The discovery thread!
Jan 8, 2024 at 10:32 PM Post #92,296 of 131,441
The shell reminds me of a orange candy that used be available in my country a few decades ago. Very cheap. Very yum. Or is it my nostalgia playing the taste-buds trick?!
Reminds me of this one when I was a kid

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These are surprising abrasive. My tongue would never be the same :dt880smile:
 
Jan 8, 2024 at 10:40 PM Post #92,297 of 131,441
Pulled my Butastur out and yep, still awesome. Actually, it sounds especially great out of the Hiby FC6. Gives Butastur a tiny smidge of extra weight, warmth, and smoothness. I won't pretend to think good sources sound wildly different from one another, but this pairing has a nice synergy. I didn't keep track of it, but Butastur was probably one of my top most listened to IEMs of 2023, and I paid my own money for it without a discount. I don't even like to do reviews either; I find it laborious, and I'm lazy. So perhaps I just have poor taste, or maybe I'm an easily-led sheep. BaAaAah lol
 
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Jan 8, 2024 at 10:46 PM Post #92,298 of 131,441
I do love that KZ is a menace to reviewers!
How? Because they won't give free iems to reviewers? Most KZ stuff is super cheap so I'm sure if reviewers wanted to review them they wouldn't need to get them for free. I'm pretty sure the biggest reasons are QC and inconsistencies, cheap build quality, too frequent releases, and sound quality compared to most other budget sets.
 
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Jan 8, 2024 at 11:03 PM Post #92,299 of 131,441
How? Because they won't give free iems to reviewers? Most KZ stuff is super cheap so I'm sure if reviewers wanted to review them they wouldn't need to get them for free. I'm pretty sure the biggest reasons are QC and inconsistencies, cheap build quality, too frequent releases, and sound quality compared to most other budget sets.
How much QC problems are confined to BG collaborations?
I have only two problems with IEMs that I have (100+) - TRN and TRI, and several KZ IEMs I used for several months without any problems, crossing the fingers.

For the build quality - Project Red felt like KZ of 2018, but the packs of biased followers do not accentuate it.

The main threat of KZ to the reviewers is that in a very subjective field of audio and a "quest" for relative "values" (beating totals, pushing above the price and related subjective biased/promotional opinons)- no chance that many IEMs will survive in direct comparisons with KZ for the value.
 
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Jan 8, 2024 at 11:37 PM Post #92,301 of 131,441
Jan 8, 2024 at 11:38 PM Post #92,302 of 131,441
How? Because they won't give free iems to reviewers? Most KZ stuff is super cheap so I'm sure if reviewers wanted to review them they wouldn't need to get them for free. I'm pretty sure the biggest reasons are QC and inconsistencies, cheap build quality, too frequent releases, and sound quality compared to most other budget sets.
As someone who buy lots of KZ,
KZ is often interesting and within budget.

but they does severely need better clearer product planning.
for one, i'm currently eyeing on Rhapsody, but ZSN2 somehow appears with new gen DD which makes me pause a bit wondering whether another rhapsody class appears with new DD next month.
Midfi company who descended to budget section often have clearer product segmentation and planning, and for better or worse have more "final" tuning

when it comes to QC, there are few that problematic but the problem got really big exposure compared to several other brand QC issue.
but things got worse when they have that craphead of marketing rep who then proceed to wantonly fight people in facebook and other venue instead of simply admitting fault and QC issues. it ended creating way more bad press that the actual QC issue.
Now it evolved to things like for one, KZ won't touch Pseudo-planar because they afraid of "FAKE PLANAR KZ" headline as they are subjected to higher scrutiny than some other brand.

they now have pretty decent return policy as long as you bought it from KZ directly like KZTWS.com or KZofficialstore on aliexpress via Jenny emails.
Their tuning also matures and have more variation to keep things interesting,

but yeah, they need clearer product planning and more to regain their reputations.
and oddly, it need more review samples for reviews as its often difficult to get information for KZ new releases to judge whether you want to buy it or not.
often their iems barely have one review or third party measurement while more uuh, popular brand might already have 10 third party measurement and impression.
regardless on people feels on review samples, i need the information before buying and third party reviews are good way for it. (Hopefully from reviewer that i'm familiar with)
way too often i blind buy KZ hoping it will be good with varied result.
 
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Jan 9, 2024 at 12:55 AM Post #92,306 of 131,441
Jan 9, 2024 at 1:02 AM Post #92,307 of 131,441
These two are similarly priced and have same number of drivers but guess what, they don't sound similar. The OH700VB is more musical and full sounding with focus on bass when bass is turned on, shifting focus to Imaging and surrounding presentation when bass is off.
EJ07M is more about accuracy and precision. Treble can be a bit extra spicy but nothing to worry about.
Here is my comparison video of these two high quality IEMs:
 
Jan 9, 2024 at 1:22 AM Post #92,308 of 131,441
Jan 9, 2024 at 1:22 AM Post #92,309 of 131,441
The shell reminds me of a orange candy that used be available in my country a few decades ago. Very cheap. Very yum. Or is it my nostalgia playing the taste-buds trick?!

I love the orange. This color plastic was very popular in the late 1970s. Tons of toys and other products got made out of that same translucent, road cone orange. And yeah, it has a very candy like appearance too.

This is the first one in a few months I’m actually considering. ISN’s Neo5 is such a winner, I’m sold on their sound.
 

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