KZ Earphone ZSA Headphone Reviews
| Manufacturer |
KZ Earphone |
Model |
ZSA |
| Headphone Type |
Canal |
Headband Type |
None |
| Weight (g) |
20 |
Driver Type |
Dynamic |
| Enclosure Material |
Aluminium |
Isolation (dB) |
20 |
| Impedance (ohms) |
18 |
Cable Length (cm) |
100 |
| Frequency Response (Hz) |
7 - 40000 |
|
| Connector |
3.5mm |
Street Price |
US$22 |
| Buy from Amazon.com |
|
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Reviews by our members
Review by Lead Reviewer commando on 15 Jul 18 20:41| Individual review |
| Bass Extension | 5 |
|---|
| Bass Impact | 5 |
|---|
| Bass Quality | 5 |
|---|
| Mids Quality | 5 |
|---|
| Highs Quality | 3 |
|---|
| Detail | 6 |
|---|
| Comfort | 3 |
|---|
| Durability | 5 |
|---|
| Value | 7 |
|---|
The ZSA are dual driver in-ear headphones with a detachable cord. There's no fancy features like volume control, skip controls, or microphone, but at US$23 that's expected. You can buy bluetooth cord with volume and skip controls for about US$9.
The earphones are surprisingly good for $23. I find the high frequencies too strong and a little shrill in most cases, particularly with jazz, but not so bad it's a deal breaker - you might be able to reduce that with an equaliser. In most cases they're fairly well balanced, with good detail, good vocal clarify, and good bass. Jazz music isn't a strength because of the shrill highs.
The earphones come with a wire that goes over the top of your ear, to try to support them. This is necessary as they're quite heavy metal earphones. I had trouble getting a good seal, and I wouldn't recommend them at all for use while walking, running or at the gym as they'll probably lose their seal, move around, and get annoying. Comfort and portability are compromised as a result of the weight.
I compare all headphones with our Audzee LCD2 headphones. These are open circumaural headphones that cost US$1000 and are just awesome. It doesn't matter what you listen to with the LCD2, it sounds good, and makes you want to listen to more. The ZSA doesn't come close to the LCD2, but given the LCD costs 43 times more than the ZSA that's not a big surprise.
Here's some comments on my standard test tracks.
Cinderella Man / Eminem
Bass is average strength and fairly low, but not super low or super strong. Highs are fairly good, vocals good.
Sinners Prayer / BB King / Ray Chalres
Reasonably well balanced. Good mix of highs and lows. Highs a little shrill at times, but good clarity.
I Love Being Here With You / Diana Krall
The cymbals are clear but a bit too loud - they overwhelm the track including vocals. Vocals sound pretty good. Bass is present and appropriate.
The Chokin Kind / Joss Stone
The highs overwhelm again. Shrill and too loud. Bass is a bit weak. Vocals are good.
February Song / Josh Groban
Highs are bit strong, bass a bit weak. Vocals about right.
I Believe It To My Soul / Joss Stone
Cymbals a little too shrill / loud. Vocals good. Bass a little weak.
Voices of Trance April 2012 (electronic)
Quite good. Represents the spectrum quite well. Highs maybe a little strong, but all in all well balanced.
In conclusion I think these are good headphones for they money, so long as you can tolerate highs that are a bit sharp at times.
Test setup: 128 - 320kbps mp3 files, fed from Bluetooth on a Huawei P9 running Stellio music player on Android 6. No equalization is used.
Disclosure: free samples were sent to HeadphoneReviews for review.
