Zero Audio Carbo Mezzo DX220-CM / Zero Bass ZB-03
Nov 29, 2018 at 12:55 PM Post #46 of 63
@Grayson73 I did. Sent them back a few weeks later....

Tenores are still my favorite all around IEM. I was hoping the Mezzo/DX220 would be an upgrade. In some ways, it was:

Deep bass response and texture - low rumble presence with texture, without sounding boxy or congested.
Bigger stage - wide and deep. Dang I wish I didn't end up hating these.
Better imaging - see above
Better build - flat cable wasn't entirely welcome, but the reinforcements gave a better assurance to their durability, though I am going on 4+ years with fully functioning Tenores.

But the downside:

Swishssss, ssssss,, tttttttssssss, shhhhhhhttttttts. Shttsy treble.
Some channel imbalance, perhaps.
Occasional distortion in the lower freqeuncies.
Mid bass BOOOOOOOOM.

So I rolled the tips to tame the bass successfully (MEE double flange infamously recommended in the Tenore thread. Unfortunately, this made the treble even worse.

I put about 40 hours on them before giving up. There was so much potential, but as @Deveraux alluded, the sibilant highs were a show stopper.

I am still looking for the upgrade to the the Tenores. Love the comfort (comply 200), balanced FR, and good clarity for the price.
 
Nov 29, 2018 at 1:15 PM Post #47 of 63
@Grayson73 I did. Sent them back a few weeks later....

Tenores are still my favorite all around IEM. I was hoping the Mezzo/DX220 would be an upgrade. In some ways, it was:

Deep bass response and texture - low rumble presence with texture, without sounding boxy or congested.
Bigger stage - wide and deep. Dang I wish I didn't end up hating these.
Better imaging - see above
Better build - flat cable wasn't entirely welcome, but the reinforcements gave a better assurance to their durability, though I am going on 4+ years with fully functioning Tenores.

But the downside:

Swishssss, ssssss,, tttttttssssss, shhhhhhhttttttts. Shttsy treble.
Some channel imbalance, perhaps.
Occasional distortion in the lower freqeuncies.
Mid bass BOOOOOOOOM.

So I rolled the tips to tame the bass successfully (MEE double flange infamously recommended in the Tenore thread. Unfortunately, this made the treble even worse.

I put about 40 hours on them before giving up. There was so much potential, but as @Deveraux alluded, the sibilant highs were a show stopper.

I am still looking for the upgrade to the the Tenores. Love the comfort (comply 200), balanced FR, and good clarity for the price.

That's a shame. They do have 3 new ones, Carbo i, Zirco Nero and Zirco Pezzo. Carbo i was reviewed by headfonia:

https://www.headfonia.com/review-zero-audio-carbo/
 
Nov 29, 2018 at 2:12 PM Post #48 of 63
That's a shame. They do have 3 new ones, Carbo i, Zirco Nero and Zirco Pezzo. Carbo i was reviewed by headfonia:

https://www.headfonia.com/review-zero-audio-carbo/
Thanks, I saw those, too (the Carbo i), but I hesitate because of the larger nozzles. But that's just an ear-size specific thing. The fit approach is interesting, though.

I am definitely interested in learning more about the Zirco line, but first, I'll have to learn Japanese :) Seriously, though, does anyone have a link for acquiring either of the Zirco's?

Thanks for the rec's though.
 
Nov 29, 2018 at 2:24 PM Post #49 of 63
Jun 4, 2019 at 12:14 PM Post #52 of 63
@Grayson73 I did. Sent them back a few weeks later....

Tenores are still my favorite all around IEM. I was hoping the Mezzo/DX220 would be an upgrade. In some ways, it was:

Deep bass response and texture - low rumble presence with texture, without sounding boxy or congested.
Bigger stage - wide and deep. Dang I wish I didn't end up hating these.
Better imaging - see above
Better build - flat cable wasn't entirely welcome, but the reinforcements gave a better assurance to their durability, though I am going on 4+ years with fully functioning Tenores.

But the downside:

Swishssss, ssssss,, tttttttssssss, shhhhhhhttttttts. Shttsy treble.
Some channel imbalance, perhaps.
Occasional distortion in the lower freqeuncies.
Mid bass BOOOOOOOOM.

So I rolled the tips to tame the bass successfully (MEE double flange infamously recommended in the Tenore thread. Unfortunately, this made the treble even worse.

I put about 40 hours on them before giving up. There was so much potential, but as @Deveraux alluded, the sibilant highs were a show stopper.

I am still looking for the upgrade to the the Tenores. Love the comfort (comply 200), balanced FR, and good clarity for the price.


Had the Mezzo for a few days and I agree. Loved the nice construction, lightweight and comfortable. Big bass and open sound but couldn't put up with the boominess and the tssssss. I think they are very close in sound to the Sony XBA 50AP, but I find the Sony more pleasant.
 
Jun 18, 2019 at 6:16 PM Post #55 of 63
How come a smaller outfit like ZA is still putting out wired options while the big boys are dropping them. Scared off by the Chi-Fi onslaught and the wireless movement I guess but no AT, Sony, JVC, etc. wired stuff in such a long time. Annnd they found a design to combine the wireless and wired together. The bigger boys do have more brains running around since they are bigger but don't come up with any interesting or new ideas. Slow and bureaucratic I guess. They might have some with ideas that don't get approved.
 
Nov 8, 2019 at 4:15 AM Post #56 of 63
Hi,

I bought the Zirco Pezzo in september at Zenmarket. I love it so much I want to digg into the Zirco Tenore.
It's difficult for me to describe it but everything in the frequency response is near perfect for me. Maybe a tiny little bright sounding at first.
I have **** ****, XBA 6in1, EN900, PT15, Ues Pro, Dunu Titan 1es, Soundmagic E11, Trn V80 and plenty of full size headphones (Oppo, Mrspeakers, etc.).
I can confidently say that this Zirco Pezzo is one of my fav of all, if not the one.
(I also want to say that the Ues Pro is a hidden marvel :wink: )
 
Feb 14, 2020 at 10:22 AM Post #57 of 63
Just got the Zirco Pezzos and really enjoying them! Very wide soundstage, think left to right. They really spread in the x axis - monitoresque presentation.
The bass quantity is just perfect, very fast drivers with zero bass bloat. They dig deep, sub bass comes out with good rumble and tightness. Mids are clear and well separated.
The highs. The highs, well, they are greatly detailed, and you won't miss anything. The extension is also stellar!
They do get a bit sibilant at times, there is a peak around 7 Khz that shows little mercy. I just had them for a day now and hope they get a little easy over time!

The cables and build are similar to Tenores/Basso. They went for straight jack this time, which is really much more solid and has great strain reliefs. The point where they might break is near the housings. The smooth, tiny housings also force you to tug at the wires to remove them. Not really sure how many quick tugs these can stand!
 
Feb 28, 2020 at 8:12 AM Post #58 of 63
More Zirco Pezzo impressions + Modification:
No doubt, the Zirco Pezzo drivers are fast and delivery great quality output.
Bass is near perfect, tight and fast with zero bloat. Compared to EPH200, these lack a little bit of bass body, but, sound airier and extract more information in mid-range. Detail retrieval is really impressive although the highs are somewhat thin sounding lacking note weight.

Instrument positioning, again I emphasize, is stellar, and everything is well separated in a wide soundstage.
All said, there's no going around the fact that these are bright earphones. They are really bright, and they do induce listening fatigue after a while.

So, to tame this aggressive treble, I present an easy reversible mod that makes these IEMs sound near perfect!
I use Sennheiser IE Pro tips for this mod, which has a crosshair silicon mesh which prevents the foam or anything stuffed within from dropping through the other side.

Senn IE Pro eartips:
Sennheiser IE pro tips.JPG

Senn mod_bright.jpg
1. Senn IE pro silicon tip,
2. Kitchen towel/dish cloth, made of 35% cotton, 35%Viscose 30% Polyester (cut to fit the eartip bore),
3. Foam included in stock IE Pro eartips.


Mod 1: Sennheiser medium tips + 3 included foams
Simply shove in 3 of these foam strips in each of the Senn ear tips, and we get a signature like this

Zirco Pezzo mod plus msr.JPG
This tames the highs considerably and there is great clarity throughout. Note weight is better with slightly more body.
The overall signature is still tilted towards bright, although they hardly sound sibilant anymore.

I wanted these tamed a bit more for longer listening sessions, and here comes our dish cloth mod!

Mod 2: Sennheiser medium tips + dish cloth + 1 included foam
Carefully cut out a small disc from the dish cloth roughly equal to the inner diameter of our Sennheiser ear tip bore.
It is a little tricky, but shove this piece of dish cloth in first, using the 3.5 mm jack, or small pin.
On top of this shove in one of these foam strips. (using only the dish cloth again brings the treble to near Mod1 range).
Here is how the curve looks now:
Zirco mod final msr.JPG
Now the sound is near neutral, and it does not sound so bright anymore. Note weight and body are amazing, and the clarity and detail retrieval is still incredile!
This is how i'm listening to my Pezzos since the last couple of days, and i couldn't be happier!

Measurement comparisons:
Pezzo Mod vs Pezzo Mod+
Zirco Pezzo mod vs mod plus.JPG

Stock vs Mod vs Mod+
Zirco Pezzo mods_msr.JPG

With the final mod (Mod+), the Zirco Pezzos sound like Yamaha EPH200s, with greater clarity and detail retrieval. The male vocals could use just a little more body even with the Mod+, but i think this is why they are able to extract more mid-range information too.

The Pezzo Mod+ is like a properly bass boosted neutral tuning.
 
Last edited:
Apr 8, 2020 at 8:36 PM Post #60 of 63
Just got the Zirco Pezzos and really enjoying them! Very wide soundstage, think left to right. They really spread in the x axis - monitoresque presentation.
The bass quantity is just perfect, very fast drivers with zero bass bloat. They dig deep, sub bass comes out with good rumble and tightness. Mids are clear and well separated.
The highs. The highs, well, they are greatly detailed, and you won't miss anything. The extension is also stellar!
They do get a bit sibilant at times, there is a peak around 7 Khz that shows little mercy. I just had them for a day now and hope they get a little easy over time!

The cables and build are similar to Tenores/Basso. They went for straight jack this time, which is really much more solid and has great strain reliefs. The point where they might break is near the housings. The smooth, tiny housings also force you to tug at the wires to remove them. Not really sure how many quick tugs these can stand!

Hi, i'm new in IEMs, planning to replace stock earphone from samsung tuned by akg

How do you compare it with Zero Audio Carbo Mezzo ?
In Indonesia, zirco pezzo is priced around US$40, but carbo mezzo is priced around US$80

Does 'higher price = better quality' applied in IEMs ?
 

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