KZ ZSN Pro X

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Description

My first IEM, before these I only used Bluetooth earbuds.

I bought them mostly because I really wanted to understand how an IEM works, and what it feels like to wear in-ear monitors continuously, because they look very audiophile when you're using them. They're wired, with a detachable cable that uses a 0.75 mm two pin connector on each side, and they have no active noise cancelling, so you'll always get some outside sound in. They come with a variety of tips, and the cable has a bend that goes behind your ear, which most other cables don't have.

Impressions

They're full of things that aren't all that convenient. The two pins are very thin and the chance of breaking those connectors is very high, especially if you take them off and put them back a lot, which is common with IEMs because usually you change the earphone and keep the cable. That said, this cable is interesting, it comes with a plastic guard on top that stops you from putting them in crooked and breaking them, so it's ok. The cable is very good, I have nothing to complain about there.

I don't use a specific DAC for them, I basically use the iPhone adapter, the USB-C to 3.5 mm jack one, or the Lyrö adapter, which is also a DAC, and both are very good. I'm not going to spend on a dedicated DAC, at least not for now, because I don't see a big advantage. These days practically any DAC is as good as any high end device we had 10 years ago, so it doesn't make that much sense.

As for the earphones themselves, they're extremely cheap, something like 200 kr, so it's a very low investment. The sound is very good, and for an earphone this size and this price I'd say they're almost neck and neck with an AirPod or even my XM5, which were much more expensive. The lows and the mids are relatively good, and the bass is quite high, which I like, though I recognise some people won't. The highs aren't as good, they're lower and more muffled, but that's fine, you can EQ them and it sorts it out. I've listened to them with EQ and it really does change the sound a lot. They also get pretty loud.

The tips they come with make it easier to isolate the outside sound, and with the right tip for your ear they're very good. But they're extremely hard to put in, at least in my ear they don't go in very well, and when they do it takes me a while to get them in the right way. Once they're in they don't come out and they're quite comfortable. You do get the hang of it eventually, though there's a learning curve to understanding how it works, you have to pull your ear to open the ear canal and then put it in. There's a whole thing around it.

Final thoughts

They're great earphones, especially for their price range, I think they're excellent. They beat a large part of what's in this range. They clearly have things that aren't nice, like being a bit hard to put in and that equalisation being a little different, but I recommend them a lot.

There are other earphones from the same brand that are more worth it and cost a bit more. The direct step up is the ZS10 Pro X, and if you want the ones with the tuning switches, so you can change the sound yourself, there's the D-Fi and the Castor Pro, which give you 16 tuning profiles. Crinacle's site has the graphs and the ranking list for all of them.

I do intend to have other IEMs, because I find the aesthetics and the IEMs themselves very beautiful, so I'd love to have a collection of them and display them on a shelf or something like that. They're not all that expensive either, and I don't intend to buy the super expensive ones. I want to test other options, swap some cables and see what gets better and what gets worse, and maybe test a DAC to see about that too.

Either way, excellent earphone for the price range. Very cheap, very simple, very easy, and very much worth it. Kind of a no-brainer, because it costs so little that if you don't like it you haven't spent much.

Related

• Beyerdynamics DT 990 Pro