LZ A4 PRO

It’s been a few weeks since my last post. Other priorities as of late. Going to be posting a few reviews before heading to CanJam SoCal in 4 weeks’ time.

The test setup. iBasso DX320MAX Ti, using both Poweramp and Mango Player. Using REW, measure every possible configuration. All uploaded to the site. DucBloke.Squig.Link . Follow the usual process of making a PEQ setting array and start listing. Only this time post production was done using FiiO K19 DSP PEQ software. More on that later.

I was inspired to buy the LZ A4 Pro by the release of the Penon Rival and the upcoming Tansio Mirai Shock. Both with tuning knobs and well into the thousands of dollars. Can’t wait to hear them end of this month. When the A4 Pro popped up on Aliexpress for $100, with 4 nozzle filters and 3 different screw in tuning modules, 1DD and 3 Knowles BA’s, I thought “ok, I’ll play”, but to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much.



The IEM’s are good looking and remind me of the Galileo’s, with the dreamy green/blue swirl. The cables is nice, but has a 3.5mm connector and these IEM’s like a bit of juice, so I swapped it out for a 4.4mm cable instead. I didn’t end up using the stock tips, although nice enough, they were all small bore and I know I’d need something a big wider and settled on the Penon Laquar Orange tips and swapped the cable out for a 4.4mm.




The tuning modules come in a kit (see the photos), whereby the tuning can be adjusted 2 different ways. First, by the screw in nozzles and second by a small screw in tuning module that comes with a small screwdriver. This makes for 12 POSSIBLE TUNINGS, See Image 1. I settled on the second highest bass tuning, using the Red nozzles and Black tuning modules, after trying out multiple settings. Image 2 shows the impact of the tuning modules on the red nozzles. Where the Red module elevates the bass even further and the blue module brings it down substantially. All while leaving the treble region reasonably tame.







Image 3 is an example of the most extreme settings, Red/Red and Blue/Blue. Where Red/Red is a full 17dB gain in Bass and Blue/Blue has way too much Pinna gain.



Image 4 is the tuning I settled on, where the Red Nozzle/Black Tuning Module were used as the starting point. What I was blown away by was how much this thing loves BASS!!! You would have thought I would have used the Red/Red setting as a start, but I found the Red/Black brought vocals more forward after the tuning was finished. So the physical aspects of the IEM are at plan, even at the same PEQ elevations.



The Sub-Bass was elevated a full 9dB and the lower Mids were pulled down -4db. This gave incredible rumble and slam, but really cleaned up the muddy vocal region from stock. I then increased Pinna gain slightly and added mid Treble.

I then moved into Post Production in FiiO’s new K19 DSP app, see image 5. You have to have a K19 DAC for it to work and man is it cool!!! 31 bands that can be moved live while listening, just holding down the dot and moving it around. I was able to do the final tweaks in the lower mid region here and find the frequency, gain and Q value balance.



Bass region moved from a (7/10) to a (9/10) in sub-bass, bass and bass feel.

The Mids are now crystal clear and vocals sound neutral and natural, both male and female. All moved to a (9/10) from (6/10).

The Treble region is excellent as well, with goo extension out to 12KHz, going from a (7/10) to (9/10).

The Sound Stage is mind blowing on this set! Did I just pay only $100 for something this good??? I had to pinch myself. Stock it was (6/10) and it’s now a (9.5/10).

Detail and Layering are both excellent (8/10) as well. A big improvement over the stock tuning (6/10)

The Tonality was way off stock at (6/10) and ended up at (9/10).

Total Score Stock 6.29/10, with Red Nozzle and Black Tuning Module

Total Score after DucBloke Tuning 8.76/10! I gave it a 4.5/10 rating on Head-Fi because of the value for $$$ after tuning

I’m so happy I bought this little gem and can’t wait to let others try it out at CanJam SoCal. See my image attached. If you see me there, stop me and let’s have a chat on this and any of the other sets I’ve tuned. TimmyT A.K.A DucBloke Out

Disclaimer: I received this review unit for free from HifiGO, thank you very much.

Price: 260 usd

Specifications:

>Impedance: 26Ω.

>Sensitivity: 112dB/mW.

>Frequency response range: 20Hz-20kHz.

>Channel error range: ±0.5dB.

>THD+N: <1%.



Accessories:

S/M/L fake Sony tips

S/M/L narrow bore silicone tips

S/M/L wide bore silicone tips



Cable: 0.11 ohm, this is (99,99% sure) the XINHS 8-core graphene cable. Pretty much one of the best cables out there you can get. Has a working chin-slider and metal divider and 3.5mm connector and plastic on the 2-pin connector.





Build: Resin build, metal nozzle/filters. Changeable nozzle and “vent”. It is not particularly big, but it is tall.

Fit: Good, no problems normally but not secure enough for physical activities.

Comfort: Good and not an issue for me even during longer sessions.

Isolation: Average, nothing special.

Setup: Schiit Asgard 3 (low-gain, volume around 8 o´clock), Sony EP-EX11 tips L, stock cable 3.5mm, Red filter + Black vent


Combinations: There is a configurable vent and filter on it. The vent is simply controlling how much bass you will get, blue has the lowest amount and red is the one with the most elevated bass. While the filters mostly affect the treble. 3 vent and 4 different filters, 12 possible combinations. Although, unfortunately most of the filters aren’t that different, so its basically only 2 different treble tunings and 3 different bass tunings. The config I am using, red filter + black vent is the one I preferred the most. Due to the treble tuning on the other filters being very poorly tuned due to them being too elevated at 2k for me and also because the perception of BA timbre is more noticeable with them.

It is possible to use the older filters from LZ´s older iems, and the tonality does get better but it unfortunately does not solve (spoiler alert) the lack of technicalities issue it has.

Lows: Sub-bass focused, is on the tighter and faster side but due to the dark treble it is pretty muddy. Not for bassheads nor for neutral-heads, but is for the one that wants a dark iem with a sub-bass focus.

Mid-bass: Metallica – fight fire with fire (01:11-01:52), muddy, the bass is not clean enough, most likely due to the low treble quantity rather than the bass itself as it is pretty decent in speed/tightness. Texture is slightly lacking but quantity is pretty good. The (02:55-03:01) section with the chopper is unclean and not very forward.

Hiroyuki Sawano – Pretenders (01:18-01:47), quantity is elevated and would be fun, but is muddy, due to the dark treble. Texture is decent.

Sub-bass: Djuro – Drop that bass (01:15-01:30), extension is below average and rumble is lacking but exists. Punch quantity and texture are lacking, speed and tightness are decent but not very clean.

Will Sparks – Sick like that (03:08-03:22), more texture and quantity would be better. Speed and tightness are average.

Mids: recessed, both male and female vocals. Lacking clarity and details, bleed from the bass. Timbre is the saving grace, but yeah…its not good.

Female-vocals: Hiroyuki Sawano – OldToday (01:25-01:52), vocal timbre is pretty good but lacking in quantity (recessed) and tonality (too warm). Instrument tonality and timbre are pretty good, but lacks in detail and clarity, there is some bleed from the bass.

Yuki Hayashi – MightU (01:58-02:55), vocal tonality is too warm, lacking in quantity and clarity. Instrument tonality is also too warm and lacking clarity. Timbre is pretty good for both though.

Evanescence – Bring me to life (01:18-01:35), zero fatigue, zero peaks, zero shout. (Tonally wrong due to that, this is too laidback.)

Hiroyuki Sawano – Crescent (02:07-02:26), very slightly peaky.

Male-vocals: Hiroyuki Sawano – Pretenders (00:57-01:17), vocal tonality is too warm and slightly recessed, lacking in clarity as well. Instrument tonality and timbre are pretty good but clarity is lacking.

Hiroyuki Sawano – Scapegoat (00:57-01:17), vocal tonality and timbre are very good but is recessed and lacking in clarity. Instrument tonality and timbre are also very good but lacking in clarity and detail.

Treble: Linkin Park – Shadow of the Day (03:24-03:42), not peaky or fatiguing at all. Too smooth to be natural though.

Deuce – America (03:03-03:16), very chaotic due to bass bleed and poor separation/imaging.

Hiroyuki Sawano – Lose (string version) (01:22-01:59), Cello tonality, texture and timbre are very good, but lacking in detail and clarity. Violin tonality is too warm, lacking in texture/clarity/detail and treble-extension is below average.

Hiroyuki Sawano &Z (02:18-02:57), tonality is too dark, lacking in a lot of clarity and detail. Timbre is ok.

Soundstage: average, nothing special at this price range.

Tonality: Dark V-shaped, note-weight is on the thicker side. Not a very versatile tonality due to that. Timbre is pretty good for a hybrid.

Details: Very lacking, bottlenecked by the tonality.

Instrument Separation: Very lacking (both imaging/separation), bottlenecked by the tonality.

Songs that highlight the IEM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Jrql4ZXUo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCXhD9cwXZA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y2a2GEREC8

Good genres: R&B, (slightly decent for rock/metal)

Bad genres: everything else in my library

Comparisons:

IEM: LZ Z04A (Low-density tuning foams), Elecom EHP-CAP20 tips L, cable B7 4.4mm

Bass: Djuro – Drop that bass (01:15-01:30), extends lower and rumbles a lot more on the A4P. Punch quantity is a lot higher on the A4P, but a lot tighter and faster as well as more textured on the Z04A. A lot cleaner and tonally correct on the Z04A as well as a bit better timbre.

Hiroyuki Sawano – Pretenders (01:18-01:47), a lot cleaner on the Z04A due to the faster and tighter bass along with less quantity but more texture on it. More tonally correct on the Z04A.

Metallica – fight fire with fire (01:11-01:52), Very muddy on the A4P compared to the Z04A that is a lot cleaner/detailed due to the much faster/tighter and lower bass quantity. Texture is also better on the Z04A.

Mids: Hiroyuki Sawano – OldToday (01:25-01:52), more forward vocals, cleaner and more detailed as well as more correct tonality on the Z04A. Instrument tonality is slightly better on the A4P but bleeds and is unclean.

Evanescence – Bring me to life (01:18-01:35), More relaxed and less fatiguing on the A4P.

Hiroyuki Sawano – Scapegoat (00:57-01:17), vocal and instrument tonality are more accurate on the A4P but much cleaner on the Z04A as well as a bit forward vocal.

Treble: Linkin Park – Shadow of the Day (03:24-03:42), more tonally correct and better timbre on the Z04A but also more fatiguing.

Hiroyuki Sawano – Lose (string version) (01:22-01:59), Cello tonality, timbre and texture are better on the A4P but a lot cleaner and a bit more detailed on the Z04A. Violin tonality, timbre, texture, detail, clarity and treble-extension are a lot better on the Z04A.

Hiroyuki Sawano &Z (02:18-02:57), more tonally correct better timbre, cleaner and more detailed on the Z04A.

Technicalities: Shiro Sagisu – Hundred years war (02:24-02:57), a lot wider on the Z04A but a bit deeper on the A4P. Detail and separation are a lot better on the Z04A as well as timbre, while imaging is slightly better on it.

Overall: Z04A is tuned a lot better, has better timbre and is also better in technicalities.



IEM: LZ A7 (pop-red), Elecom EHP-CAP20, Cable A3 4.4mm

Bass: Djuro – Drop that bass (01:15-01:30), extends lower on the A7 but rumbles more on the A4P. Punch quantity is higher on the A4P but more textured on the A7 while speed/tightness are similar, a lot cleaner on the A7 and more tonally correct, timbre is slightly better on the A4P.

Hiroyuki Sawano – Pretenders (01:18-01:47), more quantity on the A4P but much cleaner on the A7 and also more textured. More tonally correct on the A7.

Metallica – fight fire with fire (01:11-01:52), a lot cleaner on the A7 due to the lower bass quantity, faster and tighter bass. Texture is also better on it, as well as more tonally correct.

Mids: Hiroyuki Sawano – OldToday (01:25-01:52), more forward vocals, cleaner, more detailed as well as more tonally correct on the A7 but slightly better timbre on the A4P. Instrument tonality is better on the A7, cleaner and more detailed but timbre is better on the A4P.

Evanescence – Bring me to life (01:18-01:35), more relaxed and less fatiguing on the A4P.

Hiroyuki Sawano – Scapegoat (00:57-01:17), more tonally correct on both vocals and instruments on the A7, along with more detail, clarity and more forward vocals.

Treble: Linkin Park – Shadow of the Day (03:24-03:42), electric guitars are more tonally correct on the A7 as well as cleaner and more detailed but timbre is similarly, slightly unnatural on both.

Hiroyuki Sawano – Lose (string version) (01:22-01:59), Cello tonality and texture are better on the A4P but timbre, detail and clarity are better on the A7. Violin tonality, detail, clarity and treble-extension are a lot better on the A7, both have some unnatural timbre (BA for A4P and piezo for A7).

Hiroyuki Sawano &Z (02:18-02:57), tonality, detail and clarity are a lot better on the A7.

Technicalities: Shiro Sagisu – Hundred years war (02:24-02:57), a lot wider on the A7 but deeper on the A4P. Imaging, separation and detail are leagues ahead on the A7. Timbre is an edge better on the A4P.

Overall: The A7 does literally everything better than the A4P (except timbre), just go up to the A7, they are priced close enough.





Conclusion: Despite all the 12 different combinations, I absolutely cannot recommend this iem at the price it is at. It is lacking too much in technicalities and the tonality (at least for my library) really isn’t good and is beaten pretty badly even by iems at around 10x cheaper. Even if they removed the cable (they are selling it at 130 usd (and it is sold for around 80 usd with XINHS)), I don’t see its value in this tough iem world. Even if it was sold at 50 usd, it would still be a very niche recommendation at most. Thanks for reading.

Graph:


Cable source:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...zTm4ei7HEfP8AI1zxswrMw2ho/edit#gid=1801072063

Reference/test songs:

LZ A4 pro.

LZ A4 pro much like their previous LZ A4 earphone is a tunable earphone this time incorporating 3 BAs and a single dynamic doing bass duties In a semi custom resin shell. These are labeled as a sub flagship for LZ. Which means the sound has to live up to their LZ A7 in performance. LZ is all about giving the enthusiast options for their sounds as the new pro model incorporates 3 bass vent caps and 4 tuning nozzles to change up upper mids and treble which gives a good variety of 12 different sound variations to the A4 pro sound.

I would like to thank NiceHCK for the A4 pro, it was sent to me for review purposes. You can purchase an A4 pro on NiceHCKs Aliexpress webpage here. The sound was evaluated using my sources: IBasso DX300Max, Fiio F15, Shanling M6pro, M5s, M3s, Acmee MF02, Sony ZX300, IBasso DX160, IFI Black Label for amping.

What you get.
The package includes the semi custom resign body with 4 nozzles and 3 bass vent caps and a mini flat head screw driver to install the caps with. LZ canister case. 3 sets of different silicone tips. A very nice 8 core graphene copper silver alloy cable in single ended. This cable matches extremely well with the A4pro. Negative is that they do not come in any balanced configurations.

Tunable earphones are ideal since we all have different likes in a sound, why not offer the ability to tune a sound to your liking. It is a bit like EQing but on a hardware level. I have seen a few manufacturers attempt this idea on their IEMs with varying results but with LZ, we kind of expect it. I was surprised not to see a nozzle tuning option for their recent LZ A2 pro they released recently you can read about here. The tuning angle on the newer LZ phones are actually more similar than different. Which was a surprise to me. They both have a upper mid rise at the 2khz range but the difference there is the LZ A4 pro seems to have a upper mid to lower treble shelf to about 4Khz that helps even out the tonal balancing a bit more so.

Base sound design is a variation of the w shaped to a neutralish signature with the use of tuning nozzles and venting caps you can go from a fairly neutral emphasis in their red nozzle and blue vent caps to an upper mid enhanced bassy signature using the red vent caps and standard black nozzle.

The three vent caps for the bass emphasis is brilliant as it allows the user to have 3 completely different bass profiles affecting the main heart of bass emphasis from 250hz all the way to 20hz. The Red=12dbs of lower bass, The Black=7dbs of lower bass, The blue= 0dbs neutral flat. Utilizing a dual cavity single carbon nanotube dynamic. The bass dynamic used is powerful, agile and has good reach. The ability to go from absolutely flat bass to 12dbs of sub boost here just by changing out the caps is very awesome. Mid bass characteristics are less impacted by the caps vs the sub bass so this design is very music friendly and provides good separation from bass to mids.

The mids maintain their integrity meaning there is no bass bleed. I can tell these guys did a lot of RnD to figure this one out to be this precise. Then you add to the fact that upper mids and treble can get an increase or decrease using 4 nozzle filters and you get a nice variety of sound profiles to choose from.

Though the drop off from the stock black nozzle to the red neutral nozzle is pretty substantial. I do wish there was a nozzle for something in between. As they are, it is difficult to like the red nozzle filter as it pretty much neuters the 2 khz pinna gain and sound becomes a touch muted.

Trebles has good presence for the sound and has the most presences for lower treble and then sees an anti fatigue dip with a lesser emphasis for the mid trebles and a gradual lessening of emphasis for the upper trebles from there. This works well to get a good usable treble emphasis minus some treble glare that can happen with a bit much lower trebles using the open blue nozzle. This treble tuning was also evident for their A2pro as well but the main difference is that this time around it has more lower treble emphasis which in general means it has more treble presence. This does two things for the A4pro sound: it balances the tonality to sound more cleaner and detailed which counters any darkness to the tuning that can happen with a lopsided too much bass and not enough treble emphasis. The other is that this region of treble emphasis will be tunable based on ones preference with varying degrees of emphasis. The selection here though is not as varied as I would have liked. The blue, silver and black all have the most upper mid emphasis while the red nozzle almost has none with the least amount of treble emphasis.

A4 pro treble can be a bit on the bright and glary using the blue nozzle all the way to a smoothed out 2Khz region using the red nozzle. The differences going from the red nozzle to the next nozzle, the base black nozzle, is pretty substantial. The other two nozzles after that seem to add to the upper mid treble gain from there with minor emphasis addition to the black nozzle. And this is the reason why I was hoping there was something in between the red and the black one but that is not a choice unfortunately. With some experimentation you can use the nozzles from LZs previous A7 both red and gold nozzles which are both somewhere between the black and red nozzle on the A4pro.

Trebles has good presence overall, detailed, with an agile attack however has just a touch of dryness to the treble tonality. It has very good ability for trebles but does emit a BA timbre for trebles which results in a bit of clinical treble presentation that is not exactly smooth but not edgy sounding either at the same time. It's got a good extension for trebles and has good fundamental detail for the trebles region. Again utilizing the advantages of BA precision for trebles. The single BA used for the treble represents the high notes and has a good amount in presence and quality to the mix. If I was to complain I would say the Blue nozzle and the Red will be basically useless for most folks so I do wish they focused on more varieties in between instead.

The nozzles affect the upper mids of the LZ A4pro and can sound bright for mids again blue nozzle and or a touch muted the red nozzle. This area of upper mid gain gives out a vocal lift using the silver nozzle a bit less using the Black nozzle. Overall the Mids has good presence for the A4pro sound tuning. It has a medium amount of body and weight to the sound vs being too thin or too thick. It does have the classic W shaped more upper mids vs lower mids in tuning. Mids using two Knowles BAs sounds overall clean and well organized in imaging and detail. It can sound warm when using a combination of red nozzle and red enhanced bass caps but sounds a bit mushy and not as clear and precise as using the other nozzles. Mids tonal character is decidedly BA a touch bright but again this is due to not being provided usable nozzles that would make it sound more natural and more neutral in tone vs the majority of these nozzles having a brighter effect on tonality.

On one hand I can clearly make out that they are using BAs due to a distinct BA timbre but at the same time I doubt you can get this same versatility using a single dynamic for the sound tuning. Mids overall has good detail and its imaging is a standout due to both BAs firing off for the region. Clarity, and sound separation is average for BAs with good presence which can sound slightly cooler in tone to slightly warm depending on what nozzle you choose but overall the mids are consistent with their presentation and is the one mainstay of the presentation that seems to hold all the tuning variations to be cohesive.

Bass is represented using a dual cavity carbon nanotube dynamic which was a good choice by LZ. Carbon nanotubes have an excellent ability for bass production from my prior experiences from the material and it shows on the A4 pro. Bass is tight and speedy for dynamics and can be boosted up to 12dbs for the sub bass using the red caps. Since the bass stays away from the mids using any of the caps I prefer using the boosted red caps. Listening to bass genres, this cap in combination with the stock black nozzle I get a great combination of clarity, detail a punchy mid bass with a very good sub bass presence. Due to the upslope for sub bass it's got less mid bass which is ideal to stay away from the mids. Bass has a speedy attack with an above average tightness, nicely defined with a moderate amount of sub bass decay. The bass using the red bass cap is ideal for all sorts of bass infused music. This being said the cohesion here is not the best going from the cooler mids presentation to the bass presentation. A bit better with less emphasis.

The stock black caps give a moderate roughly 7db sub bass boost and these are ideal for more acoustic, jazz and rock presentations. Less boost means speedier performance and here is a middle ground of enough emphasis to sound complete but not as good for bass genres like the red caps provide. Many will prefer this cap vs the red but either way you're getting good bass performance. For absolute analytical flat bass you can use the blue caps. There is zero maybe a minus sub bass here in performance meaning might be some sub bass roll off below neutral using these. Can’t see a scenario where if you actually listen to music how these can be useful but it's there for folks that want no bass emphasis. It's an option.

Technicalities for the A4 Pro are solid for the given design which relies on the strengths of the Knowles balanced armatures for the mids and treble. Two BAs are ideal to get better imaging for the mid range with a higher end focus for the mids and the A4 Pro sounds engaging for its intended purpose. Stage is moderate in width and shows good depth with average height for sonics. Instrument separation is good again here with a good level of detail and imaging. I would say they can hang with their previous A7 in technicalities but not quite as smooth or as coherent as the A7. It has nicely imagined spacious slightly analytical sound presentation with a forward vocal projection especially for female vocals. Lower mids lack a touch of body, a bit less so when using the more neural red nozzle.

LZs A4pro is a solid entry into their line of tunable earphones that you would expect from the group. Its bass caps vents are done extremely well. It is remarkable just how much sub bass boost these caps can emit without touching any of the mids and in return gives even more varieties of tunings from the standard nozzle tuning ability. Its nozzle tunings are good but there should have been more varieties thrown in. As they are, it does give a decent variety of tuning options and the ability to adjust how much bass you prefer with how much upper mids makes the A4 pro versatile. The issue here is LZ did not go all the way with the nozzle variety. There is too much similarities in the blue, silver and black nozzle and then a complete drop off for the upper mids in the red. What they should have done is not include the blue one and include two nozzles that fit somewhere between the black and the red nozzle. This would have make a huge difference imo.

As they are you really get a choice of either bright or warm but nothing in between is my point. Given their overall sound A4pro has much potential but I can’t help feeling this one was a bit of a rush job and not really thought out, especially the nozzle variations or the lack thereof.. In any case I did get word that LZ is considering releasing more nozzle variations for the A4pro. Too little too late? With ever increasing competition and new releases of earphones on the daily. Not including something that gives a proper tone to the A4 pro was a mistake from the get go. I would like to see an addition of one more vent cap and two to three more varieties of nozzles. We will see what happens as so many LZ fans were waiting for this one to shine. Thanks for reading.