[WAON303]

The senny is alright. If the money can reach, I personally prefer IE900 as I found the IE600 quite unremarkable next to the quirky big brother. If I were to spend top money, I prefer something daring and special, as safe and decent gears are way cheaper now.

IMHO, the safest TOTL is Monarch MkII. It feels luxurious, very un-opinionated tuning to let the mixes do their job, and strong technical performance. Sure, it doesn’t have the quirky tuning for soundstage like Andromeda (same price), but I think Monarch is safer. Just an alrounder 4.5 to 5 to me. If it’s up to me, I’ll spend 2000 on Monarch, a DAP, and a pair of flathead earbuds.

MK II shells are very big tho, not sure if these will fit me.

Mark from Super Reviews showed just how big the shells are.

 

[Vonbuddy]

I think Warmth and mid-bass bleed is pretty much same concept, someone’s warmth may be someone’s bass bleed. For more of this : https://www.head-fi.org/threads/thieaudio-signature-series-tribrid-iems.936212/post-16315031

For that, with stock ear tips, of which I believe Crin tested with, does great amount of mid bass bleed. And a bit too warm for 80% of the audiences I assume. I‘ve lived with that Weatone’s bleed/warmth, so I was fine with that, well not ST10 level of “omg you BASS”. It is fully understandable “mid-bass hater” Crin ranked Tonality to C.

What I did was to remove that stock ear tip with something modern, reduce basa floor to Wu Zetain’s slightly warm level, and increased upper-mid and upper. Because that’s what W80 is capable of. So re-matched eartip version of W80 is more of non-harman neutral with bit of mid-bass elevation.

If you feel Wu/Wan’er SG’s bass floor too high, W80 will have the similar curve.

I am still considering Westone W80. An absolute steal at 399? Give me specific tips to buy given my limited experience in tip selection.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

You haven't missed a damn thing. I've bought about 5 KZ over the years, and the first 4 were all throwaways. Garbage. Then they came out with the DQ6 and finally they came out with something that was worth my time and effort, but I haven't bought anything since, because I don't feel like going down that rabbit hole again. Especially since they release a new IEM weekly, and they probably have 50 different products in the last 3 years alone. Last 5? I couldn't tell you nor could I guess. The brand is completely watered down.

Since KZ was my “fun and easygoing” for IEMs after UE pulled the plug for serious capital investment and sold them to Logitech, I’ve been purchased almost all releases of their offering, including CCA’s.

If there is a mileage system of KZ, I will be their diamond rank by now I guess. I’ve missed a few for those I had zero interests, but still maybe you can call me Mr.KZ

For further KZ knowledge you may hit up Prof. KZ @PhonoPhi

Here I can leave a narrative for their products and you can see the reason I stopped buying.

I still have some hope.

Knowledge Zenith
ZST Pro: old pair nothing stands out

ZS5:
2BA+2DD, you can see DQ6’s
Dual DD spirit from this ancient model. A V-tuned, very fun IEM that piqued my interest in Chi-fi. Still to date, I find ZS6’s 2BA+2DD a fun set to listen to. The shell is undoubtedly copy from campfire’s. KZ has minor updated ZS5 to fit with modern market tuning demands, I will cover this topic on another post.

ZS6 :
ZS5’s successor with 2BA and 2DD.

ZS10: another hybrids, but fun 2DD is gone. Remaining typical KZ-V. Dry and energetic but somehow old school tuning now.

ZS10Pro: couldn’t find anything special

ZSN: sounds like down-sized ZS10

ZSN ProX: nothing special

AS10: KZ’s full BA attempt, actually pretty good.

AS12: 2nd attempt in full BA. Pretty amusing at a time.

AS16: 8BA model of full-BA series, actually well tuned and pretty low in distortions. A new AS16 Pro is out. But not competitive enough as you see HEXA’s shadow around competing range.

AS16 Pro: After 4 years of AS16, KZ renewed it as AS16 Pro, it has 30ohm high Impedance model. I actually quite like it as very colored yet fun W-tuned IEM, for $40, it’s good for KZ fans.

ASX: Extremely bass heavy V-tuned 10BA. Yes I complained about treble to be too edgy, and KZ completely cut that for AST while retaining extremely (ridiculously) high bass shelf.

AST: Bass dominant, hard to drive, ultimately listener picking IEM of KZ. If I see someone in love of AST, I can see it’s
a knucklehead-in-a-positive-way of KZ. It takes a great effort to make AST to make a great performance, pretty fun IEM to play with.

DQ6: one of KZ’s breakthrough. Fun and nice sounding W-tuned 3DD. Still one of my favorite, there are tracks only DQ6 is capable of reproducing the “feeling”. Your younger days, rough, but energetic days that DQ6 is programmed to recast.

DQ6S: not sure why HBB copied U12t, but it’s basically inoffensively tuned DQ6 with u12t’s FR + HBB’s high bass floor. Pretty good IEM that still scores great sonic output for HBB’s favorite rock/classic rocks. Yes, many old rock had terrible recoding/mix, the roughness matched with DQ6, and this DQ6S. This is a tuning I can say well done by HBB, not just the regular copy and paste warm-harmans we see being thrown to the market every week.

ZAX : V-tuned 7BA(old generation)+ 1DD(old gen), vented shell, but crossover design was not ideal. It let single DD to handle full sprectrum, and let all 7BA to add Layers to it. Imaging took hit as a result of this Disney’s electrical parade. It was pretty good at a time, but now, it’s outdated performance.

ZAS : ZAX’s successor, W-tuned 7BA+1DD, best of KZ IEM in terms of performance (except those new Planars which I haven’t touched yet). If I see successor of ZAS, I’ll buy.

EDX : $6 single DD, has internal plastic shell resonance that Tangzu managed to tune it as a part of final product, where LZ left it as a weak point. Price to performance wise, a pass, not too bad. But has competitors like TRN’s MT series, KBEARS KS series. There are latest gen of EDX but I have no interest trying those.

ESX: 10 year’s anniversary model. Utilizing newly developed 12mm ”liquid crystal” ultra-thin diaphragm. Tuning is somewhat Mild V, not bad but not as competitive as HOLA or other model LCPs.

S1D : TWS with 1BA + 1DD, predecessor of SKS, OK level

SKS : TWS with 1BA + 1DD, actually best tuned TWS of KZ, quite good.

SK10 : TWS with 4BA+1DD, not too bad besides tuning

Z1Pro : TWS with XUN single DD, not bad

ZEX : Pretty Good, still stands out with its resolving capabilities for being $sub 20. Typical KZ V-tuning, but good part is it is less dampened, the driver’s output is directly rendered to the final output.

ZEX Pro : Avoid, I regret buying BOTH, ZEX Pro and CRN.

CRN : Avoid, it sounds like a nightmare.

ZES: Latest line up for MST hybrid. Comes with latest KZ’s in-house developed 12mm semi-LCP. Bass-Rolled Neutral, highly recommendable.

ZNA: 1BA+12mm DD, not exactly same “Liquid Crystal” 12mm which was used on ESX, but it certainly has deep reaching bass. This what KZ should sound like in 2023. Not too aggressive, but not boring either. Recommendable.


T10 : Avoid, not worth your money. A mainstream Beats headphone like one note bass tuning with subpar driver.

CCA

CS10 : OK..nothing special worth noting.

C10 Pro : Hmm, ok

CA16 : pretty good, somehow non-KZ tuned, V-shape with mid-focus.

CS16 : Hmm, ok. Nothing special though, too V shaped.

CSN: actually fun tuned 1BA+1DD, simple enough, no hard tech to make it sound bad.

NRA : Avoid, you can’t listen it over 10minutes.

CRA+: quite impressive driver spec, tuning is W shape specialized for pops, pretty good, the golden shinny shell is a let down to me.

Above all, KZ ZAS, ZEX, ZES, SKS, DQ6S, and an odd ball renovated current issue of ZS5, CCA CRA+ and CSN are what I consider as KZ/CCA’s IEMs that are still comparable to modern market of IEMs.

For ZAS, it is near HEXA ($79)’s line, so maybe not competitive anymore. My score for ZAS from my memory was in 70s/100 while HEXA is 85/100.

Other than ZAS, they are still worth a time to try.

My personal favorite is still the first KZ that I was interested with its fun V-shaped tuning. ZS5.
It is discontinued but still can find from third party retailers. It’s just a belsing 2BA + old KZ’s DDx2, but pretty fun in V-tuning.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

I am still considering Westone W80. An absolute steal at 399? Give me specific tips to buy given my limited experience in tip selection.

W80 has as many Knowles super tweeters as other high-end. 4BA simply dedicated for treble. If not overshadowed by its own bass and mid, W80 is like GS Audio’s ST10, it has “scary” potentials, the dragon’s tail within its smallest body of any IEMs. It’s as small as those bullet IEMs I’ve spamming all day.

But again, if you want something rewarding as “easy to tell” high technicalities, I may hit up the small friends circle’s facebook page chat of Aur Audio’s Neon Pro.

Neon pro uses TOTL flagship class composition. Sonion 38/37/26, from bass to mid, Custom Knowles x 4 for treble. I recall it’s same for Anole VX. Pretty similar to ST10 as well (if only it was tuned by sanity….)

Sad part of ST10 for being potentially tech beast is it’s runing.

Making it as one trick pony.

So GS Audio can make those TOTL spec with $430, it is undoubtedly a small Singapore start up could produce TOTL class IEM with great tuning for $630.

 

[r31ya]

You haven't missed a damn thing. I've bought about 5 KZ over the year, and the first 4 were all throwaways. Garbage. Then they came out with the DQ6 and finally they came out with something that was worth my time and effort, but I haven't bought anything since, because I don't feel like going down that rabbit hole again, especially since they release a new IEM weekly, and they probably have 50 different products in the last 3 years alone. Last 5? I couldn't tell you nor could I guess. The brand is completely watered down.
I have both PR1 Pro and PR1 Hifi, both are great (easily 9/10)in slightly different ways, CCA PLA13 is a bit different, emphasizing more bass maybe a little bleed but none of these are offensive at all.

i owned the pr1 pro and it took me awhile to make peace with it, because early impression is a bit meh
tough that possibly me expecting it to be close to my Hifiman HE400i (2020) and using 3.5mm out from my btr5

After i give it more powah (switch to balanced cable on BTR5) and tiprolling. Its not bad, especially at the discount price that i got, but it still an odd piece of iem.
but yeah its a borderline sibilant for me (never quite "pierce" but still a bit tickling), the tonality i suppose is a bit dry (and i can see why some call it metalic).
had it have a bit more lushness/wetness to it and sounds a bit more "grand" like my Hifiman, it will be a killer iem under $100.
but i suppose its a bit hard to achieve with their early (relatively early) gen planar.

hows the Hifi version compared to the Pro?

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

You haven't missed a damn thing. I've bought about 5 KZ over the year, and the first 4 were all throwaways. Garbage. Then they came out with the DQ6 and finally they came out with something that was worth my time and effort, but I haven't bought anything since, because I don't feel like going down that rabbit hole again, especially since they release a new IEM weekly, and they probably have 50 different products in the last 3 years alone. Last 5? I couldn't tell you nor could I guess. The brand is completely watered down.
I have both PR1 Pro and PR1 Hifi, both are great (easily 9/10)in slightly different ways, CCA PLA13 is a bit different, emphasizing more bass maybe a little bleed but none of these are offensive at all.

"a little bleed" should never be something of a qualifier for something that tuned terrifically. "a tiny bit of sibilance". "The bass is a little slow and can be bloaty...but otherwise." You aren't the only one with addendums like this for KZ. I'd rather pay a bit more for a sound signature that doesn't have bleed, bloat, sibilance, or whatever "qualifier" a KZ connoisseur drops with "otherwise".

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

What's the best TOTL core out there?

I was thinking Effect Audio Gaea + Sennheiser IE600.

Gaea as an excellent allrounder, IE600 because I'd love to have an endgame DD too.

My endgame budget will be around 2,000 USD, which coincidentally is the total cost of both if bought new.

I could increase my budget to 3k I suppose, but I think it's more or less a waste of money given how marginal improvements are after around 1k.

IE900

 

[AmericanSpirit]

What's the best TOTL core out there?

I was thinking Effect Audio Gaea + Sennheiser IE600.

Gaea as an excellent allrounder, IE600 because I'd love to have an endgame DD too.

My endgame budget will be around 2,000 USD, which coincidentally is the total cost of both if bought new.

I could increase my budget to 3k I suppose, but I think it's more or less a waste of money given how marginal improvements are after around 1k.

If total budget is $2-3k maybe u12t or Anole VX?

Well..those EST hybrids are good too. But EST is not invincible as well. It has “EST” timbre as opposite to “BA” timbre as well.

Agree about improvements over diminishing return part. I’d say it’s around $1,500, and above that line will be a stiff curve to come.

I like Monarch for the best 10khz+ experience, but sad part of Monarch is disjointed feeling of DD and BA. For that I’s consider Anole VX to be all-rounder as it doesn’t come with disjointed feeling. Only let down of VX is bass BA is great, but BA’s feeling. They could’ve added a latest gen LCP driver with some great crossover phase to VX.

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

Who want a hammer in your ears?

---

What is this? A single BA ?? 18$ Link

I bought a couple of those TDK IEM's and every one had the most uncomfortable fit. Achilles heel for some good sounding phones.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Who want a hammer in your ears?

---

What is this? A single BA ?? 18$ Link

Oops I got wrong quote.

From the package it says バランスドアーマチュア = BA

Sales phrase says from natural vocal to deep bass, wide range and high fidelity.

TDK is a big big tech company in Japan, I almost ended up working with them instead of Sony. So the product won’t be at least like one of those you find on random aliexpress shop that disappears in days, and come up with different name /shells selling same old ****.

 

[o0genesis0o]

MK II shells are very big tho, not sure if these will fit me.

Mark from Super Reviews showed just how big the shells are.

Good point. I take it for granted that my ears can even fit Z1R no problem

Amongst the TOTL I managed to audition, I also think highly of IE900. It wouldn’t win any tuning contest with audio snobs (like myself?) but it’s just right, and the technical performance is top notch. You buy IE900 for sharp resolution, deep bass, and comfort. Such form factor almost extinct nowadays, afaik. There is NF Audio RA10, but that IEM is no where TOTL.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

MK II shells are very big tho, not sure if these will fit me.

Mark from Super Reviews showed just how big the shells are.

Since you have Tea2, I guess it gives some reference of Monarch OG vs Tea OG
Yes Monarch has humongous shell.. you probably need SpinFits to have a proper fit. By the way they share some common components, probably same shell ODM.

 

[WAON303]

Since you have Tea2, I guess it gives some reference of Monarch OG vs Tea OG
Yes Monarch has humongous shell.. you probably need SpinFits to have a proper fit. By the way they share some common components, probably same shell ODM.

I actually thought about the Tea 2 when thinking about the Monarch MK II's huge shell, Tea 2 fits me like a glove.

The Tea 2 is slightly bigger than the original, nymz made a size comparison.

Might be able to get a decent fit, I personally have issues fitting long nozzles (IE: The atmospheric nozzle of the DUNU Vernus.)

There's a good reason why I'm considering the IE600 despite better sets existing: Comfort.

 

[baskingshark]

True story. Never heard a KZ earphone before. Never been curious about anything those guys make. Something a bit off putting about the whole rehash a phone aspect of their business practices. I don't blame folks for buying into them but for me anyways there are too many established brands that make quality phones for a bit more that ends up having staying power vs yet another rehash.

Would be interesting to see just how many models they have made within the last 5 years.

Well the more pertinent question is to ask how many IEMs KZ has released in the last 5 weeks! Or 5 days?

Jokes aside, KZ was my first gateway drug into the world of CHIFI IEMs with the KZ ZS6 like 4 - 5 years ago? I thank them for that, cause prior to this, I was still getting my wallet burned on boutique/western IEMs from Shure and Westone. Back then, a western single driver IEM would cost $100 USD, and maybe a multi driver set would set you back $300 USD? I could only afford one western IEM every few years, and to sample another sound signature, I had to sell that IEM to scratch up funds to buy another one.

So KZ kinda made me realize that CHIFI could give good price to performance ratio. Most of the western IEMs were made in China anyways, and CHIFI in recent years has caught up with the western IEMs in the budget/midFI segment at least.

So despite the KZ ZS6 being a treble sawtooth killer, it had quite decent technicalities for the coin. Back then, KZ didn't release sidegrade pokemon spam every week, but maybe once like every few months, and I looked on their releases with anticipation. No doubt, their tuning was mostly V shaped treble banshee types, but at least they were multiples cheaper than the usual Westones/Shures, and the treble could be tamed a bit with foam tips or EQ.

Unfortunately, in recent years, KZ (and sister company CCA) has used a modus operandi of releasing IEMs on an almost weekly basis, with new releases being sidegrades, or marginal upgrades at best. Seems like a case of throwing as much crap on the wall, and hoping something sticks - consumers be beta testers for the next "PRO" or "ULTRA" or "MAX" KZ release. This numbs consumers with their mind-boggling speed of releases, all with confusing alphabet-soup names.

Even ardent KZ fans can't afford every new weekly release, and there's apathy among consumers when they realize - ah, another weekly KZ pokemon hits our shores? Maybe by the time you receive the KZ you just bought in the mail, would a "PRO" version be launched tomorrow? Case in point, the KZ PR1 planar was not even a month old before a "PRO" version was launched. I would be pissed if I were a first adopter of the original!

They were also locked in a driver nuclear race with eternal rivals TRN, and some of their single DD sets to me sounded better than the more expensive multi driver behemoths with coherency issues.

FWIW, I have bought around 15 KZ/CCA pokemons so far, and have stopped patronizing them the past year or so. I learned the hard way that for every 5 - 10 KZ pokemons purchased, it could have contributed to a midFI IEM. And said KZ pokemons mostly end up in the drawer, reselling them is difficult, if not impossible, since a "PRO" version of that KZ would have made the original pokemon obsolete.

Having said that, lately it seems KZ tuning has improved from the usual old-school deep V shaped tonality to something more balanced? KZ were the pioneers of the CHIFI IEMs that opened the floodgate to cheap (but good) IEMs for low price, but I hope they can take the time to fine-tune their releases and slow down on the release cycle. Quality over quantity. I honestly wish them well though!

Since KZ was my “fun and easygoing” for IEMs after UE pulled the plug for serious capital investment and sold them to Logitech, I’ve been purchased almost all releases of their offering, including CCA’s.

If there is a mileage system of KZ, I will be their diamond rank by now I guess. I’ve missed a few for those I had zero interests, but still maybe you can call me Mr.KZ

For further KZ knowledge you may hit up Prof. KZ @PhonoPhi

Here I can leave a narrative for their products and you can see the reason I stopped buying.

I still have some hope.

Knowledge Zenith
ZST Pro: old pair nothing stands out

ZS5:
2BA+2DD, you can see DQ6’s
Dual DD spirit from this ancient model. A V-tuned, very fun IEM that piqued my interest in Chi-fi. Still to date, I find ZS6’s 2BA+2DD a fun set to listen to. The shell is undoubtedly copy from campfire’s.

ZS6 :
ZS5’s successor with 2BA and 2DD.

ZS10: another hybrids, but fun 2DD is gone. Remaining typical KZ-V. Dry and energetic but somehow old school tuning now.

ZS10Pro: couldn’t find anything special
ZSN: sounds like down-sized ZS10
ZSN ProX: nothing special
AS10: KZ’s full BA attempt, actually pretty good.
AS12: 2nd attempt in full BA. Pretty amusing at a time.
AS16: 8BA model of full-BA series, actually well tuned and pretty low in distortions. A new AS16 Pro is out. But not competitive enough as you see HEXA’s shadow around competing range.

ASX: Extremely bass heavy V-tuned 10BA. Yes I complained about treble to be too edgy, and KZ completely cut that for AST while retaining extremely (ridiculously) high bass shelf.

AST: Bass dominant, hard to drive, ultimately listener picking IEM of KZ. If I see someone in love of AST, I can see it’s
a knucklehead-in-a-positive-way of KZ. It takes a great effort to make AST to make a great performance, pretty fun IEM to play with.

DQ6: one of KZ’s breakthrough. Fun and nice sounding W-tuned 3DD. Still one of my favorite, there are tracks only DQ6 is capable of reproducing the “feeling”. Your younger days, rough, but energetic days that DQ6 is programmed to recast.

DQ6S: not sure why HBB copied U12t, but it’s basically inoffensively tuned DQ6 with u12t’s FR + HBB’s high bass floor. Pretty good IEM that still scores great sonic output for HBB’s favorite rock/classic rocks. Yes, many old rock had terrible recoding/mix, the roughness matched with DQ6, and this DQ6S. This is a tuning I can say well done by HBB, not just his copy and paste warm-harmans we see being thrown to the market every week.

ZAX : V-tuned 7BA(old generation)+ 1DD(old gen), vented shell, but crossover design was not ideal. It let single DD to handle full sprectrum, and let all 7BA to add Layers to it. Imaging took hit as a result of this Disney’s electrical parade. It was pretty good at a time, but now, it’s outdated performance.

ZAS : ZAX’s successor, W-tuned 7BA+1DD, best of KZ IEM in terms of performance (except those new Planars which I haven’t touched yet). If I see successor of ZAS, I’ll buy.

EDX : $6 single DD, has internal plastic shell resonance that Tangzu managed to tune it as a part of final product, where LZ left it as a weak point. Price to performance wise, a pass, not too bad. But has competitors like TRN’s MT series, KBEARS KS series. There are latest gen of EDX but I have no interest trying those.

S1D : TWS with 1BA + 1DD, predecessor of SKS, OK level

SKS : TWS with 1BA + 1DD, actually best tuned TWS of KZ, quite good.

SK10 : TWS with 4BA+1DD, not too bad besides tuning

Z1Pro : TWS with XUN single DD, not bad

ZEX : Pretty Good, still stands out with its resolving capabilities for being $sub 20. Typical KZ V-tuning, but good part is it is less dampened, the driver’s output is directly rendered to the final output.

ZEX Pro : Avoid
CRN : Avoid
T10 : Avoid

CCA
CS10 : OK
C10 Pro : Hmm, ok
CA16 : pretty good, somehow non-KZ tuned, V-shape with mid-focus.
CS16 : Hmm, ok. Nothing special.
CSN: actually fun tuned 1BA+1DD, simple enough, no hard tech to make it sound bad.
NRA : Avoid
CRA+: quite impressive driver spec, tuning is W shape specialized for pops, pretty good, the golden shinny shell is a let down to me.

Above all, KZ ZAS, ZEX, SKS, DQ6S, and an odd ball ZS5, CCA CRA+ and CSN are what I consider as KZ/CCA’s IEMs that are still comparable to modern market of IEMs.

For ZAS, it is near HEXA ($79)’s line, so maybe not competitive anymore. My score for ZAS from my memory was in 70s/100 while HEXA is 85/100.

Other than ZAS, they are still worth a time to try.

My personal favorite is still the first KZ that I was interested with its fun V-shaped tuning. ZS5.
It is discontinued but still can find from third party retailers. It’s just a belsing 2BA + old KZ’s DDx2, but pretty fun in V-tuning.

Respect, you deserve an award!

 

[Nimweth]

Since KZ was my “fun and easygoing” for IEMs after UE pulled the plug for serious capital investment and sold them to Logitech, I’ve been purchased almost all releases of their offering, including CCA’s.

If there is a mileage system of KZ, I will be their diamond rank by now I guess. I’ve missed a few for those I had zero interests, but still maybe you can call me Mr.KZ

For further KZ knowledge you may hit up Prof. KZ @PhonoPhi

Here I can leave a narrative for their products and you can see the reason I stopped buying.

I still have some hope.

Knowledge Zenith
ZST Pro: old pair nothing stands out

ZS5:
2BA+2DD, you can see DQ6’s
Dual DD spirit from this ancient model. A V-tuned, very fun IEM that piqued my interest in Chi-fi. Still to date, I find ZS6’s 2BA+2DD a fun set to listen to. The shell is undoubtedly copy from campfire’s.

ZS6 :
ZS5’s successor with 2BA and 2DD.

ZS10: another hybrids, but fun 2DD is gone. Remaining typical KZ-V. Dry and energetic but somehow old school tuning now.

ZS10Pro: couldn’t find anything special
ZSN: sounds like down-sized ZS10
ZSN ProX: nothing special
AS10: KZ’s full BA attempt, actually pretty good.
AS12: 2nd attempt in full BA. Pretty amusing at a time.
AS16: 8BA model of full-BA series, actually well tuned and pretty low in distortions. A new AS16 Pro is out. But not competitive enough as you see HEXA’s shadow around competing range.

ASX: Extremely bass heavy V-tuned 10BA. Yes I complained about treble to be too edgy, and KZ completely cut that for AST while retaining extremely (ridiculously) high bass shelf.

AST: Bass dominant, hard to drive, ultimately listener picking IEM of KZ. If I see someone in love of AST, I can see it’s
a knucklehead-in-a-positive-way of KZ. It takes a great effort to make AST to make a great performance, pretty fun IEM to play with.

DQ6: one of KZ’s breakthrough. Fun and nice sounding W-tuned 3DD. Still one of my favorite, there are tracks only DQ6 is capable of reproducing the “feeling”. Your younger days, rough, but energetic days that DQ6 is programmed to recast.

DQ6S: not sure why HBB copied U12t, but it’s basically inoffensively tuned DQ6 with u12t’s FR + HBB’s high bass floor. Pretty good IEM that still scores great sonic output for HBB’s favorite rock/classic rocks. Yes, many old rock had terrible recoding/mix, the roughness matched with DQ6, and this DQ6S. This is a tuning I can say well done by HBB, not just his copy and paste warm-harmans we see being thrown to the market every week.

ZAX : V-tuned 7BA(old generation)+ 1DD(old gen), vented shell, but crossover design was not ideal. It let single DD to handle full sprectrum, and let all 7BA to add Layers to it. Imaging took hit as a result of this Disney’s electrical parade. It was pretty good at a time, but now, it’s outdated performance.

ZAS : ZAX’s successor, W-tuned 7BA+1DD, best of KZ IEM in terms of performance (except those new Planars which I haven’t touched yet). If I see successor of ZAS, I’ll buy.

EDX : $6 single DD, has internal plastic shell resonance that Tangzu managed to tune it as a part of final product, where LZ left it as a weak point. Price to performance wise, a pass, not too bad. But has competitors like TRN’s MT series, KBEARS KS series. There are latest gen of EDX but I have no interest trying those.

S1D : TWS with 1BA + 1DD, predecessor of SKS, OK level

SKS : TWS with 1BA + 1DD, actually best tuned TWS of KZ, quite good.

SK10 : TWS with 4BA+1DD, not too bad besides tuning

Z1Pro : TWS with XUN single DD, not bad

ZEX : Pretty Good, still stands out with its resolving capabilities for being $sub 20. Typical KZ V-tuning, but good part is it is less dampened, the driver’s output is directly rendered to the final output.

ZEX Pro : Avoid
CRN : Avoid
T10 : Avoid

CCA
CS10 : OK
C10 Pro : Hmm, ok
CA16 : pretty good, somehow non-KZ tuned, V-shape with mid-focus.
CS16 : Hmm, ok. Nothing special.
CSN: actually fun tuned 1BA+1DD, simple enough, no hard tech to make it sound bad.
NRA : Avoid
CRA+: quite impressive driver spec, tuning is W shape specialized for pops, pretty good, the golden shinny shell is a let down to me.

Above all, KZ ZAS, ZEX, SKS, DQ6S, and an odd ball ZS5, CCA CRA+ and CSN are what I consider as KZ/CCA’s IEMs that are still comparable to modern market of IEMs.

For ZAS, it is near HEXA ($79)’s line, so maybe not competitive anymore. My score for ZAS from my memory was in 70s/100 while HEXA is 85/100.

Other than ZAS, they are still worth a time to try.

My personal favorite is still the first KZ that I was interested with its fun V-shaped tuning. ZS5.
It is discontinued but still can find from third party retailers. It’s just a belsing 2BA + old KZ’s DDx2, but pretty fun in V-tuning.

Ha ha! You have not heard my two favourite KZs, BA10 and ZS7. They are long in the tooth now but none of the newer ones I have come close.