Noah Horan
Blown away.
Tl;dr: these are some of the best earbuds I’ve ever heard. Not just for the price - I’m talking period. I’ve owned $300 IEMs that didn’t sound anywhere near this good. The ZS10 Pros are a no-brainer recommendation for me. You will not be disappointed. Okay, longer review: I recently picked up a pair of KZ ZSN Pro Xs, mostly just because DankPods keeps talking about them. I was incredibly impressed by their sound and build quality, particularly for the price. Going a little deeper down the chi-fi rabbit hole, I noticed a lot of budget audiophiles raving about the ZS10 Pros. I figured, hey, if the ZSNs sound that good for ~$20, the ZS10 Pros must be even better, right? Well, bear in mind that you get diminishing returns with this stuff as you go up in price, but I figured for $45, even if the ZS10s didn’t absolutely blow their cheaper brothers out of the water, at least I didn’t drop that much on them. I can tell you that the ZS10 Pros are definitely worth the little extra you pay. Don’t expect them to sound “twice as good” as the ZSNs, of course, but there are a lot of little things I notice that make them worth the extra price. Firstly, just the build quality. The ZSNs are by no means cheap-feeling, but the ZS10 Pros’ stainless steel casing is really nice-looking. They just feel solid. The sound profile is a little different than the ZSNs. The ZSNs have a remarkably flat frequency response. The ZS10s color the sound a little more, but not in a bad way at all. I would hardly characterize it as a “V curve,” just that the bass and treble are SLIGHTLY more prominent than the mids. It’s still overall a very flat, natural curve, and everything is really clear and distinct. The bass is punchy, but tight. These are not going to impress people who want nothing but stanky bass, but for those of us who want GOOD SOUND OVERALL, the ZS10s deliver. The bass is prominent without drowning out the mids. The soundstage, omg. There’s a really incredible three-dimensionality to it. I’m