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 will be fine.
How would these compare to the truthear Hola or Hexa?
Planar IEMs are wild! I bought a pair 7Hz Timeless IEMs, got them on sale for about $230ish delivered, very shortly after they launched. Surprisingly, they hold their own against my full sized headphones - the Audeze LCD-2 and the Focal Elear. In fact, I enjoy them so much, that they get used significantly more than anything else.
I recently demo'd Focal's entire closed back range, an couldn't justify buying a set - given just how well the Timeless competed against them.
Then there's the fact that unlike the bulky, heavy, full sized headphones - these can fit in my pocket!
I've heard that the Dioko and the Shuoer S12 both have a very similar sound signature, at a significantly lower price - although I haven't heard them myself.
Chi-fi companies are innovating at such a rapid pace and drastically shifting value paradigms in the head-fi space, very exciting times!
Agree totally, i own a few different Chifi headphones and iems. Thoroughly enjoy trying out these gadgets.
I own hifiman Ananda Stealth.
Moondrop Kato
Tripowin Olina SE
Salnotes Zero
QKZ x HBB
TANGZU WANER
and others.
So far all have been enjoyable and quality is surprisingly good on each.
Do you know if these are good for musician/singer performing on stage in a live setting? I play keyboard/Piano/singing on stage and want to buy IEMs for that reason but all the big brands are so expensive, like $400-600 at least. Any suggestion would be appreciated.
I lent a vocalist my pair of Dunu Titan S the other week running through a Sehnnheiser EW 300 IEM G3 and his dick shot off into space. He's used to crappy pairs of Shures which cost like 3 times the amount.
Have Timeless, Dioko and Shuoer S12 Pro. The S12 Pro have replaced Timeless for me. They seem more…detailed? Dioko's sound signature I found is not for me.
Wow, very interesting! I enjoy the Timeless’ laid back sound signature, but I can see how the S12 Pro could differentiate itself by presenting more clarity and detail.
For info i run my KZ PR1 Pro with fiio BTR7, a Topping G5 i also have Fiio K7 for my planar headphones. All drive the KZ fine with heaps of power.
Hey @andione1983 how would you rate them against the Moondrop Aria Snows? Thinking about getting a new pair of IEM's to try and have only read good things about the Aria's but man planars for ~$50 is crazy haha.
I have not tried Aria, but for the price of these planar you would be crazy not to give them a go
Yea for sure haha my current reference headphones are the Monoprice M1570 planars which sounds incredible think I might have to put the Aria's on hold and try these first especially at the price point.
Also how do you find the mids on your PR1? Watched the review the mids seems quite recessed even more so on the PR2; I listen to a lot of rock/metal and wonder how the recessed mids would affect the music.
Try the Tanchjim Zero IEMs.
Tonality is fantastic and price is not bad (AU$ 24+)
They are 'zeros', so quite neutral and
when combined with a DAC,
they start to shine (but within its own constraints).
Thanks for the suggestions mate!
I received the Zero IEMs last week, and have been
pleasantly surprised by its excellent tuning for the price.
please note these are some thicc bois
Thanks OP. Uh… do these come with a cable or do I need to buy one separately?
It will come with a basic 3.5mm cable.
If you have an amp or device capable of 4.4mm balanced output, check out Tripowin Zonie cable. Not a bad upgrade. 4.4 QDC option.
Any hint on what pin is in these IEMs for getting 3rd party cable?
QDC connector
Cheers OP. Got a pair. Will see how they stack up against the Moondrop Arias
How you like your Arias? That's a pair I've been looking at as well.
Love them. Had the KZ ZS10 Pro before the Arias and definitely prefer the Arias. Sound profile is a little more exciting and does better with different genres. ZS10 Pros were good but some genres of music just didn't sound right. Almost like the tracks weren't mastered properly.
Didn't go looking for a replacement for the Arias but decided to get these as they're $50 and never tried planar drivers before
Awesome thanks for the response I will be coming from a pair of KZ ZS10 Pro's as well so that's great feedback.
I've decided in the end not to go with the PR2 as I saw in another review that it's quite difficult to drive (harder than the HD6XX apparently) which won't work well for my intended use (portable) and it'll be redundant for me on the desktop as I've got two full sized cans with one of them being a decently high end magnetic planar as well.
@basketballfreak6: Arias will be perfect for you then. Not hard to drive at all. I'd recommend getting a better cable than the stock one and some spinfit tips
@basketballfreak6: I have the OG Aria. I thought the snow were just a different design? I might be wrong tho
@jsediv: Apparently tuned slightly different; Snow's supposedly have less sub bass and more mids and tamed highs; I do wonder how much actual differences though as opposed to reviewers getting wax lyrical. Cable meant to be better with the Snow I think from what I've read so far?
ZS10 Pros are cold metallic sounding IEMs.
Aren't arias more expensive truthear hola? I've heard they're quite similar that the price difference makes the hola the no-brainer between the two.
That I don't know so many of them out there so hard to keep up haha!
Thanks OP I grabbed a set.
I got a pair to compare with S12's, I have two ports on my amp so can do a/b comparison and would be nice to have two IEMs lol
Ordered. Thank you. Can anyone recommend a cheapish (under $100) small transportable way to drive these?
Some very good portable DACs
* Truthear SHIO — AU$110+
* iBasso DC03 Pro — AU$85+
If you want them less than AU$100,
then try to find these on sale, or 2nd hand :-)
PS:
If you ordered the earphones (and the DAC) around the same day,
from AliExpress, you can qualify for fast(er) shipping,
as the dispatch-centre consolidates your items for quicker shipping.
Thanks, bought a pair.
I've had some ZSN Pro Xs for a while, which I really love, and have never had anything planar before, so this feels like the next logical step. Looking forward to them arriving!
If anyone wants to convert these into wireless earphones, I have been happy using the KZ AZ09 Pro with my PR1s, I assume performance will be similar with PR2. Sounds quality is comparable to wired, battery life generous, the earhooks are very comfortable and I like the physical buttons. The main downside is the huge charging case.
Does the volume get loud?
Plenty loud for me - as an example I use at the gym at less than maximum volume and it is loud enough to block out music playing on loudspeakers in the background.
Note however that IMO these really shine in quiet environments.
I bought a KZ AZ09, non-pro, and it had a beeping/ticking sound coming from the left earpiece. I'm not talking about noise floor. It is present when sound is playing, then after no audio it will disappear 10s later. I'm thinking my unit was defective cause I don't know how anyone could use it. I was refunded by Aliexpress and bought 2 other "wireless" iem adaptors and they didnt have the problem (TRN BT3S PRO and Whizzer AM2). They however have a wire connecting them and not earhook style ones, which I believe need to communicate to each other.
I also bought this cause it's cheap and planar, but I'm a bit iffy about kz quality control cause of above experience.
@cmanc: What convinced me not to get it was reading about how planar drivers have more variance between each unit than dynamic drivers. Add that to rock bottom prices and poor quality control and I feel like there’s a good chance that the left and right unit will sound noticeably different to one another
@cmanc: Not the same issue, but I had stutter with az09 non pros. Solved it by doing factory reset and re-pairing L and R.
Enabling low latency mode helps as well (three taps on R).
Annoying niggles, but for the price…
Damn this post. Now I want some in ear planars… that I'll never use.
Promo code not recognised
expired? "We don't recognize this promo code. Have another try."
Still working in my cart. CKIA4QEC16VF
Same issue - probably a good thing we don't spend any cash.
I feel silly..what are these exactly? Headphones?
Wired earphones
These use planars. You can read more about the driver used here and a comparison to what is typically used in most earphones and headphones -
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/learn/dynamic-vs-planar-ma…
Code no longer works. Can someone double check?
how do you get the discount code to work? I put the 'CKIA4QEC16VF' into Promo Code when checking out, does not work.
Seems like the deal has expired. Or it is just not working at the moment.
Havent been following IEMs: are these true basshead level bass, or just planar too-much-bass-for-audiophiles level bass?
From what I recall, the S12 (or the bassiest version of the S12 - the Z12?) were borderline basshead, but not quite?
FYI, looks like these have relatively lean bass - not basshead levels.
these are not bassy, only good for classical light music, not for techno, drum and bass and electro
Am I missing something? Code won’t work for either version?
Looks expired - can no longer see it listed
Just wondering, has anyone had their order posted out yet … mine has been stuck on processing for a few days now
Code doesnt work.
I dont get it, I reported it, i was told its tested and still valid and yet it keeps coming up for me that "We don't recognize this promo code. Have another try." dont get what i am doing wrong
Oh well, if it doesn't work move on.. Save yourself 50 bucks… 🤦♂️
Item is now on sale 52+GST from official store without a code
69+gst
Can anyone compare these to QKZ x HBB Khan which is on Amazon for $59 rn?
Ordered yesterday, new code, $49 with extra discount
could these be worn with the cable down or do they have to be around the ear?
think you'll need to buy a different cable in order to wear the cable down
the cable connector is actually front facing, so you could buy straight cables and have them dangle downwards…. or do what I used to do with TripleFi… swap the left and right cables (as they are moulded with a bend), swapped it will point downwards. If you mind the left channel being right and vice versa, just use an EQ and swap the left and right channels in device.
Has anybody's been shipped?
Not yet. I'm tipping they have hundreds if not thousands of orders to dispatch.
or…they don't have the capital and rely on the money from our orders to buy the parts?
Mine shipped today.
when did you order?
Same day deal was posted. So was processing for a little while, prob cause they have thousands of orders.
@cmanc: My order has updated and now says shipment cancelled! Im a bit pissed. Why did they say they shipped it when they obviously did not? Wonder how long it would take them to refund it.
@cmanc: Same here. Thought the order had been delivered but looking into the update it says cancelled.
Meanwhile the official store on AliExpress still appears to be selling these…
@cmanc: Mine says it has arrived in transit country/region 28/5. Went thru Fengang sorting 26/5 etc.. Pretty wild if canceled after all that
New update, changed from shipment cancelled to:
Out for delivery
[Fenggang Town]Processing at sorting center
I ordered many a thing for Aliexpress and this seems like the first stop. So the original tracking number was just a place holder (or so I believe) since they didnt have stock and didn't want orders auto-refunded by Aliexpress. KZ should only list item for sale when it is ready to sell OR specify a ETA and pre-order status. I'm yet to have a positive experience with them.
Mine shipped overnight also.
I also brought a set of KZ Di-Fi which get good reviews. So will see how they both stack up.
Anyone's order still not shipped? The seller keeps saying to be patient and wait or get a refund.
Mine says "shipped".
But no way to really check it.
Didn't you get a tracking link? My previous order have some sort of tracking. I actually extended mine by 5 days so they won't auto cancel it. Don't think other sellers are selling it this cheap anymore.
Most of the time the tracking is useless.
I got emails saying it is shipped on May 16th.
I opened tracking now and …. surprised… "received by logistics company" today - I feel like they have no clue and just generate fake tracking when you try to open it. :)
We will see if/when it arrives.
Mine says shipped with a tracking number - but actual tracking status is "Waiting for seller to dispatch"
So based on the two replies, looks like they are waiting for stock after all. I hope it actually ships lol
if I had known I would have bought from a different seller. took 3 weeks for them to ship mine. 5 days in, already landed at au custom clearance.
logistics pretty good, but the time it took to fulfill, they should have let people know of the delay in dispatching. I will never buy from their official store again.
My order updated to arriving 30th May to "shipment cancelled" as a few others.
Mine did the same yesterday and now it has a new tracking number and appears to be actually shipped.
Same thing happened to me.
My tracking number information says 'Arrived at departure transport hub 2023-05-26 18:03:24'
Estimated 5 days till delivery so we'll see…
Mine says processing delay at sorting centre in Fengang Town. So annoying 😞
Yours arrived? Mine is in that state now.
Mine finally arrived like 2 or 3 days ago!
Shocking. But mine got delivered by Australia Post this afternoon.
For a reference, ordered on May 7th (23 days to deliver).
Same, got it today. It's amazing value for money, very impressed.
The sound is pretty good too. Noticed that even at uncomfortably loud volume levels, there's very little distortion.
Order cancelled. Never got a tracking number. Refund on the way.
Might be a silly question but how would these fare for general PC use like YouTube, movies, gaming, etc plugged directly into a PC? Looking for a headphone substitute