KZ ZS3 review

[Mr.Meerkat]

So, I've had about 3 days to play around with these and this is my "review" for them.

Sound quality will subjectively compared against my pair of Sennhieser MM30G, HyperX cloud 2s and beryerdynamic custom one pros.

Sources are a SB omni and a Sony Z3C.

And yes, I'm by no means an expert and everything is my opinion so...here it goes...

 

Disclaimer: Unfortunately no pictures as I'm lazy but ya know, there are so many pictures on the internet where I'm sure you guys don't need it .

 

Comfort

What can I say, not great? The design of the housing doesn't really play nice with my ears where it's not very comfortable. I've also tried 6 different sizes of silicon tips and none of them makes them as comfortable as my daily driver (the MM30G, in terms of the actual bit that goes slightly into your ear canal).

 

Build quality

Feels pretty solid, housing feels a bit plasticy and the cable isn't that great of a quality. I'll give it a B

 

Features

Detachable cable: a bit gimmicky but it's better than non detachable cables and it allows you to store the earbuds a little easier

Remote control: would have been nice to have volume controls but a play/pause button is still better than nothing so...  

Right angle connector: Who doesn't like them?  

The microphone on the remote: Ermm this deserves a mention, it's a bit echoey but if it's placed in front of your mouth, it actually sounds pretty good where I'm inclined to say it's possibly better sounding than the mic on my cloud 2s (ignoring the echo-ing factor). If it's placed behind your mouth (like how they want you to use these earphones), they sound pretty bad...everything is just muffled. 

Earbuds: 3 different sizes of silicon tips are supplied, nothing extraordinary but it's good enough for the price.

 

Sound quality

I'll be fair and since they don't fit in my ears very well, I'll manually hold them in place where it's delivering the best possible sound.

Highs: They're definitely there, they don't sound harsh but maybe just ever so slightly lacking. I mean it doesn't have the "sparkle" I'm used to with my 3 other earphones/headphones where the mids are close to overpowering the highs so...

Mids: Good, nothing really special or bad about them so a bit bland. 

Bass: Punchy, not overpowering however it sometimes sounds a little muddy depending on the song. 

 

(TL;DR starts here)

 

Scoring

Comfort (out of 10): 6, just doesn't fit my ears very well...your mileage my vary however.

Build quality (out of 10): 8, not the best and not the worst, good enough, one point off

Features (out of 5): 4.75, yep, I am just nitpicking because it doesn't have volume controls...0.25 points off

Sound quality (out of 25): 21, highs are slightly lacking (IMO) with the bass being ever so slightly muddy sounding sometimes. Pretty good overall

 

Overall (out of 50): 39.75, not a bad score, I mean it's scored pretty high in everything but was let down by comfort so...yeah, overall, pretty good.

 

Conclusion

So I paid $8.91 for it (including P&P) from gearbest. What can I say, the sound quality to price is excellent. To be honest, for the price, I'd happily not take the 0.25 points off, put the score up 1 for sound quality and build quality which would put the score to 42/50. 

 

Is it worth it? A big fat yes.

Should you buy it? If you want something cheap and good sounding, yes

 

Pros: Price, sound quality

Cons: Comfort (very subjective)

 

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this 575 word review and hopefully it has been helpful.