Knowledge Zenith (KZ) impressions thread
Sep 8, 2018 at 4:23 PM Post #36,151 of 63,670
I'm answering you in a calm way as i don't wanna get nervous but it seems like you can't read.
I said it was a personal opinion and i already thought it was obvious the hd800s would have been way better considering the fact i used them so much team and they're used by many studios as reference for the mixing and mastering session, and i used them for the same purpose.
Then if i had to compare i can't be general: for fun purpose and on the go listening fun sessions, i would go with zs10 (even if they are huge intending about the shell and i can't wear them for so much time as they hurt my ears): easier to drive, more portable, generally more "ergonomic" dunno how to explain.
The hd800s are my paradise when it comes to studio sessions: highs are perfect with so much details that is actually impossible to forget.
Mids are huge: vocals sound awesome and i can mix them perfectly when it comes to their adjustments with the rest of the track.
The impressive thing is how vocals sound natural and airy compared to other headphones.
Bass is well textured and controlled, so balanced that i even feel sometimes there's not enough bass as i'm an old freaky basshead.
Overall the sound signature is not fun at all, everything is precise and detailed, imaging let tracks play instruments where they belong and where they should be, soundstage actually has great depth and width.
Now, if have to say which headphone is technically better, i have no doubts saying the HD800s are much more precise, wether the ZS10 are much more a surprise considering their cost.
Having a better price/performance ratio doesn't mean the product is better than the other one.
I'm safe to say the HD800s sounds technically better if we have to speak clearly about technical performance.
Then what you like more and what i like more is not actually the truth.
What i've written was my personal opinion and it's not a general statement everyone should approve actually.
Next time before judging someone just because of a post, think that everything you read here is all about personal opinion and preferences.
Just that.
Seriously defending Hd800, I never saw this much of arguing against this humble zs10, which were usually ignored as is the feeling of " how dare you compare cheap iem to 1k dollar..."
Thanks for the explanations and reasoning to share.
But at the same time I felt that zs10, As10, or one of these chinese iems have been well advanced in technical terms that somebody began to argue or brave enough to compare it to venerable hd800.
I might buy one of them like AS10 to see really it is giant killer or has disruptive technologies that were based on Chinese innovation.
China has the history of magnet ( a key component of iem) and the associated technologies, also has very good labor productivity which can never be achieved by Western world where HD800 was born.
 
Last edited:
Sep 8, 2018 at 4:43 PM Post #36,152 of 63,670
Seriously defending Hd800, I never saw this much of arguing against this humble zs10, which were usually ignored as is the feeling of " how dare you compare cheap iem to 1k dollar..."
Thanks for the explanations and reasoning to share.
But at the same time I felt that zs10, As10, or one of these chinese iems have been well advanced in technical terms that somebody began to argue or brave enough to compare it to venerable hd800.
I might buy one of them like AS10 to see really it is giant killer or has disruptive technologies that were based on Chinese innovation.
China has the history of magnet ( a key component of iem) and the associated technologies, also has very good labor productivity which can never be achieved by Western world where HD800 was born.

There's no real problem defending the HD800, but there is a problem when you compare a ZS10 to a HD800 with only 10 minutes of listening time. It ends up pulling down the ZS10's view among the community artificially because it seems like the ZS10's aren't good performers.

I will have the ZS10 vs AS10, and other IEM's throughout the next week.
 
Sep 8, 2018 at 4:51 PM Post #36,153 of 63,670
There's no real problem defending the HD800, but there is a problem when you compare a ZS10 to a HD800 with only 10 minutes of listening time. It ends up pulling down the ZS10's view among the community artificially because it seems like the ZS10's aren't good performers.

I will have the ZS10 vs AS10, and other IEM's throughout the next week.
I agree that 10 min comparison is too short to...
Some case the brain break-in process can take several weeks or months to really appreciate the sound of the phone.
 
Sep 8, 2018 at 4:57 PM Post #36,154 of 63,670
I agree that 10 min comparison is too short to...
Some case the brain break-in process can take several weeks or months to really appreciate the sound of the phone.

I'm not sure how onboard I am with that... I think sometimes the phones just aren't very good, like the AS10s and then the brain takes a while to adjust to normalise everything. After listening for long periods on certain styles of music, I have grown to accept them, but objectively they are still horrible compared to say my properly driven P1s (or even my T2s) on anything with vocals..
 
Last edited:
Sep 8, 2018 at 6:11 PM Post #36,155 of 63,670
Probably FUD from people heavily invested in pricey IEM's, who don't like budget players competing.



I'm not saying anything personal about you, just that 10 minutes of listening is not adequate enough to form a valuable opinion, and that your opinion based on such an extremely small period of time should not be taken seriously by others. It's fairly pointless to even post such opinion. Most here is entirely opinion, but I don't see many people giving major reviews here based on <10 minutes of listening time.
Already said mine wasn't a major review, and it wasn't intended to be as it's a personal impression.
If you still don't understand, i can paint you on a piece of paper and then i send you the photo.

Don't blame me, it's just i've written like 4 times already it was my personal impression, 10 mins or 1h imho doesn't change the fact hd800s are technically superior even if they're not 100% comparable.
 
Sep 8, 2018 at 6:13 PM Post #36,156 of 63,670
And anyway i'm not defending the hd800, there are many good headphones on the market.
Then i even said zs10 is a great performer for the price.
So what's the point in saying i'm showing the zs10 as a bad performer?
So saying a 800 euros headphones sounds better than a 40 euros earbud is like putting the second one in bad light? What the hell..
 
Sep 8, 2018 at 6:33 PM Post #36,157 of 63,670
Seriously defending Hd800, I never saw this much of arguing against this humble zs10, which were usually ignored as is the feeling of " how dare you compare cheap iem to 1k dollar..."
Thanks for the explanations and reasoning to share.
But at the same time I felt that zs10, As10, or one of these chinese iems have been well advanced in technical terms that somebody began to argue or brave enough to compare it to venerable hd800.
I might buy one of them like AS10 to see really it is giant killer or has disruptive technologies that were based on Chinese innovation.
China has the history of magnet ( a key component of iem) and the associated technologies, also has very good labor productivity which can never be achieved by Western world where HD800 was born.
Didn't see your message
Anyway, i think the ZS10 is actually a great pair of IEMs.
Their technology is sure more advanced compared to the one in the HD800.
They sound great for what they cost and that's sure, but my point was another i think..
 
Sep 8, 2018 at 7:17 PM Post #36,158 of 63,670
ZS10 is great, not super-bright but very detailed, great separation, lows are not overwhelming, but my zs10 died in an accident :"(
So I got AS10, and for my ear AS10 is tuned almost similar to ZS10, but slightly more mid-forward, and balanced. I had a couple of full BA earphones like westone w40, es60, shures 535, sony xba300 - and AS10 have the most punchy bass than any of this models, very fast and again its not too elevated. And its very sensitive, so they need less power to drive and make some amp hiss hearable from some sources.
And AS10 is slightly smaller and have longer waveguides so it fits better than ZS10(in MY ears).
So, hope my bla-bla-bla makes some sense for someone) Recommend both of these models, and some wide bore tips, chi-fi rocks!
 
Last edited:
Sep 8, 2018 at 8:14 PM Post #36,159 of 63,670
Posted my As10 review tonight to my blog. Probably late enough in the cycle that most of it is old news, but it is still deserving of some good press.
 
Sep 8, 2018 at 11:28 PM Post #36,162 of 63,670
I think what makes kz popular is their expensive looks/form at damn cheap price. Soundwise they are consistently decent. 10 db boosted bass, linear mid, boosted high. They obviously no match to studio monitoring grade linearity. Imo multiple driver are just harder to tune for linearity.
 
Sep 8, 2018 at 11:37 PM Post #36,163 of 63,670
There's no real problem defending the HD800, but there is a problem when you compare a ZS10 to a HD800 with only 10 minutes of listening time. It ends up pulling down the ZS10's view among the community artificially because it seems like the ZS10's aren't good performers.

I will have the ZS10 vs AS10, and other IEM's throughout the next week.
Awaiting your thoughts and comaparison
 
Sep 9, 2018 at 1:31 AM Post #36,165 of 63,670
ZS10 is great, not super-bright but very detailed, great separation, lows are not overwhelming, but my zs10 died in an accident :"(
So I got AS10, and for my ear AS10 is tuned almost similar to ZS10, but slightly more mid-forward, and balanced. I had a couple of full BA earphones like westone w40, es60, shures 535, sony xba300 - and AS10 have the most punchy bass than any of this models, very fast and again its not too elevated. And its very sensitive, so they need less power to drive and make some amp hiss hearable from some sources.
And AS10 is slightly smaller and have longer waveguides so it fits better than ZS10(in MY ears).
So, hope my bla-bla-bla makes some sense for someone) Recommend both of these models, and some wide bore tips, chi-fi rocks!


Quite the same observations i've had. And yes they are really loud and easy to drive. More so than the zs6 which is already quite powerful.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top