[sghound]

No matter how much I understand why the Senn HD800 or Stax are technically stunning products, I don't want to own them because the music I enjoy sounds thin and weak with them.

THIS

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Okay, I admit this is JUST out of the box, but holy crap the ZS6 is sibilant as ****.

Like, the few tracks I've fired up are like "HI THERE ARE YOU A FAN OF HI-HATS BECAUSE HERE YOU GO."

 

[vector84]

I remember the "2 driver" thing, didn't recall the lack of crossover.

That's definitely curious. I'm surprised there are no cancellation issues, but I guess that means they were careful with the placement instead. Might lead to extra cohesion when there's no crossing, but that IS curious indeed. I would never have expected a multi-driver hybrid to have everything firing from top to bottom.

A couple other curious things I've come across that I feel might be related:

It always bothered me one of the BA was wired up with a bare copper grounding wire - the rest of the wiring scheme is red and green... why bare copper there? Every one that I've seen opened conformed to that oddity... by itself perhaps just an oddity, both green and bare are acceptable grounding colors, but why is it so consistent?

When I overdamped the nozzle BA, I was getting a very curious notch on a FR pulled from white noise - as close to zero output as my shoddy measurement equipment can register on a sharp notch in the 5kHz region.


Alone probably meaningless odd artifacts - together though they make me wonder if something very tricky is going on there.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Okay so... if anyone's getting the ZS6, the stock cable is garbage. I don't know how or why, but when i swapped it out for the KZ silver-plated that they sell, the 6 sounded a LOT better.

 

[Saoshyant]

Okay so... if anyone's getting the ZS6, the stock cable is garbage. I don't know how or why, but when i swapped it out for the KZ silver-plated that they sell, the 6 sounded a LOT better.

Ok, glad I have a silver ready to go then. Also in the same boat on waiting for a delivery that should have happened by now, as my Monoprice M300 got into town yesterday, and I'm fairly sure UPS will sit on it until Wednesday for the delivery because that's what I paid for.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Ok, glad I have a silver ready to go then. Also in the same boat on waiting for a delivery that should have happened by now, as my Monoprice M300 got into town yesterday, and I'm fairly sure UPS will sit on it until Wednesday for the delivery because that's what I paid for.

Do yourself a favor and listen to them with the stock cable first. Just so you can hear it. I honestly can't say I've been that crestfallen with a purchase before where I was just like "wow... I completely wasted my money."

Now that I've been listening for the past while with the other cable, I think they're a good upgrade. Bass is still plenty strong and has a nice tone to it.

 

[Saoshyant]

Do yourself a favor and listen to them with the stock cable first. Just so you can hear it. I honestly can't say I've been that crestfallen with a purchase before where I was just like "wow... I completely wasted my money."

Now that I've been listening for the past while with the other cable, I think they're a good upgrade. Bass is still plenty strong and has a nice tone to it.

I'm not a cable believer by any means, so I'll give it a listen with stock cable first. I'm also one of the least picky listeners on Head-fi, at least it feels that way, as I tend to look for the good in any headphone/earphone I try. I mean, I may not like it, but I'll at least identify where it's strengths are. Then again, some cans are just bad. I also have a bit of a wait as I bought off Gearbest a few days before noticing it on Amazon. Also, I should have no issues with the treble, as I'm fairly sure any hearing issues I have are in that region, and I've never once heard treble that caused discomfort. Pretty sure I own at least a couple of treble cannons too.

 

[vector84]

Okay so... if anyone's getting the ZS6, the stock cable is garbage. I don't know how or why, but when i swapped it out for the KZ silver-plated that they sell, the 6 sounded a LOT better.

I've pointed this out a few times - if you're not a believer in cables, you'd likely say something about cables being largely transparent as long as they're electrically sound (and I would tend to sort of agree for the most part)... thing is, KZ's stock cable for the ZS5/ZS6 are not electrically sound for the application they're being used in (>20% voltage drop). A few dB louder at the very least on an electrically sound cable would be expected (<5% voltage drop, as all of KZs upgrade cables are).

Not saying it's gonna start a fire, way too little power for that... but not surprising that there's audible differences imo.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

I've pointed this out a few times - if you're not a believer in cables, you'd likely say something about cables being largely transparent as long as they're electrically sound (and I would tend to sort of agree for the most part)... thing is, KZ's stock cable for the ZS5/ZS6 are not electrically sound for the application they're being used in (>20% voltage drop). A few dB louder at the very least on an electrically sound cable would be expected (<5% voltage drop, as all of KZs upgrade cables are).

Not saying it's gonna start a fire, way too little power for that... but not surprising that there's audible differences imo.

Yeah, using the other cable makes me feel like I can actually judge the ZS6 on their merits.

I'm back with the star tips for the moment, and my main qualm remains that the 2nd BA in the nozzle has added sharpness. I'm not gonna condemn them within an hour because hey if the cable can help maybe some other shenanigans can happen. Off the top, these definitely have more of an "open" sound to the ZS5v1, the bass is still powerful but sounds good rather than one-note, I'm a bad judge of mids but I will say that aside from adjusting to the treble I don't think the midrange is sucked out to any worrisome degree. There's a dimensionality happening here that the 5 didn't do as well. Things feel more "all around" the head.

Still not gonna give a final judgment, but I'll say at least that these are definitely a solid product and the added treble I could definitely imagine winning some people over.

 

[Slater]

Yeah, about that, just typing "ZS6" in YouTube will pop up 2~3 not very informative "unboxing reviews" basically saying that the ZS5 and ZS6 sound the same. And they'll say something like "The ZS6 is slightly better", or "Don't bother with the ZS6 if you have the ZS5".

The other surprising thing that I found out just by typing "KZ" into YouTube is that the ZS5 is not universally accepted as the best-sounding KZ earphone. Some guy said that he'd rather use the ATR/ATE and that the ZS3 was his favorite. His main complaint with the ZS5 was the harsh treble. He never talked about the ZSE however. I say this because another guy was hyping up the ZSE saying it's better than the ZS5.

I understand that these reviews are very subjective. But when people complain about harsh treble it's a red flag to me. I am glad I listened to a bunch of "not very informative amateur reviews" and saved my money. Because the ZS5/ZS6 are super expensive compared to the dirt cheap ZSE or ATR which some say "sound better". They are entitled to an opinion.

And I am still rambling here, but it just makes me wanna listen to every KZ IEM out there but I'd be $200 lighter and have a drawer full of earbuds...

I don’t look at YouTube for anything headphone related (and almost always Amazon too). Just too many nobodies that simply post a video to get YouTube views, free products, or free points from all of the various Chinese ecommerce sites. 97% of them have absolutely no clue what they’re talking about or the reviews are unreliable.

Not to mention that there’s numerous documented cases of companies flat out PAYING YouTubers money $500 in at least 1 case) to blatantly give a favorable review (without disclosing this of course).

If you’re just looking for a unboxing video so you can see what the cable looks like and what accessories are included, great. If you want an honest and accurate review including sonic reviews that actually make sense (vs simply “it sounds really clear with good bass”) then I avoid it like the plague.

 

[kokakolia]

I don’t look at YouTube for anything headphone related (and almost always Amazon too). Just too many nobodies that simply post a video to get YouTube views, free products, or free points from all of the various Chinese ecommerce sites. 97% of them have absolutely no clue what they’re talking about or the reviews are unreliable.

Not to mention that there’s numerous documented cases of companies flat out PAYING YouTubers money $500 in at least 1 case) to blatantly give a favorable review (without disclosing this of course).

If you’re just looking for a unboxing video so you can see what the cable looks like and what accessories are included, great. If you want an honest and accurate review including sonic reviews that actually make sense (vs simply “it sounds really clear with good bass”) then I avoid it like the plague.

Well, the way I see it:

Very obvious flaws will be pointed out by anyone, no matter how knowledgeable they are.

I am looking for things like:

- Harshness in the treble
- Poor fit
- Build Quality issues
- Any other flaw that hinders the user experience

So I will not be buying the ZS6 because of the "harshness in the treble".

 

[Slater]

Well, the way I see it:

Very obvious flaws will be pointed out by anyone, no matter how knowledgeable they are.

I am looking for things like:

- Harshness in the treble
- Poor fit
- Build Quality issues
- Any other flaw that hinders the user experience

So I will not be buying the ZS6 because of the "harshness in the treble".

Not when someone is getting paid to flat out lie so the company can sell headphones.

The reviewers give glowing reviews.

So how do you prevent that?

 

[Aevum]

I have a KZ ZS5 and i love them, thats why i bought the ZS6 and i will give my opinion when i get them.

A lot of people give glowing reviews of VSONIC and the VSD5 are some of the worst sounding IEM´s i have ever tried, they are absolute garbage,

And i remember the Trinity audio engnieering hype train, badly built, nothing special sound wise,

Im not going to tell you that the KZ´s are the best thing ever, but the fact that they can almost match the Trinity Phantom Masters at 10% the price says something.

The KZ ZS5 is probobly the best 16€ i ever invested in earphones, but i cant say the same about the ZS6 until i get them.

Another thing, when i hot the ZS5, i used those star tips from KZ and they sounded like ASS, Sibilant, empty, Vailed, and uneven... i thought i tossed 16 euros down the drain, but i had the luck that i tried them again with comply tips... night and day difference.

 

[groucho69]

So I went digging in this thread because I thought I recalled people saying KZ was the OEM making a lot of those drivers...

What I found was something quite the opposite...
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/knowledge-zenith-kz-impressions-thread.698148/page-564#post-12190697

To me at least, that sounds like KZ is the client and they hire an OEM to produce their foreign trade products...
I wonder if that's part of the mysterious relationship between KZ and QKZ...

I don't read anything in the post you linked to that leads me to that conclusion. Don't forget that they can sub out the actual build of their design to a shop and still be the OEM.

 

[Saoshyant]

So all in all, the ZS6 is probably the go-to treble-head IEM of KZ's inventory?

Not when someone is getting paid to flat out lie so the company can sell headphones.

The reviewers give glowing reviews.

So how do you prevent that?

Give me a pen and I'll go stabbing. That'll teach em.