[nxnje]

First thing is to make sure there is nothing wrong with the earphones themselves. Change the sides and see if the problem persist in the same ear or if it migrates to the other ear, i.e., if the problem lies with the earphone, it will migrate to the other ear.

If the issue is an anatomical difference between the ears, try using different tips, tip sizes and different insertion schemes. Start by inserting the IEM with your mouth opened and your jaw relaxed, and your head tilted towards the front or the back. If this doesn't work, time for tip-rolling.

There are several options, from double or triple flange to foam tips. I would try ordering a cheap box of faux-comply foam tips and see if they solve your problem. Foam tips adapt the best to the ear canal, contributing to a better seal. Otherwise, if the problem is lack of stiffness in the tip, some Sony hybrids could be the solution. There are also cheap faux Sony hybrid tips which are made to a similar material and design. You will recognize them by the colour scheme in the nozzle - red - XS, orange - S, green - M, blue - L.

I'm sure it's not headphone's fault as i even tried with my memt x5 and same thing happens, and the same thing happens even if i try to swap left and right channel
Anyway i already tried but right ear is something annoying
I mean i listen to music in a good way but there's always that little difference between the ear canals that is really annoying.
If i put medium/large tips on the zs6, my left ear is little and i have to pick my ear and pull up while opening mouth in order to pinch it into my ear canal, then it works flawlessly. On the right side, the ear canal is bigger and tips tend to let air pass i think, the problem is i tried every kind of tip but it seems like there's something different even in terms of deepness shape, i mean maybe there isn't just this difference in the ear canal, but more than one if i could dig into my ear and discover it
Then in the right side i feel like i have a closed style in ear, in the left side it seems i have a open back design iem.

 

[CoiL]

As a side note, I’ve never seen that green KZ driver before. Anyone know anything about it? @CoiL?

As far as I know, KZ has made 2 green-shelled DD`s up to now - one is ZS4 (I posted pics of it opened) and second is ZSN.
But until someone opens up ZSN and measures its real size - ZS4 = 8mm vs. ZSN = 10mm.
All I know is: 1) I wont buy ZSN 2) ZS4 DD is tuned REALLY good and is great donor for DIY projects

 

[Mellowship]

I'm sure it's not headphone's fault as i even tried with my memt x5 and same thing happens, and the same thing happens even if i try to swap left and right channel
Anyway i already tried but right ear is something annoying
I mean i listen to music in a good way but there's always that little difference between the ear canals that is really annoying.
If i put medium/large tips on the zs6, my left ear is little and i have to pick my ear and pull up while opening mouth in order to pinch it into my ear canal, then it works flawlessly. On the right side, the ear canal is bigger and tips tend to let air pass i think, the problem is i tried every kind of tip but it seems like there's something different even in terms of deepness shape, i mean maybe there isn't just this difference in the ear canal, but more than one if i could dig into my ear and discover it
Then in the right side i feel like i have a closed style in ear, in the left side it seems i have a open back design iem.

I'm sure it's not headphone's fault as i even tried with my memt x5 and same thing happens, and the same thing happens even if i try to swap left and right channel
Anyway i already tried but right ear is something annoying
I mean i listen to music in a good way but there's always that little difference between the ear canals that is really annoying.
If i put medium/large tips on the zs6, my left ear is little and i have to pick my ear and pull up while opening mouth in order to pinch it into my ear canal, then it works flawlessly. On the right side, the ear canal is bigger and tips tend to let air pass i think, the problem is i tried every kind of tip but it seems like there's something different even in terms of deepness shape, i mean maybe there isn't just this difference in the ear canal, but more than one if i could dig into my ear and discover it
Then in the right side i feel like i have a closed style in ear, in the left side it seems i have a open back design iem.

IEMs are not for everyone... Maybe you are one of those cases. Anatomical differences in ear canal are common, and if you want to be sure of that, you can get an audiology appointment.
Other thing I forgot to suggest is trying a shallow insertion with those old-style silicone tips that have a wide hole and attach to the end of the nozzle.
If nothing solves your problem, and even if you get a good isolation but still have audible differences, the problem should definitively lie within. Could be related to the anatomy or the physiology of your ears. Anatomically, sharp curves in the ear canal will reflect or dampen sound, or will press against the IEM's tips and swivel or crush them to a point the air doesn't flow properly between the drivers and your tympanum. In terms of physiology, you should get an audiology appointment if you suspect of any earing alteration.

 

[mbwilson111]

Maybe it's not, i don't have money as i have to pay my university studies
I just want to find a solution for this.
An idea could be wearing earbuds but i feel i'm gonna lose the rumble i have with the sub bass and the isolation.

With buds you will loose isolation of course but you would be surprised what a good earbud sounds like these days. Many have amazing bass. Come to the Earbuds Roundup Personally I do not care about isolation.. I like to be aware of my surroundings. Buds would not be good on a train though.

 

[Slater]

Maybe it's not, i don't have money as i have to pay my university studies
I just want to find a solution for this.
An idea could be wearing earbuds but i feel i'm gonna lose the rumble i have with the sub bass and the isolation.

It was just an idea, since you have difficulty fitting universal IEMs due to anatomical differences in your ear canals. Maybe keep it in mind for the future, and in the mean time maybe try foam eartips (instead of silicone) as they are able to contour to the unique shape of your ear canal better.

Also, I have been surprised by the amount of sub bass available with certain earbuds. I have a graphene earbud with a metal shell and mmcx connection, and it blew me away with the sound (especially sub bass). It’s low price was shocking for the performance offered.

The secret is to wear them in the ear ‘sideways’ (ie perpendicular) with no foam cover, as opposed to the normal ‘flat’ way people wear earbuds. Once you go sideways with earbuds, you’ll never go back to the old way. I’ve converted quite a few people into sideways earbud believers

And yes, isolation is less with earbuds. There’s trade offs to everything in life, as much as people always want everything to be perfect with no drawbacks (ie to ‘have our cake and eat it too’).

 

[mbwilson111]

The secret is to wear them in the ear ‘sideways’ (ie perpendicular) with no foam cover, as opposed to the normal ‘flat’ way people wear earbuds. Once you go sideways with earbuds, you’ll never go back to the old way. I’ve converted quite a few people into sideways earbud believers

There is no physical way for me to put a bud in sideways. I have tried. Just like with IEMs everyone is different. I also have to use foams. If I don't they will not be stable. Also there are so many different shell sizes and shapes now. When I wear mine the "normal" way with foams they sound great. Some I do angle slightly and notice a difference. Depends on the bud. I have a few...all in my list...

 

[Slater]

As far as I know, KZ has made 2 green-shelled DD`s up to now - one is ZS4 (I posted pics of it opened) and second is ZSN.
But until someone opens up ZSN and measures its real size - ZS4 = 8mm vs. ZSN = 10mm.
All I know is: 1) I wont buy ZSN 2) ZS4 DD is tuned REALLY good and is great donor for DIY projects

Awesome, thanks for the info.

I also agree - the ZS4 is ideal for donor projects.

Also the new QKZ version, which is only $6 and has a single 10mm driver mounted perpendicular to the nozzle (to be able to fit the larger driver). I have one on the way. I’m expecting it to sound like typical QKZ junk out of the box, but I bought it to use as a donor. For $6, how could I resist?

 

[Podster]

I always found the ATRs to be dull, but I had the impression they could be better with other sources, cables or tweaks. They had potential but I lost patience too soon with them to make it work. Gave them to a cousin who is an amateur singer in a cover band for her to use as monitors. She's happy.

The ED12 had those hollow mids I was sensible to... Never got used to that signature. Sold them for 6 €...

The HDS1 are so small I thought they would fit very well, like the Sony mh1c. Unfortunately, they tended to swirl like crazy inside my ears, even with foam tips. Very strange. I had to use them cable up all the times. When my wife broke the jack on her beloved TDK iems, she asked me for some small earphones to use at the gym. So there they went.

As for a paint job, Short Dog would do a great work.
If he refuses ... one evening I was looking at the carbon ZSTs and loathing that fake carbon print, while my wife was painting her nails. Got some black nail polish out of her box and off goes the ugly carbon. Not a perfect job, but nothing I am ashamed of.

The Walnut... have it on my AE wishlist for ages and never pulled the trigger...

Well the real deal on the Walnut V2 is that it has the analog type ambiance (could be too noisy for some but I appreciate how close it sounds to good vinyl playback) and the F1 amp just delivers that SS with so much power you could drive a 300Ohm can to it's hearts content. I love the simplicity of the Walnuts just about as much as the SQ. I strictly listen to vinyl at home and no other portable setup that I've heard has been able to come even close or replicate the Walnuts To me it's the reason that your warmer (lifeless to some) iem's come alive with the Walnut stack, pretty sure they will do that to any warmer sounding iem, I know it does the same thing for my Mee P's

Your loathing comment on your ZST's cracked me up as for what we paid I'm OK with a sticker carbon finish, don't want to upset you sensibilities but I even put FiiO sticker carbon from my X3ii box on the back of my beloved Havi B3 Pro's ala a Wokei trick from the old days Don't judge me too harshly

I just consider my ZST's to have a wrap instead of a nice paint job but once again hard to get a paint job (or even patterned molds) for what we got our ZST's for These ZST's and the first KZ SP cables looked so good when new but they have suffered the 50 Shades of Green like the Tri-braids and it is sad but on a positive note I gave all of those away to those who don't care if they now have Green Goblin cables because like they said the SQ did not really change because of the tarn/patina

 

[queerquirks]

which of their models is a good upgrade from the ATR?
I prefer ATR's warmish balanced sound vs the ZS3 which had great sound sig too but bass was too heavy and abit dark

Any advice for this please

 

[Podster]

Any advice for this please

Well I'd go with the ZS4's in Fire Engine Red (Of course Tuxedo black is always a professional option) Not to mention the ZS4 may be one of the best fitting universals eva

I think Foreigner refers to this as "Double Vision"

I also approve both these SP cable in lieu of the clear sleeve silvers

 

[Slater]

There is no physical way for me to put a bud in sideways. I have tried. Just like with IEMs everyone is different. I also have to use foams. If I don't they will not be stable. Also there are so many different shell sizes and shapes now. When I wear mine the "normal" way with foams they sound great. Some I do angle slightly and notice a difference. Depends on the bud. I have a few...all in my list...

Not surprising. Like you said, there are different sizes of buds, different shapes of ears, etc.

 

[Mellowship]

Well the real deal on the Walnut V2 is that it has the analog type ambiance (could be too noisy for some but I appreciate how close it sounds to good vinyl playback) and the F1 amp just delivers that SS with so much power you could drive a 300Ohm can to it's hearts content. I love the simplicity of the Walnuts just about as much as the SQ. I strictly listen to vinyl at home and no other portable setup that I've heard has been able to come even close or replicate the Walnuts To me it's the reason that your warmer (lifeless to some) iem's come alive with the Walnut stack, pretty sure they will do that to any warmer sounding iem, I know it does the same thing for my Mee P's

Your loathing comment on your ZST's cracked me up as for what we paid I'm OK with a sticker carbon finish, don't want to upset you sensibilities but I even put FiiO sticker carbon from my X3ii box on the back of my beloved Havi B3 Pro's ala a Wokei trick from the old days Don't judge me too harshly



I just consider my ZST's to have a wrap instead of a nice paint job but once again hard to get a paint job (or even patterned molds) for what we got our ZST's for These ZST's and the first KZ SP cables looked so good when new but they have suffered the 50 Shades of Green like the Tri-braids and it is sad but on a positive note I gave all of those away to those who don't care if they now have Green Goblin cables because like they said the SQ did not really change because of the tarn/patina

I also often listen to LP records at home. Not now, though. The scanspeak mid-woofer from one of my beloved ProAc Studio 100 burned last sunday... A lot of money to repair... (I prefer using speakers to listening to records vs. headphones, although my Grado SR60e + RA1-based DIY amp are a good match for vinyl). The rest of the setup consists in a tweaked ProJect Debut II + Sumiko Oyster, preamped through a Cambridge 520MM, and a PrimaLuna Prologue One integrated.

I will keep a close look at the Walnut, maybe someday. Too much expenses in the past few days... Even today, I'm getting myself some BT on-ears...

As for the carbon imitations, the FiiO X3II's sticker was cool enough and looks good on the Havi. I still have my stickers lying around. The only thing I sticked on the FiiO was to make justice to it: a Hi-res Audio golden sticker that was falling apart from the Hidizs Sonata USB-C cable I bought the other day.


(don't the AS10 look cool? C'mon @Podster ! We sure have different tastes...)

But the faux-carbon paint was just too different from the renditions KZ published when they launched the ZST. I was almost disgusted when I looked at them right out of the box, independently of how little they were sold for... I would rather have a blunt solid lid or a piece of cardboard covering it. Or a chewed bubblegum. Whatever. I almost developed an immediate repulse to them from their looks, and didn't rest until I covered them in cheap nail polish.

By the way, nail polish is great for very small paint jobs. Just look at the plug from the photo above, which I had to break open to fix the cable that I destroyed trying to pull off the memory wire... after cutting about one inch from the cable, soldering the pins and making space inside the plug casings with a dremel, I glued all together with epoxy, let it dry and covered it in black nail polish.

 

[Podster]

I also often listen to LP records at home. Not now, though. The scanspeak mid-woofer from one of my beloved ProAc Studio 100 burned last sunday... A lot of money to repair... (I prefer using speakers to listening to records vs. headphones, although my Grado SR60e + RA1-based DIY amp are a good match for vinyl). The rest of the setup consists in a tweaked ProJect Debut II + Sumiko Oyster, preamped through a Cambridge 520MM, and a PrimaLuna Prologue One integrated.

I will keep a close look at the Walnut, maybe someday. Too much expenses in the past few days... Even today, I'm getting myself some BT on-ears...

As for the carbon imitations, the FiiO X3II's sticker was cool enough and looks good on the Havi. I still have my stickers lying around. The only thing I sticked on the FiiO was to make justice to it: a Hi-res Audio golden sticker that was falling apart from the Hidizs Sonata USB-C cable I bought the other day.


(don't the AS10 look cool? C'mon @Podster ! We sure have different tastes...)

But the faux-carbon paint was just too different from the renditions KZ published when they launched the ZST. I was almost disgusted when I looked at them right out of the box, independently of how little they were sold for... I would rather have a blunt solid lid or a piece of cardboard covering it. Or a chewed bubblegum. Whatever. I almost developed an immediate repulse to them from their looks, and didn't rest until I covered them in cheap nail polish.

By the way, nail polish is great for very small paint jobs. Just look at the plug from the photo above, which I had to break open to fix the cable that I destroyed trying to pull off the memory wire... after cutting about one inch from the cable, soldering the pins and making space inside the plug casings with a dremel, I glued all together with epoxy, let it dry and covered it in black nail polish.

Nice repair on that plug and it's OK that we have some different taste as it would be a very boring world if we all liked the same things I have three complete rigs in my Man Cave two are analog based and the other all digital I actually used the carbon face plate sticker on my X3ii plus the control dot/button in the middle You have a nice system, love the ProAc studio's and of course the Prima Luna kicks arse. That analog setup is also very nice

Pod's main rig consist of the BAT (Balanced Audio Technologies) VK-200, VK-3i, VK-P5, EAD-CDT1000, DSP-7000 Series III, Wadia iTransport, Yamaha MDX-793, Well Tempered Amadeus GTA w/Aidio-Technica VM740ML and B&W Nautilus 804's. Rig is getting dated now but still sounds awesomeSorry this shot is so grainy

So as to not go to astray Remember when these were our KZ choices?

 

[Mellowship]

Nice repair on that plug and it's OK that we have some different taste as it would be a very boring world if we all liked the same things I have three complete rigs in my Man Cave two are analog based and the other all digital I actually used the carbon face plate sticker on my X3ii plus the control dot/button in the middle You have a nice system, love the ProAc studio's and of course the Prima Luna kicks arse. That analog setup is also very nice

Pod's main rig consist of the BAT (Balanced Audio Technologies) VK-200, VK-3i, VK-P5, EAD-CDT1000, DSP-7000 Series III, Wadia iTransport, Yamaha MDX-793, Well Tempered Amadeus GTA w/Aidio-Technica VM740ML and B&W Nautilus 804's. Rig is getting dated now but still sounds awesomeSorry this shot is so grainy



So as to not go to astray Remember when these were our KZ choices?

What a nice setup! Those things don't get dated ever. They turn into classics! That Well Tempered, don't you ever get rid of it!!!
And the Tull's Thick as a Brick peaking in the picture

As for those old KZs, I still use ATE in a regular basis. They are just so romantic... I believe they were my first KZs.

 

[Podster]

Yessir, this is how you know you were with KZ for a while Way before there was the Avengers and Shield Oh no he deent LOL