[SpaceOperaVillain]

I finally had a chance today to try the CCA C12s on the balanced cable to see if it's worth ordering another one. Bottom end is considerably different than on the 3.5mm from the same source (btr3k). It's drier and more controlled ... a lot of the mud in the bottom end is gone when things get busy, but it's not quite as full sounding as before, either.

As my go-to pair of jazz masters, everything is technically improved but not necessarily more enjoyable. Sound stage, tone are still good but the timbre is slightly different. Slightly more detail? Maybe, maybe not. After more and more listening I think C12 remain to be a very technical pair of ears and good for critical listening in all things jazz and most classical. The ZAX win for opera hands down. Vocals and imaging are distinctly superior, and there's none of the fatigue. So yeah ... about that. Is the fatigue actually a strength of the C12 and sharper versions of KZ products? Well, friends, hold on to your spandex covered butts and, if you reach down and find a pair <g>, FAAFO (follow along and find out).

Coming off a heavy week of listening to all manner of rock on the excellent KZ DQ6, which is just plug 'n play sing-along goodness across the spectrum, I wanted to get crazy with the C12s. Holy Dio on an angry record! Am I glad I did :-o These things are absolute monsters

Listening to these on a balanced source with the Dark Lord himself controlling my hand over the EQ sliders is like being in front of the horn cabinets during sound check with a bitter, hung over guitar tech just before those bad boys get hoisted into the sky at a stadium venue. If you never had a roadie friend, first of all - don't Secondly, you'll just have to take my word for it. This is a savage counterpoint to the usual audiophile quest for "smooth", "detailed", or "balanced". With the added power, this is pure hell fire.

Tracks heard today with Judas Priest presiding over the volume clicker:

Whitesnake Still of the Night
(if you didn't realize they made the last great Led Zeppelin track, consider yourself now informed)

Living Colour Cult of Personality
(most criminally underrated band / vocalist / guitarist of all time. not one but two blistering, mind melting guitar solos in here)

Queensryche Jet City Woman
(Seattle's pre-grunge scene. Along with Operation Mind Crime, this was when treble in the metal was still cool)

Ozzy Osbourne No More Tears
(Lemmy. Zakk. Ozzy. More like "No More Livers". Also one of the best metal tracks ever laid down on tape)

Rainbow Stargazer
(holy cymbal effects, Batman! The studio engineers are drilling to the catacombs via your ear canals)

Mastodon Stargasm
("yourre on fiiiihhhyuuurrrrrrrrrrrrr" - no, your body's fine, its just your head that's engulfed in flames)

Raveonettes Endless Sleeper
(oh hai, Sharin Foo. Goodbye, ears *wince* )

White Stripes Icky Stomp
(remember: whatever fantasy land you conjure up in the basement of the girl next door ... will eventually be in the tabloids)

Deafheaven Baby Blue
(10 minutes of self indulgent re-living of being 15 years old and sneaking beer from dad's garage fridge while being mad at your girlfriend)

Candlemass Bewitched
(some of the best vocals in rock. Don't play at night if you've been drinking. Or at least hide the Ouija board. Trust me on this.)

Electric Wizard Wizard in Black
(Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" concept, revisited with old imprisoned Phil, and now with more Satan!)


This is a live rock concert in your head. I could keep going, but I actually listened to all of these tracks and I'm exhausted now and my tinnitus is not happy. This isn't an audiophile experience of slouch-on-the-couch while being smug between sips of loose leaf tea from your imported Japanese craquelure tea cups, no no noo. (don't judge, okay?). This is a sweaty, head banging, mid center stage sonic riot delivered via a space time temporal anomaly. And just like any good substance enhanced rock concert, about 45 minutes is all I can take at the <air quotes> proper </air quotes> volumes.

The C12 (and potentially it's cousin ZSX?) scratches an itch that can't otherwise be satisfied during these COVID times. They channel the heat in a way that the ZAX isn't quite capable of reproducing. The ZAX is just too polite and too balanced. It gets plenty loud and does it distortion free. But it doesn't grab you by your plaid shirt collar and smack you around. At volume the C12s are rage and malice, a pair of demons spitting fire into your skull.

Sure, you can play it safe with those kilo-buck hybrids and pretend that metal heads give a damn about the acoustic decay of kick drums, but what fun is that, really? Juice up a pair of C12's, grab a red Solo cup full of cheap beer, and get yourself down to the pit if you dare \m/ \m/

 

[SpaceOperaVillain]

+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:

Gorgeous. Like a lot of good musicians, Ray is a perfectionist and the recordings really reflect that. Beautiful piece - I've not heard this one in a long time!

 

[boredbuyingstuff]

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.

Interesting read. The other day I came across this website and found it interesting. It's likely that you've already read this, but if not take a look: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/06/measurements-oppo-udp-205-part-1-output.html

 

[RikudouGoku]

KZ DQ6 review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/knowledge-zenith-dq6.24918/reviews#review-26364

Rank: A

TOTL tuning with the DIY foam mod. I prefer this a bit over the blon bl-03 (mesh mod).

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Interesting read. The other day I came across this website and found it interesting. It's likely that you've already read this, but if not take a look: http://archimago.blogspot.com/2018/06/measurements-oppo-udp-205-part-1-output.html

Great reading especially about LPF part, the OPPO device lowpass filter naming seemed very similar to FiiO’s BTR5 series, “apodizing” and “ brick-wall” and I do agree that #1 and #3, BTR5’s brick wall and apod1 is very similar and hard to tell audible differences. The other LPF are rather easy to tell, as they present harmonics in a very different manner.

 

[Barusu Lamperouge]

KZ DQ6 review: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/knowledge-zenith-dq6.24918/reviews#review-26364

Rank: A

TOTL tuning with the DIY foam mod. I prefer this a bit over the blon bl-03 (mesh mod).

Blon IMO is more for those who want a laid back tuning with analogue sound. It caters to a specific TG. I'd get a DQ6 on 11.11 to check against my other sub $50 DDs especially Heart mirror and NCO.

 

[boredbuyingstuff]

Today I decided to test the KZ AST with the stock tips for the first time -- never even considered since I got the IEM. Well, they are pure garbage -- no isolation at all and makes the AST sounds like, well, trash. I have been using the CP360 Large since day one and it is fine...

But since I was trying I decided to test the AST with Spinfits CP145 Large. Well, it isolates more and is way more comfortable than CP360s. The trick is to insert the tip in the AST so as it covers all the metal part of the nozzle. When inserting in your ears, use the Etymotic technique (of pulling your ears towards the back of your head while inserting the IEM) and it fits really nice and more comfortable than CP360s. When removing the IEM the tip continues attached to the AST without even moving -- at least for me.

For anyone interested, worth a try.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

ZAS finally shipped from Shenzhen Audio! Hopefully, it arrives in a couple of weeks.

What triggered my interest was a rave review from my trusted reviewer who quoted ZAS as "apparently, KZ's sound-making know-how is maturing and ZAS is the best sounding KZ of its line up". I know he also covered AST, so knowing AST is a pretty solid one made by KZ, ZAS brings very high expectations.

I just took a look at the product page of ZAS, and noticed the unit placement of 50024s x 6 looks interesting:
Observations:
-AST also uses 50024s x6 in a matrix placement, AST's 50024s were more of treble tweeter function vs ZAS's mid to treble wider range (6x for Mid could produce a very satisfactory rich tone)
-50024s outlet is flat vent compared to traditional tubular outlet
-XUN driver is directly placed near the nozzle, a direct bass slam could be expected (from the turbocharging amp structure of XUN)
-30019 is a new standard of KZ super tweeter, non-harsh, highly defining
-ZAS is not using multi-bores, its acoustic chamber is mixed inside the IEM housing, one big open nozzle straight into the ear if tuned correctly would benefit cohesive sound image formation compared to multi-bores.

 

[Barusu Lamperouge]

For those who are struggling with foam mod (if it's not readily available) and want a quick/easy substitute. Can use cotton to fill in the nozzle and the results are absolutely mind boggling. My $6 KZ EDX sounds way way mature in terms of tuning and presentation. The subbass gets tight and it surprisingly rumbles. Mids are touch softer and don't sound harsh especially in upper registers. Treble spikes are gone and it's laid-back with almost nonexistent loss in details. Soundstage becomes a bit intimate but EDX aren't exactly known for it anyways.

Mod is super simple and is completely reversible - One has to simply fill the nozzle with small amount of lightly moist cotton and then push it in with a straw or pen refill. Basically something hollow that can get inside the tips. To moist cotton I used hand sanitizer one can use any spirit that evaporates easily. Avoid using water. And voila you are done. Probably one of the easiest mod and doesn't require any special skills or precision. I intend to try this on Tin Hifi T2 which also gets a bit hot in the upper registers. Will share my findings in some days on how it pans out.

Note - If one uses medical cotton then please ensure a thinner layer is created before stuffing them in the nozzle.

 

[RikudouGoku]

For those who are struggling with foam mod (if it's not readily available) and want a quick/easy substitute. Can use cotton to fill in the nozzle and the results are absolutely mind boggling. My $6 KZ EDX sounds way way mature in terms of tuning and presentation. The subbass gets tight and it surprisingly rumbles. Mids are touch softer and don't sound harsh especially in upper registers. Treble spikes are gone and it's laid-back with almost nonexistent loss in details. Soundstage becomes a bit intimate but EDX aren't exactly known for it anyways.

Mod is super simple and is completely reversible - One has to simply fill the nozzle with small amount of lightly moist cotton and then push it in with a straw or pen refill. Basically something hollow that can get inside the tips. To moist cotton I used hand sanitizer one can use any spirit that evaporates easily. Avoid using water. And voila you are done. Probably one of the easiest mod and doesn't require any special skills or precision. I intend to try this on Tin Hifi T2 which also gets a bit hot in the upper registers. Will share my findings in some days on how it pans out.

I am pretty sure that cotton affects a different (treble) region than foam does.

 

[Barusu Lamperouge]

I am pretty sure that cotton affects a different (treble) region than foam does.

Maybe. Also, EDX is tuned slightly different than DQ6 so can't be compared. But it's an alternative that folks can try, who knows this might work as a substitute. There's absolutely no harm with the mod as one is changing nothing that cannot be reversed.

 

[RikudouGoku]

Maybe. Also, EDX is tuned slightly different than DQ6 so can't be compared. But it's an alternative that folks can try, who knows this might work as well as a substitute. There's absolutely no harm with the mod as one is changing nothing that cannot be reversed.

Yeah, cotton should still be able to tame the peaks.


EDIT: Looks like the peaks are quite similar to the DQ6.

 

[Barusu Lamperouge]

Yeah, cotton should still be able to tame the peaks.


EDIT: Looks like the peaks are quite similar to the DQ6.

Because EDX sounded splashy to me and I thought tweaking of replacing foam with cotton as a damper. But yes, if one uses medical cotton then they need to use a thinner layer to create a roll because I'm sure a thicker layer will definitely nerf treble and make it sound muffled

 

[arbiter76]

I am pretty sure that cotton affects a different (treble) region than foam does.

you're probably right but I also think cotton delivers more tame treble where foam would absorb more.

 

[RikudouGoku]

you're probably right but I also think cotton delivers more tame treble where foam would absorb more.

The reduction depends a lot on the size of the cotton/foam being used.