[Viber]

Agreed about the poorly shielded comment made by khighly. Mine skip near cell phone towers, Wifi, garage door opener, when using the car remote, etc. I'm thinking of adding my own shielding by wrapping the little control box in a few strips of foil tape.

Wrapping the remote really works?

 

[SomeTechNoob]

Against some RF probably, but I'd be worried about bluetooth range after doing such a thing lol.

 

[Sylmar]

One more vote for ZS3 here. Listening with Samsung S5 / Tidal / AQ Dragon Black. Done all mods suggested arround: scc cable, grid and foam removed from nosle, smaller stock tips. Not sure why people call them dark and bassy. Seems balanced to me with a tad bigger bass, slightly L shaped lets say. Using them on transportation exclusively and the potent noise attenuation shape helps alot. Not going to jump to ZS5 cause isolation is surely lower so overall sound will clearly suffer for me.

Got the ZS3 myself, did the Slater mod and I'm pleasantly surprised. What is a SCC cable by the way?

 

[Slater]

Wrapping the remote really works?

Don't know, haven't tried yet.

 

[Adide]

Silver coated copper after-market cable, some call it just silver cable. Look it up on AE or Ama. Make sure you get zs3 one and not zst which is angled.
It supposed to have lower impedance than stock cable, however I'm not getting huge improvements with it alone but all in all these mods together sum up for a nice tune up.

 

[Sylmar]

Silver coated copper after-market cable, some call it just silver cable. Look it up on AE or Ama. Make sure you get zs3 one and not zst which is angled.
It supposed to have lower impedance than stock cable, however I'm not getting huge improvements with it alone but all in all these mods together sum up for a nice tune up.

Thanks I'll have a look on Ali.

 

[Ynot1]

Wrapping the remote really works?

I'm no rocket scientist but how can you separate bluetooth wire or antenna from the noise doing that?

Is there something you know about like the antenna is also the cable?

Maybe the shielding is for the chip and not the antenna.

 

[groucho69]

I'm no rocket scientist but how can you separate bluetooth wire or antenna from the noise doing that?

Is there something you know about like the antenna is also the cable?

Maybe the shielding is for the chip and not the antenna.

Antennas are a truly black art. I worked with a guy how was an absolute savant. He could take anyones design and quickly double the range, even in mines through rock. Absolute genius. He also regularly lost his car in parking lots. A real life Sheldon.

 

[khighly]

Charged the Bluetooth cable overnight and they were full in the morning.Took it to work and plugged it back in, has been charging for another 30 minutes now. I wonder if KZ has a legitimate charging circuit or if it's just timed. We'll see what my battery life is like after this 2nd charge as well.

 

[Detectit]

My vote goes to the ZS5. Since I have them I haven't looked back on the ZS3.

Okay once to get the mods done. But still.... To much bass.

I really like the clear and crisp highs on the ZS5 and still have the bass punch. Much cleaner.

 

[khighly]

Antennas are a truly black art. I worked with a guy how was an absolute savant. He could take anyones design and quickly double the range, even in mines through rock. Absolute genius. He also regularly lost his car in parking lots. A real life Sheldon.

I'll probably getting another one of these Bluetooth cables and I'll likely tear one apart to see if I can improve the antennas since I am well versed in that 'black art'

 

[mono-type]

Just tried @slaterlovesspam's mod for ZS3 right now. The mod was surprisingly effortless; I was quite nervous that I might mess up my ZS3. It turns out that the red screen and the black foam could be removed/returned effortlessly. What you should worry more is the red screen and black foam would get lost (obviously, they are so damn tiny). The black foam, in my case, isn't in the red tube for some reason. Like in slater's case, the foam on my ZS3 is on the nozzle. Combining this mod with the small stock tips (as suggested by @Dark Helmet) and the SPC cable, I must say the sound signature becomes more satisfactory than the stock configuration. Although I think I'll still retain the red screen for sanitary purposes.

 

[khighly]

So I'm actually a bit concerned with this Bluetooth cable. No matter how many times I plug it in, it continues to charge, eventually changing the light to blue indicating it's done charging. If you plug it in after that, it will charge for another 45 minutes. May be a small fire hazard, keep an eye on them!

 

[vladstef]

So I'm actually a bit concerned with this Bluetooth cable. No matter how many times I plug it in, it continues to charge, eventually changing the light to blue indicating it's done charging. If you plug it in after that, it will charge for another 45 minutes. May be a small fire hazard, keep an eye on them!

That's why I would never recommend any untested/cheap bluetooth device, even extremely pricey ones have a tendency to be crappy big times. So so many things that could go wrong, you just don't need that nuisance in life. Maybe things will change, but as of now, I avoid bluetooth in wide circles, especially if we are talking about KZ. I agree that ZS5 is a masterpiece of an IEM at their respected price point, but first you have to be somewhat lucky to receive a proper pair (although there aren't as many issues as it was first suspected, just a few units with polarity issues that are fixable).

 

[Slater]

Just tried @slaterlovesspam's mod for ZS3 right now. The mod was surprisingly effortless; I was quite nervous that I might mess up my ZS3. It turns out that the red screen and the black foam could be removed/returned effortlessly. What you should worry more is the red screen and black foam would get lost (obviously, they are so damn tiny). The black foam, in my case, isn't in the red tube for some reason. Like in slater's case, the foam on my ZS3 is on the nozzle. Combining this mod with the small stock tips (as suggested by @Dark Helmet) and the SPC cable, I must say the sound signature becomes more satisfactory than the stock configuration. Although I think I'll still retain the red screen for sanitary purposes.

Nice man, glad to hear.

The foam isn't actually supposed to be in the nozzle either. When you find it floating around in the nozzle area, that means it fell out of the colored tube (where it is intended to go).

That's why I recommended that everyone at least check their ZS3 even if they have no intention of removing the foam, because it's very possible that the foam is just floating around in the nozzle not doing its job.