KZ ZEX IEM Review – Best In-Ear Earphones Under 2000

Introduction

Have you ever wondered how to improve your music listening experience? Gift an IEM to yourself. IEM stands for In-ear Monitors, they fit right into your ear canals and will offer a 

Box Contents: 3 Sets of Silicone ear tips, silver cable, KZ ZEX 

Design

Speaking about the construction, it has got an aluminium faceplate that’s been CNC machined. Painted black, so it’s a matte black finish, and not shiny, which I really like. You can notice the KZ logo in the images below. 

It’s about 8-inch thicker and you got this resin shell. There is a 2-pin (AKA C-pin) connector where you are going to connect your cable. And then there’s the stem, which many have so far complained is too skinny. But I have tried even using foam tips and it is a snug fit.  There’s a screen, which keeps all the earwax and gunk out of it. If you look real close, you can see the drivers. I like the see-through design, which lets you see the dynamic and electrostatic drivers.    

Now let’s talk about the cord they have given us this time. It’s no breaded cable which KZ is used to give on most of the IEMs. Honestly, I was not a fan of those cables. But I like this new flat cable. This cable has a 90 degrees 3.5mm audio jack on one corner. It’s a silver colour cable of about a foot and a half in length. The other corner splits off into two ear hooks. These ear hooks have a plastic coating on them to keep the form so they can go around your ears. At the tip of the ear hook, you can see the two-pin connector, which goes into the respective buds.  

How to wear an IEM? 

Now if you are using an IEM for the first time, especially these KZ IEMS, then you’ll want to know how to wear them.  Take one bud and make sure the faceplate is facing out and the stem part is facing in for your LEFT EAR.  The same goes for the RIGHT EAR, you would want to make sure the faceplate is out and the stem is faced in. Make sure the ear hooks go over the back of your ears. 

How do they sound? 

To test an IEM, I like to listen to a couple of different kinds of music to understand how they are tuned. Something sublime with Rome where they’ve got a lot of instruments and maybe some woodwinds and brass. And then maybe something hip-hop like Post Malone, where I can get some rumble and some bass to see how well it does in terms of distortion. 

Starting with Wicked Hearts, the first thing that I noticed is that there’s a lot of volume. I used it on a couple of phones with headphone jacks. My personal favourite was the original iPhone SE, which is easy to carry around.  

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Furthermore, I noticed that they are basically bass and mid-forward as compared to their flagships or earlier IEMs. They were good but had a lot of trebles, complaints about ear fatigues and you’d hear sibilance from the highs. Probably because they were tuned so far in that direction with minimal bass and okay mids. But these KZ ZEX IEMs are bass and mid-driven, and the highs are pulled back a little bit. I can still hear the highs, and details and that tambourine going, and even vocals are still clear. I would also like to report that there is no distortion. 

Now moving on to some post-Malone, I started with some White Inversion and moved up to more PG-rated songs like Sunflower. It’s clear that KZ ZEX offers good low rumbling. It handles bass like a champ! 

I went up to full volume and there was absolutely no distortion at all. With a little pulled back treble, I didn’t experience much fatigue while using these for longer durations during long music sessions. 

Should You Buy? 

Now the question is whether you should buy these or not. For Under Rs 2,000 these are probably the best IEMs available right now at Headphone Zone, where you can easily get them at a discounted price of Rs 1949 (MRP is Rs 2499). I would recommend these KZ IEMs if you are someone who is looking to buy their first IEM pair. It’s a really good investment in your audio pleasure. Go for it. 

BUY HERE for as low as under Rs. 2000.