[Cruelhand Luke]

Tracking shows my ZS5 and ZS3 got to a town a little less than a 2 hour drive from me....maybe today I can take delivery, that would be 12 days door to door.

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

Hello everybody,
Yesterday I received KZ ZST and ZS6. It's a complete frustration. There is no bass whatsoever. Just a little bit of middle and rattling highs. ....... Just a waste of money and time for waiting. Stay away.

Well darn, I wish you had gotten these sooner so that all the people that think they are enjoying theirs would know better...

 

[alex5908]

Well darn, I wish you had gotten these sooner so that all the people that think they are enjoying theirs would know better...

The problem is that I am expecting ZS 3 and 5 too.

 

[alex5908]

The only consolation is that they sound much better than UrbanFun. Well, I don't know, may be they need burning. I'll do it and report here.

 

[groucho69]

The only consolation is that they sound much better than UrbanFun. Well, I don't know, may be they need warming. I'll do it and report here.

You need to do some tip rolling until you find the ones that give you a good seal. Foams are usually recommended with these. YMMV.

 

[Nolaughingzone]

Hello everybody,
Yesterday I received KZ ZST and ZS6. It's a complete frustration. There is no bass whatsoever. Just a little bit of middle and rattling highs. I tried them on all DAPs I have (you can see them in the signature) and none of them worked out . Even Fiio X3-II did not make them any good. And Fiio X3-II is a good match with practically all types of earphones. Just a waste of money and time for waiting. Stay away.

Completely agree with you.... I bought them to see what the hype was about... Only sharp trebble nothing else.

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

The only consolation is that they sound much better than UrbanFun. Well, I don't know, may be they need warming. I'll do it and report here.

Imagine that, maybe you spoke a wee bit hastily? .....maybe instead of declaring them a waste of time and money and warning others to stay away, try out some different tips (foamies might be your jam!) let them burn in a little (in my experience IEMS are very often crystalline bright and piercing straight from the box) I know there is a foam mod for the ZST that tames treble, did you look into that? It seems very simple to do and easily reversible....

 

[alex5908]

Imagine that, maybe you spoke a wee bit hastily? .....maybe instead of declaring them a waste of time and money and warning others to stay away, try out some different tips (foamies might be your jam!) let them burn in a little (in my experience IEMS are very often crystalline bright and piercing straight from the box) I know there is a foam mod for the ZST that tames treble, did you look into that? It seems very simple to do and easily reversible....

You are right. I should not have hurried with the conclusion. I'll try foamies. Where can I read about a foam mod?

 

[colourhaze]

https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/k...essions-thread.698148/page-1167#post-13480650
Btw, you could join KZ thread...

 

[alex5908]

You need to do some tip rolling until you find the ones that give you a good seal. Foams are usually recommended with these. YMMV.

Could you explain what you meant by tip rolling?

 

[waveriderhawaii]

Could you explain what you meant by tip rolling?

It is just a fancy word for trying out different tips. I have like 35 different tips in my collection. When I buy a new set of earphones, I try them all out and see which ones sound the best. Sometimes foams sound better. Sometimes double flange, or triple flange do. Sometimes wide bore or narrow bore sound better.

 

[bsoplinger]

Could you explain what you meant by tip rolling?

I'd guess what you described as just treble and no bass means you're not getting a good seal in your ear with whatever ear tips you've used. Try the ear tips from other 'phones if you have them. Try inserting further into your ears with the tips that came with the earphones. The only way any in ear monitor (IEM) will provide decent bass is if there's a good enough seal between the ear tip and your ear canal so that the volume of air is fixed so it will better transmit the small amount of compression caused by the driver in the IEM and fully transmit the low frequency sound waves. Even just a tiny opening in the seal will reduce the bass you hear.

If you head over to the KZ thread referenced above you'll see that some folks complain about the highs of the ZS6 but you won't find much complaining about the bass. I'd describe them as bass heavy but not basshead level with a potential shrill peak. Personally although I easily noticed the peak I didn't find it shrill.

 

[Cruelhand Luke]

You are right. I should not have hurried with the conclusion. I'll try foamies. Where can I read about a foam mod?

Welcome to the world of Slater, you have just opened a pandora's box, fair warning, and have fun.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/kno...essions-thread.698148/page-1167#post-13480650
this is a good place to start, but you definitely want to spend some time in the KZ appreciation thread as was mentioned by someone else.

 

[Adide]

@alex5908 make sure you have the cables plugged in the right way. They have an alignment key with one part rounded and the other squared. If insert key was followed from the beginning and you still have crappy sound then try switching insertion direction in one of the shells only; if the result is still unsatisfactory then try other combinations of insertion (there were many reports of cable poor QC and some even for iem itself internal wiring). None of those iems should be bass shy.
Also try different sources if available: amp, dac, pc, laptop, tablet, phone etc.
Good luck.

Edit: clarifications and spelling.

 

[Slater]

Hello everybody,
Yesterday I received KZ ZST and ZS6. It's a complete frustration. There is no bass whatsoever. Just a little bit of middle and rattling highs. I tried them on all DAPs I have (you can see them in the signature) and none of them worked out . Even Fiio X3-II did not make them any good. And Fiio X3-II is a good match with practically all types of earphones. Just a waste of money and time for waiting. Stay away.

What you are describing is exactly how they sound when plugged in out-of-phase (ie no sub-bass & bass).

Check my signature for how to check for proper orientation of the plug "key".

While neither are basshead IEMs, both the ZST and ZS6 have plenty of sub-bass and bass.

Then once you have checked the plug orientation via the link in my signature, check the phase using the following sound tests. I recommend doing the tests with a known good pair of IEMs first (preferably with a non-removable cabled IEM ie NOT ZS3, ZS5, ES3, etc), so you understand how the speaker tests are 'supposed' to sound: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/kno...essions-thread.698148/page-1664#post-13842108

If they don't sound right with the speaker phase tests, switch the orientation of ONE of the 2-pin plugs and try again (in other words, JUST the right or JUST the left but not BOTH right AND left). Make sense? This is because even if you have the "keys" the correct way (as seen in my signature), they could still be out-of-phase, because there have been 1-2 reports of the KZ cable itself being internally wired out of phase.