ZERO AUDIO-ear stereo headphone carbo Basso ZH-DX210-CB

Aornic

Member of the Trade: Acorn Audio
Pros: Good sub and mid bass. Inexpensive quality.
Cons: Cable is practically on life support right out of the box. Sibilant highs. Not good for softer genres as V-shaped.
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AzimAkbar

New Head-Fier
Pros: Prominent bass but not overshadowing details and treble. Lightweight and very comfortable. Adequate accesories.
Cons: Cable is very thin but flexible. Almost invisible ,insignificant strain relief.
Hello all in Head Fi community. This is my first ever review in this forum.I am not an expert in reviewing so I will only use very simple term or definition to convey my message. I just received the Basso yesterday so obviously it is not in fully burn in state. Nevertheless the sound produced out of box is good enough for me to make a short review and some comparison with my other bass heavy IEM ; Pioneer SE-CL-541 and Huawei Honor AM12 and few other IEM brands.
 
Short history about my IEM use. The first good IEM that I bought was Soundmagic E10M about 2 years ago. It sound fairly good but somehow it produced static noise at zero volume. I misplaced it few month ago but somehow I never really missed it due to better IEM that I currently owned. Most of my IEM that I bought after that cost around 30-40 USD and below except Audio Technica IM50 which cost 62USD.
 
Bass
Not the bassiest IEM that I ever owned. The king is Pioneer CE-CL541>Huawei AM12>Carbo Basso> ATH IM50. however the bass is really controlled and not to the point of overshadowing details and treble. For that point alone I can assure that Carbo basso has the best quality bass among my IEM. Almost similar to IM50 in quality but IM50 has slightly less bass quantity.
 
Details and vocal
Not the best IEM for this. The king is my Sony XBA 10- the one and only balanced armature IEM that I owned. I bought a new in box but obviously old stock for just 40USD in a local store in Low Yat Plaza, Kuala Lumpur. Definitely a bargain , even online price usually start from 50 USD and above. But compared to other bass heavy IEM like my Pioneer and Huawei unit the different is noticable. Especially when compared to the Pioneer CL541. Pioneer IEM somehow has very high amount of bass that can overshadow vocal and details. Even the ultracheap but excellent Huawei AM12 is actually produced slightly better detail than the Pioneer. The other IEM that I have is ATH CKX7 which produced a lot of detail but somehow the treble sound a bit harsh and can overshadow the details.
But still in this area Sony XBA 10>Carbo Basso>ATH CKX7>Huawei AM12>Pioneer CL541.
 
Treble
I can't really make a final comment on this area for Carbo Basso. Right now the treble is not very noticable and many track produce mild sibilance. But I believe the sound will just get better with proper burn in. But overall the sound signature of this Carbo Basso is somewhere in between bass heavy Pioneer CL541 and fairly neutral sounding ATH IM50. I believe it has moderate amount of bass and details and a bit lower amount of treble.
 
Soundstage
In this area the king is Sony XBA 10 and ATH CKX7. Carbo basso soundstage is moderate or average at best.
 
Bulilt quality and design
Among the bass heavy IEM; Huawei AM12 >Pioneer CL541>Carbo Basso. The cable is obviuosly the thinnest among ALL my IEM. The strain relief at the IEM itself is so small and insignificant. It only a matter of time that the cable at strain relief will snap with any incidental or accidental pull of the cable. About the same design as Sony XBA 10 but for sony the cable is flat and slightly thicker. On positive side the cable is really soft and flexible but more prone to tangle as compared to my others IEM.
The comfort level is the best. It is simply one of the lightest IEM that I ever owned. With shallow fitting but suprisingly stable ear tip design, I can listen to music for many hours. Together with ultrathin cable the IEM almost feel weightless inside my ear. I just wish that it has flex nozzle design like Pioneer CL541 which has the best fit inside ear. The Pioneer simple won't move with my jaw movement especially if I am talking on the phone or eating snack, drinking water etc.
AzimAkbar
AzimAkbar
Sound isolation is surprisingly good, even with standard medium tip that attached to the IEM out of the box. Almost completely blocked external noise except the loudest one like road traffic noise. At lower volume I can still hear my sons playing loudly. Even though this is the shallowest ever fit in ear the stability and sound isolation is good almost as good as my best fit IEM, the flex nozzled Pioneer SE-CL541. Stable enough to walk around but definitely not very suitable for vigorous sport like running or hiking. So far the microphonic is very minimal mostly due to superthin and superlight cable even without shirt clip (which is not supplied).
dog
dog
Such reviews are not good. No burn in means hype feelings are reported. Don't know why people here give impressions 5min after they open the box. Also the authors experience with only cheapest IEMs is not convincing.
AzimAkbar
AzimAkbar
Thank you Mr Dog for pointing out the importance of  burn in period for review purpose.  I  have done more reviews after this Carbo Basso and almost all of them at least have some 20 to 40 hours of burn in period.  This  was my 1st ever review and I never really appreciate the value of burn in period initially.  The most noticeable different that I experience was with Audio-technica CKX9.  I found  some seller selling back their CKX9 in Ebay because of 'muffled sound and no bass, treble at all'.  All it needs just a few hours of burn in period and suddenly the sound quality just improved dramatically. 
I have been using this ZA Carbo Basso for last 10month but never really find it appealing initially.  Just recently I noticed that the sound quality has gradually improving.Just like what I have experienced with Soundmagic E10. These earphones definitely need a really long and proper burn in period before it can sound phenomenally good as many people claim.  Now I know why there are so much hype about these Carbo Tenore and Basso. 
Final findings for Carbo Basso ; 
I used it with generic foam tip from Aliexpress. It totally improve the overall sound quality. Plus with generous amount of burn in period now I feel that it has reached the optimum sound quality. What I heard now is a tight and thumping bass,  fairly bright treble and very clear vocal. The details is there but still not as good as my more expensive earphone like CKX9 or FXT90. So good that I will rate it now above my Audio-technica IM50 and Soundmagic E10. But still not as good as my top rated earphones; Audio-technica CKX9, Sony EX650 and JVC FXT90. 
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