I bought these IEMs (in-ear monitors) in July of last year. Since then I’ve bought another pair of headphones that costs over 7 times as much, but I still think this is a good pair of IEMs.
They cost me ₹1800 in India, and they’re priced around $20 in most other countries. What you get is good sound performance and acceptable build quality. These IEMs sound better than your run of the mill Sony or JBL earphones (or any other popular brand) in the same price bracket.
The soundstage is decent - not cramped, but also not amazingly large. Not accurate, but much better than the $20 Sonys / JBLs that have no sense of space and just sound “in-your-head.” In fact, I was surprised by the soundstage the first time I tried them on, since I hadn’t expecting much, and I’m still occasionally surprised by it on some songs.
The tuning is V-shaped so you get a sound signature that’s bright and bassy. They sound shouty sometimes and there’s sibilance, but it’s fine. These are $20 earphones after all. You can’t expect a perfect Harman tuning at this price point.
The imaging and separation is quite good too. Most popular-brand $20 earphones lack severely in imaging and instrument separation.
Overall, the KZ ZSTs sound much better than most popular-brand $20 bass-heavy earphones (it’s not even good bass, just muddy bass). In these lower price brackets, Chi-Fi is almost always a better choice. The KZ ZSTs get so many of the basics better – imaging, separation, soundstage, bass quality – than competing popular-brand alternatives.
Even though I have much better headphones now that are open-back that have huge planar-magnetic drivers and a close-to-Harman neutral sound signature, I still like the KZ ZSTs. Listening to music with them is just as fun as it was when I first got them, and even pleasantly surprising at times.
But, if you can spend a bit more, skip these and get the Tin Hifi T2 Plus. The T2 Plus have a closer-to-neutral tuning that’s generally more pleasant to listen to. If you’re really tight on budget though, the KZ ZST isn’t a bad choice at all. Especially if you’re a newbie and all you want is a taste of what good sound… umm, sounds like. If you’d like more alternatives, Crinacle’s IEM ranking list is an excellent resource.
