Knowledge Zenith (KZ) impressions thread

[mndless]

Indeed, the DIY foam mod works like a charm on it.
(literally created the mod with the DQ6 in mind lol.)

I'm still waiting for my parts to come in from AE, but I'm going to be trying out some foam nozzle plugs and tuning paper micropore filters on my CCA CKX. Unfortunately I don't have any measuring gear, so the best I can do is subjective testing. Should still be interesting. I'm also going to be replacing the stock perforated metal wax filters for some proper steel mesh ones. I'll try to post pics of the process if I can manage to get my phone to focus on it. My Note 9's camera must have been overly jostled or something, because the auto-focus really doesn't like me a lot of the time. I'll probably also stick a paper micropore filter on my GD7B to see what that does to it. Might as well test everything, right?

 

[baskingshark]

Hahaha. I was commenting about campfire who used bellsing driver and still charge $1000+ for it.

This Golden Ears TRN probably uses golden BA drivers inside hahaha. Or perhaps could it be a spray painted TRN VX?

 

[voicemaster]

This Golden Ears TRN probably uses golden BA drivers inside hahaha. Or perhaps could it be a spray painted TRN VX?

They might be using this

 

[Barndoor]

Indeed, the DIY foam mod works like a charm on it.
(literally created the mod with the DQ6 in mind lol.)

I'm currently running with Slater's Blon 03 mod on my DQ6. This works well also.

 

[rayliam80]

I just wanted to +1 the @RikudouGoku foam mod for the DQ6.

I’ve been listening for over a week with a foam mod of sorts. I didn’t have any of the cheap earbud foam covers as recommended, just the Hiegi foams I had from when I bought a few earbuds some years ago. Not sure if they’re thicker or different. I ended up sacrificing a foam cover and started cutting it up into pie slices somewhere between 1/8th and 1/16th. I tried just putting a cut piece inside the eartip against the nozzle but it was too loose and it kept sliding out. I had to dig out a small piece of foam out of my ear a few times so that wasn’t very pleasant. The cut piece of foam was just big enough to be stretched over the nozzle and secured with the ear tip. I found this still to be quite excellent even if isn’t exactly like the mod as recommended. I also don’t have a coupler to provide a FR chart either. But having done this, I’ve found the DQ6 much easier to wear for long listening sessions yet I don’t feel like I’m missing much in terms of the treble/air or the dynamics either. Details are still present. Note weight is on the thicker side but I like that. In my case, it seems that foam didn’t turn the DQ6 into a muddled mess but just took the edge off a bit in what I perceive to be the upper mids/lower treble. I’m really quite happy with this. It has a warm yet detailed sound.

FWIW, I’m using AZLA Sedna Short M eartips and the KZ copper-colored 8 core cable.

 

[RikudouGoku]

I just wanted to +1 the @RikudouGoku foam mod for the DQ6.

I’ve been listening for over a week with a foam mod of sorts. I didn’t have any of the cheap earbud foam covers as recommended, just the Hiegi foams I had from when I bought a few earbuds some years ago. Not sure if they’re thicker or different. I ended up sacrificing a foam cover and started cutting it up into pie slices somewhere between 1/8th and 1/16th. I tried just putting a cut piece inside the eartip against the nozzle but it was too loose and it kept sliding out. I had to dig out a small piece of foam out of my ear a few times so that wasn’t very pleasant. The cut piece of foam was just big enough to be stretched over the nozzle and secured with the ear tip. I found this still to be quite excellent even if isn’t exactly like the mod as recommended. I also don’t have a coupler to provide a FR chart either. But having done this, I’ve found the DQ6 much easier to wear for long listening sessions yet I don’t feel like I’m missing much in terms of the treble/air or the dynamics either. Details are still present. Note weight is on the thicker side but I like that. In my case, it seems that foam didn’t turn the DQ6 into a muddled mess but just took the edge off a bit in what I perceive to be the upper mids/lower treble. I’m really quite happy with this. It has a warm yet detailed sound.

FWIW, I’m using AZLA Sedna Short M eartips and the KZ copper-colored 8 core cable.

I'm currently running with Slater's Blon 03 mod on my DQ6. This works well also.

You mean removing the stock mesh and replacing it with another one? If the stock mesh has damping, it will increase the treble though.

 

[Barndoor]

You mean removing the stock mesh and replacing it with another one? If the stock mesh has damping, it will increase the treble though.

Also inserted a strip of dried out alcohol wipe inside the nozzle

 

[cappuchino]

UPDATE ON ZAS:

I've been burning them in straight with "Cascade Noise Burn-in" since yesterday. I've tried tip rolling with the available tips I have (from generic, to double-flanged, short stem - wide bore, and foam), only in the end to go back to the "vocal" tips from BQEYZ Summer. Better bass definition and just overall clearer sound, especially in the midrange/treble region.

Interesting thing is that bass seems to have settled down - noticeably more controlled compared to OOTB (but still that godly quantity... that's starting to get a teeeeeny bit tiiiiriiing nooooowwww). Treble's still the same - quite mellow and dare I say, neutral though definitely isn't well-extended and rolls-off hard (lacks sparkol sparkol). Midrange doesn't exhibit shoutiness (tolerance as well as loudness-dependent) at all and isn't unacceptably artificial throughout the region (noticeable recession and lack of resolution with male vocals which is also a bit nasal). Stay away from these if you like male vocals.

Technicalities, excluding detail-retrieval, is decent for the +-60 USD price.


TITLE OF REVIEW: TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK

 

[nraymond]

A couple of days ago I received my KZ AST, and they got to me faster than any AliExpress order ever has! The quality is good, though using the stock eartips is a must I think. Only one of the four pairs of stock eartips works for me. The AST come with an almost cylindrical set of eartips mounted to them which sit pretty far back on the nozzle, and those work the best for me. The sound is balanced and detailed throughout the range with them. The fit is less than perfect though since the silicone used in the tips is so thin, so I can't move too much or they can become loose and the sound will change. In the box are three more pairs of tips in a more traditional cone shape in small, medium, and large, but none of those fit me better. I also tried the following eartips but they all made the AST very bass heavy: Final Audio Type E, Audio Technica ER-CKM55, Elecom EHP-CAP20MBK, Sony EP-EX11, and Spinfit CP360. In comparison, KZ BA10 with Spinfit CP100 Plus work better for me.

 

[InvisibleInk]

A couple of days ago I received my KZ AST, and they got to me faster than any AliExpress order ever has! The quality is good, though using the stock eartips is a must I think. Only one of the four pairs of stock eartips works for me. The AST come with an almost cylindrical set of eartips mounted to them which sit pretty far back on the nozzle, and those work the best for me. The sound is balanced and detailed throughout the range with them. The fit is less than perfect though since the silicone used in the tips is so thin, so I can't move too much or they can become loose and the sound will change. In the box are three more pairs of tips in a more traditional cone shape in small, medium, and large, but none of those fit me better. I also tried the following eartips but they all made the AST very bass heavy: Final Audio Type E, Audio Technica ER-CKM55, Elecom EHP-CAP20MBK, Sony EP-EX11, and Spinfit CP360. In comparison, KZ BA10 with Spinfit CP100 Plus work better for me.

Glad you are enjoying it. I'm enjoying mine, too. As for me, I attached a pair of medium AZLA Xelastec tips. I first had to use a pair of SpinFit nozzle adapters before attaching them, otherwise the Xelastecs wouldn't stay on. These are the best KZ IEMs I have yet tried. Worthy successors to the BA10, which can now be retired.

 

[SpaceOperaVillain]

I also tried the following eartips but they all made the AST very bass heavy:

.... AST back on the shopping list.

 

[artatgray]

Just posting this here exclusively for my KZ brothers and sisters in arms who might also happen to like Poweramp Equalizer and AutoEQ as well.

The red rectangle in the photo below says it all, but just in case:

"Both Equalizer .pa-eq-preset and AutoEQ .txt files are supported.

AutoEQ graphic and parametric formats supported and imported to the graphic or parametric presets appropriately.

Equalizer adds +6dB to AutoEQ graphic gains"

https://forum.powerampapp.com/topic/21506-poweramp-equalizer-build-899-907/

P. S. I'm tripping out using right now on my KZ ZAX listening to Massive Attack...

 

[CT007]

.... AST back on the shopping list.

You took it off..? How kuz? They are my #1 atm, Starsea #2.

I don't know about other tips, but theyre super bassy with stock tips already, so probably with all tips lol.

 

[SpaceOperaVillain]

You took it off..? How kuz? They are my #1 atm, Starsea #2.

I don't know about other tips, but theyre super bassy with stock tips already, so probably with all tips lol.

A long list of petty reasons I can't keep straight, really. The biggest reason was that I wanted to play around and get the full chifi experience before going straight to the AST, or perhaps another midfi-chad set by starting with some of the awesome dirt-cheap units that kz/cca is well known for. I lusted after KS10 Pros for over a year and, due to free-time constraints, have only now managed to commit some time to playing with audio stuff again. So I began with CCA C12s, have had that set for coming on 3 months and still really like that pair for hard bob jazz, synthwave, trip-hop, and electronica. I have had a pair of ZAX now for about a week and they're slowly burning-in just from regular use. I'm loving them so far and prefer these over all of my over-ears at the moment, but a bit of that is just because I've not had a good pair of IEMs in the past year, year and half.

The AST's reviewers seemed to have a consensus that they are a dark / warm set, and a lot of the treble sparkle that made KZ famous has been toned down. I'm a bit more indulgent on the vee shape when EQ'ing and, to be quite honest, love the levels of hellfire that the "more neutral tuned" C12s are capable of producing. Indulgences aside, for most listening I tend to use a gentle w shaped wave from neutral more than an actual W shape, and I had been looking for an improvement over the C12 for orchestral, opera, and heavy metal. The ZAX has proven to be very competent for all of those genres I'm not in a particular hurry to usurp them for the moment.

One thing is certain, and it is the hard fact that I need something, anything to distract my wallet from thinking about Focal over-ears for a few months. Pray tell, what good things does the community have to say about the ZSX-T? Jokes aside, I think I am going to reverse my position on DQ6 and just order a set just to sample. Because I'm becoming a junkie. I catch myself surfing AliExpress for no good reason at 2 am while in bed. My life will be ruined inside of 6 months if I keep this up.

 

[CT007]

I'm loving them so far and prefer these over all of my over-ears

Yep, ZAX are really, really good, but a bit problematic in the treb, whereas AST have too much of a good thing(bass) lol. Definitely keep them on your list!!