Just an FYI, the ZS10 pro 2 shipped with foams installed, and large and small white starlines. No medium silicone tips 
bad move KZ! Good thing I had some Spinfit W1 tips.
bad move KZ! Good thing I had some Spinfit W1 tips.Knowledge Zenith (KZ) impressions thread
- Thread starter bhazard
- Start date
I believe dq6 and dq6s (dq6 x hbb) different in tuning, so was how the ear tips will heard
Akros really loved the Hydro and now I'm really interested in picking one up when the price goes down a little.
I do wish they release a more ergonomic IEM with similar setup and tuning, but in a smaller, lighter shell without switches. Some of these IEMs are getting too big and heavy these days.
I do wish they release a more ergonomic IEM with similar setup and tuning, but in a smaller, lighter shell without switches. Some of these IEMs are getting too big and heavy these days.
r31ya
Headphoneus Supremus
CCA used to have 7 driver in relatively small shell with CKX (1DD + 7BA)
You could see how small it is compared to ZSX or ZAX
but its no longer doable at least for now as their current design language with soundtubing and bigger crossover (+switches) will take more space.
droid23
100+ Head-Fier
Listened yesterday to the ZS10 Pro 2 and here are some quick first impressions:
Source: iBasso DX260, High gain, fast roll l-off, all Hi-Res tracks between FLAC 48, 96, 192, and some DSD's.... and some tip-rolling.
I was really impressed what they delivered at this price point! Ended up with the switches set to UUUD and the original foam tips (after trying the Type-E's, AZLA Clear and XELASTEC, JVC Spiral++) and used a somewhat better cable from Sigmot since the original cable of the Pro 2 looks and feels super cheap to me.
+ Headspace is truly good, soundstage is well defined and depth is surprisingly huge.. you could even say that the imaging tends to be a bit holographic.
+ Timbre of female voices is very nice but also, to my surprise male voices came very natural.
+ Separation is absolutely ok and for this price even has made me smile with some test tracks
+/- There is a little sibilance audible sometimes, but I think with UUUD it became well under control and negligible. [The Simgot EM6L has much much more, nearly annoying sibilance compared to the Pro 2]
+ Generally, I liked the lows a lot, mid bass is punchy and well rendered, sub bass is presented very nicely but gladly not boomy, just the right amount to my taste. Lows don't bleed into the slightly recessed lower mids.
+ There's an emphasis in the Pinna gain region, which I personally like a lot (as mentioned before, the Pro 2 works nice with female and male voices) and with the last switch in low position, I (psychoacoustically, lol) think that the upper highs are brought under control, as well as by using foam tips or the Type-E tips.
Overall it's my #1 fun and engaging sounding price/performance IEM at the moment, with surprisingly well defined "headspace", meaning that it doesn't sound that everything is just "in your head" , as with many cheaper IEMs. What else can I say, nicely rounded and detailed budget king which scale well with power and good source material. Good job KZ.
Cave: please see my follow-up post below, it seems that I understood the tuning switches wrongly, mea culpa.
Source: iBasso DX260, High gain, fast roll l-off, all Hi-Res tracks between FLAC 48, 96, 192, and some DSD's.... and some tip-rolling.
I was really impressed what they delivered at this price point! Ended up with the switches set to UUUD and the original foam tips (after trying the Type-E's, AZLA Clear and XELASTEC, JVC Spiral++) and used a somewhat better cable from Sigmot since the original cable of the Pro 2 looks and feels super cheap to me.
+ Headspace is truly good, soundstage is well defined and depth is surprisingly huge.. you could even say that the imaging tends to be a bit holographic.
+ Timbre of female voices is very nice but also, to my surprise male voices came very natural.
+ Separation is absolutely ok and for this price even has made me smile with some test tracks
+/- There is a little sibilance audible sometimes, but I think with UUUD it became well under control and negligible. [The Simgot EM6L has much much more, nearly annoying sibilance compared to the Pro 2]
+ Generally, I liked the lows a lot, mid bass is punchy and well rendered, sub bass is presented very nicely but gladly not boomy, just the right amount to my taste. Lows don't bleed into the slightly recessed lower mids.
+ There's an emphasis in the Pinna gain region, which I personally like a lot (as mentioned before, the Pro 2 works nice with female and male voices) and with the last switch in low position, I (psychoacoustically, lol) think that the upper highs are brought under control, as well as by using foam tips or the Type-E tips.
Overall it's my #1 fun and engaging sounding price/performance IEM at the moment, with surprisingly well defined "headspace", meaning that it doesn't sound that everything is just "in your head" , as with many cheaper IEMs. What else can I say, nicely rounded and detailed budget king which scale well with power and good source material. Good job KZ.
Cave: please see my follow-up post below, it seems that I understood the tuning switches wrongly, mea culpa.
Last edited:
HAMS
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
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My KZ AZ09 dead, led keep flashing red after a workout use. The casing gaps are horrible. Does newer KZ module has better waterproofing or at all?
droid23
100+ Head-Fier
An addition to my previous post related to the KZ ZS10 Pro 2 tuning switches, and if I understand them correctly, I was wrong how they seem to work 
.
So, here's what I understand and please tell me if I got brainf***ed or if this is correct:
U = switch UP
D = switch DOWN
> If you turn off all switches [DDDD], you get the least amount of bass, but the highs are not at all affected and are "maxed out", seen in the Cyan FQ response curve.
I wanted to have the max bass but I wanted to reduce the highs and intuitively, I switched off only #4 [UUUD], in the hope to just decrease the highs, but if you study the graph, this seems not the case. The switches don't work like a graphical EQ, they work differently, take care.
So, In order to have max bass and at the same time reduced highs, you actually have to set the switches to [DDDU], see the Yellow line above... and the Yellow line is clearly superimposed with the Green line only in the low frequencies, meaning you get max bass representation but then continues to lower the highs and you see an "only Yellow" line... whereas my first setting [UUUD] implies max bass and max highs, so I was wrong.
Funnily, the original setting with which the Pro 2 are shipped [UUUU] is not explained at all and seems to have no corresponding frequency response graph... at least KZ doesn't show it to us and we have to try and measure if there's a difference.
In the end, they give us four different tuning options for the lows, and two for the highs.
I will now go back to A/B them with [DDDU]... let's see.
EDIT: Super quick feedback for now with A/Bing [DDDU] vs [UUUD]:
> DDDU: The little, but really not annoying sibilance when the highs were fully extended with UUUD is better in the typical 5-7 kHz frequency ranges of female voices (male voices anyway show lesser sibilance by nature and were not affected by UUUD in the first place)
> but with DDDU you trade a bit of the fine microdetails you can hear with this amazing headphone, but not much if we believe the graphs, because the treble reduction seems only to be around 3 dB at most, and that is audible, but barely audible. So, if you are a treblehead you better not use DDDU... still even with DDDU the highs are well represented, but "maybe" just get a tiny bit more rounded off.
For the moment, and I still need much more listening time, my early A/B recommendations:
> If you listen more to female voices, prefer a bit more relaxed tuning, you can try DDDU. Same goes for rather rock heavy playlists and maybe electronic music.
> If Classic music and Jazz is your thing, I'd recommend to give UUUD a chance, since the bass representation of the ZS10 Pro 2 is so well balanced and engaging, by still not being boomy at all when being maxed out, but UUUD gives also maxed highs, you gain a slight audible portion of clarity, crispness and liveliness. ...but pleasantly not a fatiguing one.
Here are some test tracks used:
Frederic Alarie - George (for micro details in the bass strings)
Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem (female voice representation par excellence, sibilance testing)
Casey Abrams - Why don't you do right (female voice, sound staging, separation)
Melissa Menago - Smoke Signs (female voice, sibilance testing, headspace)
David Liebman - Ceremony Evening (sound localization)
Gregory D'Agostino - Bach: Toccata and Fugue (mid bass, holographic presentation, timing/separation whereas very difficult since only one instrument, the Organ, that's why)
Jacintha - Danny Boy (pure female voice goodness, holographic imaging, micro details in voice)
Livingston Taylor - Isn't she Lovely (male voice, easy soundstaging and separation)
Roger Waters - Too much rope (male voice, holographic imaging)
Pink Floyd - Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, and Echoes (separation, mid bass, highs, imaging and headspace)
Amber Rubarth - Strive, and Tundra (instrument separation, highs and lows well represented, imaging & soundstage)
Aphex Twin - produk29 (my go-to track for bass representation with tons of well recorded sub bass)
Quatuor Akos - Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76 I. Adagio con spirito and IV. Finale. Allegro ma non troppo (micro details, liveliness, resolution, highs, instrument timbre)
Have fun
.So, here's what I understand and please tell me if I got brainf***ed or if this is correct:
U = switch UP
D = switch DOWN
> If you turn off all switches [DDDD], you get the least amount of bass, but the highs are not at all affected and are "maxed out", seen in the Cyan FQ response curve.
I wanted to have the max bass but I wanted to reduce the highs and intuitively, I switched off only #4 [UUUD], in the hope to just decrease the highs, but if you study the graph, this seems not the case. The switches don't work like a graphical EQ, they work differently, take care.
So, In order to have max bass and at the same time reduced highs, you actually have to set the switches to [DDDU], see the Yellow line above... and the Yellow line is clearly superimposed with the Green line only in the low frequencies, meaning you get max bass representation but then continues to lower the highs and you see an "only Yellow" line... whereas my first setting [UUUD] implies max bass and max highs, so I was wrong.
Funnily, the original setting with which the Pro 2 are shipped [UUUU] is not explained at all and seems to have no corresponding frequency response graph... at least KZ doesn't show it to us and we have to try and measure if there's a difference.
In the end, they give us four different tuning options for the lows, and two for the highs.
I will now go back to A/B them with [DDDU]... let's see.
EDIT: Super quick feedback for now with A/Bing [DDDU] vs [UUUD]:
> DDDU: The little, but really not annoying sibilance when the highs were fully extended with UUUD is better in the typical 5-7 kHz frequency ranges of female voices (male voices anyway show lesser sibilance by nature and were not affected by UUUD in the first place)
> but with DDDU you trade a bit of the fine microdetails you can hear with this amazing headphone, but not much if we believe the graphs, because the treble reduction seems only to be around 3 dB at most, and that is audible, but barely audible. So, if you are a treblehead you better not use DDDU... still even with DDDU the highs are well represented, but "maybe" just get a tiny bit more rounded off.
For the moment, and I still need much more listening time, my early A/B recommendations:
> If you listen more to female voices, prefer a bit more relaxed tuning, you can try DDDU. Same goes for rather rock heavy playlists and maybe electronic music.
> If Classic music and Jazz is your thing, I'd recommend to give UUUD a chance, since the bass representation of the ZS10 Pro 2 is so well balanced and engaging, by still not being boomy at all when being maxed out, but UUUD gives also maxed highs, you gain a slight audible portion of clarity, crispness and liveliness. ...but pleasantly not a fatiguing one.
Here are some test tracks used:
Frederic Alarie - George (for micro details in the bass strings)
Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem (female voice representation par excellence, sibilance testing)
Casey Abrams - Why don't you do right (female voice, sound staging, separation)
Melissa Menago - Smoke Signs (female voice, sibilance testing, headspace)
David Liebman - Ceremony Evening (sound localization)
Gregory D'Agostino - Bach: Toccata and Fugue (mid bass, holographic presentation, timing/separation whereas very difficult since only one instrument, the Organ, that's why)
Jacintha - Danny Boy (pure female voice goodness, holographic imaging, micro details in voice)
Livingston Taylor - Isn't she Lovely (male voice, easy soundstaging and separation)
Roger Waters - Too much rope (male voice, holographic imaging)
Pink Floyd - Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, and Echoes (separation, mid bass, highs, imaging and headspace)
Amber Rubarth - Strive, and Tundra (instrument separation, highs and lows well represented, imaging & soundstage)
Aphex Twin - produk29 (my go-to track for bass representation with tons of well recorded sub bass)
Quatuor Akos - Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76 I. Adagio con spirito and IV. Finale. Allegro ma non troppo (micro details, liveliness, resolution, highs, instrument timbre)
Have fun
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droid23
100+ Head-Fier
Just found Prime Audio Reviews YT video on the KZ ZS10 Pro 2 and his own measured FQ response curve gives us a hint what [UUUU] does... see the Red line:
UUUU seems to give even more bass than KZ is showing us on their official homepage. He doesn't go into too much detail with the other switch settings. Another observation: His graph shows the 3-6 kHz region is not affected by any settings... in contrast to KZ original graph... oook.
UUUU seems to give even more bass than KZ is showing us on their official homepage. He doesn't go into too much detail with the other switch settings. Another observation: His graph shows the 3-6 kHz region is not affected by any settings... in contrast to KZ original graph... oook.
I really don't know... I don't use them for workouts ... I have the AZ20 and they seem very well-built though.
An addition to my previous post related to the KZ ZS10 Pro 2 tuning switches, and if I understand them correctly, I was wrong how they seem to work
So, here's what I understand and please tell me if I got brainf***ed or if this is correct:
U = switch UP
D = switch DOWN
> If you turn off all switches [DDDD], you get the least amount of bass, but the highs are not at all affected and are "maxed out", seen in the Cyan FQ response curve.
I wanted to have the max bass but I wanted to reduce the highs and intuitively, I switched off only #4 [UUUD], in the hope to just decrease the highs, but if you study the graph, this seems not the case. The switches don't work like a graphical EQ, they work differently, take care.
So, In order to have max bass and at the same time reduced highs, you actually have to set the switches to [DDDU], see the Yellow line above... and the Yellow line is clearly superimposed with the Green line only in the low frequencies, meaning you get max bass representation but then continues to lower the highs and you see an "only Yellow" line... whereas my first setting [UUUD] implies max bass and max highs, so I was wrong.
Funnily, the original setting with which the Pro 2 are shipped [UUUU] is not explained at all and seems to have no corresponding frequency response graph... at least KZ doesn't show it to us and we have to try and measure if there's a difference.
In the end, they give us four different tuning options for the lows, and two for the highs.
I will now go back to A/B them with [DDDU]... let's see.
EDIT: Super quick feedback for now with A/Bing [DDDU] vs [UUUD]:
> DDDU: The little, but really not annoying sibilance when the highs were fully extended with UUUD is better in the typical 5-7 kHz frequency ranges of female voices (male voices anyway show lesser sibilance by nature and were not affected by UUUD in the first place)
> but with DDDU you trade a bit of the fine microdetails you can hear with this amazing headphone, but not much if we believe the graphs, because the treble reduction seems only to be around 3 dB at most, and that is audible, but barely audible. So, if you are a treblehead you better not use DDDU... still even with DDDU the highs are well represented, but "maybe" just get a tiny bit more rounded off.
For the moment, and I still need much more listening time, my early A/B recommendations:
> If you listen more to female voices, prefer a bit more relaxed tuning, you can try DDDU. Same goes for rather rock heavy playlists and maybe electronic music.
> If Classic music and Jazz is your thing, I'd recommend to give UUUD a chance, since the bass representation of the ZS10 Pro 2 is so well balanced and engaging, by still not being boomy at all when being maxed out, but UUUD gives also maxed highs, you gain a slight audible portion of clarity, crispness and liveliness. ...but pleasantly not a fatiguing one.
Here are some test tracks used:
Frederic Alarie - George (for micro details in the bass strings)
Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem (female voice representation par excellence, sibilance testing)
Casey Abrams - Why don't you do right (female voice, sound staging, separation)
Melissa Menago - Smoke Signs (female voice, sibilance testing, headspace)
David Liebman - Ceremony Evening (sound localization)
Gregory D'Agostino - Bach: Toccata and Fugue (mid bass, holographic presentation, timing/separation whereas very difficult since only one instrument, the Organ, that's why)
Jacintha - Danny Boy (pure female voice goodness, holographic imaging, micro details in voice)
Livingston Taylor - Isn't she Lovely (male voice, easy soundstaging and separation)
Roger Waters - Too much rope (male voice, holographic imaging)
Pink Floyd - Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, and Echoes (separation, mid bass, highs, imaging and headspace)
Amber Rubarth - Strive, and Tundra (instrument separation, highs and lows well represented, imaging & soundstage)
Aphex Twin - produk29 (my go-to track for bass representation with tons of well recorded sub bass)
Quatuor Akos - Haydn: String Quartets Op. 76 I. Adagio con spirito and IV. Finale. Allegro ma non troppo (micro details, liveliness, resolution, highs, instrument timbre)
Have fun
So, if I understand you correctly, you have finally come to the logical conclusion that you will achieve maximum bass level with reduced treble level with the UUUU setting. After all, it follows from the manufacturer's description. Or?Just found Prime Audio Reviews YT video on the KZ ZS10 Pro 2 and his own measured FQ response curve gives us a hint what [UUUU] does... see the Red line:
UUUU seems to give even more bass than KZ is showing us on their official homepage. He doesn't go into too much detail with the other switch settings. Another observation: His graph shows the 3-6 kHz region is not affected by any settings... in contrast to KZ original graph... oook.
droid23
100+ Head-Fier
No, that's unfortunately not correct. The UUUU setting is not explained anywhere on the official KZ page. Only the guy from Prime Audio Reviews was measuring UUUU and he shows that in this graph. (if you look closely, you can see 5 distinctively different bass response curves in his measurements, whereas only 4 on the KZ graph >> where the yellow and green lines are exactly the same). Scientifically speaking, it's a mess anyway like most FQ response graphs you see.
Never mind... Can we at least agree that the strongest bass boost and slight treble attenuation is the result of the UUUU setting?
droid23
100+ Head-Fier
It seems so if you follow the switch settings "logic"
...and the quotation marks are definitely intentional. KZ seems to have decided to ship the Pro 2 with the most "consumer friendly" tuning a la beats, Bose, and Sony 
I still don't get that this YT reviewer gets these 5 different bass response curves... shouldn't be the case according to what the switches can provoke.
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Thanks, I'm totally confused about that already. I really "like" the "systematic" approach of KZ to the logic of tuning with switches. All of us sane users would expect the same set of switches to serve the same logic under different IEMs. And at the same time, any sane user would expect that if moving the bass switch to the up position boosts the bass, then the same way on the treble switch will achieve a treble boost. But KZ is clearly a manufacturer that can constantly "surprise" its users. As a joking matter, it wouldn't surprise me if the second production set of the ZS10 Pro 2 had switch logic different from the first. Wait! Actually, they've done something similar already! See the KZ PR2 hardware tuning changesIt seems so if you follow the switch settings "logic"
I still don't get that this YT reviewer gets these 5 different bass response curves... shouldn't be the case according to what the switches can provoke.
. Simply KZ the way we like them... 
Finished my 35-track scoring system for the Symphony, AS24, ZS10 PRO 2, ZS6, EDX, and Airpods Pro 2. I'll find a way to publish my results here, but I will say that the ZS10 PRO 2 would have finished on top if it weren't for some heavy sibilance on a few songs, whereas the AS24 was smooth and NEVER harsh in the treble. However, I still prefer the overall "classic KZ tuning of the ZS10 PRO 2, and for a third the price of the AS24, it's endgame for me until KZ releases a similar set but without sibilance issues. ( NO, I have not tried the Trio, Vader, Hydro, etc.) One think about the AS24 I found out was that it has heaps and heaps of midrange, and that I dare not touch the two midrange switches. I have the high treble switches both on, and all the bass boost switches on... And finally realized that the first switch on top that boosts all frequencies was boosting the midrange. Turning that off made all the difference. How did the Airpods PRO 2 fare? You'll have to find out later lol.
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