[saldsald]

Well I think part of the problem is that some reviewers write their headphone/earphone/cable reviews with the tone of authority that isn't necessary deserved. While they don't really use scientific language per se, they use technical language and combine it with some rather flowery descriptions that get them readers/followers, and I think can confuse a lot of people since how things really work can be obscured and over-simplified (or mis-understood), and some readeres can come away from a review thinking they know more than they really do about a product or technology. You can get an appreciation of how complex testing and making headphones is from talks like this:



It's not easy! I also get the impression that some companies don't want to talk too much about their tech so that they don't "give it away" so to speak. (Since Samsung acquired HARMAN in 2016, things seem to have quieted down in terms of their R&D people publicly talking about audio technology measurements and headphone/speaker designs.) Especially since there is a lot of IP theft that goes on, both within the borders of countries and internationally, I can see why companies might be keeping quiet. But I don't have any problem holding reviewers feet to the fire for implying they know more than they do. Consumers are confused enough to start with and don't need over-confident reviewers using vague language to make things even more confusing. It'd be nice to see reviewers take a more investigate approach and ask companies questions about their products to try to shed some light on things too.

Can't agree more but there is no harm to take a read of their subjective opinions and igore the technical bits.

 

[nraymond]

Can't agree more but there is no harm to take a read of their subjective opinions and igore the technical bits.

No harm per se, but not necessarily enlightening either. It'd be one thing if we knew the size and shape of a reviewer's ears as well as their hearing acuity relative to our own so we'd have some sense of how well our senses aligned, but we don't know that, so that makes personal reviews more of a gamble. That can be compensated for to a degree by reading more reviews of the same item from different people, which broadens the "ear" perspective, but leaves the reader to guesstimate how that composite would map onto their own experience.

 

[saldsald]

No harm per se, but not necessarily enlightening either. It'd be one thing if we knew the size and shape of a reviewer's ears as well as their hearing acuity relative to our own so we'd have some sense of how well our senses aligned, but we don't know that, so that makes personal reviews more of a gamble. That can be compensated for to a degree by reading more reviews of the same item from different people, which broadens the "ear" perspective, but leaves the reader to guesstimate how that composite would map onto their own experience.

you can take it as a standard deviation with combined variables (ear tips, ear anatomy, source, cable, songs, etc.) and with enough data (reviews) you will still see some truths in this guesstimation.

 

[1clearhead]

I really feel sorry about this joking about KZ and all this recent hoopla...
Mostly about those joking, not KZ.

Only DQ6s problems are reasonably proven, abd I personally would not touch this tuner's items with a pole anyhow.

Then ZEX pro, that I was afraid to be downtuned in treble, are really honestly tuned. All the drivers are there, and understandably most complaints are about the treble, my respect to Crin!

DQ6 (original) allegations are just silly to me, if that is a single DD, just bravo, KZ.
I did dissassemble CCZ Emerald with totally dead BAs (it did not sound any "BA" to me to look into it) and I can confirm that the "EST" in CRA is real, I listened to it alone with the DD disconnected - weird (to me) both by the sound and the design- but honest functional implementation at least.

Of the recent, ZAS and AST are treble lame/downtuned.
AST with the treble of BA10 or ZAX would be a dream or ZAX with a bass BA instead of its lame (to me) DD.
Then I am more with the "conspiracy theory" if the close-knit Chi-Fi " village", so KZ can't put others out of existence.

For the AS16, I got my first for $100 and was only sorry that I did not get it right away listening to all those reviewers complaining about the bass and teble.

I hot my second and third for $80 for two .
Really great with "golden classics", modern-day electronic music can be harsh due to its nicely accentuated treble at 2-3 kHz.

Did you mean CCA NRA? You keep mentioning that the CRA's has an EST inside the housing unit. The CRA's are just a DD unit.

...and I quote, you said:

"DQ6 (original) allegations are just silly to me, if that is a single DD, just bravo, KZ.
I did dissassemble CCZ Emerald with totally dead BAs (it did not sound any "BA" to me to look into it) and I can confirm that the "EST" in CRA is real, I listened to it alone with the DD disconnected - weird (to me) both by the sound and the design- but honest functional implementation at least."

PS. Maybe you just made an honest mistake...It can occasionally happen to me, too!

-Clear

 

[PhonoPhi]

Did you mean CCA NRA? You keep mentioning that the CRA's has an EST inside the housing unit. The CRA's are just a DD unit.

...and I quote, you said:

"DQ6 (original) allegations are just silly to me, if that is a single DD, just bravo, KZ.
I did dissassemble CCZ Emerald with totally dead BAs (it did not sound any "BA" to me to look into it) and I can confirm that the "EST" in CRA is real, I listened to it alone with the DD disconnected - weird (to me) both by the sound and the design- but honest functional implementation at least."

PS. Maybe you just made an honest mistake...It can occasionally happen to me, too!

-Clear

Yes, I meant NRA there, sorry.
I dissassembled NRA and listened to those strange new drivers (the suspended plate is magnetic) alone:


The CRA slip is perhaps due to the fact that I got 5 copies of that single DD - very cost-effective.

Way too many acronyms for CCA...

 

[jananan78]

Yes, I meant NRA there, sorry.
I dissassembled NRA and listened to those strange new drivers (the suspended plate is magnetic) alone:


The CRA slip is perhaps due to the fact that I got 5 copies of that single DD - very cost-effective.

Way too many acronyms for CCA...

maybe they need to put something to dampen the volume of the DD so we can crank up the volume to actually be able to hear the EST since it's been said it's impossible to put a real crossover due to size and cost factors? seems an economical solution..

 

[Jansvast]

Hi guys, I'd like to share my mod to make the CRA neutral sounding.

The problems: overwhelming bass and distracting treble.

To tame the bass, you need to open the shell (won't be without damage, you will need to make a new faceplate) and remove the mesh on the DD vent. This vent controls bass. The more blocked the vent is, the less bass the driver will output, It can't "breathe".
Cut a tiny piece of electrical tape, so it will fit over the DD vent. Put it on a piece of styrofoam and puncture the centre with a pin. After that, squish that piece of tape flat multiple times in between your fingers to close up the hole you just made. Gently stick it over the vent with the holes centred.

Now onto the treble. Remove the stock filter. Then, you can use a variety of materials you propably have at home. I opted for the coarser mesh material found in FFP2 masks. Cut a strip around 10x30-40mm, fold it leghtwise and then roll it up or keep folding in half along it's width until it fits in the nozzle. Then, top it off with a piece of fine packaging foam for some extra dampening and protection.

And viola! You've created a very pleasing neutral iem. Feel free to play with different materials and quantities in the nozzle to get a sound you like.

I gotta make an epoxy faceplate for this one, I like it over my ZEX pro. Tighter bass (still has a cute little rumble) and smoother yet detailed treble, lush vocals. I love it!

Enjoy

 

[saldsald]

I think this answers quite a lot of queries here.

 

[Podster]

OK KZ Fans, Pods feeling a little KZ Forward coming on and I'm offering up 3 Vintage KZ's for those who would like to have them and I'll even ship as long as it's under $8 (which was probably very close to all of their prices when released)

So I'd like to give all three away but please one each for 3 lucky participants 1st PM for the one you want gets them

1st we have the ZN1 with the awesome rubber garden hose cable Comes with a KZ QDC cable as a bonus!
2nd is my color coded ZS4's w/Iron Man TRN gold balanced cable, comes with spare KZ Bronze cable for SE
3rd is the original ZST in Carbon w/silver SP cable w/matching carbon barrel, tossed in a carbon matching SE cable



First 3 responses with your first pick gets them, also let me know if you would like me to announce you as the winner of which one or you can just chill and be all I'll also respond as soon as all three are spoken for, will come in KZ cases and be packed in bubble packets Seems like a fair deal

Bump Bump Announcement: However per request will remain a mystery but the ZS4's are officially off the table and being (Hopefully) enjoyed again

In the mean time time getting Jiggy with these 4th Gen Touch, the Infamously noisy Topping NX1 and 6's

Just realized my Ukrainian pair in the background!!!

 

[MacAttack7]

KZ AST
Saw this posting on FB. I have a couple pairs of AST's....thinking I should have stuck with one after seeing this.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/195342732@N08/albums/72177720297726296/with/51972332231/

Here it is. Physical evidence my AST set is actually only using 5 balanced armatures.. While all 12 are indeed firing, the 6 50024 and 1 30019 are shelved on a track that has a dead end where the sound tunnel should start and travel to the nozzle. Or at least splice into another.
The fact that the 3d printed housing is glued in air tight leaves no room to argue they are there to provide extra air treble in the shell or something silly like that.
There are so many things that are confusing about this find. why are the BA drivers working.. why the waste? Also looking back at the illustrated photoshop marketing images, I can clearly find the tunnel going to the back in the housing. was it just an after thought? or was it just too hard to be able to actually get a good sounding set with that amount of drivers? I have opened up more sets than this. The CCA CS16 has sound tunnels snaking around each other no problem. I was impressed with that. Its not a technical issue with the housing.
Yes both left and right were a perfect mirror image of each other. so quality assurance? control? Whatever you wanna call it. it looks pretty damn good as far as consistency on both sides.
I just wanna mention the CS16 and AS12 are good to go.. no funny issues. Everything checks out.

 

[Taila]

KZ AST
Saw this posting on FB. I have a couple pairs of AST's....thinking I should have stuck with one after seeing this.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/195342732@N08/albums/72177720297726296/with/51972332231/

Yikes , I think I’ll stick to single driver units now for quite a while, when an average user like me buy these products, we are not able to measure them, you simply take it that what you have is what’s standard and had been advertised. At least it’s great if you happen to really like how they sound. But the extra funds paid for what exactly? Man this is becoming like the PS Audio Powerplant 12 issue.

If on some products models with many drivers, all are working and some models have excluded drivers, it it a case of very poor QA/QC or intentional, if so why if the same company is able to deal with many drivers.

 

[Jansvast]

Hi guys, more teased KZ graphs were released.

As it turns out, the ones we liked the most were Moondrops, the B2D and Kato and their rig is just horribly off...

KZ seems to be focusing on their typical V shaped sets but now adding obnoxious bass. The new EDA is supposed to have 3 variants, "balanced", "bass" and "hifi". And it looks "balanced" version has more bass than the TRN BAX on their graph.

The "hifi" and "balanced" one looks pretty good on the other graphs, but take from these graphs what you will...

 

[ExTubeGamer]

It is time to mod a KZ AST. Release those BAs.

I would love to create a beautiful sounding IEM out of this one. Maybe we can drill extra holes for the BAs?

 

[kennyhack]

KZ EDA announced on KZ Bangladesh Facebook page.

 

[4ceratops]

It is time to mod a KZ AST. Release those BAs.

I would love to create a beautiful sounding IEM out of this one. Maybe we can drill extra holes for the BAs?

I admire your optimism that you're going to make those wretched headphones play decently.