[Carpet]

Curious to know how bad they are. Are you able to compare them with say, the ZEX and ZEX Pro? Or any other comparable KZ release?

Don't forget the CCA releases. They are sister company to KZ and seem to offer slightly better releases, warmer and less sibilant.

CCA CA16 is a great warm sounding Iem. The design is pretty plain if that matters to you . Still came with the old tangly KZ cable.
Vortex, Zpolt and BGGAR have all done comparison with KZ ZAX on YouTube.

CCA CRA is very good DD (no excuse not to try this one it given it's price). New flat cable is okay.

Zex pro (CRN) is nicely tuned but not particularly resolving, still okay if you don't want a 'V' tuning. New flat cable is okay.


Biggest pain of upgrading up from KZs is the QDC cables don't fit most other IEMs.

 

[Nimweth]

Don't forget the CCA releases. They are sister company to KZ and seem to offer slightly better releases, warmer and less sibilant.

CCA CA16 is a great warm sounding Iem. The design is pretty plain if that matters to you . Still came with the old tangly KZ cable.
Vortex, Zpolt and BGGAR have all done comparison with KZ ZAX on YouTube.

CCA CRA is very good DD (no excuse not to try this one it given it's price). New flat cable is okay.

Zex pro (CRN) is nicely tuned but not particularly resolving, still okay if you don't want a 'V' tuning. New flat cable is okay.


Biggest pain of upgrading up from KZs is the QDC cables don't fit most other IEMs.

CKX is also very good!

 

[SartWaiting]

New flat cable is okay.

IMO, CRA has a terrible cable. It degrade SQ. Don't use it. Put something else right away....
But CRA really good IEM.

 

[Jansvast]

IMO, CRA has a terrible cable. It degrade SQ. Don't use it. Put something else right away....
But CRA really good IEM.

Nothing wrong with the cable. It does not change SQ...

 

[-rowan-]

I have a ZEX, I like its very warm, smooth and up-front vocals, bass is heavy and bounce. I heard someone complained about its tunning is not really natural, sound stage is not extending enough, bass just liked hitting on a wall.

ZEX is a kind of retro tunning not for everyone. Its not airy, high is not as shine as ZAX, separation is not good, bass is too heavy. But its meaty vocals somehow make it more organic and fun. By changing to a single core copper cable, and use Sendearfit Light tips, I can get more "natural" soundstage, vocal positioning is better, and more controlled bass now.

I have tried the ZES, its tuning is quite similar to ZEX, there is not much upgrade in SQ, and I skip it.

Spot on. This is why I found myself preferring the ZEX to the ZEX Pro despite its flaws. The Pro may graph better and tick a few more boxes but in doing so, it lost the musicality that made ZEX a little more special to me than the numerous other KZ releases.

Agree that changing tips and cable helps - even KZ’s own cheapie “upgrade” cables made an audible difference for me.

CRA is better technically than both ZEXes but there’s still something plasticky and off about its treble that I can’t shake.

Skipping the ZES then…

 

[-rowan-]

Biggest pain of upgrading up from KZs is the QDC cables don't fit most other IEMs.

Ha, I have the opposite problem in that my existing cables don’t fit the KZs. Not a fan of QDC connectors and don’t intend to get any other IEMs that use it, so I don’t bother picking up anything more than their own budget cables to go with their IEMs. Pleasantly surprised that they do help clean up the sound though.

 

[Carpet]

Ha, I have the opposite problem in that my existing cables don’t fit the KZs. Not a fan of QDC connectors and don’t intend to get any other IEMs that use it, so I don’t bother picking up anything more than their own budget cables to go with their IEMs. Pleasantly surprised that they do help clean up the sound though.

I only ever bought one KZ upgrade cable. It failed within 2 months. Too many other better options, most are available with QDC connectors (KZ c-type). TRN, Jcally, FAAEAL, Tripowin, NiceHCK, XINHS etc.... I bought a couple of ivipQ cables in the 12th anniversary sale, looking forward to trying those out.

I agree that the new KZ flat cables aren't amazing, but they are usable. Much better than the tangly brown mess that came with the older models.

 

[DynamicEars]

Anyone know newer KZ TWS that using XUN driver? My KZ Z1 are at the corner of their lives. The left unit barely can be charged anymore. So Sad since the driver is really good, and after mod, beating most TWS out there (in terms of sound only, not tech side). I don't want to buy Z1 anymore since they are quite old by now (avoiding batt degraded problem even new unit), and prefer better specs and batt life. XUN is a must, additional drivers not a problem. Heard that KZ Z1 pro is no longer using XUN. Anyone can help?
Thanks in advance

 

[BoomBap08]

Zex pro + Spinfit + Tacable

Care to share how the Obsidian improved the ZP?

 

[ChristianM]

Deleted....

 

[Carpet]

Anyone know newer KZ TWS that using XUN driver? My KZ Z1 are at the corner of their lives. The left unit barely can be charged anymore. So Sad since the driver is really good, and after mod, beating most TWS out there (in terms of sound only, not tech side). I don't want to buy Z1 anymore since they are quite old by now (avoiding batt degraded problem even new unit), and prefer better specs and batt life. XUN is a must, additional drivers not a problem. Heard that KZ Z1 pro is no longer using XUN. Anyone can help?
Thanks in advance

The Moondrop Sparks look really promising. Have to like a TWS that lets you use your favorite tips without lifting the buds off the charging contacts in the case.


Whatever you get CHECK THE BLUETOOTH CODECS!

KZ in particular are all over the place with whether they support AAC or Aptx. You want Aptx for android or AAC for apple. Stuff that up and you default to SBC which is the worst sound quality.

I use Edifier TWS1 pro. Very nice sound in it's price range. Really long battery life and volume touch controls.

 

[r31ya]

The Moondrop Sparks look really promising. Have to like a TWS that lets you use your favorite tips without lifting the buds off the charging contacts in the case.


Whatever you get CHECK THE BLUETOOTH CODECS!

KZ in particular are all over the place with whether they support AAC or Aptx. You want Aptx for android or AAC for apple. Stuff that up and you default to SBC which is the worst sound quality.

I use Edifier TWS1 pro. Very nice sound in it's price range. Really long battery life and volume touch controls.

The pro or later kz tws usually use qc3040 which have aptx and better battery life.

But considering mryiad of longetivity problem on kz early tws (battery charge went to crap in a year) , i still stay away from it despite its considered good sounding among tws

 

[Rocket222]

To have better battery life and avoid premature death of tws, you need to understand the characteristics of the rechargeable batteries. Most rechargeable batteries prefer charging from empty to full and discharging from full to empty, the cycle repeats. Sadly, most tws charging cases do not have a switch to turn off charging. So every time you put back the tws earbuds into the case, the charging starts even the battery may be still half way full. This would have detrimental effect to the life of the battery. I got my first no-brand tws earbuds 2+ years ago and I only put them back into the case when the battery is all out, and they still work with about 70% capacity nowadays compared to what I first bought them.

 

[phower]

The Moondrop Sparks look really promising. Have to like a TWS that lets you use your favorite tips without lifting the buds off the charging contacts in the case.


Whatever you get CHECK THE BLUETOOTH CODECS!

KZ in particular are all over the place with whether they support AAC or Aptx. You want Aptx for android or AAC for apple. Stuff that up and you default to SBC which is the worst sound quality.

I use Edifier TWS1 pro. Very nice sound in it's price range. Really long battery life and volume touch controls.

From the article posted below SBC at 328 kbps has very little difference with AptX that it can't be distinguished by most people in ABX testing.

Codec Df

Only AptX HD at around 529 kbps is better, but how many headphones support AptX HD?

 

[-rowan-]

I only ever bought one KZ upgrade cable. It failed within 2 months. Too many other better options, most are available with QDC connectors (KZ c-type). TRN, Jcally, FAAEAL, Tripowin, NiceHCK, XINHS etc.... I bought a couple of ivipQ cables in the 12th anniversary sale, looking forward to trying those out.

I agree that the new KZ flat cables aren't amazing, but they are usable. Much better than the tangly brown mess that came with the older models.

Those tangly brown cables! Yeah, they’re better now but I‘m at the point where I actually wish KZ would offer us the option of just buying the IEMs without cables.

My chonky KZ cables are still doing ok after a few months (in fact I would even say they’re better now because they had this awful chemical smell when they were new but it has since dissipated) but I hope I didn’t just jinx them. I have a few XINHS and NiceHCK cables that are very good but even at those prices, they can cost several times more than some of these KZ IEMs so I wasn’t planning to re-buy them just for the QDC connectors…

(Off topic but I wonder if ivipQ are somehow related to XINHS or if they’re another OEM… some of those cables look familiar.)