PhonoPhi
Headphoneus Supremus
Good to know!Hmm... Even those who are more tolerant and frequently review and are happy with KZ weren't happy with ZAT. so, not sure, if it's all down to the stigma.
Akros for eg.
From the description of the iem on his review channel: "It's not that it's bad , but it isn't exactly great either. Bass is shy and a little over delicate , while the mids, are fine at lower volume levels but forget about turning up the heat.As for extension and that sense of space and air.....hmmm there ain't much of that..... things sound closed in and a little bland.I guess you could make an argument that this was done to avoid the BA timbre , the fake sense of soundstage, but honestly there is nothing in the ZATs performance that makes up for that lack of sparkle. noCompared to other offerings I need not go too far, CCA HM20 is still in my books the best hybrid from KZ / CCA , while the KZ ZAX or ZS10PRO X are more satisfying.The KZ AS24 , the TOTL all BA set , also walks all over the ZAT, and even the likes of KZ ZVX, Dfi are all more coherent and musical.I wish that what I had to say about the ZAT was more positive , but when the Castor Harman at 15 USD outperforms the ZAT at 90usd , there's not much that can be said!" End quote.
I do not watch youtube in general (a degrading genre rewarding procreation of populists and hypers, IMO) and the only review of ZAT here is of the mass reviewer... and I have negative correlation between my satisfaction with IEMs and average opinions of serial reviewers' opinions... (I was lucky not reading any reviews before getting AS10 to start my rabbit-hole journey here....)
Anyhow, I was onto hybrids a bit more lately, after being content with AS24, T800 and AS16 being nicely sufficient.
I was longing quite for some time for ZAX with the better bass (tighter, and more supporting than leading) for my specific/limited preferences.
Now, ZS10 pro X are an improvement on good old KZ "V" and of a different genre than departing from ZS10 pro - ZSX, ZAX, ZAS, HM20 (I opted not to get the latter two).
ZAT delivered the great tightness of bass, but the bass/treble balance was way too much on the bass side for me, so I found the goodness only in an extreme of 0011 switches with the nozzle mesh removed. I shared my opinion on ZAT briefly - its greatness and its limitations - and enjoyed it to the best of my limited taste - totally not getting "not enough bass", but OK, perceptions/tastes can be different...
Yet, if Rhapsody is touted as a great IEM (!), then both treble and bass of ZAT are so much better, IMO, and there is hardly any consistency to me in "reviewers' opinions".
It makes some sense that mediocre but gentler sounding $35-$40 IEM can get hyped by "serial reviewers" (these two words fit somehow together) more than $85 IEM. This hype may serve well for the next hyped IEM to surely beat Rhapsody in several aspects: for instance, Trio. Trio can be agreed to be better a bit and costing a bit less... Then some quad/penta creations of Penon can be nicely contrasted, and many more things can be sold to good trusty hobbists raving for Trifecta... Ending this line of thoughts here...
I compared briefly ZAT and my other hybrid IEMs of recent: 1More Penta, Celest Phoenixcall & Plutus, and Simgot E6ML.
The Simgot is the most mediocre of all to me - can be called a good improvement on CCA C10 (if one remembers, not recent CA10; CCA totally screwed up their "nomenclature").
ZAT bass is in between of that of E6ML and Plutus to me, with ZAT projecting most spaciousness and great impression of stage of all (that makes sense for the large-shell multidrivers in my experience).
Phoenixcall and Penta are quite unique on their own and harder to compare directly. (Perhaps I should try to "burn" Penta to help with improving of its tubby DLC bass...)
Bass BCD from Plutus and mid/treble drivers of Penta would make a mighty IEM, while ZAT is a very good real-life IEM at that for me to enjoy now. Harman-tuned ZAT (Castor analogy) would be my "simple dream" IEM.
P. S. I use wide-bore TRI Clarion tips on most of my IEMs - these tips fit my ear anatomy amazingly well for a good seal and enhanced resonance throughout all tge range. I did order tecently few more tips from Dunu and Penon to carefully explore the tip dimension in another iteration (tips clearly matter the most of all other accessories, quite similar to clarinet barrels, if you know what I mean).
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