Now we have QKZ VK4 to review! QKZ is known for budget/ultra-budget products and VK4 is one of them. Price was 4$ on launch, now it’s near 10$ bracket. Let’s open the box and see how does it sounds.
Box, Its Contents, Cable and Build Quality
Box is tiny and plain white. On front there’s image of the headphone (Purple+Pink or black), phoney Hi-Res logo (Probably–no, no… Obviously not Hi-Res) and there’s Reddot Design Award logo (smh). Also there’s Specs on upper back. VK4’s build is transparent colored plastic and it’s 11mm Driver is visible. Design have quite much smilarities with KZ ZST. There’s one obvious difference which is golden screw on housing. And oh before i forget, there’s detachable cable which is nice for 10$ headphone.
Material: Pc. Weight: 20g. Speaker: 11 mm NdFeB speaker. Speaker Power: Rated input power: 3mW, Maximum input power: 5mW. Impedance: 16Ω±15% Speaker Sensitivity: 105±3dB (at 1KHz 1mW) Speaker Frequency Response: 20-40K Hz. Microphone Sensitivity: -42dB±3dB1kHz, 3V 0dB=1V/pa.
Sound
Let’s acknowledge something: while timbre is natural this is V-shaped IEM and it’s vibrant. Frequency curve is harman. Which means good. While Bass and Treble is dominant, midrange (Vocals and Instruments) are recessive. The V sound on VK4 is not that V-ish as KZ headphones. Bass and Treble is significant while mids are 2/3dB quieter as we mentioned above. This makes sound more energetic, fun, clear, warm, soft and leads to deep bass much audible. There’s no sibilance and we would rate stage width 6/10. Instruments sounds close to you also bass is strong. Interestingly there’s no bleed on mid-bass section and keeps instruments more natural. It’s revolutionary for this price bracket, I appreciate. There’s no detail and naturality on treble range, mids are recessed overall. VK4 is easy to drive, amplification may harm the sound tho, it becomes annoying especially in 8k Hz. Since it’s easy to drive, hiss is inevitable. Background isn’t that black- it’s somewhat dark grey
QKZ VK4 – Conclusion
It’s distinguishing IEM for a petité brand that produces OEM products for several brands. While comfort is not good as Blon BL05s it’s somewhat comfortable. It’s recommended for anyone who prefers strong bass with natural timbre. It’s also frequently recommended to anyone who looks for headphone under 20$ budget. Compared to similar priced KZ products, VK4 is superior to them with many aspects especially in sound.
