I have the ZAX coming soon. I am confused so far by the reviews of it here on Head Fi, there are three very different opinions. We have cool mids, warm mids, lack of treble extension, good treble extension, wide soundstage, average soundstage! It will be interesting to see how mine sound in comparison.
It all depends on what you’re comparing the ZAX to and if you're open to using an EQ. I recently compared the ZAX to the KB Ear Tri i3: Link
Where the mids and soundstage were a lopsided win for the the i3. But within it's category, the ZAX is a keeper. The ZAX does enough things well, to be my current set for walking around the neighborhood.
Also, I erroneously inferred that the ZAX benefits from a balanced cable; but this only accentuates any sibilance in a recording. The ZAX does still play well, on my Qudelix-5K (on an aftermarket SE cable), as it does adapt well, to the PEQ; where a cut can be induced, to compensate for any sibilance.
It all depends on what you’re comparing the ZAX to and if you're open to using an EQ. I recently compared the ZAX to the KB Ear Tri i3: Link
Where the mids and soundstage were a lopsided win for the the i3. But within it's category, the ZAX is a keeper. The ZAX does enough things well, to be my current set for walking around the neighborhood.
Also, I erroneously inferred that the ZAX benefits from a balanced cable; but this only accentuates any sibilance in a recording. The ZAX does still play well, on my Qudelix-5K (on an aftermarket SE cable), as it does adapt well, to the PEQ; where a cut can be induced, to compensate for any sibilance.
So I'm bouncing back and forth between the ZSX and the ThieAudio Legacy 3. It's weird.
The L3 is what I'd call "better" in most regards. It's really an amazing headphone. The sound is cohesive, it's smooth, it's enjoyable.
Yet it's... small. It feels much more "in my ears" than the ZSX. The ZSX's bass is more bloomy and the highs are more sharp by comparison, but the ZSX also feels like I'm listening to a full concert.
So I'm bouncing back and forth between the ZSX and the ThieAudio Legacy 3. It's weird.
The L3 is what I'd call "better" in most regards. It's really an amazing headphone. The sound is cohesive, it's smooth, it's enjoyable.
Yet it's... small. It feels much more "in my ears" than the ZSX. The ZSX's bass is more bloomy and the highs are more sharp by comparison, but the ZSX also feels like I'm listening to a full concert.
ZAX expose sibilance when the recording is mixed in a way that is sibilant, it does not introduce sibilance where it doesn't exist in the mix. CA16 kills the treble so much that I've never heard it sss-ing but that's more of a con than a pro to me.
.....
Yeah, better to hear some sibilances, than to have a bad treble implementation like CA16. After this terrible experience, I'll wait for a review or at least measurements (ASF, ASX)
I have the ZAX coming soon. I am confused so far by the reviews of it here on Head Fi, there are three very different opinions. We have cool mids, warm mids, lack of treble extension, good treble extension, wide soundstage, average soundstage! It will be interesting to see how mine sound in comparison.
As the others said it's all about what you compare against - vs. the CA16 the mids are cool and the soundstage is huge, because the CA16 are very warm and the soundstage isn't small but it's nothing spectacular. The ZAX do have the widest stage of every KZ/CCA I've tried in general. As for warmth, they are a little warmer than the CCA C12 and about as warm as a ZS10 Pro.
Lack of treble extension is one I really struggle to understand, as the upper treble is my favorite thing about them. Anything more would be piercing and fatiguing for me, less and they would start to sound more boring and lose the airiness.
A quick update, surprised at the sibilance reports for the ZAX because I can't get mine to exhibit sibilance even on 99.99% pure silver. The details picked up, the treble became more defined as did the bass. And I ran through lots of genres to check out the range, I am very happy when listening to the ZAX's.
Going from Copper, to silver plated, to pure silver cables the ZAX kept delivering awesome enjoyable audio for me on the M15 and Topping A90 / D90 MQA.
After deciding that the KZ ZAX is a keeper, I moved on to the next new IEM - the BQEYZ Spring 2, and I swapped them directly for the KZ ZAX's on the 99.99% pure silver - right in the middle of playing the most potentially sibilant tracks I had recently heard,
The two Tenilles, and the Traveling Wilbury's:
Love, Heartbreak, & Everything in Between by Tenille Arts
(I really want to enjoy Amazon HD Music as much as I do Tidal, but to my head bopping ears Tidal has so much more definition, slam, and rocks solidly better A/B with Amazon HD Music...it's like the track wakes up when I switch over, UltraHD on Amazon, Hifi on Tidal - not even an MQA master: https://tidal.com/browse/track/145654147 )
...I went from rocking out with the ZAX's to the "ear bleeding sad sad" Spring 2's...Such an unpleasant sound I'd not heard since... Tinhifi P1's straight out of the box. This is the sound I fear from high end IEM's out of the box.
The ZAX's being pure joy right out of the box tricked me into hoping that was going to keep happening...not so. Sigh.
Then I spotted the Spring 2's bundled 4.4mm cable, two braided cords of many threads in a clear plastic - bright shiny Copper showing through the clear coating. And, I knew, "they know". BQEYZ knows the Spring 2 is too hot and spitty, and needs to be tamed.
Yup, the Spring 2 bundled cable makes the Spring 2 more bearable. The Spring 2's don't sound nice but they aren't anywhere near as bad - it's not immediately noticeable that they have mismatched drivers - which I hope even out after some burn-in.
What gives it away is the unpleasant feeling I get while listening to them - all of a sudden a couple of jabs of unpleasant sound hits my ears. Not fun - they apparently are like many IEM's and need lots of break-in - and on the scale of Blon BL-05 (7) to TinHiFi P1 (10), I'd expect the Spring 2's to be an "8" - needing a least a week or more of burn-in, and like the Blon BL-05 and TinHiFi P1's I can't wear the Spring 2's while they are burning in - mostly because I have the KZ ZAX's to wear
I'm gonna enjoy the KZ ZAX's for a while before moving on to the Mia Cat 8mm and NICEHCK NX7 MK3's, and hope the Spring 2's are ready after a long burn-in.
The Spring 2's have had about 15 hours of burn-in, and I am still hearing that "spitting bad sound" come out at times, and yes this is on their bundled copper cable. I subbed in the KBEAR 16 core silver plated and I like more of the sound, that is the enjoyable sound around the "spitting bad sound".
And, I keep wondering as on the Copper - "where's the Bass?" These things advertise a 13mm dynamic driver and I just don't hear any bass. What's up with that?
When I first put the Spring 2's on the 99.99% pure silver cable I was too busy fending off the shrill sounds to realize I wasn't hearing any bass - the KZ's with the 10mm driver have way more bass - solid well defined fun bass - and the Spring 2's didn't improve much on their bundled Copper cable. What a disappointment.
IDK, I don't think burn-in is gonna help enough to make me want to end up buying these Spring 2's, so sad, they are such a pretty Green color and the box comes with all the normal goodies - including a nice zippered pouch.
But, it comes down to the sound I hear, does it make me happy? No, the Spring 2's sound does not make me happy, not out of the box, not after 15 hours.
I'll keep going and hope they come through in the end. I'm not counting on it at this point. The difference? The TinHiFi P1's had a smooth connected sound, with no bad spitting mismatched drivers, it was a matter of honing the sharp edges. After 3 weeks of burn-in, now I love the TinHifi P1's.
IDK about the Spring 2's, this is something different.
I should mention that I did first try using the BQEYZ Spring 2 included tips, they are similar in construction to the AZLA SednaEarfit Size ML I rely on (both of the IEM's in the photo have them), but unfortunately the included sizes weren't quite what I needed to get a solid seal - they kept losing connection with my ear and the sound suffered for it. My notes above are with the AZLA SednaEarfit Size ML's attached.
Update 6 days later:
The Spring 2's are finally broken in - at least enough to get through the above tracks without ill sounding spitting and zinging - at least on their stock copper cables.
...and I picked them up to test them and I am happy to report they are sounding very nicely behaved on the tracks I tested in that Playlist - then I went back to the tracks in this post and enjoyed listening to all of them.
I'm very happy that I can report improvement. I'll keep them cooking for a while longer.
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