pjones5
100+ Head-Fier
Ordered the KZ ZS10 Pro last week, just got them today. Retail $50 - $60. Had some money left on a gift card and thought the specs looked good enough, so I figured I'd at least try them. For $60? Blew me away.
They've got not one, not two, but five drivers in each IEM. That's one dynamic driver with four armature drivers. Specs... Frequency: 7-40,000Hz. Impedance: 32 ohms. Sensitivity: 111dB/mW. 2-pin, 0.75mm 2-pin connector to 3.5mm headphone jack (I will be ordering a 2.5mm balanced cable for these soon). I've used these with my FiiO BTR5 on high gain, both in bluetooth mode with my iPhone 8 and USB-DAC mode with my computer, running both Spotify and Tidal.
Quite frankly, I don't know why I ordered these initially. I have a pair of AKG N40 IEMs which I enjoy perfectly fine. I had some money left on my gift card, saw that they had 4.5 stars on Amazon so I threw them in my cart to try out. Hadn't done a shred of research on them, didn't look up any reviews.
First impressions...
- Impressed with the build quality. I thought they'd feel really cheap, but they actually have some weight to them. The cord also looks reasonably nice for being a stock cable.
- Ear tips are an absolute pain to switch out. They only provide silicone options which are fairly comfortable and do actually create a great seal. I did try out some foam tips I had lying around and I actually preferred the seal of the silicone.
Listening/wearing for 5ish hours (almost straight)...
- Comfort-wise. Not the worst IEMs I've used. I am normally not a fan of IEMs and don't use them for extended periods. These do decently well. I listened to music for a couple hours, hardly noticed they we're there. Had a Zoom meeting for another couple hours, towards the end of the Zoom meeting my ears began begging me to take them out. Took them out for a few minutes, put them back in, and I've been listening for another hour or so. They are on the heavier side though, so be warned. If you're coming from really light IEMs, these may feel like bricks hanging from your ears.
- Cord-wise. This cord produces so much cord noise. Cannot walk around with this cord without having that constant thump, thump, thump, thump. I'll be ordering a 4.4mm balanced cable that'll (hopefully) have less cord noise. Aside from that, the 2-pin connector is super secure, nothing like the MMCX connector I'm used to.
- Sound-wise. The big hitter. I was shocked at how well these sound. Genuinely surprised. I figured, going into listening to these (keep in mind, I had not read any reviews), that I was probably going to get a very U-shaped sound signature with the dynamic driver providing way too much muffled bass that totally covered the mids and the four armatures all working together to make your ears bleed with the highs. Again, I have no idea why I even ordered these, I had such low expectations for them.
They actually reproduce sound really well. The bass is very flexible. If I listen with a flat EQ on my BTR5, the bass is present but clean and tight. If I make a quick switch to the Hip-Hop EQ, the bass still remains clean, but some rumble comes in. This is an IEM I will actually enjoy listening to my rap with. I assume that the dynamic driver is doing the bulk of the heavy lifting for the bass, lower-mids, and general volume. Those balanced armatures combine to fill in the gaps with wonderful detail. Sound stage isn't fantastic, but that's to be expected for most IEMs that don't cost $$$. Imaging though, the imaging is great. So, you don't have much forward-backward placement, but side-to-side, not too shabby. I was listening to a song where I could hear a sound (forget what it was, might have been a snare, who knows) and I could hear it far off to the left, and then it got closer, and then it is was right there in the middle, then it was to the right, and then it was far to the right - all of it was so seamless and detailed.
I have listened to Matchbox Twenty (Did you know? In "How Far We've Come" there are actually female vocals in the background at different points? Didn't notice that till listening with these), Blanco White (sort of London/Spanish acoustic vibe - highly recommend checking him out), classical, jazz, movie scores, Ivan B (rap), Propaganda (soft rap), and traditional Asian strings - you can see that there's a nice wide genre mix there. This is rare for me to say about any headphones, but I liked these across all those genres. The only thing I had to do, for the rap, was switch that EQ to Hip-Hop so that the bass could flex a little.
This is my own listening taste, but everything just feels like it is where it needs to be. Mids don't feel recessed, but they also don't feel too forward. Highs fill in all those little nuances without creating an overly bright sound signature. They sound detailed without feeling aggressive or harsh. After listening and realizing I might have actually found a gem, I took to the internet to see what others were saying. Some have said that the detail does cause some ear-fatigue. I've been listening for hours, obviously that isn't the case for me. Most, however, share my surprise at how great these are.
I'm tempted (I'm tempted) to call these my Sennheiser HD6XX of IEMs. Sure, you can find better options if you're willing to pay $$$, but these do a really great job. For those of you out there that are like me, that have way too many over-ear headphones and one pair of IEMs (maybe two) for the portable factor - I highly recommend these. I don't know if I will ever spend big money on IEMs, they just aren't my style. Now, with these, I'm thinking - whatever does get recommended to me (IEM-wise), they better blow my mind or I just don't see a reason for upgrading from these.
They've got not one, not two, but five drivers in each IEM. That's one dynamic driver with four armature drivers. Specs... Frequency: 7-40,000Hz. Impedance: 32 ohms. Sensitivity: 111dB/mW. 2-pin, 0.75mm 2-pin connector to 3.5mm headphone jack (I will be ordering a 2.5mm balanced cable for these soon). I've used these with my FiiO BTR5 on high gain, both in bluetooth mode with my iPhone 8 and USB-DAC mode with my computer, running both Spotify and Tidal.
Quite frankly, I don't know why I ordered these initially. I have a pair of AKG N40 IEMs which I enjoy perfectly fine. I had some money left on my gift card, saw that they had 4.5 stars on Amazon so I threw them in my cart to try out. Hadn't done a shred of research on them, didn't look up any reviews.
First impressions...
- Impressed with the build quality. I thought they'd feel really cheap, but they actually have some weight to them. The cord also looks reasonably nice for being a stock cable.
- Ear tips are an absolute pain to switch out. They only provide silicone options which are fairly comfortable and do actually create a great seal. I did try out some foam tips I had lying around and I actually preferred the seal of the silicone.
Listening/wearing for 5ish hours (almost straight)...
- Comfort-wise. Not the worst IEMs I've used. I am normally not a fan of IEMs and don't use them for extended periods. These do decently well. I listened to music for a couple hours, hardly noticed they we're there. Had a Zoom meeting for another couple hours, towards the end of the Zoom meeting my ears began begging me to take them out. Took them out for a few minutes, put them back in, and I've been listening for another hour or so. They are on the heavier side though, so be warned. If you're coming from really light IEMs, these may feel like bricks hanging from your ears.
- Cord-wise. This cord produces so much cord noise. Cannot walk around with this cord without having that constant thump, thump, thump, thump. I'll be ordering a 4.4mm balanced cable that'll (hopefully) have less cord noise. Aside from that, the 2-pin connector is super secure, nothing like the MMCX connector I'm used to.
- Sound-wise. The big hitter. I was shocked at how well these sound. Genuinely surprised. I figured, going into listening to these (keep in mind, I had not read any reviews), that I was probably going to get a very U-shaped sound signature with the dynamic driver providing way too much muffled bass that totally covered the mids and the four armatures all working together to make your ears bleed with the highs. Again, I have no idea why I even ordered these, I had such low expectations for them.
They actually reproduce sound really well. The bass is very flexible. If I listen with a flat EQ on my BTR5, the bass is present but clean and tight. If I make a quick switch to the Hip-Hop EQ, the bass still remains clean, but some rumble comes in. This is an IEM I will actually enjoy listening to my rap with. I assume that the dynamic driver is doing the bulk of the heavy lifting for the bass, lower-mids, and general volume. Those balanced armatures combine to fill in the gaps with wonderful detail. Sound stage isn't fantastic, but that's to be expected for most IEMs that don't cost $$$. Imaging though, the imaging is great. So, you don't have much forward-backward placement, but side-to-side, not too shabby. I was listening to a song where I could hear a sound (forget what it was, might have been a snare, who knows) and I could hear it far off to the left, and then it got closer, and then it is was right there in the middle, then it was to the right, and then it was far to the right - all of it was so seamless and detailed.
I have listened to Matchbox Twenty (Did you know? In "How Far We've Come" there are actually female vocals in the background at different points? Didn't notice that till listening with these), Blanco White (sort of London/Spanish acoustic vibe - highly recommend checking him out), classical, jazz, movie scores, Ivan B (rap), Propaganda (soft rap), and traditional Asian strings - you can see that there's a nice wide genre mix there. This is rare for me to say about any headphones, but I liked these across all those genres. The only thing I had to do, for the rap, was switch that EQ to Hip-Hop so that the bass could flex a little.
This is my own listening taste, but everything just feels like it is where it needs to be. Mids don't feel recessed, but they also don't feel too forward. Highs fill in all those little nuances without creating an overly bright sound signature. They sound detailed without feeling aggressive or harsh. After listening and realizing I might have actually found a gem, I took to the internet to see what others were saying. Some have said that the detail does cause some ear-fatigue. I've been listening for hours, obviously that isn't the case for me. Most, however, share my surprise at how great these are.
I'm tempted (I'm tempted) to call these my Sennheiser HD6XX of IEMs. Sure, you can find better options if you're willing to pay $$$, but these do a really great job. For those of you out there that are like me, that have way too many over-ear headphones and one pair of IEMs (maybe two) for the portable factor - I highly recommend these. I don't know if I will ever spend big money on IEMs, they just aren't my style. Now, with these, I'm thinking - whatever does get recommended to me (IEM-wise), they better blow my mind or I just don't see a reason for upgrading from these.
