Knowledge Zenith (KZ) impressions thread

[garysohn]

A belated thank you. Works perfect.

You may consider investing in IEMatch - it is designed for cases like this of a too powerful amp.

 

[RikudouGoku]

DQ6 mod party.

If you find that the foam mod makes the DQ6 too bassy (and warm), you can try this mod.

It is basically the stock DQ6 but tames the upper-mids/lower-treble peaks while the bass is untouched.


As for how to do it, it is just using micropore tape to cover (100%) of the top of the tips. So there are zero risks to doing this and fully reversible.

 

[G777]

I would do foam + taped inner vent for that big dumb bass

 

[RikudouGoku]

I would do foam + taped inner vent for that big dumb bass

Probably a basshead iem with that combination.


EDIT:

ok, not really what I call basshead quantity but it did get boosted more while quality dropped compared to the regular foam mod.

 

[G777]

Probably a basshead iem with that combination.


EDIT:


ok, not really what I call basshead quantity but it did get boosted more while quality dropped compared to the regular foam mod.

Based on the impressions, this is how I expect the CA Honeydew to sound lol.

 

[RikudouGoku]

Based on the impressions, this is how I expect the CA Honeydew to sound lol.

WOW!

Bass looks identical while the treble on the Honeydew looks a lot peakier (5k). DQ6 is 10x cheaper and maybe tuned better?

 

[Barusu Lamperouge]

Finally got some time for BA10! Although, I'm almost half a decade late to the party, but they still hold their own.

Sound is typical KZ! Except cable (can't stand memory hooks!) everything is stock. I'm using a cheapo KBEar pink cable as a substitute. And, I now get folks mean by 'BA timbre and BA Bass', it is different from DDs but I think KZ has done a great job with it to keep it as natural as possible. Reading some of the impressions on these BA traits, I thought they might sound like steel. Isolation is top tier, and to my ears they're super comfortable as well. No discomfort whatsoever after almost 1.5 hrs of listening.

I think I will pair them with foam tips just to manage the treble peaks that make it difficult to listen to genres that have prominent cymbals. For EDM, Pop, trance et al they're fantastic. I managed to get them for $44, and they're damn good. I might get one more BA only cheapo set to compare how they stand against cheap BA only sets. But they're better than most KZs I've had. Will try and share more impressions with time but they're promising.

 

[r31ya]

Oh hey, KZ ZAS reviews



As well as some graph~

 

[AmericanSpirit]

AST’s treble, although being most less highlighted registers due to its rolled off curve, is the best part.

This may sound a bit idiotic but I was A-B testing AST with Anole VX, simply because both IEMs are 10BA+ composition. The VX’s TOTL resolution /extreme texturing /layering quality can be found at upper registers of AST, not on whole spectrum, but at least from 9khz and upward, AST isn’t shy of naming itself a multiBA IEM.

Sad part is due to its overwhelmingly boosted bass, it bleeds into the whole sound image, it will offset the transparency and supreme texturing and air presentation…

Anyway, AST is a successful approach of KZ marching toward higher end competitors with a small fraction of the price, highly cost-compensating.

recommended settings:
LPF: Sharp-delay, slow roll-off filter
Gain: High
Output source: Line-Out
Eartips: SpinfFit CP360
Cable: Stock

 

[AmericanSpirit]

ZAS ordered, should receive in couple of weeks. Will compare vs AST/ZAX

 

[CT007]

boosted bass

Agreed, 100% lol. If you're looking for BIG BASS = AST! It's the most I've ever heard in an IEM.

Eartips: SpinfFit CP360

I would think using non-stock shaped tips would change the fit for AST & ZAS, so either they won't fit as well due to a longer insertion, or they might fit better if the shell has too shallow of a contour fit for you. I haven't tried non-stock tips yet, but they seem to be tailor made for these shell & nozzle designs.

 

[SpaceOperaVillain]

If you want to hear what crystalline sounds like with a high BA count driver, toss on Ray Lynch's remastered "Tiny Geometries". I first heard this on a pair of Panasonic on-ear phones in the 80s and it blew my mind. Listening to it now on a balanced source, I can pick out the differences in attack and decay on each of the different synth loops that work together to build those fast moving arpeggios in stereo and it's blowing my mind again 30+ years later.

This track is like being in a sci-fi flick and experiencing communication with an alien presence in deep space by telepathy. Or something. The entirety of the Deep Breakfast album is a great showcase for modern tech.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Agreed, 100% lol. If you're looking for BIG BASS = AST! It's the most I've ever heard in an IEM.

I would think using non-stock shaped tips would change the fit for AST & ZAS, so either they won't fit as well due to a longer insertion, or they might fit better if the shell has too shallow of a contour fit for you. I haven't tried non-stock tips yet, but they seem to be tailor made for these shell & nozzle designs.

The AST shell simply doesn’t fit to my ear, so the best option is using CP360(helpf fit without any sacrifice)

 

[Nimweth]

If you want to hear what crystalline sounds like with a high BA count driver, toss on Ray Lynch's remastered "Tiny Geometries". I first heard this on a pair of Panasonic on-ear phones in the 80s and it blew my mind. Listening to it now on a balanced source, I can pick out the differences in attack and decay on each of the different synth loops that work together to build those fast moving arpeggios in stereo and it's blowing my mind again 30+ years later.

This track is like being in a sci-fi flick and experiencing communication with an alien presence in deep space by telepathy. Or something. The entirety of the Deep Breakfast album is a great showcase for modern tech.

+1 for Deep Breakfast! I bought the tape back in the 80s and now have the CD. Tiny Geometries is a great track for detail and separation in the treble. Try this one as well, wonderful separation and timbre in all the acoustic instruments:

 

[AmericanSpirit]

AST’s treble, although being most less highlighted registers due to its rolled off curve, is the best part.

This may sound a bit idiotic but I was A-B testing AST with Anole VX, simply because both IEMs are 10BA+ composition. The VX’s TOTL resolution /extreme texturing /layering quality can be found at upper registers of AST, not on whole spectrum, but at least from 9khz and upward, AST isn’t shy of naming itself a multiBA IEM.

Sad part is due to its overwhelmingly boosted bass, it bleeds into the whole sound image, it will offset the transparency and supreme texturing and air presentation…

Anyway, AST is a successful approach of KZ marching toward higher end competitors with a small fraction of the price, highly cost-compensating.

recommended settings:
LPF: Sharp-delay, slow roll-off filter
Gain: High
Output source: Line-Out
Eartips: SpinfFit CP360
Cable: Stock

I had to revisit setting for AST,
recommended settings:
LPF: Sharp-delay, slow roll-off filter
▶︎brick-wall or low dispersion
Gain: High ▶︎ Low
Output source: Line-Out
Eartips: SpinfFit CP360
Cable: Stock

Reason:

AST’s mid range seemed had permanent veiling issue, the imaging were blurred. I thought it was AST’s native issue because what ever cables / ear tips I tried carried that blurry mid-range imaging. No, it was Bellsing’s 29689s characteristics, when running with low output impedance, the image focus gets a significant improvement.​

I’m quoting from a finding of output impedance impacts on frequency response and in attack/decay by a Japanese reviewer from this:

From an observation by Audio-sound@hatena, the output impedance will change frequency responses (chart is based on Audiosense DT600).
-frequence response variations depending on the out put impe

Zoomed to mid with harman curve added

Also the author found the higher the output impedance the imaging gets worse on DT600’s attack/decay(using 500Hz square wave)

@0Ω

@85Ω

at high output impedance, the image gets blurred due to premature decay, so basically samething happened to AST’s BA driver responses.


It was breathtaking and at the same time I felt how hard to obtain this AST to its optimal performance is a bottleneck as a flagship of KZ. Ideally it should have near-best performance with any sources setting so it will get 80/100-90/100 scores but now may divide reputations into 85/100 or 60/100 bipolar clusters.

Anyway, being a KZ follower since 2017, and having most of their products (70% miss, 30%hit), AST is a best hit. And I feel KZ’s hit rate is getting improved from last couple of releases.

AST now is beyond my $100 cluster king TRI Starsea /Moondrop Aria/Starfield/KXXS, and sitting at category A, after getting it’s blurry midrange off.

Again, I feel how hard to set one IEM’s score, some IEMs like AST changes face per various combinations and matching, it’s very hard to determine a permanent set point from just a few sampling.