[voicemaster]

Well I got my AST's today!
All I can say is that I'm done buying earphones for a long time.
I bought a few different KZ/CCA models lately mostly because I love the fit.
If you put the ASX, ASF, AST, DQ6, CSN on a table and told me to pick the best and worst I don't think I'd have a clue.
My favorite is the ASX/ASF because they fit my ear perfectly.

If someone has a specific piece of music where I can without a doubt hear a difference in quality between all these please let me know.
I'd like to hear it. Maybe once I hear something specific a light bulb will go on and I'll appreciate this game better.

So you mean you love the AST?

 

[mndless]

Well I got my AST's today!
All I can say is that I'm done buying earphones for a long time.
I bought a few different KZ/CCA models lately mostly because I love the fit.
If you put the ASX, ASF, AST, DQ6, CSN on a table and told me to pick the best and worst I don't think I'd have a clue.
My favorite is the ASX/ASF because they fit my ear perfectly.

If someone has a specific piece of music where I can without a doubt hear a difference in quality between all these please let me know.
I'd like to hear it. Maybe once I hear something specific a light bulb will go on and I'll appreciate this game better.

In the opening, listen for the distant chimes being gently swept through and the sound of a lightly struck triangle. Also listen for reed flutter on the bassoon and key actuation sounds from it. About two thirds of the way through, listen for a rainstick being turned.


This one is mostly to check how well tuned the treble gain is, as this song can get kinda stabby if your treble isn't tuned well. It's also a nice test of the treble driver agility and decay.


This one has lots of beautiful marimba playing to test the upper mids/low treble timbre, some double bass playing to test midbass performance, and some rain noises and strings to test treble. It also transitions to synthetic bass drops about halfway through to test bass and sub-bass performance a bit. I like how this song seems to have everything, even cymbals.


Female vocals test. See if you can notice what appears to be the singer moving closer and further away from the microphone during the vocals. Not just that she's occasionally whispering, it's how it is recorded where it sometimes sounds closer to your head and at other times much further away. It's an interesting song. It also has a thumping synthesized bassline to test out your bass drivers.

 

[MacAttack7]

In the opening, listen for the distant chimes being gently swept through and the sound of a lightly struck triangle. Also listen for reed flutter on the bassoon and key actuation sounds from it. About two thirds of the way through, listen for a rainstick being turned.


This one is mostly to check how well tuned the treble gain is, as this song can get kinda stabby if your treble isn't tuned well. It's also a nice test of the treble driver agility and decay.


This one has lots of beautiful marimba playing to test the upper mids/low treble timbre, some double bass playing to test midbass performance, and some rain noises and strings to test treble. It also transitions to synthetic bass drops about halfway through to test bass and sub-bass performance a bit. I like how this song seems to have everything, even cymbals.


Female vocals test. See if you can notice what appears to be the singer moving closer and further away from the microphone during the vocals. Not just that she's occasionally whispering, it's how it is recorded where it sometimes sounds closer to your head and at other times much further away. It's an interesting song. It also has a thumping synthesized bassline to test out your bass drivers.

Ok...I'll give these a try later tonight.
Whenever I do this though everyone earphone I have sounds good to me.
I like the AST.

I just have zero idea if they are actually better than my other ones.
I feel like one of those wine experts that they blindfold, and they can't tell the difference between a $5,000 bottle and a $10 bottle from Costco.
There are a couple reviewers I watch that seem really honest though, and I believe they hear a difference, so I think it's just me not knowing what to listen for.

 

[scratchmassive]

You could produce a video for them though it will require three devices - one to play back white noise, one to act as a dB sound meter, and one as a video recording device. There are free apps for phones that can give you a realtime dB meter for iOS and Android. If you put an earphone next to the mic on a phone, you'll get a dB reading. You can download a 15 minute white noise track from here:

https://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_whitenoise.php

Play that MP3 on an audio source hooked up to the ZAX and then record a video showing that when you hold each ZAX earphone next to the mic the dB reading is different. Also swap the left and right headphone cables so that you demonstrate it's not the cable that's defective, but the ZAX.

Thanks! I recorded a video as you suggested and am able to continue with a warranty claim.

Though it looks like I have to pay for shipping both ways, which will be nearly half the cost of the IEMs I think I'll have to use Amazon in future for better security even though its a little more expensive. Is that what everyone else does?

 

[voicemaster]

Well I got my AST's today!
All I can say is that I'm done buying earphones for a long time.
I bought a few different KZ/CCA models lately mostly because I love the fit.
If you put the ASX, ASF, AST, DQ6, CSN on a table and told me to pick the best and worst I don't think I'd have a clue.
My favorite is the ASX/ASF because they fit my ear perfectly.

If someone has a specific piece of music where I can without a doubt hear a difference in quality between all these please let me know.
I'd like to hear it. Maybe once I hear something specific a light bulb will go on and I'll appreciate this game better.

Her voice can trigger those peak on most KZ iems. Her voice can sound harsh and piercing.

 

[mndless]

Her voice can trigger those peak on most KZ iems. Her voice can sound harsh and piercing.

Her voice sounds great on my GS Audio GD7B, but it doesn't have any treble gain to speak of, so that should have been a given anyway.

 

[mndless]

Ok...I'll give these a try later tonight.
Whenever I do this though everyone earphone I have sounds good to me.
I like the AST.

I just have zero idea if they are actually better than my other ones.
I feel like one of those wine experts that they blindfold, and they can't tell the difference between a $5,000 bottle and a $10 bottle from Costco.
There are a couple reviewers I watch that seem really honest though, and I believe they hear a difference, so I think it's just me not knowing what to listen for.

As with a great many things, it's really just chasing diminishing returns and aesthetics. As long as the guts are good and they haven't made any grave tuning sins, even comparatively inexpensive IEMs can sound absolutely stunning. It's why I like using tracks where you're listening for things that are challenging to resolve, like chimes, triangle strikes, reed flap, or key actuations. Things that can easily be obscured by overzealous bass tuning or made over-prominent through massive treble gain. After that, it's really down to personal preference to determine "does this sound good to me?" Though there are certain instruments that, if the IEM isn't tuned properly, just sound wrong. Cymbals and drums are usually in that group. If you want a nice song with a drum intro with some very quiet cymbal strikes, try this one:




The intro to this song also has a fairly delicate strained high note with some string plucking and scraping filling in under it while occasional bass notes drop in dramatically with that strained high note continuing in the background. If it sounds like a constant tone, then your treble drivers aren't good enough.



If it helps, I can tell a difference is resolving power between my CCA CKX and GS Audio GT7B, but it's not as massive a difference as you might expect given the fact that the GT7B is near enough three times the cost. Mostly it's down to tuning, which is much more of a preferential thing, as long as it isn't obscuring things.

 

[voicemaster]

Switching back and forth between AST and Variations, at around 1:50, it can get pretty fuzzy because the guitars and the singer kinda clash each other and if the IEM just putting them all together, its going to sound really bad. The AST with all those BAs sounds messy compared to Variations where everything is well placed and you can hear each of guitars, bass and singer clearly. Also at around 3:35, there is a cow bell on the left side. On the AST, the sound is one note (ting sound) and very thin with no resonance whatsoever whereas on the Variations, it sounds airy and I can hear the resonance clearly. The cymbals sound harsh on the AST.

 

[mndless]

Switching back and forth between AST and Variations, at around 1:50, it can get pretty fuzzy because the guitars and the singer kinda clash each other and if the IEM just putting them all together, its going to sound really bad. The AST with all those BAs sounds messy compared to Variations where everything is well placed and you can hear each of guitars, bass and singer clearly. Also at around 3:35, there is a cow bell on the left side. On the AST, the sound is one note (ting sound) and very thin with no resonance whatsoever whereas on the Variations, it sounds airy and I can hear the resonance clearly. The cymbals sound harsh on the AST.

The GD7B can just manage to resolve the vocals against the guitar tracks, but as you said, they're basically occupying the same place in the FR, so it's very easy for them to be muddled together. The cymbal that she's using for the cowbell sound also sounds relatively flat. There's differences in the sound based on how and where she's striking it, but the resonance is fairly short, probably because it's upside down and being damped by the spacer between it and the cymbal beneath it. I expect something with an EST driver may be necessary to pick up on the harmonics of that, just for the added agility that the even thinner membrane offers.

Just for contrast, here's their studio recording for that track:


I think the vocals are more cleanly separated from the backing track, but the cowbell-esque cymbal is much more muted and comes in much earlier in the track, around 3:00 in, and sounds somehow even more muffled, but with a better, slightly hollower tone.

 

[MacAttack7]

I made a youtube playlist of all the videos you guys posted, so that'll give me something to do.
I still have no idea how I'll ever know what the difference is between the ASX and AST.
I read reviews where people said the AST improved over the ASX is just about every way, and I just don't know what they're talking about.

 

[mndless]

I made a youtube playlist of all the videos you guys posted, so that'll give me something to do.
I still have no idea how I'll ever know what the difference is between the ASX and AST.
I read reviews where people said the AST improved over the ASX is just about every way, and I just don't know what they're talking about.

Having more drivers mashed into a driver array can give the sound engineers a better shot at keeping them operating within their optimal range to keep THD at a minimum while the SPL sum to an amount comparable to a single coupled driver operating at its limits with more distortion. Keeping the drivers closer to their nominal state can also improve the driver's agility, which is what they were hoping to achieve with their missile launcher array of BA drivers in the low-mid treble. I don't own the AST, so I can't attest to how successful this attempt was, I just know the theory behind it.

Another song to add to your growing playlist. about 10-15 second in she hits a sustained high belted note that will reveal a lot about how your mid treble is tuned. Poor tuning=stabbed eardrums. Good luck.

 

[voicemaster]

The GD7B can just manage to resolve the vocals against the guitar tracks, but as you said, they're basically occupying the same place in the FR, so it's very easy for them to be muddled together. The cymbal that she's using for the cowbell sound also sounds relatively flat. There's differences in the sound based on how and where she's striking it, but the resonance is fairly short, probably because it's upside down and being damped by the spacer between it and the cymbal beneath it. I expect something with an EST driver may be necessary to pick up on the harmonics of that, just for the added agility that the even thinner membrane offers.

Just for contrast, here's their studio recording for that track:


I think the vocals are more cleanly separated from the backing track, but the cowbell-esque cymbal is much more muted and comes in much earlier in the track, around 3:00 in, and sounds somehow even more muffled, but with a better, slightly hollower tone.

I couldn't believe the jump in sound quality will be that much tho it is expected as the price difference is like 5 times. On the Variations, you can hear the cowbell really clearly and spacious.

 

[mndless]

I couldn't believe the jump in sound quality will be that much tho it is expected as the price difference is like 5 times. On the Variations, you can hear the cowbell really clearly and spacious.

Yeah, Moondrop is also really good at tuning their IEMs, as noted by the fact that they manage to get single DD units to sound as good as they do. My GD7B was $152 when I got it, so I'm quite content with its performance at that pricepoint. Not that it'll stop me from eventually picking up the EST equipped IEMs from GS Audio whenever they become available.

 

[voicemaster]

Here is another my favorite song when trying IEM. There are a lot of musical instruments playing at the same time so it can be quite hectic. The song is pretty epic too.

 

[voicemaster]

Yeah, Moondrop is also really good at tuning their IEMs, as noted by the fact that they manage to get single DD units to sound as good as they do. My GD7B was $152 when I got it, so I'm quite content with its performance at that pricepoint. Not that it'll stop me from eventually picking up the EST equipped IEMs from GS Audio whenever they become available.

Yes those EST drivers are quite different sounding than BA and DD. It sounds reminds me of how planar headphone's treble sound. Acoustic guitar sounds absolutely amazing through it.