Introduction
LZ-A5 is the fifth generation of Lao Zhong’s A series earphones. Coincidentally LZ-A5 is also the first of the series to operate on 5 drivers, 1 dynamic driver and 4 balanced armature (BA) drivers on each side. Like its predecessor LZ-A4, the sound of LZ-A5 can be tweaked by swapping in different filters that came in the package.
To tell the truth, I have been spoiled by many great audio gears for sometime now and have not been wow-ed by any new stuff lately. This growing despondent was broken when I laid my hands on LZ-A5 for the first time. It is the first new gear in recent time to put a smile on my face.
Disclaimer
I am grateful to be sent a pair of LZ-A5 for evaluation and I would like to thank Lao Zhong Audio and Penon Audio. I owe them a review but not necessarily a positive review as I am in no way associated with them.
https://penonaudio.com/lz-a5.html
I thought of finishing this review much earlier but putting everything together seems harder than I imagined.
Unboxing
The packaging of LZ-A5 is somewhat underwhelming. I was expecting more seeing that this earphone came with a price tag that breaks the 200 dollars mark. LZ-A5 came in a black cardboard box with magnetic lid. Inside the box, there’s two in-ear monitors with a set of filters already attached to them, a metal piece holding 3 sets of tuning filters, a chunky MMCX cable with a velcro tie on it, some silicon tips, a metal carrying case, a warranty card and a manual. Just so you know, the metal protective carrying case is identical to the case that came with HifiMan RE 2000 and RE 800.
I have not met Mr. Lao Zhong but I can only imagine him as a very down to earth person. LZ-A5 is presented in the most straight forward way imagined, so forget about the bells and whistles.
Physical
Earphone
Many, if not most of LZ-A4 owners complain about its ergonomic. LZ-A4 is angular in shape and tends to cut one’s ears with its sharp edges. Lao Zhong being Lao Zhong, has a good reputation of listening to constructive feed-backs and learning from criticisms so it is no surprise that the ergonomic issue had been addressed in the new LZ-A5.
The outer shell of each LZ-A5 monitor is made of two pieces of anodized aluminum shells. I believe the shells are joined together with glue since I can not spot any screws or welding traces. The seam between the two halves is quite visible but there’s no glue residue on my sample unit so overall I consider the craftsmanship great. The shells are extremely smooth with no rough edges or sharp points. This time around, the physique of LZ-A5 is optimum, there’s nothing I can think of to criticize here, Lao Zhong obviously had learned a hell lot from making LZ-A4.
Both the IEM and the cable have L and R identifications. After using LZ-A5 for a while, you probably can tell L from R just by feeling them in your hands. Some people made a big deal out of the Honda logo but I think id est quod id est.
Stock Cable
LZ-A5 came with a detachable woven cable. The cable is fully clothed and according to the specification sheet, it has a 6N single copper core. I am never fond of fabric cables and this is no exception. The MMCX ends are embedded with memory wires so they are supposed to conform to the shapes of one’s ears but they didn’t work for me. On the other end, the cable is terminated with an L-shaped 3.5mm plug that looks very similar to that of HifiBoy Dream I reviewed earlier.
Many people said that they heard a surge in sound quality by swapping in a higher quality cable, think 8core 6N cable, higher numbers and whatnots. I am currently using LZ-A5 with a thinner MMCX1s (2.5mm balanced) cable from Fiio. I find that to be a good balance between acoustic quality and wear comfort. Overall, LZ-A5 cable is hefty and impractical, I don’t find it desirable in any way.
Comfort
I am extremely fussy when it comes to comfort. When inserted properly, LZ-A5 slips into my ears with great ease and stays in place firmly. LZ-A5 is by no means featherweight, I can feel it in my ears but it is not what I would describe as heavy.
The physical design of the LZ-A5 is perfect in my book, trust me, the fit and ergonomic is a quantum leap from LZ-A4. Put aside the cringy stock cable, the ergonomic of A5 is a solid 5 out of 5. I wear spectacles and I can assure you that A5 will not give specky-four-eyes any hard time.
Durablitility
For your information, balanced armature (BA) earphones are generally very fragile. If you keep knocking your BA earphones on hard surfaces, the armature inside will deform and you will get a permanently distorted sound.
I have always reminded myself to treat LZ-A5 with the utmost care but of course me being Mr. Magoo’s brother from another mother, I abused it very frequently and even inadvertently dripped it in a mug of beer. Immediate after that mishap, I wiped it dry and LZ-A5 miraculously survived. So all in all, I have no doubt that LZ-A5 is a durable product.
Specification
Earphone Type: In- Ear
Connection Type: Wired
Plug Type: 3.5mm gold-plated plug
Cable Length: 1.3m
Driver: 4 balanced armature drivers 1 dynamic driver
Impedance: 16ohm
Sensitivity: 105dB
Frequency response: 8Hz-36 KHz
Total Harmonic Distortion: <0.2%
Power Output: 5mW
Cable: 1.2m 5N OFC
The Earphone Design
I decided to include this section to talk about LZ-A5 design. Pictures above are the cross-section and exploded views of LZ-A5.
Many audio companies have their own line of configurable earphones - FLC, Trinity Audio and etc. Trinity recently released a model with the most filters ever, 5 filters in 2 different lengths, so that’s an astonishing 10 options.
BA drivers are not particularly flat sounding, they by design produce frequency response graph with two peaks. I will elaborate more on the technicalities in a jiffy. As far as I know, the most usual way to tame the two peaks are by adding an acoustic damping screen/mesh in front of the BA nozzle or by laser-ing a tiny hole on the membrane that suspense the diaphragm. The miniature size of BA drivers enables multi drivers setup that in turn allows acoustic designers to achieve a certain sound. Of course that is not done without any drawback, coherency can be an issue for earphones with multiple drivers.
Judging from the macro photograph and the diagrams above, the 4 BA drivers in LZ-A5 are arranged in pairs and lined up next to each other. The BA drivers are not pointing straight at the nozzle opening and a dynamic driver is positioned behind the two pairs of BA drivers. Also noteworthy is the tiny opening Lao Zhong placed behind the dynamic driver probably to allow for a more natural sound and a fuller bass.
The Interchangeable Filters
LZ-A5 is not overly convoluted given that it is a configurable earphone. Users will not require any tools to swap in their desired filters. Each pair of filters is represented with a different color and every filter has threaded ends. All the filters came with tiny rubber bumpers to prevent over-screwing that will potentially damage the threads.
Initially I tinkered quite a bit with the filters but over time, I kinda settled in with the gray filters because they are the most versatile and they are great for movies and YouTube. Black filters are great as well and they are probably the nicest sounding but I opted for gray filter for prolong use.
I think having options is great even for someone as indecisive as I am. The interchangeable filter system works great to fine-tune sound to one’s taste and I think little feature like this does go a long way to enhance listening experience.
Most color coding are meant to be intuitive and I suppose the same applies to LZ-A5 tuning system. I figured red is a warmer color, hence it is associated with a mellower sound and blue on the other end of the color spectrum is cold, so it produces a colder sound. Blue has a sharper high and red being the opposite has the most suppressed treble.
From the macro photo above, you can see that the blue filter has no mesh material in it, so it is technically just a metal grill. Black filter has a hollow mesh with the same metal grill. Judging from the dim light that leaks through, I believe red filter has the densest filter material. I think it is logical to think that the thicker or denser the filter material is, the more suppressed the highs will be.
Not unlike other IEMs, you can also further customize the sound by swapping in a different pair of ear-tips or cable.
The Overall Sound
With the release of LZ-A4 a year ago, LZ became the price-performance leader in the mid-high IEM segment. The price-performance ratio of LZ-A4 was, and still is incredible. The price-performance ratio of LZ-A5 is just as good, if not better! I noticed that the resolving power of LZ-A5 had been drastically improved from LZ-A4, a lot more details can be heard from whatever you listen to.
Unlike most audiophiles who claimed to have great ears, I believe my ears deteriorated at an unbelievably high rate due to my inclination to listen to music at high volume. The LZ-A5 I am reviewing easily clocked 300 hours of listening and burn-in at the time of writing this review. Although I had been advised to burn it in, I did not hear any distinguishable change in sound through out the run-in period but that’s just me, yo.
When I first put on the earphones, I was greeted by a very welcoming sound and I instantly buried my disapproval of the less than remarkable packaging. Yes, LZ-A5 completely obliterated the rest of my IEMs, in terms of resolving power and musicality. My brother compared some of the earphones laying around on my desk and I could see the same WOW in his expression when he put on LZ-A5 so I guess I am not alone here.
The sound is for the lack of a better word, majestic. I am not saying that a terrible song will miraculously sound nicer with LZ-A5 because that can't be true and I am not selling snake oil here. LZ-A5 does offer a very immersive listening experience, the sound is just bold and energetic. I find LZ-A5 especially suited for electronic EDM, maybe due to its accentuated tuning. LZ-A5 also pairs rather well with classical music due to its outstanding instrument renditions and placement. I would describe LZ-A5 as a pair of IEMs that sound like a full-size closed back headphones with a slightly nicer soundstage.
Low
I am not a bass-head per se so I will only briefly describe the low. There’s sufficient rumble in the sub-bass region, the bass of LZ-A5 is punchy but not exceedingly so. Overall the bass is quite good but that is not the main attraction here, so let’s move on.
Mid
Awesome mid-range, that’s the short and precise summary. Lao Zhong seemed to emphasize on the mid-high refinement, my ears tell me that a lot of effort had been put into getting the mid right. The transition across treble, mid and bass is seamless, LZ-A5 never failed to maintain cohesion between the drivers.
High
The high frequency tuning of the LZ-A5 is a bit adventurous and daring. To some people they might perceive LZ-A5 as sparkly and others will think that it is rough and edgy. The same treble sound harsh to certain people with sensitive ears but not to the others and that’s the nature of our ears, we are not made equal after all.
Overall I think the quantity of the treble is about right. Although I am not bothered by the peaky high, I would prefer a slightly more rounded off peaks. I figured the red filters do cut away few decibels from the high but will not properly round off the sound.
Also for your information, I usually test the treble of an IEM by listening to Jump by Van Halen (particularly the synthesizer part). If I do not get any discomfort looping through the song twice, the earphone has a tolerable high. And yes, LZ-A5 passed the Van Halen trial.
Frequency Response Test
I am cheap. I set up the test below with a modified lapel mic, a Comply foam and some putty. Comply foam because it has one of the best sealing. I apologize for not putting together a more professional setup and I do not claim that this data is 100% accurate or more accurate than anyone else’s.
My main intention is to compare the effects of different filters to the sound. The graph is provided for the point of discussion.
Blue : blue filter
Yellow : black filter
Gray : gray filter
Red : red filter
A double peak graph is to be expected of any Balanced Armature (BA) In-ear Monitor (IEM). The first peak (3k Hz) is a result of combined resonance of components inside BA drivers or enclosed behind the diaphragm. The second peak (15k Hz) is the combined resonance of diaphragm, membrane and other external components. The elevated bump around 60hz is contributed by the dynamic driver.
The graph shows how a filter performs in relation to another. The manual claimed a 4 db (+2db to -2db) difference between blue and red filters and about 2db difference between each filter and that is about right. My test result sorta correlates with the data but mine shows close to 6db difference between blue and red filters. The bass remained the same for every filter used.
Blue Filter
I don’t like piercing sound so blue filter is not what I would go for. I have tried it once or twice but I prefer the other filters.
Black Filter
Black filter is the most balanced in my opinion and that is probably why it came attached to the earphone as the default filter. 2db is not a huge change in sound so depending on your source, if you have a bass-inclined player, you can compensate that with a colder filter or vice versa.
Gray Filter
As mentioned, I mostly alternates between the gray and black filters. Gray filter is what I use most of the time because they are quite balanced and it gives me the sound for easy listening.
Red Filter
Red filter has a suppressed high and it cuts away some of the details in the highs.
New Filters
I read that Lao Zhong collected some inputs from LZ-A5 users and recently released a revised set of filters (in the same blue, black, gray and red color). I have not tested those new filters so I am not sure how good they are. I have read that the new filters rounded off the edginess in the high but I have also seen frequency measurements showing identical readings to the existing filters. I will come back and update this review once I try and test out those new filters.
Soundstage/ Sound Isolation
LZ-A5 has the most spacious soundstage I have heard so far in the IEM category. I have yet to hear any in-ear that has the equal width and amount of separation. Even the semi-open Philips Fidelio S2 pales away when it comes to soundstage.
I usually don’t use in-ear-monitors for movies but that changed with LZ-A5. I recently finished a movie in a cafe using LZ-A5. In the midst of watching the movie, I turned around and was surprised to see someone talking on the phone. I was only aware of him when I saw him. The noise isolation of LZ-A5 is quite incredible for a universal in-ear monitor (UIEM).
Source
You do not have to feed LZ-A5 with an amplifier as that is unnecessary to unleash its full potential. In fact, instead of having LZ-A5 amplified, it can actually benefit from clean sources.
I have tried it with a few sources and noticed that it does not pair well with some of my players or amplifiers (usually those with very high output impedance). Also, LZ-A5 is quite a hiss magnet, so be warned!
Conclusion:
All in all, LZ-A5 offers a mid to top-tier sound at a relatively affordable price tag. LZ-A5 is setting the bar high for the affordable multiple drivers CIEM category. I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys clear and detailed sound.
LZ-A5 is an amazing and ambitious product from Lao Zhong. For those looking for vivid sounding earphones, you will have a hard time finding something better for around 270 bucks. The possibility to customize the sound is really the icing on the cake.
The only disappointment I have with LZ-A5 so far is probably the annoying cable that I gave up using. All in all, LZ-A5 deserves a 5 out 5 despite having a major (but remediable) flaw.
LZ-A5 is the fifth generation of Lao Zhong’s A series earphones. Coincidentally LZ-A5 is also the first of the series to operate on 5 drivers, 1 dynamic driver and 4 balanced armature (BA) drivers on each side. Like its predecessor LZ-A4, the sound of LZ-A5 can be tweaked by swapping in different filters that came in the package.
To tell the truth, I have been spoiled by many great audio gears for sometime now and have not been wow-ed by any new stuff lately. This growing despondent was broken when I laid my hands on LZ-A5 for the first time. It is the first new gear in recent time to put a smile on my face.
Disclaimer
I am grateful to be sent a pair of LZ-A5 for evaluation and I would like to thank Lao Zhong Audio and Penon Audio. I owe them a review but not necessarily a positive review as I am in no way associated with them.
https://penonaudio.com/lz-a5.html
I thought of finishing this review much earlier but putting everything together seems harder than I imagined.
Unboxing
The packaging of LZ-A5 is somewhat underwhelming. I was expecting more seeing that this earphone came with a price tag that breaks the 200 dollars mark. LZ-A5 came in a black cardboard box with magnetic lid. Inside the box, there’s two in-ear monitors with a set of filters already attached to them, a metal piece holding 3 sets of tuning filters, a chunky MMCX cable with a velcro tie on it, some silicon tips, a metal carrying case, a warranty card and a manual. Just so you know, the metal protective carrying case is identical to the case that came with HifiMan RE 2000 and RE 800.
I have not met Mr. Lao Zhong but I can only imagine him as a very down to earth person. LZ-A5 is presented in the most straight forward way imagined, so forget about the bells and whistles.
Physical
Earphone
Many, if not most of LZ-A4 owners complain about its ergonomic. LZ-A4 is angular in shape and tends to cut one’s ears with its sharp edges. Lao Zhong being Lao Zhong, has a good reputation of listening to constructive feed-backs and learning from criticisms so it is no surprise that the ergonomic issue had been addressed in the new LZ-A5.
The outer shell of each LZ-A5 monitor is made of two pieces of anodized aluminum shells. I believe the shells are joined together with glue since I can not spot any screws or welding traces. The seam between the two halves is quite visible but there’s no glue residue on my sample unit so overall I consider the craftsmanship great. The shells are extremely smooth with no rough edges or sharp points. This time around, the physique of LZ-A5 is optimum, there’s nothing I can think of to criticize here, Lao Zhong obviously had learned a hell lot from making LZ-A4.
Both the IEM and the cable have L and R identifications. After using LZ-A5 for a while, you probably can tell L from R just by feeling them in your hands. Some people made a big deal out of the Honda logo but I think id est quod id est.
Stock Cable
LZ-A5 came with a detachable woven cable. The cable is fully clothed and according to the specification sheet, it has a 6N single copper core. I am never fond of fabric cables and this is no exception. The MMCX ends are embedded with memory wires so they are supposed to conform to the shapes of one’s ears but they didn’t work for me. On the other end, the cable is terminated with an L-shaped 3.5mm plug that looks very similar to that of HifiBoy Dream I reviewed earlier.
Many people said that they heard a surge in sound quality by swapping in a higher quality cable, think 8core 6N cable, higher numbers and whatnots. I am currently using LZ-A5 with a thinner MMCX1s (2.5mm balanced) cable from Fiio. I find that to be a good balance between acoustic quality and wear comfort. Overall, LZ-A5 cable is hefty and impractical, I don’t find it desirable in any way.
Comfort
I am extremely fussy when it comes to comfort. When inserted properly, LZ-A5 slips into my ears with great ease and stays in place firmly. LZ-A5 is by no means featherweight, I can feel it in my ears but it is not what I would describe as heavy.
The physical design of the LZ-A5 is perfect in my book, trust me, the fit and ergonomic is a quantum leap from LZ-A4. Put aside the cringy stock cable, the ergonomic of A5 is a solid 5 out of 5. I wear spectacles and I can assure you that A5 will not give specky-four-eyes any hard time.
Durablitility
For your information, balanced armature (BA) earphones are generally very fragile. If you keep knocking your BA earphones on hard surfaces, the armature inside will deform and you will get a permanently distorted sound.
I have always reminded myself to treat LZ-A5 with the utmost care but of course me being Mr. Magoo’s brother from another mother, I abused it very frequently and even inadvertently dripped it in a mug of beer. Immediate after that mishap, I wiped it dry and LZ-A5 miraculously survived. So all in all, I have no doubt that LZ-A5 is a durable product.
Specification
Earphone Type: In- Ear
Connection Type: Wired
Plug Type: 3.5mm gold-plated plug
Cable Length: 1.3m
Driver: 4 balanced armature drivers 1 dynamic driver
Impedance: 16ohm
Sensitivity: 105dB
Frequency response: 8Hz-36 KHz
Total Harmonic Distortion: <0.2%
Power Output: 5mW
Cable: 1.2m 5N OFC
The Earphone Design
I decided to include this section to talk about LZ-A5 design. Pictures above are the cross-section and exploded views of LZ-A5.
Many audio companies have their own line of configurable earphones - FLC, Trinity Audio and etc. Trinity recently released a model with the most filters ever, 5 filters in 2 different lengths, so that’s an astonishing 10 options.
BA drivers are not particularly flat sounding, they by design produce frequency response graph with two peaks. I will elaborate more on the technicalities in a jiffy. As far as I know, the most usual way to tame the two peaks are by adding an acoustic damping screen/mesh in front of the BA nozzle or by laser-ing a tiny hole on the membrane that suspense the diaphragm. The miniature size of BA drivers enables multi drivers setup that in turn allows acoustic designers to achieve a certain sound. Of course that is not done without any drawback, coherency can be an issue for earphones with multiple drivers.
Judging from the macro photograph and the diagrams above, the 4 BA drivers in LZ-A5 are arranged in pairs and lined up next to each other. The BA drivers are not pointing straight at the nozzle opening and a dynamic driver is positioned behind the two pairs of BA drivers. Also noteworthy is the tiny opening Lao Zhong placed behind the dynamic driver probably to allow for a more natural sound and a fuller bass.
The Interchangeable Filters
LZ-A5 is not overly convoluted given that it is a configurable earphone. Users will not require any tools to swap in their desired filters. Each pair of filters is represented with a different color and every filter has threaded ends. All the filters came with tiny rubber bumpers to prevent over-screwing that will potentially damage the threads.
Initially I tinkered quite a bit with the filters but over time, I kinda settled in with the gray filters because they are the most versatile and they are great for movies and YouTube. Black filters are great as well and they are probably the nicest sounding but I opted for gray filter for prolong use.
I think having options is great even for someone as indecisive as I am. The interchangeable filter system works great to fine-tune sound to one’s taste and I think little feature like this does go a long way to enhance listening experience.
Most color coding are meant to be intuitive and I suppose the same applies to LZ-A5 tuning system. I figured red is a warmer color, hence it is associated with a mellower sound and blue on the other end of the color spectrum is cold, so it produces a colder sound. Blue has a sharper high and red being the opposite has the most suppressed treble.
From the macro photo above, you can see that the blue filter has no mesh material in it, so it is technically just a metal grill. Black filter has a hollow mesh with the same metal grill. Judging from the dim light that leaks through, I believe red filter has the densest filter material. I think it is logical to think that the thicker or denser the filter material is, the more suppressed the highs will be.
Not unlike other IEMs, you can also further customize the sound by swapping in a different pair of ear-tips or cable.
The Overall Sound
With the release of LZ-A4 a year ago, LZ became the price-performance leader in the mid-high IEM segment. The price-performance ratio of LZ-A4 was, and still is incredible. The price-performance ratio of LZ-A5 is just as good, if not better! I noticed that the resolving power of LZ-A5 had been drastically improved from LZ-A4, a lot more details can be heard from whatever you listen to.
Unlike most audiophiles who claimed to have great ears, I believe my ears deteriorated at an unbelievably high rate due to my inclination to listen to music at high volume. The LZ-A5 I am reviewing easily clocked 300 hours of listening and burn-in at the time of writing this review. Although I had been advised to burn it in, I did not hear any distinguishable change in sound through out the run-in period but that’s just me, yo.
When I first put on the earphones, I was greeted by a very welcoming sound and I instantly buried my disapproval of the less than remarkable packaging. Yes, LZ-A5 completely obliterated the rest of my IEMs, in terms of resolving power and musicality. My brother compared some of the earphones laying around on my desk and I could see the same WOW in his expression when he put on LZ-A5 so I guess I am not alone here.
The sound is for the lack of a better word, majestic. I am not saying that a terrible song will miraculously sound nicer with LZ-A5 because that can't be true and I am not selling snake oil here. LZ-A5 does offer a very immersive listening experience, the sound is just bold and energetic. I find LZ-A5 especially suited for electronic EDM, maybe due to its accentuated tuning. LZ-A5 also pairs rather well with classical music due to its outstanding instrument renditions and placement. I would describe LZ-A5 as a pair of IEMs that sound like a full-size closed back headphones with a slightly nicer soundstage.
Low
I am not a bass-head per se so I will only briefly describe the low. There’s sufficient rumble in the sub-bass region, the bass of LZ-A5 is punchy but not exceedingly so. Overall the bass is quite good but that is not the main attraction here, so let’s move on.
Mid
Awesome mid-range, that’s the short and precise summary. Lao Zhong seemed to emphasize on the mid-high refinement, my ears tell me that a lot of effort had been put into getting the mid right. The transition across treble, mid and bass is seamless, LZ-A5 never failed to maintain cohesion between the drivers.
High
The high frequency tuning of the LZ-A5 is a bit adventurous and daring. To some people they might perceive LZ-A5 as sparkly and others will think that it is rough and edgy. The same treble sound harsh to certain people with sensitive ears but not to the others and that’s the nature of our ears, we are not made equal after all.
Overall I think the quantity of the treble is about right. Although I am not bothered by the peaky high, I would prefer a slightly more rounded off peaks. I figured the red filters do cut away few decibels from the high but will not properly round off the sound.
Also for your information, I usually test the treble of an IEM by listening to Jump by Van Halen (particularly the synthesizer part). If I do not get any discomfort looping through the song twice, the earphone has a tolerable high. And yes, LZ-A5 passed the Van Halen trial.
Frequency Response Test
I am cheap. I set up the test below with a modified lapel mic, a Comply foam and some putty. Comply foam because it has one of the best sealing. I apologize for not putting together a more professional setup and I do not claim that this data is 100% accurate or more accurate than anyone else’s.
My main intention is to compare the effects of different filters to the sound. The graph is provided for the point of discussion.
Blue : blue filter
Yellow : black filter
Gray : gray filter
Red : red filter
A double peak graph is to be expected of any Balanced Armature (BA) In-ear Monitor (IEM). The first peak (3k Hz) is a result of combined resonance of components inside BA drivers or enclosed behind the diaphragm. The second peak (15k Hz) is the combined resonance of diaphragm, membrane and other external components. The elevated bump around 60hz is contributed by the dynamic driver.
The graph shows how a filter performs in relation to another. The manual claimed a 4 db (+2db to -2db) difference between blue and red filters and about 2db difference between each filter and that is about right. My test result sorta correlates with the data but mine shows close to 6db difference between blue and red filters. The bass remained the same for every filter used.
Blue Filter
I don’t like piercing sound so blue filter is not what I would go for. I have tried it once or twice but I prefer the other filters.
Black Filter
Black filter is the most balanced in my opinion and that is probably why it came attached to the earphone as the default filter. 2db is not a huge change in sound so depending on your source, if you have a bass-inclined player, you can compensate that with a colder filter or vice versa.
Gray Filter
As mentioned, I mostly alternates between the gray and black filters. Gray filter is what I use most of the time because they are quite balanced and it gives me the sound for easy listening.
Red Filter
Red filter has a suppressed high and it cuts away some of the details in the highs.
New Filters
I read that Lao Zhong collected some inputs from LZ-A5 users and recently released a revised set of filters (in the same blue, black, gray and red color). I have not tested those new filters so I am not sure how good they are. I have read that the new filters rounded off the edginess in the high but I have also seen frequency measurements showing identical readings to the existing filters. I will come back and update this review once I try and test out those new filters.
Soundstage/ Sound Isolation
LZ-A5 has the most spacious soundstage I have heard so far in the IEM category. I have yet to hear any in-ear that has the equal width and amount of separation. Even the semi-open Philips Fidelio S2 pales away when it comes to soundstage.
I usually don’t use in-ear-monitors for movies but that changed with LZ-A5. I recently finished a movie in a cafe using LZ-A5. In the midst of watching the movie, I turned around and was surprised to see someone talking on the phone. I was only aware of him when I saw him. The noise isolation of LZ-A5 is quite incredible for a universal in-ear monitor (UIEM).
Source
You do not have to feed LZ-A5 with an amplifier as that is unnecessary to unleash its full potential. In fact, instead of having LZ-A5 amplified, it can actually benefit from clean sources.
I have tried it with a few sources and noticed that it does not pair well with some of my players or amplifiers (usually those with very high output impedance). Also, LZ-A5 is quite a hiss magnet, so be warned!
Conclusion:
All in all, LZ-A5 offers a mid to top-tier sound at a relatively affordable price tag. LZ-A5 is setting the bar high for the affordable multiple drivers CIEM category. I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys clear and detailed sound.
LZ-A5 is an amazing and ambitious product from Lao Zhong. For those looking for vivid sounding earphones, you will have a hard time finding something better for around 270 bucks. The possibility to customize the sound is really the icing on the cake.
The only disappointment I have with LZ-A5 so far is probably the annoying cable that I gave up using. All in all, LZ-A5 deserves a 5 out 5 despite having a major (but remediable) flaw.