[KutuzovGambit]

Black Pop and Red Monitor are the early leaders. Haven’t gotten the nerve up yet to try silver or blue. Gold didn’t impress me off the cuff. But honestly Black Pop is so addictive.

 

[IEMusic]

LZ A7 stock cable (left) vs ISN AG8 pure silver cable (right)

Despite its braided 8 wire structure especially considering the 24 AWG each, the AG8 is supple, flexible and comfortable to wear.

AG8’s sound is remarkably expansive and free of harshness and brittle thinness usually associated with pure silver variants.
As its color looks near identical to the A7’s stock cable, I feel it could almost be promoted and sold as a direct upgrade cable.

A7’s gains even more natural sounding Mids with additional note weight, organic sounding lower Mids foundation with the AG8. Bass seems gain bit of decay with still fast attack which is desirable for me. Tones down bit of dryness. Highs are wetter and precise making overall signature more analogue and easier to detect subtle nuances in the music.

very much recommend this pairing.


Sound is not far off from my favorite

What tuning combination do you like best, that matches the Z1R the closest?

 

[IEMusic]

Black Pop and Red Monitor are the early leaders. Haven’t gotten the nerve up yet to try silver or blue. Gold didn’t impress me off the cuff. But honestly Black Pop is so addictive.

Interesting. I’ve liked red pop and black monitor the best lately. While I liked gold at first, I began to miss the treble compared to the black and red nozzles. Right now, I’m listening to blue pop, and find it to have a lot of clarity and airiness. Now just need to try silver.

 

[KutuzovGambit]

Interesting. I’ve liked red pop and black monitor the best lately. While I liked gold at first, I began to miss the treble compared to the black and red nozzles. Right now, I’m listening to blue pop, and find it to have a lot of clarity and airiness. Now just need to try silver.

I agree with you on the lack of treble being what turned me off of gold. But I only got these IEMs in yesterday and have spent most of the time on Black Pop. I still plan on giving all the other combinations much more of a chance before forming final impressions.

 

[IEMusic]

I agree with you on the lack of treble being what turned me off of gold. But I only got these IEMs in yesterday and have spent most of the time on Black Pop. I still plan on giving all the other combinations much more of a chance before forming final impressions.

Certainly. Take your time listening to each of the tunings. I haven’t listened to them all yet, and my opinions of certain tunings changed the more I listened.

 

[tgx78]

What tuning combination do you like best, that matches the Z1R the closest?

red-pop comes closest and it is one of my favorite A7 tuning combo currently.

 

[Grev]

Damn, everybody got to red-pop straight away, I’m here at gold-monitor.

 

[IEMusic]

I’ll need to try a silver cable with the A7.

 

[HardstyleLoco96]

to me they do the wide soundstage helps so much in the imaging but for the mids and trebles i felt the the m7 win thou vs lz a7 on monitor black

sliver is too piercing but it it add a lot of air and treble energy , but it too fatigue for me

Thank you for your response. I use silver filter always and I just feel it add a whole new layer of detail throughout the whole frequency. It makes the A7 be a detail beast and the treble really extends far. With the stock cable I did feel silver could be a bit much. But with the upgrade cable I use, I felt it tames the treble while keeping clarity and bringing out more air, it brings up the low end just a touch making it fuller yet faster and cleaner and also adds some warmth to the mids while adding more detail. I think with the Silver filter and upgrade cable I use, it might be IER-M9 territory.

 

[1clearhead]

red-pop comes closest and it is one of my favorite A7 tuning combo currently.

+1

 

[IEMusic]

I’ve now made it through all 10 tunings of the A7. I’m very impressed how not only are the different tunings not gimmicks, but they are also not simple linear attenuations. While in general, the silver is the “brightest”, and it decreases gradually towards red, the midrange and treble curves actually change between the different nozzles. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t find any of the 10 tunings intolerable or too harsh. The Pop switch setting seems to provide a more V-shape, by dropping the lower and middle midrange frequencies, whereas the Monitor switch setting makes those frequencies much more prominent, and the overall curve more flat. To me, the overall volume seems to increase with the Monitor switch setting. What do you think?

Right now, these are my impressions of a few of the tunings. I like Red Pop best for a fun U-shaped tuning, that’s easy to listen to and enjoy. If I’m tired and my hearing is more sensitive to upper midrange frequencies, this is my go-to tuning. It’s great for pop and EDM. For me, the Red Monitor tuning sounds a bit too thick for my tastes, but the level of detail in the lower-mid midrange frequencies is remarkable. I like Silver Monitor for the most neutralish tuning, with amazing clarity and resolution, as well as imaging and soundstage. This is my favorite for all sorts of classical music, including symphonic music. It is also probably my favorite for vocals. I find the Blue Monitor tuning provides the most clear and intimate vocals of all the 10, and it could be useful as a stage monitor to accentuate vocals. The downside is that the mids sound quite boxy and hollow. For another all-purpose tuning, that’s a bit V-shaped, I like Silver Pop. This may be my favorite for rock and metal genres, or when wanting really punchy, detailed sound, with great instrument separation.

Lastly, I think the isolation with the LZ A7 is definitely above average. Probably similar to the FH3 in this regards. If one wants to only own 1 IEM, I think the LZ A7 is definitely the one to get.

Edit: I will say, IMO, the Silver filter is NOT a good one to use for listening at loud volumes. Low to moderate volumes are plenty to hear every minute detail in the recording.

 

[dharmasteve]

Damn, everybody got to red-pop straight away, I’m here at gold-monitor.

Yep me too gold/monitor. I'm going to do them slowly. I like the gold. I'm sure other tunings will sway me. A week on each to start with.

 

[baskingshark]

I’ve now made it through all 10 tunings of the A7. I’m very impressed how not only are the different tunings not gimmicks, but they are also not simple linear attenuations. While in general, the silver is the “brightest”, and it decreases gradually towards red, the midrange and treble curves actually change between the different nozzles. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t find any of the 10 tunings intolerable or too harsh. The Pop switch setting seems to provide a more V-shape, by dropping the lower and middle midrange frequencies, whereas the Monitor switch setting makes those frequencies much more prominent, and the overall curve more flat. To me, the overall volume seems to increase with the Monitor switch setting. What do you think?

Right now, these are my impressions of a few of the tunings. I like Red Pop best for a fun U-shaped tuning, that’s easy to listen to and enjoy. If I’m tired and my hearing is more sensitive to upper midrange frequencies, this is my go-to tuning. It’s great for pop and EDM. For me, the Red Monitor tuning sounds a bit too thick for my tastes, but the level of detail in the lower-mid midrange frequencies is remarkable. I like Silver Monitor for the most neutralish tuning, with amazing clarity and resolution, as well as imaging and soundstage. This is my favorite for all sorts of classical music, including symphonic music. It is also probably my favorite for vocals. I find the Blue Monitor tuning provides the most clear and intimate vocals of all the 10, and it could be useful as a stage monitor to accentuate vocals. The downside is that the mids sound quite boxy and hollow. For another all-purpose tuning, that’s a bit V-shaped, I like Silver Pop. This may be my favorite for rock and metal genres, or when wanting really punchy, detailed sound, with great instrument separation.

Lastly, I think the isolation with the LZ A7 is definitely above average. Probably similar to the FH3 in this regards. If one wants to only own 1 IEM, I think the LZ A7 is definitely the one to get.

I found these graphs quite useful when I first started to explore the rather intimidating 10 different tunings of the LZ A7. They are from the LZ Taobao page, and the graphs do correspond to what I'm hearing:

LZ store page graph comparing the sound signature of the POP switch (grey line) versus the Monitor switch (purple line).

LZ store page graph showing how the 5 tuning nozzles affect the sound signature while on the MONITOR switch.
Red line = red nozzle
Yellow line = gold nozzle
Black line = black nozzle
Blue line = blue nozzle
Purple dotted line = silver nozzle

LZ store page graph showing how the 5 tuning nozzles affect the sound signature while on the POP switch.
Red line = red nozzle
Yellow line = gold nozzle
Grey line = black nozzle
Blue line = blue nozzle
Purple dotted line = silver nozzle

LZ has some descriptions for the various tuning nozzles (they are all based on the black stock nozzle as a baseline for increase and decrease at the 1.5 – 5 kHz regions):
Black (+0 db, aluminum): standard.
Red (-8 db, aluminum): bass boost.
Yellow (-3 db, copper): mellow vocals.
Blue (+3 db, aluminum): treble clarity.
Silver (+6 db, stainless steel): extreme technicalities.

 

[IEMusic]

I found these graphs quite useful when I first started to explore the rather intimidating 10 different tunings of the LZ A7. They are from the LZ Taobao page, and the graphs do correspond to what I'm hearing:


LZ store page graph comparing the sound signature of the POP switch (grey line) versus the Monitor switch (purple line).




LZ store page graph showing how the 5 tuning nozzles affect the sound signature while on the MONITOR switch.
Red line = red nozzle
Yellow line = gold nozzle
Black line = black nozzle
Blue line = blue nozzle
Purple dotted line = silver nozzle





LZ store page graph showing how the 5 tuning nozzles affect the sound signature while on the POP switch.
Red line = red nozzle
Yellow line = gold nozzle
Grey line = black nozzle
Blue line = blue nozzle
Purple dotted line = silver nozzle





LZ has some descriptions for the various tuning nozzles (they are all based on the black stock nozzle as a baseline for increase and decrease at the 1.5 – 5 kHz regions):
Black (+0 db, aluminum): standard.
Red (-8 db, aluminum): bass boost.
Yellow (-3 db, copper): mellow vocals.
Blue (+3 db, aluminum): treble clarity.
Silver (+6 db, stainless steel): extreme technicalities.

Thanks! Yep, those graphs exactly correspond to what I’m hearing. The lower treble suck-out with the gold filter is just too much for me. Quite a bit of detail is lost, and it makes the sound a bit dark.

- For the Monitor setting, I like Silver best.
- For the Pop setting, I like Red and actually Blue best, but Silver is close enough to Blue, so it’s much less hassle to keep the silver filter on and use the switch, with the Red Pop being the U-shaped relaxing tuning.

 

[LoryWiv]

Thank you for your response. I use silver filter always and I just feel it add a whole new layer of detail throughout the whole frequency. It makes the A7 be a detail beast and the treble really extends far. With the stock cable I did feel silver could be a bit much. But with the upgrade cable I use, I felt it tames the treble while keeping clarity and bringing out more air, it brings up the low end just a touch making it fuller yet faster and cleaner and also adds some warmth to the mids while adding more detail. I think with the Silver filter and upgrade cable I use, it might be IER-M9 territory.

Very helpful comments @HardstyleLoco96, thank you. 2 questions:
1. What upgrade cable are you using that tames ttreble on silver?
2. POP or monitor setting?