Disclaimer: This is a review unit sent by Jade Audio. This does not affect my judgement of the sound and other aspects of the iem. All sound comparisions are made in respect to what i currently own unless otherwise mentioned. All sound impressions were made on Fiio K1, M3K and my Realme phone as well, stock setup unless otherwise mentioned.

For a full list of my inventory feel free to check out my profile page.

I will give a brief description of the journey from unboxing to having listened to it for a few days time, along with a few comparisions.

Unboxing: A Treat for the eyes






I can't go about the description of the iem without mentioning its celluliod faceplate on display thrown right at you during the unbox. I think it looks pretty sweet. Upon first glance you also get to see a case which looks and feels pretty soft, but sturdy enough to protect the iems. Having owned mostly hard cases or super soft bags (that come with sony in ears), i quite like this aspect of the iem.

Included are The iem heads (mine are in a sky blue colour), a silver cable that is not too long, not too short (mine is without a mic), 6 pairs of ear tips. Out of them 3 pairs are black, red ones are wide bore. By default the black tips are on. More on how they change the sound in later sections. We see regular L & R markings on the earbuds and cable. The cable is a straight 2 pin 3.5mm cable. (Not balanced)

Also has a user manual with instructions about the correct way to have the polarity of the cable. And a bunch of stuff about how to wear them, in the very improbable case that you are not from this planet.

Sound Description:



Putting them in the ears for the first time (without burn-in)

At first, i notice a hefty soundstage, scratchy/tingy/tinny treble, a good amount of bass, i was sure that these definitely need burn in and should not be judged before. They sounded too sharp and unbearable, a few minutes running from them was not doable. They were easy to drive, even from my phone, goes really loud.

After burn-in for around 20-30 hours

Treble relaxes a lot, there still is a bit of sibilance and is uncomfortable. The EA3's Hybrid Driver setup creates a mostly U-shaped frequency response.

Rating them in terms of Comfort they would get a rating of 5/5 no doubts here. Accessories and build would get a 4.75/5

Sound overall to me would be a 3.0/5. (Without cable swap)

The EA3's bests most of my earphones at this price range in terms of soundstage width. Very comparable to the Tin T2's. Layering is excellent. Thats about it there.

We come to the gripe with this earphone: its highs, The highs can get fatiguing after listening for long sessions, especially while using the red tips. I wish there was less amount of (around -3db) 7KHz frequencies. The black tips make it a lot more tolerable, they seem to reduce sound pressure, but make the sound more V-shaped. The red tips on the other hand gives a clearer stage at the cost of the knowles ba hitting almost directly through that huge metal nozzle.

Overall its a in your face, overly crisp set with a wide sub bass. It is definitely a no for treble sensetive people and for bassheads.

Bass is wide and planar like. Amount is plentiful but is well controlled doesnt bleed into mids. It could use a tinge more mid-bass slam.

Timbre is better after active burn-in. Drums and guitars sound good. Guitars especially are excellent. Sound lacks body and emotion with stock cable. The signature is such that it makes everything hyper-detailed. This earphone has no chill.

How is it with music?

Played from the Fiio K1/M3K.

These are pretty versatile across most genres if it is instrumental, its strong point being metal, rock, electronic orderwise.

Aphex Twin sounds spicier than ever on this. The atmosphere is captured well, the high notes are sharp and trilling all around you, bass is well separated.

The Prodigy sounds good as well. Electronic music sounds impactful and alive, almost too alive.

Voices sound boxy and closed off in a space, and very monotonous. Especially female vocals. The main component of music is the voice. If it fails there, it pretty much fails for songs.

Using it with my phone seemed to make it a better combination because most mobile DAC's tend to have a darker sound. The earphones brightened them up to pleasing levels.

It wouldn't be the best choice for monitoring purposes, to me the best use case for these is to watch movies on, playing games is equally fun.

Why get it?

When will you feel the need to buy this if:

1. If you own a KZ multi driver in ear within this price range, that you are unsatisfied with/want an upgrade from it in terms of build/ accessories and sound quality both and already have the silver 8 core cable.

2. You want a fairly good set to watch movies on/game on in this budget, not for music.

After around 1 week of having them...

Mod Update: Changing the cable on the EA3 makes a significant improvement to the sound. I think its the stock silver cable that is giving it so much sharpness. I did a cable swap with the KZ/JC ALLY 8 core silver cable. It is less harsh now. Makes the mid bass more prominent. 0 sibilance at lower volumes. Adds a much needed body to the sound. Although listening for longer durations can be still fatiguing.



After changing the cable, i'd bump up the sound rating to 3.5/5. It kind of defeats the purpose of having a budget iem, if i have to swap cables in the end.

Final verdict on the EA3: Games sound good. Guns sound so clear and placed accurately and pop out well. Movies are a good to listen to. Music is clear but not so good, vocals are a big turnoff. Some dampening needs to be done on that knowles BA to make it less sharp. This is not my music iem.

After listening to multiple kzs and entering the chifi world, going through audio companies like snfer, trn, revonxt, cca, rock; the next and ultimate on the list was bqeyz. a company unheard of, having a very limited showcase of iems unlike kz counterparts who release iems according to the birthdays of their employees it seems (almost every week/month). Unlike kz who like to experiment with their releases a lot, bqeyz have fewer, unique sets that are solid performers at the thing they are meant to do. (the description matches the product with excellent accuracy)

Tin T2's i had believed at the time to be the pinnacle of what chifi could offer (for the price). It wasnt perfect, it had its shortcomings. Enter kb100's. stock setup, no tip swap, no mods, maybe a little burn in thats required nothing else. this thing sounds like a dream!

Bass, mids and highs all perfecty balanced and on equal footing. bass can be fun when required (edm) and cold as well (jazz or classical), mids are very well highlighted, giving them excelllent imaging capability. soundstage isnt as amazing as other aspects of these in ears, they dont fall back too much either. After having the tin t2, i was in a phase where i was so nitpicky about an iems bass, that nitpicking led me to this, the graphs for the bassline on this is ruler flat.

These should have the appropriate title of "50usd iem killers". I hope they become more well known in the audio market amongst companies previously mentioned and even the giants like sony, shure, rha, audio technica and definitely against chifi comapnies like KZ and TRN. They should learn about build quality from BQEYZ.

These don't need any lengthy explanation, they are just that good. Get them and understand!

This is my first post here on head-fi.org. After scrolling through so many of the reviews on this amazing website i decided to post my first.

Background:

First pair of kz's came in the form of the ATE's. After listening to relatively expensive iems like the One More Triples & Audio Technica CKS550is, M50x, M40x, M20x a few budget chi-fi favorites like The TTpod T1, KZ ED9, ZS3, ES4, AS10 (Sold, nothing special), Rock Zircon (Broken), **** ****, Revonext QT2 (Sold, Hot Treble), TFZ T2, Tin T2.

DAC: Fiio K1, Fiio M3k

I'm going to go straight into the sound, as there are a lot of people describing other aspects very well and in detail here.

Slight Modifications and Pre-requisites: (Important)

Before talking about sound, first thing, these definitely needed burn in. Because when i got them they sounded horrible and congested. And the original tips were to be banished forever in the depths of the nether realms. Replaced with a pair of foam eartips which Increases the space between the nozzle and ear inlet. So that the treble isn't as piercing. The foam also helps control the bass, makes it less boomy and vastly reduces quantity. The foam gives it a bigger soundstage as well. Comes with one con. They won't isolate very well unless you use complys. Cause I normally just shove the regular tips in without squeezing. With the complys I get better isolation, bass is just the right amount. Not too much, not too less.

Sound:

I can say the KZ ZS7 is a bassy, mid present and a rolled off treble kind of sound signature. Bass is absolutely mind blowing, adequate texture, good impact and depth. Mostly mid and sub bass here. Midrange is slightly recessed but not so much that it vanishes in the mix of instruments. Upper mids have a striking presence in the mix. Highs are non offensive yet detailed. Overall a warm sound signature. Good details on these, because of the balanced armature drivers. I'd say even better than the T2's. Then comes the instrument separation, where each of them are well separated with no sense of congestion. Imaging is not as great compared to the Tin T2 because of the upper end roll off. But again the Tin T2's are far away in terms of bass quantity and sub-bass impact from these. Soundstage is improvised after the foam tips are used, sounds can be pin pointed in the head pretty well, gives you the feeling that you are surrounded by instruments with good distinction.

No signs of sibilance at all. Few peaks may show up depending on the track.

Target Audience:

Who should buy this. A stage performer (bass Oriented instrument) because of the forward sound, casual listener. Good DAC's are an improvement but not necessary. Use with a smartphone is doable as well. They are very sensitive and pick up on noise easily as well.

Comparisions:

Compared to the Tin T2's these are a different kind of beast. Tin T2's dont offend makes you feel like you are part of the music. Almost flat bass (rolled off), with healthy amount of dynamism. Very noticeable mids and bright highs. Basically if you mirrored the frequency response on the Tin T2 they would sound like the KZ ZS7. I use them mostly for gaming because of the good imaging.

Compared to the TFZ T2. The T2s have a clearer stage but at the same time a little less forgiving since the mids and upper mids are a little more forward. Voices are much clearer on these. Also imaging is a level up from kz. Overall the T2 sound richer, dynamic and to a certain extent artificial leading to a more "pleasing" listen. Advantages ZS7 have over TFZ T2 are: better textured bass and layering, different soundstage layout (still smaller than TFZ T2). If you love your details and are treble sensetive, want to hear instruments better than voices, the ZS7 is the one to get.

The foam tips are good, but there is too much detail and information lost. Also silicone tips make the bass leaner and tighter. Rubber ones make them boomy.

I tried using different tips and cables on the TFZ T2, turns out they sound the best with the stock setup relative to the modded versions.

Ranking in terms of sheer amount of Bass KZ AS10 >ZS7 > TFZ T2 >>Tin T2

AS10 with highest amount of mid bass (extremely punchy, too much!) ZS7 with highest amount of sub-bass. TFZ in between (still ZS7 better in quality) .Tin T2 far lesser but good quality (Tin T2 bass is not a fair comparison with the others)

Ps: The AS10 suck for music listening imo. And no casual listener should buy it. I find the all BA setup to produce very harsh sound. It's good for stage performances and maybe,just maybe for monitoring.

Update: After a lot of experimenting and burning in over a month (I don't actively burn in iems overnight. Just use them when I want to listen to music, etc.) went to kz silver cable and spinfit tips. Also important to get the polarity correct when inserting the cable.