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In Ear Monitors - help needed...


MoJoKe

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Mine landed this morning. Luckily, I've had a day off for a long long weekend so them dropping through the door was good timing.

Haven't spent long with them but initial thoughts are that they're AN AWFUL LOT of ear candy for not a lot of money. Considering the cost of them, they sound pretty impressive.

I A/B'd them against my 1964 Ears V8s. TBH, the V8s sounded far more convincing, controlled and "expensive" than the KZ10s but given the huge cost differences, I'd not be surprised. But, and here's the but, whilst the KZ10s sounded more "agricultural" in the upper mids and top end, a bit of EQing sorted some of that out. They've massive low end. Really impressive for such a cheap pair of phones. Again, pulling back a tiny bit of the lows really helped tighten things up. 

All in all, I can't believe how good these are for the money. 

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Mine arrived yesterday too. Not had long with them but definitely very happy. Far more bottom end than I was expecting and good separation of lows, mids and highs. I'll tweak eq today and then save an eq setting for them on the XR18 so I could pull that up if I ever need to use them at a gig.

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On 06/05/2018 at 13:11, Lee-Man said:

Has any one brought a Jodi vac, struggling to find them in the UK? 

 

I brought one a few months ago, direct from 64. Took a couple of weeks to arrive, ordered a couple of the flexible nozzles too. 

Been useful. Not something I use every day but handy to have for the occasional deep clean. 

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On 07/05/2018 at 21:44, tonyf said:

I brought one a few months ago, direct from 64. Took a couple of weeks to arrive, ordered a couple of the flexible nozzles too. 

Been useful. Not something I use every day but handy to have for the occasional deep clean. 

Do you clean your inears properly now?! :-p

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On 03/05/2018 at 23:44, dood said:

Oooops, just bought a set. Thank you folks!

My red set of KZ's have just arrived now. I've plugged them in for a quick ten minutes before my next student arrives and I am already surprised! I may tweak the EQ a little but they are rather impressive for the money! 

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On 03/05/2018 at 23:06, Yardicus said:

 

On 03/05/2018 at 23:32, MoJoKe said:

Again thank you and yeah, the red looks really good 'in person'.

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6 minutes ago, dood said:

My red set of KZ's have just arrived now. I've plugged them in for a quick ten minutes before my next student arrives and I am already surprised! I may tweak the EQ a little but they are rather impressive for the money! 

do try playing around with taping the ports, makes a huge difference to the bass...   I gave mine a good 3-4 hour burn ing before I was happy, but as you say, for the money!  I actually used them for a gig the other day...  pretty damned good!

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On 5/3/2018 at 18:17, EBS_freak said:

Tips wise, give spin fits a whirl - they last longer than the comply tips - and don't disintegrate!

I bought a set of KZs and found difficulty hearing a rounded sound - so after reading this I bought a set of Spinfit CP-100 tips and they made an enormous difference!  Seem to seal with my ear canal better than any tips I have used before.  Thanks for the, erm, tip :)

 

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2 hours ago, Paul S said:

I bought a set of KZs and found difficulty hearing a rounded sound - so after reading this I bought a set of Spinfit CP-100 tips and they made an enormous difference!  Seem to seal with my ear canal better than any tips I have used before.  Thanks for the, erm, tip :)

 

If I have used up all the foam tips on my UE900s would you recommend spinfits over comply foam tips? 

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Now these could be a good bet for a cheaper universal inear for people dipping their toe in -

https://www.revonext.com/en/product/QT3-Quad-Drivers-In-Ear-Headphone-66.html

Dual dynamics and a double armature top. Theoretically, these should be a very nice piece, especially in the lows. Can't find a graph for them at the moment though, but the QT2s review very favourably.

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MoJoKe - you state that you “ran them in”.. Have you found that by just working the drivers in the KZs they improve somehow?

I don’t understand how that would make any difference. 

Edited by GrahamT
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21 hours ago, GrahamT said:

MoJoKe - you state that you “ran them in”.. Have you found that by just working the drivers in the KZs they improve somehow?

Any headohnes With audiophiles, opinion is split on whether speakers/headphones benefit from running or 'burning in".  This article discusses it:-

https://www.techradar.com/news/audio/what-is-speaker-burn-in-1301179

I've always sat on the fence on this one, but given the KZ's price, its not an unreasonable thing to try if it can improve them...  I don't know what others have found, but I personally feel they have definitely benefitted and sounded warmer and less brittle when I had done this.  I suppose if you don't burn them in, they'll still get to this point on their own, but the difference will be less noticeable between "brand new" and after a couple of weeks old, "nicely run in"!

I've now been able to use these lots for mixing in the studio, in rehearsal and also as live IEMs, and I have to say I am well impressed!

 

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Having jumped on this particular bandwagon and got a pair of the KZ ZS10s for £30 (!), I tried them with some new foam tips (the stock silicone ones didn't seal in my ears very well) at band rehearsal for the first time this week.  I normally use my UE900s which are great for the money but, and rather surprisingly, the KZs were at the very least on a par with them and in some areas far better (i'm no audiophile or good at describing sounds etc).  They go deeper with no muddiness, the vocals & general midrange were far clearer and the high end was smooth and clear without being overly emphasised or brittle.  So yeah, i bought them as a backup for my UE900s but i think it'll end up working the other way round.  As to their long-term longevity - we'll see, but for £30 i may get a back up for the back up !!

Edited by intime-nick
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4 minutes ago, intime-nick said:

Having jumped on this particular bandwagon and got a pair of the KZ ZS10s for £30 (!), I tried them with some new foam tips (the stock silicone ones didn't seal in my ears very well) at band rehearsal for the first time this week.  I normally use my UE900s which are great for the money but, and rather surprisingly, the KZs were at the very least on a par with them and in some areas far better (i'm no audiophile or good at describing sounds etc).  They go deeper with no muddiness, the vocals & general midrange were far clearer and the high end was smooth and clear without being overly emphasised or brittle.  So yeah, i bought them as a backup for my UE900s but i think it'll end up working the other way round.  As to their long-term longevity - we'll see, but for £30 i may get a back up for the back up !!

The dynamic is probably responsible for helping in the lows... and the smoothing out of the top end is probably due to the notable recess in the highs. Sound like a good result though - glad you are pleased with them. Given the end of the cheaper UE900s, these seem to be a good low cost alternative! Yay for KZ.

Talking of dynamics, really looking forward to hearing the new UE live piece... it seems to be that the adding of a dynamic seems to be the on trend thing. Funny - people seem to be taking note now... but Unique Melody were doing it way back with the Merlin (2 high, 2 mid, 1 low (dynamic))

In other news, my Roxannes have gone to JH for an overhaul, the RHS seems to have become recessed in the highs... and it doesn't seem to be a wax buildup... so we shall see. Mind you, they have had a lot of use. Not looking forward to the bill though :o

 

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i didn't realise they'd stopped making the UE900s.  As for the KZs - as a cheap IEM or a backup for a full custom IEM i don't think you can fault them.  At £30ish a pair, even if they have a relatively short life, they still represent pretty good value for money.  We have a few gigs lined up over the next weeks so I'll be giving them a fair test.  What'll be interesting, apart from how they sound in a live band environment, is how the cables fair - most of the OEM and aftermarket ones I have start corroding with the green tinge of cable death after only a few months.

Edited by intime-nick
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4 hours ago, intime-nick said:

i didn't realise they'd stopped making the UE900s.

They havent - its just the grey import market that enabled the purchase of much cheaper units has been (mostly) sewn up.

Edited by EBS_freak
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3 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

They havent - its just the grey import market that enabled the purchase of much cheaper units has been (mostly) sewn up.

And you realistically probably wouldn't spend 4 times the amount if these KZ are that good... 

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