KZ Zstx – REVIEW

Welcome to KZ Zstx Review..Knowledge Zenith a.k.a. KZ is a leading budget chifi brand. Their iems are while the price matters not; generally lower end oriented, boxed in staged, artifical sounding and lacks finesse. Lets see if they broke the chain of iems with a debatable sound quality (save Zs10 Pro and Zsn Pro etc)

Box, Unboxing, Headphone and Cable

Box is a generic matte white tiny box with a transparent sheet on top. Displays its drivers. Outside in there are only neceasary content. Behind the box we again see nothing special. Its specs and official information etc. When it comes to box content we are not suprised again. Drivers, tips and the cable in seperate pouches. The driver itself is not different from its ancestor ZST. The only meaningful difference is color choices. We have mint green or lady pink. Besides the color the fit is OK. Its shaped as if its a custom and fits many guy and gals ears with ease. Cable is silver plated. Not like the dull brown of ZST. And when the mint green iem + silver plated cable joins together, makes a fresh sight..

Earphone type

In-ear

Impedance

12Ω

Earphone sensitivity

107dB/mW

Frequency range

20-40000Hz

Pin Type

0.75mm 2Pin

Cable Length

125±5cm

Sound

Driving is no problem with no dips or shrills. Everything looks consistent. The V in its sound stage is obvious. And with that V you gain lower and high ends quantity. E semi respectful low end. Therefore this makes it perfect with electronic music in where you don’t usually pay attention to audiophile aspects. But neither instruments nor effects has a sharp body. So goodbye to imaging. But welcome to a strong bass that ain’t covering up the whole spectrum. Vocals are neither harsh nor piercing. They are just OK and no sign of sibilance, which is suberb. This alone is adding up to its comfort.

Bass, Mid, Treble

Basses are strong. But not detailed like 8/10 level. They hit and prolong as its DD driver dictates. But first of all they do not go down to sub frequencies, thus you can’t get a shake or have your world turned upside down as if you were slammed in the face. So keep your expectations low.

Mids are humble and only OK. So they do their job. Eventough the OKness do not expect naturalness or musicality or delicacy here. Mid bass is head wobbling – I must confess. But this very mid gets bogged down when the track gets complex with layers of instruments such as Animus Vox

Treble are its another debatable point. I had indicated that there is no sibilance but an early roll off on treble is clear. In addition to its treble (in)capacity, they sound weak and soulless. Combined by the lack of energy of the sound listening treble heavy genres is a dull experience.

KZ Zstx – REVIEW Conclusion

KZ brand is a brand known by millions. And they are producing iems for years. But probably because of their lower ended budget mind, they did not rose above a certain point. And sadly this new age X stuff isn’t an exemption. So please bear in mind that Zstx not much different from its ancestor. But anyhow its rising up from the $3 iem market not with its price. It has certain qualities…Recommended only for first starters. Try new iems all the time ’till you get this or higher. Can be purchased from this link.