Knowledge Zenith (KZ), CCA, Tripowin and Associated Brands Discussion

KZ ZS10 Pro Review

Hi this is my first review at this forum.
I own a few KZs, including the original ZS 10, and I gotta say the ZS10 Pro is by far the best KZ so far.
It easily outperforms some of my Westones/expensive IEMs that I owned, and at only a fraction of the price. Truly amazing, I wonder how these CHIFI IEM company break even sometimes.

Build:
The ZS10 Pro has 5 drivers each side, and comes in a good build with metal faceplate.
It comes with the standard KZ braided wire which is quite adequate, but I personally changed it to a NICEHCK 8 core copper one.
It comes with the usual KZ starline tips (small/medium/large), for which I also changed it to a spinfit as I found the isolation better.

Isolation/comfort:
The ZS10 Pro is very comfortable to fit and provides good isolation. Its predecessor the original ZS10 was very bulky and I had friends with smaller ears who complained about the poor fit.
I use this IEM on the subway with no issues. I also have tried it on stage for live monitoring in a band setting in a large hall and it provides excellent isolation without sacrificing musical details.

Sound:
This IEM is very sensitive and doesn’t require external amping. I even found a slight hiss on my desktop while using it in the 3.5 mm jack due to the impedence mismatch/lousy desktop DAC. This can be easily fixed by using a volume controller or impendence mismatch device, or by using an external amp, and the hiss goes away.
It is easily drivable on my cheap smartphones.

The IEM features a V shaped sound profile, typical of other KZ brand IEMs.
The bass is very well controlled and has good quality/quantity. I personally like it a lot. The subbass and midbass are powerful but detailed and controlled, with no midbass bleed.
The mids are recessed, but still manages to maintain microdetails/seperation effortlessly. Vocals and acoustic guitars sound good and natural.
The highs are not bright or silibant, but manage to give fatigue free listening, but still maintain details and resolution.

Comparisons:
I owned the ZS6 and original ZS 10 before this, and this IEM outperforms them all definitely.

ZS6:
The original ZS6 had very harsh treble which is not the case with the ZS10 Pro. The ZS10 Pro still manages to get detailed treble across with no silibance or harshness. Microdetails/clarity/seperation/resolution are handsdown won by the ZS10 Pro. Maybe the bass is more authoratative on the ZS6, but it is not as clean/fast as on the ZS10 Pro.

Original ZS10:
The original ZS10 is totally different from the ZS10 Pro.
Probably the only area the original ZS10 is better is it has a slightly better soundstage and slightly better treble extension/details/timbre.
All other areas such as bass/mids/detail retrieval/clarity/responsiveness/technincallities are better on the ZS10 Pro. I found a very bad midbass bleed on the original ZS10, and this is not the case on the ZS10 Pro. The Pro also has better build and is more comfortable to wear as it is smaller. It has better isolation too.

Conclusions:
This is one of the best IEMs u can buy at this price point. I would say it measures up to some of my expensive westones, and at only a fraction of the price. IMHO to get a marginal improvement over the sound quality of the ZS10 Pro, you would need to pay hundreds more.
This is a very versatile IEM, provides good fit/comfort/isolation, with excellent sound quality. It is easily drivable.
I am very pleased with this purchase and this is going to be my daily driver from now on.

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