Knowledge Zenith (KZ) impressions thread

[Fox2twenty]

Lol...it's happening to many of us here...including me

This is what I'm waiting on.. How long does Gearbest usually take?

 

[Fox2twenty]

Well... Just realized I missed the fiio sale.. Cmon Gearbest make me feel better!!!

 

[Vidal]

I see the price is starting to drop on the KZ ZS6 - down to £27 with HotFi if you use their coupon. I think it'll drop further yet though.

 

[Cya|\|]

Why do I see no picture of the crossover? They say there is one, but the lack of picture makes me think...

 

[Sylmar]

Great impressions on the ES3 guys. Glad it's not a earpiercer. Couldn't help but order one myself.

 

[vladstef]

Why do I see no picture of the crossover? They say there is one, but the lack of picture makes me think...

They will start shipping them on the 15th, people in China will get them in a matter of days and we will have some sort of idea what to expect. Given how easy it would be to open one and how crossover would be the first visible thing inside, we are for sure gonna get that information quickly.
KZ has implemented crossover before in the ZS1, but they removed it in second iteration. It is possible that ZS6 really has it, but we all know that it's not enough to just put something inside, it has to be tuned properly.
ZS6 is shaping up to be quite an upgrade coming from ZS5 v1, a lot of changes all around. And it's impressive that KZ can keep it up with low prices yet improve this much this quickly (if the sound improves, we know that build will). People complaining that it's more expensive forgot that ZS5 was around 40$ on launch and dropped to almost half that in a month. ZS6 can be found for around 35$, although the regular price is around 45$ currently. (5$ more for a good looking metal construction is a true bargain)
Hopefully, KZ has improved the packaging and accessories, ZS5 was truly bare bone, even with that nicer box which only included 3 extra tips...

 

[Cya|\|]

People complaining that it's more expensive forgot that ZS5 was around 40$ on launch and dropped to almost half that in a month.

This.

 

[ricemanhk]

KZ ZS6 starting to show on taobao, after discounts about 33 USD for the standard no mic pair. Some transactions already but no comments/reviews yet, so probably haven't shipped out. Only green and black for now as well, those who want red might have to wait a bit more.

Still no sign of ES3...I guess really a GB exclusive!

 

[Vidal]

It appears that KZ are only shipping ZS6 in large quantity to sellers, looks like a minimum order required.

Whether this means that some sellers won't get initial run stock because they haven't got enough pre-orders will be interesting, I suspect some AE orders will never get fulfilled. Explains the universal pre-orders on this earphone though.

 

[Griffith]

I'm listening to Daughter's "If you leave" album with the ZS5 and I think this is a good album to showcase some of the weaknesses and strengths of the earphone. It seems that whenever there is some strong sub-bass it bleeds onto the mids and buries them, but on parts or tracks where there isn't a boomy bass you can hear crisp details and a pleasant rendition of the singer's throaty voice.

 

[vladstef]

I think that ZS6 is not worth the current price of 45$, unless you can get some potent sound upgrades compared to ZS5, here is the reasoning. At 65$ you could buy Fiio F5, and this gets you probably at least comparable sound quality, regular cable that is better than KZ's, an additional balanced cable, full blown pelican like case (probably worth around 10$) and on top of it all, better build quality with proper quality control.
ZS6 looks very well built on photos, however, question still remains whether every unit that comes out of the factory will be equal. The value will become apparent only after it drops to around 30$. Obviously, if the sound quality is greatly improved compared to ZS5, all of this value talk gets softened quite a bit.

 

[Vidal]

I'm listening to Daughter's "If you leave" album with the ZS5 and I think this is a good album to showcase some of the weaknesses and strengths of the earphone. It seems that whenever there is some strong sub-bass it bleeds onto the mids and buries them, but on parts or tracks where there isn't a boomy bass you can hear crisp details and a pleasant rendition of the singer's throaty voice.

Sub-bass? Eh, below 60Hz bleeds into the mids , or did you mean 'mid bass'?

 

[Griffith]

Sub-bass? Eh, below 60Hz bleeds into the mids , or did you mean 'mid bass'?

I'm not entirely sure sine I don't have a way to view the spectrum right now, but it could be either. Either way there is a distinct bleeding of the bass. If not for that the ZS5 would probably become my favorite units to listen to from KZ's lineup.

Note that I'm not saying the ZS5 is bad, but when they are capable of rendering a noticeable amount of details that other KZ earphones can't resolve as well and then they have a flaw that on some tracks renders that increase detail useless I can't help but have an overwhelming sensation of disappointment with the ZS5.

The ZST has more flaws than the ZS5 but the ZST's flaws don't ruin its strengths and the ZS5 unfortunately does.

 

[vladstef]

I'm not entirely sure sine I don't have a way to view the spectrum right now, but it could be either. Either way there is a distinct bleeding of the bass. If not for that the ZS5 would probably become my favorite units to listen to from KZ's lineup.

Note that I'm not saying the ZS5 is bad, but when they are capable of rendering a noticeable amount of details that other KZ earphones can't resolve as well and then they have a flaw that on some tracks renders that increase detail useless I can't help but have an overwhelming sensation of disappointment with the ZS5.

The ZST has more flaws than the ZS5 but the ZST's flaws don't ruin its strengths and the ZS5 unfortunately does.

If you haven't, try ZS5 with foam tips (Comply or similar tips from Aliexpress, they all work the same). It reduces the bass bloom considerably and in fact, this area ends up being really good on ZS5, subb and bass are never downing other frequencies. The problem is that mids can't keep up and are not on the same performance level, same can be said about treble which is quite clear but unnatural, something that probably has to do with phasing due to many different driver types producing the sound in this range.
The point being, with foam tips, you tame the bass enough to get to properly hear other frequencies, but you also discover that they might not be as good as you might think, there are obvious flaws but even with them ZS5 pulls ahead of competition. This is all normal, you can't expect ideal sound at this price, yet

 

[Francisk]

Well... Just realized I missed the fiio sale.. Cmon Gearbest make me feel better!!!

Wait for the Cayin or Shanling sale then