SomeEntityThing
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So back on 11.11 I ended up buying an IEM Lucky Bag from a certain AliExpress store that went for roughly $13 CDN... just to treat myself a little bit along with some foam tips to replace my dried up collection.
I ended up getting something called the QKZ ZAX 2, QKZ's latest model from November. The reason why I'm even talking about this in this thread is because I still don't fully understand the relationship between QKZ and KZ but I'm guessing QKZ is some kinda sister company like CCA or the like. Kinda weird naming scheme though since the KZ ZAX boasts a 1DD + 7BA setup vs the QKZ ZAX 2's 1DD, and the ZAX 2 has a faceplate more akin to the KZ ZEX. Turns out these QKZs were going for around $7 CDN during Black Friday on AliExpress. Darn. But hey, that's just the way luck is, eh? The ZAX 2 are the cheapest properly functioning IEMs I've got. Considering my next step up is the DT9, I'm not sure how fair comparisons I may make would be. I musn't expect so much... here's my small impressions after roughly 4-ish days of listening.
My primary testing source was the HiBy FD1 unbalanced into my laptop, but I have also plugged it into my Shanling M0 and Samsung A71 when on the go.
- Treble is actually... lacking??? As I understand it KZ's recent models have generally tried to follow the typical V-shaped tuning which incldues sparkly (and potentially sibilant) treble but this is QKZ we're talking about so maybe that little aside is irrelevant. I find myself longing for more sparkle from pianos, cymbals and female vocals. BUT at least they are, therefore, not sibilant! Mids are similarly kinda dull but not horrendously recessed in relation to the highs and lows.
- Soundstage is fairly narrow horizontally with average-ish height. Vocals are kind of in your face-ish. I've never really tried talking about timbre when describing my audio gear so I'll try giving it a shot here: aside from sparkle missing and stuff as mentioned above which seriously doesn't appeal to me, I think the timbre is otherwise... okay. I suppose nothing else particularly sounds "off" in any instruments such as guitars and such that makes me go "oof."
- Bass has decent punch, with sub bass in particular being most pronounced. Everything about the sound signature just sounds muffled in general and so I'm not sure if I can chalk it up partly due to bass bleed unfortunately but that might be the case, hahaha.
At the end of the day I've got a beater pair to happily take with me while commuting on buses and trains that pushes out ultimately satisfactory sound amidst the rumbling and roaring of engines and tracks! Predictably, it's really when I sit down at my laptop with stuff like my fun-sounding DT9 or smooth-sounding yet still tastefully bassy Kinera Sif that the ZAX 2's flaws really stand out to me, and so I'm more bummed out by how much I could've saved by buying these IEMs straight from the source at QKZ's store than how they ended up sounding. Again though, that's the way these sorts of lucky bags work.
I ended up getting something called the QKZ ZAX 2, QKZ's latest model from November. The reason why I'm even talking about this in this thread is because I still don't fully understand the relationship between QKZ and KZ but I'm guessing QKZ is some kinda sister company like CCA or the like. Kinda weird naming scheme though since the KZ ZAX boasts a 1DD + 7BA setup vs the QKZ ZAX 2's 1DD, and the ZAX 2 has a faceplate more akin to the KZ ZEX. Turns out these QKZs were going for around $7 CDN during Black Friday on AliExpress. Darn. But hey, that's just the way luck is, eh? The ZAX 2 are the cheapest properly functioning IEMs I've got. Considering my next step up is the DT9, I'm not sure how fair comparisons I may make would be. I musn't expect so much... here's my small impressions after roughly 4-ish days of listening.
My primary testing source was the HiBy FD1 unbalanced into my laptop, but I have also plugged it into my Shanling M0 and Samsung A71 when on the go.
- Treble is actually... lacking??? As I understand it KZ's recent models have generally tried to follow the typical V-shaped tuning which incldues sparkly (and potentially sibilant) treble but this is QKZ we're talking about so maybe that little aside is irrelevant. I find myself longing for more sparkle from pianos, cymbals and female vocals. BUT at least they are, therefore, not sibilant! Mids are similarly kinda dull but not horrendously recessed in relation to the highs and lows.
- Soundstage is fairly narrow horizontally with average-ish height. Vocals are kind of in your face-ish. I've never really tried talking about timbre when describing my audio gear so I'll try giving it a shot here: aside from sparkle missing and stuff as mentioned above which seriously doesn't appeal to me, I think the timbre is otherwise... okay. I suppose nothing else particularly sounds "off" in any instruments such as guitars and such that makes me go "oof."
- Bass has decent punch, with sub bass in particular being most pronounced. Everything about the sound signature just sounds muffled in general and so I'm not sure if I can chalk it up partly due to bass bleed unfortunately but that might be the case, hahaha.
At the end of the day I've got a beater pair to happily take with me while commuting on buses and trains that pushes out ultimately satisfactory sound amidst the rumbling and roaring of engines and tracks! Predictably, it's really when I sit down at my laptop with stuff like my fun-sounding DT9 or smooth-sounding yet still tastefully bassy Kinera Sif that the ZAX 2's flaws really stand out to me, and so I'm more bummed out by how much I could've saved by buying these IEMs straight from the source at QKZ's store than how they ended up sounding. Again though, that's the way these sorts of lucky bags work.
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