Friends, it seems to me that either the low-cost Chinese manufacturers have really gone mad? You may have already seen it, but if you haven’t, get ready – Knowledge Zenith has started selling its new headphones, which are called KZ AS16. Buy this eight-driver rebar model for as much as $125. How about this? Of course, I respect the manufacturer, but it seems to me that there is a clear overkill here.
I’m sure that the headphones look great, that the quality of manufacturing and materials will not make anybody blush. But $125. For that kind of money and sound, it should be just great, but KZ has always had problems with that. Not global, but they never went to market leaders. Even in the budget segment.
And also planting. Well, I don’t believe that such a serious number of emitters in the body of each earpiece allowed to withstand the moderation of size and convenience of shapes. Even with fewer drivers, the manufacturer managed to make mistakes.
In general, everything looks interesting enough. The radiators are divided into three groups, each of which covers its own region of the range – low, medium and high frequencies. For better coordination in KZ AS16 there is an impressive kind of crossover, which promises us the absence of intersection of frequencies of individual groups of drivers, which should give a clear and transparent sound at the output.
But am I ready to take a risk and buy a product from a state-financed producer for such a large sum of money? Now definitely not. Of course, I’ll think about it, but at the moment I’m just shocked. There is a choice of versions with and without a microphone, as well as two colors of translucent parts of plastic cases.
After using Shure se215 for years, i decided to have a better definition on stage. Although i loved the sound when just listening music, it was hard to hear all the instruments when i used live on stage because of one dynamic driver for all the frequencies. After a long research i decided to give a try for KZ AS16 and it blew my mind. I can hear every detail thanks to 8 Balanced Armature drivers per ear. 2 for lows, 2 for mids, 2 for high mids and 2 for highs. Every frequency can be heard and not squashed like the one driver Shure se215. It's not for bassheads i can say. You have plenty of tight bass like a good referance monitor, it's always balanced and that's what i like. I strongly recommend for professional musicians.