[Vidal]

Fully agree, I'm so glad I got them early and enjoying the heck out of them
But to your last comment in your review...wonder what would happen if the ZSR pro really does come out and really does beat the ZS5? then again you still have 0.3 points leeway lol

I think the ZSR Pro is the Loch Ness Monster of the Chinese audio world, only parts photographed and never seen in the flesh. I hope I'm wrong but depending on it's price I might not even review it. The rating scores were always comparisons from one to the next, I've got options either move everything down or create so headroom with going to 11.

I wanted to emphasise that there was a gap between the likes of the G3 and ZS5 hence the slight jump. The G3 had the imaging and soundstage but lacks some of low end of the ZS5. One thing I might introduce is price categories based on purchase price and adding the date of review so people know how long it's been since it was reviewed. The IEM market moves so fast, I'm planning to re-review every 12 months or so older earphones that have fallen behind are dropped down the table.

 

[danspy]

Technical question: Is it possible/feasible to have the sub-bass DD to be smaller in diameter than the bass DD? I would have thought larger diameters are better to generate the lower freqs, but I'm not an expert in earbud and driver design.

The size of Driver responds mostly to SPL (Volume of sound) a small Driver needs less Air volume to produse low frequencies.

 

[acia]

I just received my KZ ZS5 blue with mic today.

Unfortunately, I am facing a problem with the new mic cable (the one with volume control) . For the first hour of use, the controls were working fine. However after the first hour, I realized the controls were laggy, unresponsive and it suddenly increased the volume to 100%! Luckily I took off the earphones in time to avoid my ears from exploding! Now the controls are totally dead and not working at all. Anyone experienced this issue? Was I just unlucky and got a faulty cable, or is it a common problem to everyone?

P.S. I am using LG V10.

Me. Doa

 

[Pronounta]

How legit are these two offers?

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/KZ-Z...t-Headphone/32810984494.html?isOrigTitle=true

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/KZ-Z...nes-Headset/32810662132.html?isOrigTitle=true

One of the sellers has no ratings, but one of them has 93% positive ratings, which isn't necessarily high either... there are some other English sellers though that sell ZS5's for around $8 with above 99% ratings which is way lower than the price that anyone else wants. Doesn't seem too legit to me anyway though, the price is just so low...

 

[Sylmar]

How legit are these two offers?

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/KZ-Z...t-Headphone/32810984494.html?isOrigTitle=true

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/KZ-Z...nes-Headset/32810662132.html?isOrigTitle=true

One of the sellers has no ratings, but one of them has 93% positive ratings, which isn't necessarily high either... there are some other English sellers though that sell ZS5's for around $8 with above 99% ratings which is way lower than the price that anyone else wants. Doesn't seem too legit to me anyway though, the price is just so low...

I think the $8 is for the cable only, not the ZS5 IEM.

 

[Vidal]

The low prices are just for the cable, select the item you want and the price jumps up to the full market price

 

[loomisjohnson]

I think the ZSR Pro is the Loch Ness Monster of the Chinese audio world, only parts photographed and never seen in the flesh. I hope I'm wrong but depending on it's price I might not even review it. The rating scores were always comparisons from one to the next, I've got options either move everything down or create so headroom with going to 11.

I wanted to emphasise that there was a gap between the likes of the G3 and ZS5 hence the slight jump. The G3 had the imaging and soundstage but lacks some of low end of the ZS5. One thing I might introduce is price categories based on purchase price and adding the date of review so people know how long it's been since it was reviewed. The IEM market moves so fast, I'm planning to re-review every 12 months or so older earphones that have fallen behind are dropped down the table.

i've discussed this with vidal previously, but i think his numerical ratings need to be understood as relative to the then-existing universe of budget (<$50) chifi iems, which is to say that (a) the zs5 may well be a 9.7 in comparison to the others on his site, but would not fairly be a 9.7 compared to a multi$$$ ciem, and (b) the numerical ratings should be adjusted (typically downwards) as newer and better models hit the market. in this regards, i'm still surprised at how models from a years ago which were credibly rated 9+ by joker and others have been outclassed by the significantly cheaper pieces touted on these pages.

 

[benchan2]

How is it different from posting fake positive reviews on Amazon like 100s of importers and companies do? Business ethics are pretty shocking.

For those who are interested after giving the ZS5 my top score so far I've listened to nothing else since, not because I'm enjoying them, which I am. I wanted to be sure that I hadn't given them too much credit, so far I've heard nothing to change my mind. I'm actually going back through old songs to hear how they perform. I know @loomisjohnson wanted to know whether they stood up to extended listening, so far they do.

I am not sure, are you trying to say KZ is doing false advertising? Because fake positive reviews, well, are fake. But KZ did pack the things they advertised in ZS5, just not in the way you think it would be. Also it is not that uncommon to have fake positive reviews on Taobao or some other places.

 

[ashliejay]

Has anyone noticed that KZ has a 1st party bluetooth cable for the ZSTs?
as soon as some sellers get one not bundled with the ZSTs, i might have to see how it sounds next to the TF10 cable i bought a few months back.

 

[Vidal]

I am not sure, are you trying to say KZ is doing false advertising?

No, I'm saying a lot of companies are crooks and who is to say that post on the Chinese forum isn't someone badmouthing KZ. Why the hell would KZ put drivers in if they don't work, but not important.

 

[Vidal]

i've discussed this with vidal previously, but i think his numerical ratings need to be understood as relative to the then-existing universe of budget (<$50) chifi iems, which is to say that (a) the zs5 may well be a 9.7 in comparison to the others on his site, but would not fairly be a 9.7 compared to a multi$$$ ciem, and (b) the numerical ratings should be adjusted (typically downwards) as newer and better models hit the market. in this regards, i'm still surprised at how models from a years ago which were credibly rated 9+ by joker and others have been outclassed by the significantly cheaper pieces touted on these pages.

I returned to my VSonic VC1000 and was stunned how things have progressed, it sounded v.average, this was a top performer on Joker's list. This is why all my earphone reviews with either be re-reviewed or mark as out-of-date after 12 months (maybe 6 months).

 

[Sylmar]

I got that same exact set as well.

Hope you like them! I really love these eartips. Really help bringing out the sound. Luckily I could buy a few pairs seperately from Hifiman directly without having to buy the entire sets.

 

[loomisjohnson]

likewise, i have some pieces from a couple years ago in the $100+ range like the yamaha eph100, senn momentum and jvc fxt90 which are no longer competitive with the dirt cheap urbanfun, einsear, magaosi and their ilk--this field is evolving much, much quicker than say, mobile or two channel audio.

 

[Skullophile]

Joker has updated scores and it's at the top of the thread where it says
A more up-to-date, interactive, sortable version of this thread can now be found here.

He scores the VC1000 9.2/10 and he spends weeks with each iem he reviews in rotation. To some extent a reviewer has to leave out his/her preferences out of it so the reader can get an idea of it's sound signature and it's performance against other similar signatures.
So if you were to listen to an iem, let's say the ZS5 for a few days straight then switch to a dual twfk you'll want to put the twfk under the hammer. The strength of a twfk imho is the treble. You have to spend big bucks to get treble that performs better (in general). Hmmm, Altone 200, T-peos H300, CK100, VE Duke spring to mind, The first two will be a little too hot for most.
I havn't heard a cheapish chi-fi iem come close in the treble to these or the dual twfk's i've tried. Even my Gleam 8BA (DZ8) sounds a little rolled off next to these but it comes close.

@Vidal this is not an attack, this is just some thoughts and I hope a few find it interesting.

I thank you for your hard work in reviewing and it reminds me that the H-fi community came together and threw in $5-10 dollars each to buy Joker a TOTL.
He ended up getting the UM Miracle custom from memory. And we should band together and do this for you, so you can have a reference point for your scoring system. Where the totl will hopefully be the 10 and the rest can be adjusted against that.

 

[Vidal]

@Skullophile don't worry I didn't take that as a dig.

Because the ChiFi stuff isn't a big investment my reviews are meant only as a steer to what's good and what's poor without getting overly analytical, that's why they are brief and concise. There are so many out there it's hard to keep pace with new models especially, if I'm spending a week with them.

My reference point has until recently been the Ty Hi Z G3 but I will now have to decide whether to swap to the ZS5.

With regard to the VC1000, it was Joker's list that got me into this ChiFi game and I'd previously bought the JVC FXD80 following his recommendation. I used to prefer the VC1000 to the FXD80 but that's now swapped around which could reflect a change in my preferences as I've heard new earphones.