracket, and the timing/skewing of info had me rip them out of my ears very quickly; sure I could have acclimatised to them.. but that is not what I want from my hifi rigs.
True I purchased the AK Zero1 as a 'fun IEM' and I do not think they fit this bill at all.. they are absoutely a joy to listen to ANYTHING, and I cannot believe how easily they have pulled apart some of my 'favorite recordings'
Example: I used to think Blues Brothers 2000 was a great reference disc, but these things reveal every cut and mix and background bit of noise. I still enjoy the disc (the last track alone is an all star mix of some of the worlds best blues musicians/artists), and I am not sure the kids' soprano is at the right pitch.. (something that Arrested Developments Mr Wendal and Everyday People had me questioning these IEMS timing.. like a turntable slightly out of time)..
I'd not use these as studio monitors due to their 'all over the place' (graphed) frequency responce, but more so the lack of front to back staging and the horrible 'out of box' decay time..
I would absolutely buy these if the rest of my kit wasn't a V sound curve.
These do sound right in ways that many of the headphones in my house do wrong. a fast panning 'car' driving through the soundscape on these literally gets my head to spin, like a slap to the face.
Visceral sounds when needed,.. everything isolated and not blurred of worse, 'overly etched'.. and vocals sounding like they come from a dedicated valve amp into a dedicated vocal monitor (speaker) correctly placed on a large stage is incredible.
Phase shifts and complex nuances like getting micro or marco dynamics right.. something that a multidriver affair that plots the way the few internet graphs show just doesn't align with the experience of actually listening to these.
As someone who uses a Sunfire Subwoofer- whose claim to fame is 'how small a sub can be whilst delivering such exceptional bass note quality and depth' simply requires A LOT MORE POWER TO ACHIEVE THIS. (3000 watts in case of my 'small sub')
The only achilles heel these things have is 'better quality amplification' nets major audio benefits.
At their launch price I feel many with the cash will have passed over these,.. leaving them paired in many cases with lower tiered electronics than they probably deserve.. They scale exceptionally well with better kit, and, as an example, sound like junk from an iFi Diablo amp output vs the same Diablo (as a DAC) feeding into a Grace m903 amplifier- amp quality really helps these things act controlled and likely deliver the performance they were designed to give
Buy with confidence.
The black AK Zero1 come with a 4.4mm pentaconn connector (balanced cable), the grey ones come with a 3.5mm cable.
If you can find these on sale, even better... I know this info is 'late to the party' but the internet is forever (apparently) and so I have put this up for my quick 'two cents'. (hahaha 'quick', sure!!)
I will update my thoughts on this part over the next few weeks. One of my favorite hifi bargains (a FiiO BTA30 (Pro) is a near essential buy for many too)
And there happens to be Zero2 on the horizon