This is probably the most balanced, and most info filled video I've seen on this whole KZ debacle. Though from the looks of a lot of the comments here, not everyone watched all of it. A shame really: the data and conclusions presented make the most sense, compared to what a lot of other people have been insinuating over the past few days. No, the drivers aren't fake. Yes, they are (the BAs anyway) poorly implemented. Yes, they will work if properly wired. Yes, KZ messed up (though I can see some people making counter arguments concerning the ZAS...eh). No, Crin and HBB didn't scam anyone; they just advised on tuning. Anyone trying to insinuate more than this without any real evidence past what was presented here just has an ax to grind. Really good work on this video Hi-Fri. I appreciated the amount of info you presented, and it didn't even feel all that long. :)
I clicked for KZ-gate but it's your story that really touched me. Respect to you and your parents. As more of a speaker guy, also using and liking full range single driver speakers, I did not understand how so many drivers in an IEM can produce a coherent sound. I just recently received a KZ ZEX Pro (CRN) and a CCA C12 and find them to be pretty good. Now I know why.
@@pin1771 These are my first decent IEM's so I can not make comparisons. I ordered them based on positive reviews and to me they are clear, detailed but not bright and bass similarly deep and controlled as the CRN. And who knows how many (if any) of those 5 BA's per side are contributing to the sound?
@@pin1771 I have no idea why 4 BA's are even needed for mids and one for treble. CCA is just a KZ sub-brand so my guess is they are there mainly for marketing purposes. Still, there's no arguing about the sound for that price. Conversely, the sheer engineering effort that should go into a 5-driver IEM to integrate all of them seamlessly would just not be feasible for a sub $40 product.
It was really nice to hear your story. We'd be immensely grateful if you could test zs10 pro, as It is the most tried and reviewed multi driver iem kz iem by a lot of people. Thanks and wish you luck
I would definitely like to hear it, it has been best sounding one on my K5 Pro DAC/Amp, when I using the Aiyima DAC-A2, I thought it wasn't as good as IEMs like the C12, but outside of EQ, this sounds really great.
So far as you’ve said ..if you like it ..then they’re good. I suspect a QC issue ..if the BA’s were missing that’s one thing ..but not assembled correctly that’s another. So far 2022 IEM’s purchased have been fantastic. Olina ✅ Midnight ✅ Great and informative video. Thank you 🍻🥓
Very helpful and balanced video. As you say, there is no need for a witch hunt. Learning the truth by taking things apart (literally or figuratively) is a very sensible approach. Good work.
GREAT VIDEO! I bought my pair of ZAS less than 3 months ago, last week they broke while in a stage soundcheck.... due some kind of ¨sound peak¨... sad.... now i am researching and this got me a lot of good info to decide what to do...
Crinacle did a good job doing his best tuning defect product. These defect doesn't make the CRN bad IEM, but it prove that kz greatly wasted its potential. I hope there will be a guide to rewire/mod KZ IEMs so ppl can make use of these inaudible BAs.
These are hybrid IEMs with 3 drivers in them, and they are (HBB and Crin) the "super-ear" tuners, none of them could address that 2 of the 3 drivers in each IEM not working (or no sound coming out from them)? Even a little bit of suspicion? Both tuned just a dynamic driver and didn't know? Funny, very funny.
I think the CRN thing is well in the terms of "tuning", as you described it. The DQ6 is probably too, but there is some bad taste to it. I think the problem was, that they offered them both an existing model to play with and they didn't want to make it a completely new IEM. Especially HBB, from what I understood, was really interested to tune the DQ6. Now what if they went back and forth and KZ found out, that they would get exactly the tuning that HBB wanted, when they just switch off these two "treble monsters". And then what? Taking them out entirely, but then it wouldn't have been a DQ6 anymore. Or leaving them in, so you actually get what you payd for (in hardware) although 2/3 don't do much? They could have taken them out, describe the whole process and make it a BIG FIND, that HBB found out, that making the DQ6 half the price would also improve the sound by a lot ... hmm. Sounds weird, because why didn't KZ find that out in the first place. Now it would have been a scam, if they had put disfunctional drivers in there, like broken leftovers or empty hulls. But they work, they get fed electricity, just not much. And by the way, the DQ6S sound quite good imo. The only thing, that I could argue is, that as a single DD, they would have probably sold at the price of the CCA CRA instead of twice as much. And there would have been no unecessary eletrical waste shipped around the globe (because most people will make no further use out of these drivers, I guess). It seems to be the chinese way. It reminds me of that silver cable I bought from TRN. It was supposed to be 1.2 meters. And technically, if you measured from the tip of the plug to the stretched out hooks and the outer edge of the QDC connector, then it was 120.3 cm ... Useable cable length was more like 98cm. I have to sit very close to the table to make it work. But TECHNICALLY it's somehow 120cm ... I guess. Silver is expensive, I get it, but still ... Probably KZ will learn from that. Hopefully they will improve.
Спасибо за видео. Целиком согласен. С продукцией KZ знаком с 2013го года. Тоже разбирал и тоже делал сам наушники, преимущественно динамические. Сейчас возникли затруднения по причине, что живу я в Украине. По поводу багов KZ мне кажется, что причина в отсутствии контроля качества. Полном отсутствии. Были случаи, когда 2 пары наушников одной модели, купленные в одном магазине звучали по разному. Были случаи когда левый и правый в противофазе. Перебирал модель ZST, удалось добиться нормального звучания, обойдя конденсатор и подключив арматуру последовательно к динамику. В KZ ZSN приглушил высокие от динамика поролоном, оставив арматуру открытой. Пропала грязь на верхней середине.Еще раз сасибо и удачи вам. Thank you for the video. Entirely agree. I have been familiar with KZ products since 2013. I also disassembled and also made the headphones myself, mostly dynamic ones. Now there are difficulties because I live in Ukraine. As for the KZ bugs, it seems to me that the reason is the lack of quality control. Complete absence. There were cases when 2 pairs of headphones of the same model, bought in the same store, sounded different. There were cases when the left and right are in antiphase. I went through the ZST model, I managed to achieve normal sound by bypassing the capacitor and connecting the armature in series to the speaker. In KZ, ZSN muffled the highs from the speaker with foam rubber, leaving the armature open. The dirt on the upper middle is gone. Thank you again and good luck to you.
It's my first time listening/watching one of your videos, and have just liked your attitude and approach to this. Maybe it's because I'm also from the technical testing world. Keep it up man.
Great vid! I too went down the IEM rabbit hole in the midst of COVID (though not to the same DIY extent 🤪). Regarding the DQ6, I could see the wiring and driver phase being a QC issue, but physically blocking the nozzle is outrageous. I’d be curious how it sounds once you get everything hooked up properly.
Yesterday just bought a pair of Kz x HBB DQ6s, and being someone like you who loves to disassembly things I was searching for a video tutorial if it exist of someone taking a par my headphones, started watching this video and I am pretty surprised of what you and the reddit people have founded I live in Argentina, paíd for this headphones like $8.000 local currency And after watching this, as you said for half the price I would get the same audio quality. Now I m thinking, should I disassembly this things, wire the 6mm drivers in parallel and use a 2mm drill bit to enlarge the chanel to connect to the tip or just wait and see if you make a video showing if it worth it. Anyway amazing video full of info, I will be waiting for a video testing this sound mod If something in this text doesn't make sense or has a orthographic mistake my apologies, English isn't my native language.
RUclips randomly recommended BGGAR's video on the KZ fuckup. I am so glad that got me here, the first few minutes of this video are great (I'm still watching), you got a new subscriber dude. I grew up tearing stuff appart and fixing things as well, I've been fixing old film cameras (ranging from "pretty old" to "geez _how old is that?")_ for about 6 years now so... Not the same thing, but same logic, you could say. Looking forward to new videos from you!
Hey man a little advice - If your background noise is going to be that loud run your video through byenoise app before posting it’ll get rid of the fans etc well worth a few dollars. With iems that computer kicking on is loud.
Oh my god. I literally made this comment in Crin's original channel, I think. I said if you were gonna buy KZ's, I can only recommend two: KZ ZST - cuz I think this was the first IEM that gave them their house sound. All other models almost sound the same. KX ZEX - cuz it has a different driver technology Lo and behold, the ZEX has the working Magnetostat and the ZEX Pro doesn't. That's probably why I didn't like the pros. 🤔🤔 In one of Bad Guy Good Audio's videos, I commented that I like the ZEX over the Pros
I actually remember the ZST’s, probably my second set from KZ after I lost my ES4s that a friend gifted to me. Used the ever loving shit out of them wired and with the bt adapter until I lost them. I’ll need to get a proper ZEX to hear the differences but at least despite the issues with the ZEX Pro, I mainly got them for crin’s tuning to go away from the typical KZ sound and for that job, they fit the role perfectly fine. I’m likely not going to buy any more KZ products in the meantime since this whole debacle has everyone wondering which of their releases actually has fully working drivers and which ones have duds barely making any output to justify their existence.
Good backstory. "Quit screwing around Jeff." Reverse polarity on one of the KZ DQ6 minidrivers, now that is funny! They could have doubled the price spent on the main driver.
My first IEM was KZ ZSN pro and KbearvKs2. Before that I was into wireless audio. The first of those was the Skullcandy Sesh Evo. My passion didn't really take off until I bought the better ones like Soundpeats H1 and CCA C10. Then started getting better versions from there. The Blons, Moondrops, Tin, and on and on.
@@MK-ro7ee it has a BA and single driver. In that sense it sounds great in the soundstage ability and separation. Great for gaming. The tuning is good for rock, metal, hip hop. Other than that those others are slightly better tuned though.
Very informative. I have KZ ZEX (original) and I like them very much. Good to know the ZEX work fine, according to the video at minutes 26:00 and 43:00 , but, sad to know the bad practices of the company. Thank you for sharing and good luck.
@@pin1771 Yes, for the price, its sound good. Its bright V shape IEMs, easy to drive and suitable for smartphones with headphones jack. Definitely sound better with external DAC headphones amp or USB audio interface.
Hey thank you for your honesty thank you for your integrity and thank you for taking the time to just be neutral in state the facts and I appreciate that very much and you have a wonderful day
To be honest this entire fiasco exposed reviewers just as much as KZ. It showed just how little value an opinion really has and how bias can impact your perception of a product.
Wow man great video. Your passion is contagious. Hope you keep on and don’t get bogged down talking meta about the hobby too much. I’ve seen that start to happen as newer channels come up. I think it might scare people away like the witch-hunt stuff. People come to enjoy music and learn more about good audio and I almost forgot that 😅
I'm certainly not going to get rid of my KZ ZS10 Pros but I will probably hold off on anymore KZ products until they prove to be honest. Still nice to have decent sounding cheap IEMs for variaty and for taking places or for uses when I don't want to bring my FH3's, OH10's, or ect. And honestly they still sound so much better than even some of the priciest things I've tried from average retail stores previously, if they get their act together KZ still has a decent thing going
Thanks for using your skills for the Forces of Good. Currently have some Zex Pro (CRN) in the Amazon cart as my first set of (mostly) balanced signature headphones. The reviews about the balance are still accurate, I imagine, but this is sketchy as hell. I'd rather have a balanced single driver marketed as such with a matching smaller size and lower cost instead of having decorative drivers inside. Keep up the good work!
Zs10 pro probably, and i bought it months ago knowing that, my first chi-fi, and they are great, if sound great, doesnt matter how many drivers theres inside of it
25:05 My guess here is that the development team at KZ was unable to tune the drivers so that they sound well enough, and deadline was already approaching, so they had to launch it into production like this. Anyway, for all of the good IEM models they make, I think I can forgive them a little bit of bullshit like this.
We need the official biopic. If I can ask for first rights of refusal on my directorial debut I’d appreciate you giving me the opportunity 🤷🏼♂️😂 Btw, I subbed ya a while back and have been very glad to have done so. I always enjoy the videos and this one was no exception..it was cool to hear a little personal background about yourself, all teasing aside
I paid £70 (UK GBP) for the KZ ZAS, I'm still in the return window from Amazon, I also bought the Bluetooth adapter for another £40. Honestly speaking I was blown away with the sound as they are my first IEM's going from some cheapo headphones, but I would have been blown away with anything half decent. Any recommendation for alternative ear hook BT IEM's that are bass heavy ? Or are these some of the sets that are OK ? I'd appreciate any advise as I spent a lot more than i wanted to on these.
Unfortunately I don't have any recommendations for Bluetooth IEMs that are bassy. I don't use Bluetooth IEMs so I'm definitely not the guy to ask. If you want much better sound I would return the IEMs and get the Olina, but it is not a bassy set. Honestly if you're looking for bass you're probably good sticking where you're at, that or maybe take a look at the Trippowin TC01. They're KILLER iems for the money and will probably give your ZAS a run for it's money. But again, ZAS is definitely not a bad option.
@@hi-friaudioman Thanks for your response. I think I'll keep them, they do sound very good. Might look at the Trippowin TC01 as a secondary pair. cheers !
I stopped buying KZ/CCA/TRN in 2019 and prefer to buy fewer higher quality sets. The last KZ I purchased was the ZSX and C12 and I believe I purchased the TRN BA5 in December. I do use the C12 at the gym off my phone and it gets the job done. Last night under an overhead fluorescent light I removed the C12 from my ears and looked at the BA units and it looks like 2 of the side by side units are capped off. I’m curious how many of those units are firing. I did prefer the ZSX over the C12. Needless to say I’ll never purchase another set from the KZ/CCA/TRN end of the pool. Although the fact that there’s a KZ /Tripowin connection, is it hypocritical to support Tripowin? I mean they’ve been knocking it out of the park with the MELE/Olina and now the Lea among others that flew under the radar. Olina is next on my list after being very satisfied with the Moondrop KATO.
Ah thanks! I knew it wasn't based on piezo/crystal tech, but I wasn't sure if it was a charged film or not, honestly it just looks like a cheap piece of metal inside but one side is coated. Thanks for the info!
I have known that kz iem some of its ba dont work. I did have zs6 and zs7 with inverted wiring on ba but I made a crossover board/frequency divider for zs6 and later zs7, tune them to suit my taste. I just came across this drama when my co-worker commented on my zas, I told them the factory crossover board is useless and show them the crossover board I made for my zas.
Ouch. And I just bought a DQ6. It'll be here today or tomorrow and now I feel ripped of. But maybe not, I bought it for 15 USD. So I guess this is why it went down in price. This will be my first IEM. I hope it's good. I'm not rich, I plan to buy another if I like DQ6. So, it's sad to hear this simply because I don't have that much money set aside for stuff like IEM so I do feel like I wasted money for two non working DD.
I get that, like 2 weeks ago I bought my first audiotechnica with a nice Amp and dac, and I don't think I can go back to my skullcandy unless I eq the hell out of them, they are still bassy and fun, but I can't believe I used to think they sounded perfect, so yeah once you train your ears a bit, it's really hard to go back to normal audio quality.
I've been using KZ ZS10 Pro and ZSN Pro for years. Recently I've been looking for TWS and went with KZ Xtra. While waiting for my delivery I've been catching up with KZ line-up and just noticed all that drama that took place in 2022. Two years later I find it hilarious. I doesn't really expose KZ but the entire IEM community. For years KZ has been a darling of budget IEMs (and I'm talking about independent reviews here), until someone discovers that not all drivers work or perform as expected and now what... they're suddenly are horrible? :D Well first of all it doesn't matter how many drivers they have, they should just sound good to their owner. Yeah, KZ has been deceptive on how their drivers work, but who I really stopped trusting is the IEM reviewers.
Is that the AC or the computer fan cutting in and out in the background? iBasso IT00's 1 DD seems to be working just fine? lol...Really interesting work man keep it up us nerds love it 🤓👍
Nice review by ya jf, anyone who thinks that crin or hbb, whatever couldnt hear the difference of how a single dynamic driver vs avin dual or tribrid , knowin how they play as a iem, is outta there minds...demos or not, thoze 2 shoulda noticed the difference, wen most of the baz, or etc were not playing. I ave a revonext rx6, daul drivers, and i can hear wen one part of it is picking up the mids treb, and the driver is playing the bass..ofc they were gonna post no mas..smh..
This is all pretty effen Techy for an old dude like me. Could you answer this, please? Should I buy the Linsoul KZ AS16 Pro? It may be my 1st and only pair as I don't need IEMs and use my headphones maybe twice a year, I am just very curious.
Thanks for the info. I'm currently building my own custom IEM as a private/collage project and ordered the KZ AS06 for the internals. I will definitely check every BA driver before installing. I guess these issues are related with newer IEMs from KZ. Sad to see, specially because of the wasted materials, while having resource limitations word wide.
are you active in the forums and such? if so - a link will be great :) your videos are just on point. sure there are good channels like that of HBB or DMS, but what you're doing is different and so interesting.
I always suspected KZ was a sketchy company. They play the "More drivers means better sound" motto to attract newbies who believe in this which is simply not true. This PR fiasco makes you wonder how many other chi-fi sets have fake / dead drivers or drivers that barely do anything. Speaking of the hobby, many people are willing to spend a grand on something like an Iphone but won't spend more than $30 on IEMs. I personally haven't spent more than $200 on a phone because I don't care about having a better one, it's perspective. I'd happily spend over a grand on a TOTL set but alas, my budget doesn't stretch that far yet so I decided to play with the $200-300 market right now.
I've refuse to buy their product since day 1 they going into hypetrain on several hifi forums. There's no way they make multiple drivers with such cheap price, and it's sounds horrible
Actually honestly... Multi driver at bare minimum even not tuned right... Will reproduce more accurate sound on multi-staging sound/music... I wont go back to single driver unit no matter how good it is... Thats why even car audio need multiple speakers and home audio soundbar now comes with subwoofer (where it used to come only a single sound bar and nothing else)
Is no control quality in any Chinese factory, at least you don't pay a external company to do this, even they own doesn't know what the workers are doing, here they all work on quantity and not on quality, that's way are 10% price from brands like shure or many others. So is nothing to do, I tested my self dozens of various electronic devices and equipments, from 100 pcs. 20 to 50% are bad.
The "fake drivers" scandal never really made any sense to me - if KZ were going to include fake dummy drivers, you'd think that the dummy BAs wouldn't even produce sound in the first place. It seems plausible to me that it's just a case of poor driver implementation, which makes sense when you consider their price point. Otherwise, why would a budget-oriented IEM brand even increase their cost by including multiple BAs that do absolutely nothing? It makes zero sense. I guess you could argue that dummy drivers were included for the whole "multi-driver IEM" marketing aspect that KZ is known for, but it still would be a weirdass business strategy for any headphone company. Also, I disassembled one of my ZSXs awhile back, and I can confirm that appropriately audible sound comes out of the areas where the BAs are mounted. I'd have to tear them down further to listen to each individual BA, but at this point I think the ZSX have at least three functional and audible drivers. I suspect that most of their products are also legitimate, though I could be wrong.
Thanks, all of this is great, basically you get what yo pay for. But what I really want to see is for someone to tear apart Shure SE846, find out the exact same thing is happening, now that would be interesting. I sort of knew this were crap just because what we are paying for…
Mad at Kz... glad this happened. Thanks for this video. I was hyped by all this multi speakers iem at low cost. Imagine spending way more money on tribrid berillium x-metal magic when so called guru hifi veterans can’t hear differences, it all fall to what sounds good and enjoying music. All this technicalities is non sense. Kz better stay in the super cheap chi-fi market. No need for trust there
I think those are legit - just one driver. The concept makes sense and they're not all that cheap. The difficulty in tuning them well is a statement that they probably as they say they are. At least from more reputable brands like Tin, 7Hz, etc.
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KZ: Naaah. No one would notice anyways...
Hi-Fri, Delta Fyre & Akros: Hold my tweezers!
KZ be gangsta until people be removing drivers and using their secret weapon: the IEC711 measurement rig
now they say "it's to add Tone and Timbre", what a cop out
This is probably the most balanced, and most info filled video I've seen on this whole KZ debacle. Though from the looks of a lot of the comments here, not everyone watched all of it. A shame really: the data and conclusions presented make the most sense, compared to what a lot of other people have been insinuating over the past few days. No, the drivers aren't fake. Yes, they are (the BAs anyway) poorly implemented. Yes, they will work if properly wired. Yes, KZ messed up (though I can see some people making counter arguments concerning the ZAS...eh). No, Crin and HBB didn't scam anyone; they just advised on tuning. Anyone trying to insinuate more than this without any real evidence past what was presented here just has an ax to grind.
Really good work on this video Hi-Fri. I appreciated the amount of info you presented, and it didn't even feel all that long. :)
What's the counter argument regarding the ZAS by the way? (just curious)
Definitely!
hahaha they just glue it on the board
I am curious to see how this sounds when its properly wired. Wish you'd be able to graph it. Very interesting indeed
Probably not that good. Otherwise why they would do this x)
Glad I checked you out after watching HBB, you seem like a very nice trustworthy guy and thats what we all need in this hobby.
I clicked for KZ-gate but it's your story that really touched me. Respect to you and your parents.
As more of a speaker guy, also using and liking full range single driver speakers, I did not understand how so many drivers in an IEM can produce a coherent sound. I just recently received a KZ ZEX Pro (CRN) and a CCA C12 and find them to be pretty good. Now I know why.
is cca c12 worth it? is it a good upgrade from kz zs10pro?
@@pin1771 These are my first decent IEM's so I can not make comparisons. I ordered them based on positive reviews and to me they are clear, detailed but not bright and bass similarly deep and controlled as the CRN. And who knows how many (if any) of those 5 BA's per side are contributing to the sound?
@@gaborozorai3714 im waiting for someone to do teardown on cca c12 im curious if cca did really use all the 5ba or just jammed in there lmaoo
@@pin1771 I have no idea why 4 BA's are even needed for mids and one for treble. CCA is just a KZ sub-brand so my guess is they are there mainly for marketing purposes. Still, there's no arguing about the sound for that price. Conversely, the sheer engineering effort that should go into a 5-driver IEM to integrate all of them seamlessly would just not be feasible for a sub $40 product.
Any passive crossover will kill sound
It was really nice to hear your story.
We'd be immensely grateful if you could test zs10 pro, as It is the most tried and reviewed multi driver iem kz iem by a lot of people.
Thanks and wish you luck
I would definitely like to hear it, it has been best sounding one on my K5 Pro DAC/Amp, when I using the Aiyima DAC-A2, I thought it wasn't as good as IEMs like the C12, but outside of EQ, this sounds really great.
@@taidee c12? cca c12? is the cca c12 worth it? i have zs10 pro but the left one died. should i upgrade to cca c12?
A little late to the party but I was happy to hear your story of how you started tinkering. Thanks for the insight!
Wow! I'm still in shock!!
So far as you’ve said ..if you like it ..then they’re good.
I suspect a QC issue ..if the BA’s were missing that’s one thing ..but not assembled correctly that’s another.
So far 2022 IEM’s purchased have been fantastic.
Olina ✅
Midnight ✅
Great and informative video.
Thank you 🍻🥓
Very helpful and balanced video. As you say, there is no need for a witch hunt. Learning the truth by taking things apart (literally or figuratively) is a very sensible approach. Good work.
GREAT VIDEO! I bought my pair of ZAS less than 3 months ago, last week they broke while in a stage soundcheck.... due some kind of ¨sound peak¨... sad.... now i am researching and this got me a lot of good info to decide what to do...
Crinacle did a good job doing his best tuning defect product. These defect doesn't make the CRN bad IEM, but it prove that kz greatly wasted its potential.
I hope there will be a guide to rewire/mod KZ IEMs so ppl can make use of these inaudible BAs.
Pls fr
So the zsn pro x has useless 1 ba ??
Do you have any link to the audiophile community discord ?
@@ALiRAZA-mg8bd not necessarily n9
These are hybrid IEMs with 3 drivers in them, and they are (HBB and Crin) the "super-ear" tuners, none of them could address that 2 of the 3 drivers in each IEM not working (or no sound coming out from them)? Even a little bit of suspicion? Both tuned just a dynamic driver and didn't know? Funny, very funny.
Bro when u do the tuning of ur DIY iem. please make a video of the same. Just curious to know how they tune IEM's 😁. Thanks
Thanks for doing God's work, you saved money for thousands of people.
I think the CRN thing is well in the terms of "tuning", as you described it. The DQ6 is probably too, but there is some bad taste to it. I think the problem was, that they offered them both an existing model to play with and they didn't want to make it a completely new IEM. Especially HBB, from what I understood, was really interested to tune the DQ6. Now what if they went back and forth and KZ found out, that they would get exactly the tuning that HBB wanted, when they just switch off these two "treble monsters". And then what? Taking them out entirely, but then it wouldn't have been a DQ6 anymore. Or leaving them in, so you actually get what you payd for (in hardware) although 2/3 don't do much? They could have taken them out, describe the whole process and make it a BIG FIND, that HBB found out, that making the DQ6 half the price would also improve the sound by a lot ... hmm. Sounds weird, because why didn't KZ find that out in the first place.
Now it would have been a scam, if they had put disfunctional drivers in there, like broken leftovers or empty hulls. But they work, they get fed electricity, just not much. And by the way, the DQ6S sound quite good imo. The only thing, that I could argue is, that as a single DD, they would have probably sold at the price of the CCA CRA instead of twice as much. And there would have been no unecessary eletrical waste shipped around the globe (because most people will make no further use out of these drivers, I guess).
It seems to be the chinese way. It reminds me of that silver cable I bought from TRN. It was supposed to be 1.2 meters. And technically, if you measured from the tip of the plug to the stretched out hooks and the outer edge of the QDC connector, then it was 120.3 cm ... Useable cable length was more like 98cm. I have to sit very close to the table to make it work. But TECHNICALLY it's somehow 120cm ... I guess. Silver is expensive, I get it, but still ...
Probably KZ will learn from that. Hopefully they will improve.
Спасибо за видео. Целиком согласен. С продукцией KZ знаком с 2013го года. Тоже разбирал и тоже делал сам наушники, преимущественно динамические. Сейчас возникли затруднения по причине, что живу я в Украине. По поводу багов KZ мне кажется, что причина в отсутствии контроля качества. Полном отсутствии. Были случаи, когда 2 пары наушников одной модели, купленные в одном магазине звучали по разному. Были случаи когда левый и правый в противофазе. Перебирал модель ZST, удалось добиться нормального звучания, обойдя конденсатор и подключив арматуру последовательно к динамику. В KZ ZSN приглушил высокие от динамика поролоном, оставив арматуру открытой. Пропала грязь на верхней середине.Еще раз сасибо и удачи вам. Thank you for the video. Entirely agree. I have been familiar with KZ products since 2013. I also disassembled and also made the headphones myself, mostly dynamic ones. Now there are difficulties because I live in Ukraine. As for the KZ bugs, it seems to me that the reason is the lack of quality control. Complete absence. There were cases when 2 pairs of headphones of the same model, bought in the same store, sounded different. There were cases when the left and right are in antiphase. I went through the ZST model, I managed to achieve normal sound by bypassing the capacitor and connecting the armature in series to the speaker. In KZ, ZSN muffled the highs from the speaker with foam rubber, leaving the armature open. The dirt on the upper middle is gone. Thank you again and good luck to you.
Good job!
Amazing work man! Thanks for clarifying this whole mess from KZ
Thank you. It's a little incoherent, but hopefully that clears some things up.
Love this long videos. So calming...
It's my first time listening/watching one of your videos, and have just liked your attitude and approach to this. Maybe it's because I'm also from the technical testing world. Keep it up man.
Thank you. :-)
Great vid! I too went down the IEM rabbit hole in the midst of COVID (though not to the same DIY extent 🤪). Regarding the DQ6, I could see the wiring and driver phase being a QC issue, but physically blocking the nozzle is outrageous. I’d be curious how it sounds once you get everything hooked up properly.
It would sound completely messy
Yesterday just bought a pair of Kz x HBB DQ6s, and being someone like you who loves to disassembly things I was searching for a video tutorial if it exist of someone taking a par my headphones, started watching this video and I am pretty surprised of what you and the reddit people have founded
I live in Argentina, paíd for this headphones like $8.000 local currency
And after watching this, as you said for half the price I would get the same audio quality. Now I m thinking, should I disassembly this things, wire the 6mm drivers in parallel and use a 2mm drill bit to enlarge the chanel to connect to the tip or just wait and see if you make a video showing if it worth it.
Anyway amazing video full of info, I will be waiting for a video testing this sound mod
If something in this text doesn't make sense or has a orthographic mistake my apologies, English isn't my native language.
Well you do the job ?? You wired them correct how they sound ???
you're basically doing what full time reviewers should do, but they won't be as profitable if their product tolerance is too high :)
You are a rockstar man. Amazing information.
Very impressive. I think you two would get along well.
RUclips randomly recommended BGGAR's video on the KZ fuckup. I am so glad that got me here, the first few minutes of this video are great (I'm still watching), you got a new subscriber dude. I grew up tearing stuff appart and fixing things as well, I've been fixing old film cameras (ranging from "pretty old" to "geez _how old is that?")_ for about 6 years now so... Not the same thing, but same logic, you could say.
Looking forward to new videos from you!
Thank you for tempering my opinions/ anger over the situation. Good information.
Thank for this vid Jeff bros.
Glad I'm still stuck with KZ ZSN Pro with 1 BA 1 DD. Might just working 1 DD but hey it's cheap 😂, better than regular 5$ earphone
Can You take apart a ZS10 PRO...the one I use and like :)
Would be funny if that is also a "Fake"
Hey man a little advice - If your background noise is going to be that loud run your video through byenoise app before posting it’ll get rid of the fans etc well worth a few dollars. With iems that computer kicking on is loud.
That story brought a legit tear
Oh my god. I literally made this comment in Crin's original channel, I think. I said if you were gonna buy KZ's, I can only recommend two:
KZ ZST - cuz I think this was the first IEM that gave them their house sound. All other models almost sound the same.
KX ZEX - cuz it has a different driver technology
Lo and behold, the ZEX has the working Magnetostat and the ZEX Pro doesn't. That's probably why I didn't like the pros. 🤔🤔 In one of Bad Guy Good Audio's videos, I commented that I like the ZEX over the Pros
I noticed the comments on some channel saying they prefer the OG ZEX over CRN, now we know why
I actually remember the ZST’s, probably my second set from KZ after I lost my ES4s that a friend gifted to me. Used the ever loving shit out of them wired and with the bt adapter until I lost them.
I’ll need to get a proper ZEX to hear the differences but at least despite the issues with the ZEX Pro, I mainly got them for crin’s tuning to go away from the typical KZ sound and for that job, they fit the role perfectly fine.
I’m likely not going to buy any more KZ products in the meantime since this whole debacle has everyone wondering which of their releases actually has fully working drivers and which ones have duds barely making any output to justify their existence.
Now I know why I never bought a KZ iem, something felt strange about the amount of drivers for the price.
Probably even $100 models sounds almost the same like $10 model...it's all placebo
@@audioloverkz make earphones with only BA drivers ..... they dont fake
Good backstory. "Quit screwing around Jeff."
Reverse polarity on one of the KZ DQ6 minidrivers, now that is funny!
They could have doubled the price spent on the main driver.
My first IEM was KZ ZSN pro and KbearvKs2. Before that I was into wireless audio. The first of those was the Skullcandy Sesh Evo. My passion didn't really take off until I bought the better ones like Soundpeats H1 and CCA C10. Then started getting better versions from there. The Blons, Moondrops, Tin, and on and on.
How does the h1 compete with c10, blons and other iems you've mentioned
@@MK-ro7ee it has a BA and single driver. In that sense it sounds great in the soundstage ability and separation. Great for gaming. The tuning is good for rock, metal, hip hop. Other than that those others are slightly better tuned though.
Very informative.
I have KZ ZEX (original) and I like them very much. Good to know the ZEX work fine, according to the video at minutes 26:00 and 43:00 , but, sad to know the bad practices of the company.
Thank you for sharing and good luck.
is kz zex good?
@@pin1771
Yes, for the price, its sound good. Its bright V shape IEMs, easy to drive and suitable for smartphones with headphones jack. Definitely sound better with external DAC headphones amp or USB audio interface.
The badboy sent me here. No regrets , very enjoyable look inside iem's. Subbed
nice and I am very impressed.
Hey thank you for your honesty thank you for your integrity and thank you for taking the time to just be neutral in state the facts and I appreciate that very much and you have a wonderful day
To be honest this entire fiasco exposed reviewers just as much as KZ. It showed just how little value an opinion really has and how bias can impact your perception of a product.
Wow man great video. Your passion is contagious. Hope you keep on and don’t get bogged down talking meta about the hobby too much. I’ve seen that start to happen as newer channels come up. I think it might scare people away like the witch-hunt stuff. People come to enjoy music and learn more about good audio and I almost forgot that 😅
I look at it from pricing perspective to justify the suitable applications. They sound good in their own way, just for different uses.
I'm certainly not going to get rid of my KZ ZS10 Pros but I will probably hold off on anymore KZ products until they prove to be honest.
Still nice to have decent sounding cheap IEMs for variaty and for taking places or for uses when I don't want to bring my FH3's, OH10's, or ect.
And honestly they still sound so much better than even some of the priciest things I've tried from average retail stores previously, if they get their act together KZ still has a decent thing going
Thanks for using your skills for the Forces of Good. Currently have some Zex Pro (CRN) in the Amazon cart as my first set of (mostly) balanced signature headphones. The reviews about the balance are still accurate, I imagine, but this is sketchy as hell. I'd rather have a balanced single driver marketed as such with a matching smaller size and lower cost instead of having decorative drivers inside. Keep up the good work!
Great video! Keep up the good work!
You are the best!
It is really nice, I just bought a ZES and want to know is it work, and you test it real, thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!XD
Great video! You are obviously very level headed. Cheers.
Does not the big driver blocks the tube,even if the crossover is good and tube is open?
thanks for the video.
One of the best iem revw in youtube😋😍
Do you think the zs10 pro and zsn has useless drivers?
Zs10 pro probably, and i bought it months ago knowing that, my first chi-fi, and they are great, if sound great, doesnt matter how many drivers theres inside of it
I like the talk
Coincidentally, my first iem was also the CCA C12. I wonder if the BAs inside them are fake as well, or are they actual functioning BAs 🤔
Nice! I really liked that pair for a while. I wish I still had them because I would totally take them apart.
25:05
My guess here is that the development team at KZ was unable to tune the drivers so that they sound well enough, and deadline was already approaching, so they had to launch it into production like this.
Anyway, for all of the good IEM models they make, I think I can forgive them a little bit of bullshit like this.
Well said, all well said!
We need the official biopic. If I can ask for first rights of refusal on my directorial debut I’d appreciate you giving me the opportunity 🤷🏼♂️😂
Btw, I subbed ya a while back and have been very glad to have done so. I always enjoy the videos and this one was no exception..it was cool to hear a little personal background about yourself, all teasing aside
Thank you
THANK YOU!!!
So career reviewers can review a pair of IEMs and not notice 2/3 of thing is straight up not working .
I paid £70 (UK GBP) for the KZ ZAS, I'm still in the return window from Amazon, I also bought the Bluetooth adapter for another £40. Honestly speaking I was blown away with the sound as they are my first IEM's going from some cheapo headphones, but I would have been blown away with anything half decent. Any recommendation for alternative ear hook BT IEM's that are bass heavy ? Or are these some of the sets that are OK ? I'd appreciate any advise as I spent a lot more than i wanted to on these.
Unfortunately I don't have any recommendations for Bluetooth IEMs that are bassy. I don't use Bluetooth IEMs so I'm definitely not the guy to ask. If you want much better sound I would return the IEMs and get the Olina, but it is not a bassy set. Honestly if you're looking for bass you're probably good sticking where you're at, that or maybe take a look at the Trippowin TC01. They're KILLER iems for the money and will probably give your ZAS a run for it's money. But again, ZAS is definitely not a bad option.
@@hi-friaudioman Thanks for your response. I think I'll keep them, they do sound very good. Might look at the Trippowin TC01 as a secondary pair. cheers !
I stopped buying KZ/CCA/TRN in 2019 and prefer to buy fewer higher quality sets. The last KZ I purchased was the ZSX and C12 and I believe I purchased the TRN BA5 in December. I do use the C12 at the gym off my phone and it gets the job done. Last night under an overhead fluorescent light I removed the C12 from my ears and looked at the BA units and it looks like 2 of the side by side units are capped off. I’m curious how many of those units are firing. I did prefer the ZSX over the C12. Needless to say I’ll never purchase another set from the KZ/CCA/TRN end of the pool. Although the fact that there’s a KZ /Tripowin connection, is it hypocritical to support Tripowin? I mean they’ve been knocking it out of the park with the MELE/Olina and now the Lea among others that flew under the radar. Olina is next on my list after being very satisfied with the Moondrop KATO.
Magnetostats work on the properties of Two electromagnetic coils and a charged film. It's not a piezoelectric crystal driver. ❤
Ah thanks! I knew it wasn't based on piezo/crystal tech, but I wasn't sure if it was a charged film or not, honestly it just looks like a cheap piece of metal inside but one side is coated. Thanks for the info!
@@hi-friaudioman well it could be a metallic color, or they may have just used thin metal, something thats diamagnetic I'd assume
I have known that kz iem some of its ba dont work. I did have zs6 and zs7 with inverted wiring on ba but I made a crossover board/frequency divider for zs6 and later zs7, tune them to suit my taste. I just came across this drama when my co-worker commented on my zas, I told them the factory crossover board is useless and show them the crossover board I made for my zas.
Ouch. And I just bought a DQ6. It'll be here today or tomorrow and now I feel ripped of. But maybe not, I bought it for 15 USD. So I guess this is why it went down in price. This will be my first IEM. I hope it's good. I'm not rich, I plan to buy another if I like DQ6. So, it's sad to hear this simply because I don't have that much money set aside for stuff like IEM so I do feel like I wasted money for two non working DD.
I get that, like 2 weeks ago I bought my first audiotechnica with a nice Amp and dac, and I don't think I can go back to my skullcandy unless I eq the hell out of them, they are still bassy and fun, but I can't believe I used to think they sounded perfect, so yeah once you train your ears a bit, it's really hard to go back to normal audio quality.
I've been using KZ ZS10 Pro and ZSN Pro for years. Recently I've been looking for TWS and went with KZ Xtra. While waiting for my delivery I've been catching up with KZ line-up and just noticed all that drama that took place in 2022. Two years later I find it hilarious. I doesn't really expose KZ but the entire IEM community. For years KZ has been a darling of budget IEMs (and I'm talking about independent reviews here), until someone discovers that not all drivers work or perform as expected and now what... they're suddenly are horrible? :D Well first of all it doesn't matter how many drivers they have, they should just sound good to their owner. Yeah, KZ has been deceptive on how their drivers work, but who I really stopped trusting is the IEM reviewers.
Thanx for your troubles, think the KZ zs10 pro is ok?
No. No. And No.
Is that the AC or the computer fan cutting in and out in the background? iBasso IT00's 1 DD seems to be working just fine? lol...Really interesting work man keep it up us nerds love it 🤓👍
Thank you. Yeah, forgot to turn the fan off. 😅
Nice review by ya jf, anyone who thinks that crin or hbb, whatever couldnt hear the difference of how a single dynamic driver vs avin dual or tribrid , knowin how they play as a iem, is outta there minds...demos or not, thoze 2 shoulda noticed the difference, wen most of the baz, or etc were not playing.
I ave a revonext rx6, daul drivers, and i can hear wen one part of it is picking up the mids treb, and the driver is playing the bass..ofc they were gonna post no mas..smh..
You bring up a great project. Can I take apart some of my best IEMs and create the best possible version for myself? Seems like a person could.
Did the IEMs test ok before you removed the drivers?
This is all pretty effen Techy for an old dude like me. Could you answer this, please? Should I buy the Linsoul KZ AS16 Pro? It may be my 1st and only pair as I don't need IEMs and use my headphones maybe twice a year, I am just very curious.
Thanks for the info. I'm currently building my own custom IEM as a private/collage project and ordered the KZ AS06 for the internals. I will definitely check every BA driver before installing. I guess these issues are related with newer IEMs from KZ. Sad to see, specially because of the wasted materials, while having resource limitations word wide.
are you active in the forums and such? if so - a link will be great :)
your videos are just on point. sure there are good channels like that of HBB or DMS, but what you're doing is different and so interesting.
its literaly "noice canceling" IEMs :D
I did a bunch of the sound work too haha radio, studio, live…
At least original ZEX works as intended 😅
I was quite worried because I own one.
1h flew by. Need 3h vids.
I also did this type of opening stuff and try to fix and I fixed earphones drivers couple of times and opened mobile phones 😅
Nice! Good job! It's always satisfying to see how something works and fix things.
What is your favourite chord for iem’s also what do you use for tips ?
They could have used that space for a bluetooth modem, battery and amplifier. lol
I'm a sound guy for bands what iem do you suggest for a lead singer? Was using KZ ZS10 pro / KZ ZSX
I always suspected KZ was a sketchy company.
They play the "More drivers means better sound" motto to attract newbies who believe in this which is simply not true.
This PR fiasco makes you wonder how many other chi-fi sets have fake / dead drivers or drivers that barely do anything.
Speaking of the hobby, many people are willing to spend a grand on something like an Iphone but won't spend more than $30 on IEMs. I personally haven't spent more than $200 on a phone because I don't care about having a better one, it's perspective.
I'd happily spend over a grand on a TOTL set but alas, my budget doesn't stretch that far yet so I decided to play with the $200-300 market right now.
I've refuse to buy their product since day 1 they going into hypetrain on several hifi forums. There's no way they make multiple drivers with such cheap price, and it's sounds horrible
Actually honestly...
Multi driver at bare minimum even not tuned right... Will reproduce more accurate sound on multi-staging sound/music...
I wont go back to single driver unit no matter how good it is...
Thats why even car audio need multiple speakers and home audio soundbar now comes with subwoofer (where it used to come only a single sound bar and nothing else)
I'm more focused on the bass part, well done.
Is no control quality in any Chinese factory, at least you don't pay a external company to do this, even they own doesn't know what the workers are doing, here they all work on quantity and not on quality, that's way are 10% price from brands like shure or many others. So is nothing to do, I tested my self dozens of various electronic devices and equipments, from 100 pcs. 20 to 50% are bad.
I think they wanted to be legal on paper , and keep the correct work for higher ranges.
Hi
The l3 that you took apart, I'm curious as to what number they are or were.
Cheers
The "fake drivers" scandal never really made any sense to me - if KZ were going to include fake dummy drivers, you'd think that the dummy BAs wouldn't even produce sound in the first place. It seems plausible to me that it's just a case of poor driver implementation, which makes sense when you consider their price point. Otherwise, why would a budget-oriented IEM brand even increase their cost by including multiple BAs that do absolutely nothing? It makes zero sense. I guess you could argue that dummy drivers were included for the whole "multi-driver IEM" marketing aspect that KZ is known for, but it still would be a weirdass business strategy for any headphone company.
Also, I disassembled one of my ZSXs awhile back, and I can confirm that appropriately audible sound comes out of the areas where the BAs are mounted. I'd have to tear them down further to listen to each individual BA, but at this point I think the ZSX have at least three functional and audible drivers. I suspect that most of their products are also legitimate, though I could be wrong.
15:23 Sadly, I know exactly what that "malfunction" is.😂😂😂
Thanks, all of this is great, basically you get what yo pay for. But what I really want to see is for someone to tear apart Shure SE846, find out the exact same thing is happening, now that would be interesting. I sort of knew this were crap just because what we are paying for…
WE NEED THE RUclips CHANELL WHEN WE CAN TO SEE TEARDOWN OF EVERY HI-FI AND HI-END IEM'S PLEEASE SOMEONE HELP US!!!!
How do the Moondrop Chu compare to these?
Do you make custom eartips if someone sends your their mould ? I would love for you to build me a custom pair .
Mad at Kz... glad this happened.
Thanks for this video.
I was hyped by all this multi speakers iem at low cost.
Imagine spending way more money on tribrid berillium x-metal magic when so called guru hifi veterans can’t hear differences, it all fall to what sounds good and enjoying music. All this technicalities is non sense.
Kz better stay in the super cheap chi-fi market. No need for trust there
Best iem or open back for escape from tarkov audio
Talking 12 plus hr listening sessions
Top 3 picks please under 200 bucks
is the ZEX working fine
video start at 17:17
Thanks buddy!
Please do a video showing how you make yr diy iems
makes me wonder about the Planar IEM's..... all these fall under the linsoul umbrella....
I think those are legit - just one driver. The concept makes sense and they're not all that cheap. The difficulty in tuning them well is a statement that they probably as they say they are. At least from more reputable brands like Tin, 7Hz, etc.
Excellent vid. Such a shame. Quality control issues. I guess a bowl of rice doesn't ensure proper workmanship.