Lack of LDAC is a deal killer for many, including me. Good review!!

ZE8000 are not at all have balanced tonality and well controled bass...

Thanks for this very thorough review. I'm a ZE3000 user and can confirm they sound fantastic in comparison to many other IEM's. I have a difficult fit. Can you say something about the comfort/fit of the ZE8000? Is it possible to take them on a good walk without the risk of falling out?

Hello,

Thank you for your kind words.

To my opinion, ZE8000 has a unique balanced tonality, which is very unusual from what we call "balanced" with other IEMs; you just have to get used to it. Of course, it is not a set for people inclined towards warm sound, but the bass to me is very well controlled.

I had myself a problem with the fitting of ZE3000, i.e., a couple of times one of the two earbuds did fell out. I have used ZE8000 much more than ZE3000, and I never encountered this problem. I think that this has greatly to do with the use of the TYPE Q Duplex eartips, which have a much more secure fitting.

We seem to disagree on the semantics of "balanced tonality" , but most of all I find ze3000 are bugged by hilariously low amplification level. Also they are not, as they can't be, remotely on par with wired alternatives, even much lower priced, due to the absolutely evident limitations of lossy bt compression protocols. I see zero point using tws drivers for audiophile auditioning, they might be nice as compromise choices between decent sound and connectivity features (multi homing, anc, etc etc) , which however final chose to disregard completely on the ZE line.
These, and their lower cost siblings Ze3000, are amongst the very few final products I sharply do not like.

I have a few qualms with the ZE8000 -

1. The ANC is not very good, I wore these at the airport all day yesterday and regardless of music choice the ANC was particularly bad at cancelling our conversational frequency, I could easily hear the conversations around me whilst listening to music.

2. If you hold the earphones together in one hand, they make an extremely loud high pitched sound - I have never come across this before on any other TWS

3. I constantly found myself changing the ANC setting via the left earphone, even the slightest touch (in our out of the ear swithces the mode).

4. ANC mode doesnt seem to remember the last setting, always defaults to Ambient Mode?

5. Bluetooth connection seems to drop when removing both earphones from ears, I cannot replicate this, seems to happen at own will.

6. A couple of calls I tried to make, the recipient couldn't hear me, could have been user error but seems related to point 5.

I, too, used to doubt the sound quality of TWS systems until I tried the Galaxy Buds Pro, which surprised me at how great the sound quality was from a mainstream brand. Huge props to the team that tuned it. I would love the same tuning on some wired sets, especially with how they tuned the treble.

With regards to the ZE8000, this actually seems like something I'd consider, especially for the price. In the midst of reading your review I was honestly expecting something crazy like $500-800, but $349 is definitely much more palatable and falls along with the mainstream high-end models of TWS.

The sound profile sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. But either way, I won't be super focused on the sound as the ANC is what most appealed to me. The ANC on the Galaxy Buds Pro is good enough, but not great, as with most TWS. Hearing about this new "Synthesis Noise Canceling" intrigued me and I would definitely buy it for the ANC if it's actually significantly better than most TWS.

I agree with this review quite a bit.