I have the KZ PR1 Pro IEMS and they are amazing. Picked them up on a previous sale for around $60. This set i believe uses the same planar driver but tuned a little different. Can't go wrong for a good set of IEMs. Kz have improved greatly with the last few models. Good luck finding any other planar driver at this price bracket.
They are genuine planar driver. I can see it inside the clear casing on my pr1 pros.
What happened with dummy-BA-gate?
I have a pair of ZS10's so I'm wondering if they are a part of it
This reddit post is a good read on the topic: What's the current situation on KZ's fake driver controversy?
I don't have planer IEMs, and this is quite cheap.
This set i believe uses the same planar driver but tuned a little different.
Can you please expand on this before I buy them?
Feel free to not buy them at all: reddit post explaining why HBB/Bad Guy Good Audio is not worth your business, ever.
Too late. I don't care for YT drama, I'm not reading/watching any of that
Ah yes, because threatening violence and hurling racist comments at people who ask for their property back is 'drama'.
Ah yes, because threatening violence and hurling racist comments at people who ask for their property back is 'drama'.
Sounds a but dramatic, no?
I'm just buying cheap planar IEMs, mate. Is this particular model bad? Companies, people, whoever idc do dodgy shit all the time. Tell me what device you're replying to me from and I'll google a bunch of dirt about the manufacturer—child labor, poor working conditions, impact on environment, shitty business practices—pick one. Violence and racism is everywhere, and I have experienced it personally most of my life, same with theft. So it's whatever man, even you think I shouldn't buy this cheap Chinese manufactured electronic device (I've been to the factories in Shenzhen), some YT drama is the last thing I'm concerned about.
@jasswolf: OK you clearly have no intention of answering the question and just want to go on a white knight social jsutice rant.
So here's something for you I guess - no one cares. I just want cheap good shit. I'll buy Nestle products. I'll eat cage eggs. My actions don't have any real repercussions on a macro scale, but hurt my wallet personally, so either you just give a review on the IEMs or stop talking. None of this matters in a personal consumer level.
@Papa Huggies: If everyone thought like that, nothing would ever change. Micro can absolutely make impact on macro if there is scale.
I think it's very fair to call out racists, especially when it's someone's personal brand being used to sell a product.
@p1owz0r: Naturally, but at the same time the scale is so insurmountable there's no real point in such a small-scale resistance. If you want to make that change it has to be at a commercial scale. At an individual scale you're making people spend more of their own money for no reason.
@Papa Huggies: It will directly change who gets the collaborative opportunity…
I also did respond to the question: things get better because we continue to strive for them to get better.
When it doesn't happen in a watershed moment, it still happens over time through education winning out over entropy/ignorance/apathy.
The review is simple: somewhat sharp and bassy cheap planar IEM had minor tuning changes and its price halved, then further tuning changes suggested by Napoleonic scumbag with weird tonal preferences who seemingly sees the very people he collaborates with as lesser humans that exist to deliver his desires while he brags about how amazing and violent he can be.
Compare graphs if that wasn't enough for you, but planars this cheap have too many tonal - and sometimes imaging - issues at this time, right up to about the $150 mark.
The Truthear Hexa on sale still reigns in the $50-$100 bracket.
@Dumb Dog: It's a Shenzhen listing, and they're perfectly reputable. Sometimes it will be fulfilled by Amazon, but that just means they've pre-purchased stock or there's a bunch of unopened returns.
@jasswolf: The returns say 50% restock fee if used. That's $50 for use and return. Amazon listings don't do that :/
@Papa Huggies: I understand what you're getting at, but it actually does matter to some consumers, similarly to how "cage eggs" are labelled accordingly so that consumers can at least make a somewhat informed decision about their purchase.
Also, the notion of hurting your wallet seems kind of misplaced in a thread about planar IEMs, which are a totally optional purchase and not exactly comparable to food which you need to survive.
@itscyanide: Labelling eggs free range is an inexpensive way of adding value to a caged egg. More free range eggs are sold than are produced. Some people can taste the difference. I wish I could.
@jasswolf: FWIW I agree with your principled stance on the reviewer being a total POS and understand not wanting to support them in any way. I certainly don't begrudge anyone making the commendable effort to "vote with their wallet" as it were.
But perhaps a more charitable interpretation of rosebank's position would be "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism", which is a notion I would generally have to agree with. And again, that's not to condone cynically supporting a-holes or an endorsement of mentally checking out, just saying you both have a point here.
@itscyanide: It's the follow-up to such a stance that stands out here, but even the presumption of that statement is that the system is pure capitalism.
Even in the increasingly hellish and polarising industrial and corporate landscapes of the US and China, there is some market regulation and legislation.
@jasswolf: I don't know the particulars of this YT shit, and I don't care because most of the time it's uninteresting, over-dramatic, he-said-she-said nonsense. You know the details and decided boycott, cool.
mentally check out
Over YT drama, yes. I boycott certain companies for personal reasons. I try to live a responsible lifestyle, I don't mind paying high taxes, I try to be good to others, I have great friends who help each other, I am generous, I volunteer, I recycle, I pick up after my dog, shit I even visit my parents and my last living grandparent regularly. However, I'm absolutely not going to listen to some rando on OzB and possibly waste hours of my time diving into a drama rabbithole over a pair of $50 earphones.
Ok, good luck with that
Thank you, likewise.
However, I'm absolutely not going to listen to some rando on OzB and possibly waste hours of my time diving into a drama rabbithole over a pair of $50 earphones.
Seems fair, except you've already done that by openly contesting it, when it was a few paragraphs.
Now you know for next time, and people reading the start of the comments section know the first time.
@jasswolf: Just saw your reply to @Papa Huggies
Compare graphs if that wasn't enough for you, but planars this cheap have too many tonal - and sometimes imaging - issues at this time, right up to about the $150 mark.
The Truthear Hexa on sale still reigns in the $50-$100 bracket.
Could've just added this to your original comment and gave me a link. I just wasted 5 minutes typing a reply in addition to the original, let's say, 5 minutes to make it an even 10. 10 minutes is a lot less than your do-your-own-research reddit link.
He has already been paid, the stock has already been made and will have been and continue to be bought by people that will likely never even know what/who HBB is.
These collabs with KZ are just the persons logo and name being slapped on an already complete product.
He's had about a dozen of these in the last year… even if all of the money is upfront, I'm concerned about him getting the next one.
They make suggestions on tuning and agree to the final product, and of course the business promote each other. Given he's not a particularly popular reviewer I'd argue he's using these opportunities to bolster his profile.
He's been paid for the Collab but he still gets a % sale from each unit sold, so there's still reason to avoid it.
Nothing stopping you from buying the regular KZ iems.
but he still gets a % sale from each unit sold
As far as I'm aware, they just get an up front payment, not a percentage of sales.
If you have proof of them getting a percentage of sales, I'd love to be see it so that I can be educated.
Always happy to be corrected and learn more.
@[Deactivated]: In one of his videos, for the Mele(his first colab) he mentioned he got a small cut from each unit sold. I can't remember the amount, but something like $1 per unit.
@astroxxx: Interesting. I guess they changed up their collab payments.
Guess it's because they weren't getting as much promo from the cc after launch.
@[Deactivated]: am friends with a few reviewers in the iem space, that's what they've told me. Can't tell you how much % cut they get for each sales though
Even if that is the case, people voting with their wallets and leaving unsold stock will mean it doesn't happen in the future.
@p1owz0r: A vast majority of the target audience are either his fans or people who don't know or dgaf about his past.
The units will sell regardless.
Just like artists who are POS people still get music plays.
Ah yes, good ol' reddit and it's circlejerk of hate, cancel culture, doxing, etc.
How do I return these? I just read this post and feeling bad for supporting a racist.
I think you're new to the internet.. 😂
Hi mate. Have a squizz of this video. This guy explains it alot better than i can. Good luck and enjoy. I just brought a set to compare to my pr1 pro (which has been my favourite iem for a while now)
12 min is too long, I'll just buy them. Thanks anyway.
Ahh yes, the OzBargain way. Buy first, think later!
Vid summary - overall best product so far from this model range in most aspects, praise to the engineer(?), NEARly all aspects improve on prev models. bass good, not overpowering, mids a smidgen subdued but in turn natural sounding, trebles clear with little (if any) sybillance. Suits female vocals perfectly, male somewhat subdued but natural sounding. Does require some output power to push\extend these. Magic price point for this type, yes there are a few that sound better and implied (BUT NOT STATED OUTRIGHT) at this price, for this architecture (note no personal knowledge myself) it's a buy.
I have plenty of amps if it needs it, or I can use my Shanling M2S which I haven't touched since I bought it 5 years ago.
Thanks for the tl;dw, appreciate it.
12 min is too long
Stop being a drama queen mate. Simply change the playback speed if you must and just watch the damn video lol
Just bought. You should add GST to the price; extra $5 is whatever, but some people might complain
Price in the description was what it cost me inclusive of gst on checkout.
It must have been Paypal's FX tax. All good.
Thanks for the post; I remember when Audeze came out with their IEMs and they were huge and expensive. Never really been a big IEM guy, except for ANC ones, I prefer old-school earbuds most of the time.
"in Ear Monitor Planar Driver"
Does that translate to "earphones"? TIA.
For the non nerds.. Yes. 😂
Had to scroll down this far to figure out what the hell it was
Gotta turn on noice cancelling even on ozb…
I've never seen a set of planars go for this cheap, IEMs or otherwise.
I want to replace my iphone earphone with this one. How can I get the ligntning head? Will this work with iphone? No idea of what planar magnetic is, but wanna give it a try (sound seems to be better?). Is it easy to set it up or I need to follow the instructions? Thoughts please.
As Teddy states yeah you probably should have a dongle dac/amp of some sort for best performance from a planar. I wouldn't think a phone would drive it sufficiently but it could.
Apparently these are more difficult to drive than the Sennheiser HD 600s… the Apple dongle may be pushing it.
iphone earphone with this one. How can I get the ligntning head?
Get some courage.
How does this compare to the kz crinacle? I have a pair of those so unsure if i shud invest more
Came to AUD $48.46 for me paying in USD with a westpac debit card.
How do you choose to pay in USD?
BarneyKB chose to do so with a Westpac debit card.
You need to set your currency on AliExpress to USD. On the website, this is in the top right. In the app, click account then click the flag in the top right.
Tldr on Kz earphones are that most of their models sounds very similar to each other as they are all tuned to the same target response curve, doesn't matter if it got single driver, multiple drivers or multiple different drivers. So buy whatever that looks and priced decent to you. E.g. Kz zs10 pro, kz zsx, kz as16 pro.
Exceptions to the rules are colab item like Kz Zex pro (Kz Crn) with Crinacle and KZ X HBB PR2 with HBB. Kz zex pro are one of the must try ChiFi IEM for the price to performance. I'm not quite sure about KZ X HBB PR2 tho.
Grab kz as09 or as09 pro if you wish to make it tws.
Planar driver is totally different sound to Dynamic Driver. Thus is where the PR series differ to KZ DD range.
Planar and dynamic drivers have different sound profiles but are not totally different. I'd say the tuning and quality of the driver matter more than the type of driver in the earphone in sound reproduction.
Well, I didn't like the 7Hz Timeless but really enjoyed the Moondrop Blessing 2.
I had both of them at the same time.
Then again, the Timeless has the planar 'packed' into that size,
and it's not like an open-back Hifiman.
So, whether it's tuning or not, I'd say it's a different 'sound profile',
because my ears respond differently to that type of vibration.
( I also had the Focal Clear OGs at the same time, and I didn't enjoy that too much either, haha )
my ears respond differently to that type of vibration.
That's quite interesting to hear, but I'm not really sure if that's a thing. Only way to really compare is to have dynamic and planar versions of the same earphones. Between moondrop, timeless and focal, there's just too many variable beyond driver types to confirm the difference in your preference actually came from the type of drivers.
it's ok but not that bassey
You have KZ X HBB PR2?
no, but I am thinking of buying them, because they are kinda cool and audiophillish
Ok…. Then why comment "it's ok but not that bassey" ?
@fiend: I don't know what the reviews say, but "not that bassey" really comes down to personal preference. I would hazard a guess that they may be hinting in a sound signature that is more toward neutral.
Comes to $69.73 for me. Can someone please ELI5 :)
Ensure you have the coupon applied
Are these hearing aids?
They're basically earphones.
more like hearing destroyers
Does anyone know if these are good for musician/singer performing on stage in a live setting? I want to buy IEMs for that reason but all the big brands are so expensive, like $400-600 at least. Any suggestion for something around the $100-150 mark? Thanks
I'm a drummer and had good experience using the KZ ZS6 for live music in ears and I can say way better than shure se215s.
There are some KZs are more specific tuned. I had just bought the DQ6 and it's suitable for bass lovers.
I would recommend MoonDrop Aria or Truthear x Crinacle Zero. Both are great and you can buy it from Amazon at the same price as Aliexpress
I've had and loved my ZS6 and decided to go planar with the PR1, but was disappointed with the sensitivity. One would have to go up to around 80% volume to drive it at a decent volume. (not using DAC, just my phone/laptop. I'm a drummer too so my ears are probs busted) they upped it with the PR1 PRO (100±3db). I checked the PR2 (94db) and it had even lower sensitivity with PR1 (96db). Just take note it's not that easy to drive unlike the ZS5/6 which at 40% volume would already break your ears
Would these be good for in ear monitor DJ use?
I too would like to know!
these are hard to drive
How's the isolation on these?
How’s the soundstage on these? I bought a pair of KZ AS10s a few years back and they had a horrible claustrophobic soundstage. I tried to give them away to multiple people but after giving them a try nobody wanted them so they ended up in a drawer.
Are these worth a try or am I likely to get burned again? 😛
Use an amp
On these or the AS10s? The AS10s surely shouldn’t need an amp
Higher impedance versions need an amp, even 32Ohms also benefit. Phones don't have enough ounff to driver such IEM or dynamic drivers
@sqheaven: The AS10s are 14Ohms, balanced armature drivers only, and I did use them with an audioquest dragonfly black DAC/amp. As mentioned they sounded bland and claustrophobic lol
Soundstage is not worth chasing on iems under $700.
I’m not chasing amazing soundstage, just wanting to know if they sound like absolute crap like the AS10s. I’ve had a few BA/hybrids iems from Aurisonics, Sony and 1more in the past and they all sounded fine. The AS10s soundstage was so narrow it sounded like it was coming from inside my head.
Just wanting to know if the PR2s have a decent soundstage as it feels very uncomfortable to listen to when it is so narrow
Price turns out to be 51.75$ for me :s
Bummer was 46ish for me.
Can anyone recommend a budget USB-C DAC amp that's portable to power these?
Moondrop click is a nice budget one at $30 https://www.amazon.com.au/Amplifier-Line-Control-Ultra-Low-B…
Moondrop Click uses the ALC5686 chipset.
So, just search the term 'ALC5686'
and you'll find all the other similar DACs,
with prices starting from AU$ 10+ and going upwards.
( I had the Keysion ALC5686 DAC and I gave it away to someone as a gift. Sound was quite alright )
Their sensitivity as per on the box is 94db so they will be a little hard to drive. They will lack volume say plugged into a PC audio jack.
Seems like it needs roughly 40mw of power to drive.
are you sure the planar actually works and dummy-BA-gate is over?