This is the first headphone in a while where I felt compelled by its sound presentation. This is a rare headphone where I get a very distinct sense of forward localization of sounds. The CrossZone headphones use a very strange driver configuration where there one very angled driver placed at the front of the earcup, plus two additional drivers placed behind an acoustic wall so that they don't fire directly into the ear. One of those obscured drivers is the low-frequency driver and the other is the crossfeed driver that actually plays the other channel's signal at a low level so you get a built-in crossfeed effect. Headphones that try to go for forward localization of sounds tend to be hit-or-miss; the Grell OAE1 and Ultrasone S-Logic headphones also try this and results are mixed, to say the least. Well, for me, the CrossZone CZ-10 accomplishes its goal of forward localization. I drove this one straight from the 3.5mm output of my Walkman and comparing directly against the Aune AR5000, the CZ-10 has a noticeably more forward-placed soundstage. In particular, bass sounded like it was coming from two sources in front vs coming from the sides. Is it truly "out of head"? I wouldn't go that far, but I had no difficulty placing sounds in front of me. I have never been a fan of DSP-based crossfeed solutions (they all sound kind of artificial), but the CZ-10 sounded like the best crossfeed solutions while being more natural.
Of course, there are tonal compromises made in the pursuit of spatialization, just like in every headphone. The midrange sounds kind of honky, it can be a bit sharp at times, and the bass is boomy, but none of those things compromised the sense of space that the CZ-10 rendered. And in fact, the emphasized bass added to the experience in a similar way to how it improved the sound of the MDR-Z1R; it filled out the sound in a way that is reminiscent of a large music venue. The Enhanced version of the CZ-10 is newer and supposedly has more bass than the original CZ-10.
It's a unique headphone. I don't think its design will work for everyone and it makes compromises even when it works, but the sense of forward space was very compelling to me. The headphone is also very comfortable even without a suspension headband and decently light. If it wasn't out of stock, I would have been sorely tempted to buy it right there to take advantage of the exchange rate.
