Linsoul KZ ZS10 Pro, 4BA+1DD 5 Driver in Ear Monitor, HiFi Wired Earbuds, Gaming Earbuds, Hybrid IEM Earphones with Stainless Steel Faceplate, Detachable Cable for Musician(Without Mic, Black)

Short version – the KZ ZS10 Pros provide great listening with rich bass, embracing vocals and notable highs. Using the iFi Audio Hip-Dac and Apple Music I choose these over my Shure SE-535s, the HD660S and Sundara, KZ-AS12 and Sony MDR-1AM2. Most of the time. The provided cable is a bit short and tends to tangle. I’ll replace it when it becomes more important than just listening.Not an audiophile, or any kind of expert or specialist when it comes to headphones or to music. I like particular music genres more than others and am really not a heavy listener. When lossless came out on Apple Music it was the metrics of what was being offered that drew my attention. What possible difference could Hi-Resolution Lossless using 24 bit at 192 kHz make? Why would I even care?I mainly listen while biking, running, flying or exercising and am more concerned with not shorting out my earbuds with sweat or dropping them onto the street when the wind really blasts. If you’re on the move the value of lossless will be apparent, but it’s not that critical to extract everything you can from the lossless encoding and the headphone specs.The jump from the CD-ripped music at 320kbps and iTunes 256kbps songs that make up my library to Apple Music and lossless has been dramatic. (My entire stored library is now archived to a backup drive and everything in all my playlists comes from Apple Music’s lossless cloud of songs). Even without what I can now hear with lossless, the massive music library provided by Apple Music is worth the subscription. With lossless, the music is transformed.These relatively inexpensive KX ZS10 Pros are outstanding for me. I only bought them at under $50 to try out because of their great Frequency Response spec and the solid Amazon reviews. They have become my go-to headphones, and the baseline I use to compare with anything else.The frequency response from the specs is stated as 7Hz-40kHz. Regardless of any analysis about human ears being stuck in the range of 20Hz to 20kHz I enjoy the sound of those with wider range, and by a lot. I find that the bass seems more deep and rich, the highs more detailed and realistic. So, the range on these is excellent.Others in my listening adventures include the KZ-AS12, Sennheiser HD660S, HiFiMan Sundara, Shure SE-535, and Sony MDR-1AM2. Also a bunch of other much less expensive earbuds and headphones, but comparison isn’t really useful with this collection. I’ll also watch Joshua Valour, ABYSS Headphones, DMS and Darko Audio on YouTube and check out the breadth of opinions about headphones on Reddit. Mainly to learn more and to figure out what I may be missing. And continue the quest for a next level listening experience. (Have not approached an Abyss Diana or one of the Audeze LCDs. …yet).I personally find that IEMs, earbuds, are my favorite way to listen to music. So far none of the over-ear headphones has dissuaded me of this view. These KX ZS10 Pros have a really nice fit for me. Using memory foam earbud tips these seat and seal nicely and I’m barely aware that I’m wearing them. And I can easily wear them for hours. All of the over-ear headphones mentioned are comfortable, but they all do tend to become less comfortable over time, mainly due to heat.To net out my experience, these KZ ZS10 Pros blow away the Shure SE-535 (my up to now favorites, and my long-time traveling companions) and the KZ-AS12s. Better and richer bass, more lively engagement with the music. The HD660S and Sundara are both excellent, but I did not find them enough different from the KZ ZS10 Pros to warrant spending so much more or dealing with my own comfort preference for IEMs. The Sony MDR-1AM2 has a frequency response of 3HZ to 100,000kHz, which I do notice. They do not have quite the same overall quality of sound as I found with the HD660S and the Sundara, but the Sony’s are clean and consistent. Most of my listening uses Apple Music on my iMac and I use the Acoustic preset in the Equalizer to deepen the bass and accentuate the vocals. The MDR-1AM2 with the balanced cable also offers me a great listening experience, just a bit less in comfort than the in-ear KZ ZS10 Pro.Exploiting lossless tracks requires more than the built-in DAC on my iPhone or iMac. My choice was the iFi Audio Hip-Dac Portable USB DAC and Headphone Amplifier. It has the power to drive all of the headphones and IEMs I’ve tried, has a “bass boost”, excellent volume control, and includes a balanced 4.4mm headphone jack (which is great for the MDR-1AM2s). Also, battery powered for mobile use although it pretty much spends its whole life connected to the iMac. For me, so far, this little DAC/AMP is outstanding. (Although I keep looking at adding more options and more power … but I keep reminding myself that I really don’t listen all that much).As I said, my listening is somewhat limited. The songs that have really accentuated what lossless can provide and how these KZ ZS10 Pros perform include Eyes of the World and Bleed to Love Her by Fleetwood Mac (two of their songs I had never listened to until engaging with lossless on Apple Music and exploring these headphones), Enough of the Night by Jackson Browne, Knee Deep by Zac Brown Band with Jimmy Buffett, Keith Don’t Go by Nils Lofgren (who I don’t really listen to, but the acoustic opening for this song puts the guitar inside my head), and 4ware by deadmau5 (added to my list because of a lossless headphone review site that tests using it …). Elvis With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra offers an entirely different level of appreciation for Elvis with this remix album, in lossless. Lossless Lionel Richie (Sail On, Ballerina Girl, Stuck on You …) offer both delicate guitar and rich vocals. The Killers, The Weeknd, Uncle Kracker and sometimes Mat Kearney become over saturated using the Equalizer settings, but lossless versus 256kbps offers a significant difference in listening experience.

I'm reviewing these before the 50-70 hour recommended burn in to overcome initial harshness. I can confirm there is harshness in the highs, but as someone that has spend hundreds of dollars in multi-driver IEMs from Shure and Westone, I'm just amazed at the sound quality of these, which I purchased at a 20% discount for only $39.98.The reason I purchased these was because the wired earplugs I initially purchased for my Quest 3 were so cheap that the cable broke inside. Otherwise, for music I'm mostly wireless now, and I'm happy with my Sennheiser Momentum 4 wireless headphones for walks, weightlifting and flights, the smaller earbud version, the Momentum True wireless 4 for stuff that's more active, and Yamaha studio headphones for sitting at PC or at keyboards.But after hearing these I'm considering what could I be missing with these new IEMs; if $40 bucks gives this quality, what could it do the top of the line from this brand. How could they possibly make this so inexpensive? If you are looking for wired IEMs, just hit the Buy Now button and thank me later; this is a Chinese product that really impresses.As for the sound: the EQ response depicted seems to be accurate; there is emphasis in the highs, some emphasis in the lows, and no emphasis in the mids. This works well for most music styles with small ensembles, such as pop, rock, jazz. As you add more instruments and you go to full 80 piece orchestra with choir, you miss the mids and wish they had a true flat EQ response to truly fool you into believing you are there in the concert hall. But I think these are not targeted for this market. Nonetheless, the instrument separation is great, the bass is tight and doesn't bleed, which tells me these people know what they are doing and there is quality in the product.I'll be following this brand with great interest

I've been using the ZS10 Pro on stage as part of an in-ear monitor (IEM) rig for almost 18 months (bought in April 2023). I keep them clean and I use "pressure foam" ear cups for extra sound isolation. I also have a soft-shell carrying case and take care in transporting them.First the good: The ZS10 Pro has very clear sound. The "smile" curve generally makes music sound quite pleasant at low volumes. But since I play bass, I need to ensure the lows don't overwhelm the other musicians I'm listening to on stage. Even at low volumes, the highs in the ZS10 Pro can be very tiring after several hours of listening. So some EQ is applied at the board to tame the deep bass and the typical 2kHz hump typical of all earphones of this type and price range. That said, I've been extremely happy with the sound performance of the ZS10 Pro. All of the band members have them and agree they provide great clarity, and our harmony vocals on stage have never been better.Unfortunately, despite good care and not running them very loud (there's no need for them to be loud on a silent stage setup), the right earphone bass driver died last night halfway through a show. I did expect that at some point they'd fail -- that can happen even to expensive models -- but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. So I deducted one star for that.You may not run into any issues using the ZS10 Pro in less demanding circumstances. If you're looking at these for a lower-cost IEM rig, at only $50, this is a great way to preserve your hearing at shows, vs. on-stage monitor loudspeakers, dealing with feedback issues, and so on. Just be warned, you may want to budget for replacements within a couple years, or (and I hate myself a little for saying this) buy the extended protection from Amazon. I doubt other models in this price point are far more reliable, since most are made in the same factories and with identical components. So I already have another pair in my cart.