KZ ZA12 Review: Tunable and Affordable
Reviewed by Cinder
The ZA12 is tunable and has way too many tuning combinations to cover in any intelligible way. I’ll be focusing on my favorite tuning, which is (1 ON | 2 ON | 3 OFF | 4 OFF).
The KZ ZA12 is a bright and analytical IEM. There’s no tuning you can switch to that will change that fundamental property. The ZA12 does, however, demonstrate a clear preference towards higher-powered sources. Average or weakly-powered sources will worsen lower register performance, making the ZA12 sound even brighter. Once set up correctly, one can begin to hear the ZA12’s gently-emphasized bass. The ZA12’s midrange is partially recessed in the lower mids and emphasized in its upper mids. The ZA12’s sound stage is wide with an above-average depth. With my preferred tuning selected, the ZA12 is surprisingly coherent, vastly outperforming many of KZ’s legacy products (in this respect).
Treble: Songs used:
Bittersweet Symphony
The ZA12’s treble is highly configurable, but in any given state, it remains well-toned, if not slightly stiff. My tuning of choice has the least treble emphasis, as I found the other tunings were brighter than necessary to bring out maximum detail retrieval. The ZA12’s upper register is precise and quick, in typical balanced-armature fashion. It is sibilance-free, making it well-suited to a wide variety of genres and mastering styles. It’s well extended too, giving music a strong sense of air and decent “sparkle”.
Regardless of driver count shenanigans, the ZA12 does seem to leverage its array of BAs to deliver a solid sound stage. It is wide, with solid depth and competes at the top of its segment in that respect. And while I do think that the ZA12’s treble will make a lot of listeners happy, my preferences would have KZ cool off the 8Khz range a little. I find that my most-resolving and widest-sound IEMs manage that segment of the sound signature more delicately (see: CTM Da Vinci X, Kiwi Ears Orchestra Lite).
Midrange: Songs used:
Flagpole Sitta, Jacked Up, I Am The Highway, Dreams, Too Close, Little Black Submarines, Bohemian Rhapsody, Cash Machine, Chasm
The ZA12’s midrange is recessed, but not veiled. This gives it a slightly-cool tone, somewhat deviating from “neutral”. This style of tuning is compatible with a plethora of genres, but will best-suite listeners who aren’t partial to warm or actually-neutral IEMs. According to KZ, the ZA12’s mids are generated from a combination of its two dynamic drivers and its balanced-armature array. This indicates the use of some type of cross-over, and thankfully the ZA12 sounds largely free from discontinuity or weird cohesion issues.
At five drivers per side, one would expect the ZA12 to be highly resolving, and they’d not be disappointed. In the sub-$70 range, the ZA12 competes with the very best, delivering large-scale detail retrieval, dense texturing, and midrange articulation. Flagpole Sitta’s guitars are crisp and discretely staged behind the vocals — which are themselves well-articulated. This track’s mastering is particularly dry and highlights the ZA12’s only real flaw — there is no combination of switches you can flip that add just a little more warmth to the midrange. As a results, tracks like this sound clean and detailed, but lack the last drop of weight needed to genuinely sound organic. Mid-centric hybrids have often struggled on this front, though some, such as the Rose QT-X, perform nicely.
Bass: Songs used:
In For The Kill (Skream Remix)
War Pigs (Celldweller Remix)
For the first few hours, I really did not appreciate the ZA12’s bass. Even at its most emphasized tuning level, I found it lacking in strength. But, as I’ve adjusted to its sound signature and found more-compatible sources, I’ve found myself appreciating its tone and control more and more. The ZA12’s bass is gently lifted past its lower mids, peaking at around 100Hz. This gives its sub-bass a solid, well-weighted tactility while not adding unnecessary bloat to its punchy mid-bass. This tuning won’t satisfy bassheads, but I really don’t think that was the goal here.
Electronic genres, while not fully realized by this level of bass response, are still enjoyable to listen to. The ZA12’s mid-bass routintely lands solid, punchy impulses from Gold Dust’s filthy bass lines. Its sub-bass does a great job of filling out the track with a well-shaped rumbly sensation that clearly articulates the deepest elements of the track. War Pigs (Celldweller Remix) is a more technically-challenging track, though the ZA12 doesn’t struggle with it either. Traditional bass elements such as the track’s bass guitar are resolved cleanly and with solid shaping. The synthetic bass elements present during the drop are also well-textured and punchy, but again, a little less emphasized than I’d like for this genre.
KZ’s packaging is, as always, minimal and compact. There’s no flash or style, its all business. Whether this is a strategy to minimize cost or simply a preference for the brand’s designers, who knows. Either way, KZ demonstrates throughout all of their product choices that the only thing that matters to them is how their IEMs sound.
The ZA12’s shells are built from a mixture of plastic and metal. They look nice and feel solid in the hand. Underneath its transparent plastic shells lies a forest of wire and driver. KZ’s marketing material lists the ZA12 as having six drivers per side, for a total of 12 drivers. That’s a bit a misnomer, as KZ is counting a dual-diaphragm BA driver as two separate drivers. This isn’t how virtually every other manufacturer counts their drivers and is misleading at best, and a lie at worst. The true count, by industry standards, is 5 drivers per side for a total of 10 drivers. This is typical KZ behavior, and once again I strongly suggest that KZ resist the urge to embellish their products’ spec sheets like this.
On the back face of the shells you can find the ZA12’s tuning switches. They’re embedded in a plastic plate which sits in a cutout in the metal part of the shells. On the top face of the shells, you will find extruded 0.75mm sockets.
KZ’s material design has a history of premature failure and I was hoping that the ZA12 would represent a shift in their priorities. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The ZA12’s nozzles are made out of a thin plastic. Some implementations of plastic nozzles are ok, but the ZA12’s is far too thin for comfort. Not only that, the ZA12’s debris filter appears to be made out of paper, or some wax-coated fiber. These types of filters are highly susceptible to deterioration from moisture exposure — a major problem for those who live in rainy or humid environments. Beyond that, thin plastic nozzles are highly likely to crack and crumble over time as they are exposed to humidity and heat-cycling.
KZ, to my frustration, has still not outgrown the 0.75mm recessed cable standard. Yes, it is technically standardized, but not well-adopted. The 0.78mm standard is far more common. Why has KZ refused to switch over? No idea. That said, I do generally like the ZA12’s included cable. It is a flat-braided silver-plated copper two-strand cable with a right-angled 3.5mm termination. The 3.5mm shell, Y-splitter, and 0.75mm pin shells are housed in plastic. There’s a decent amount of strain relief on the 3.5mm shell, but not much on the Y-splitter. The Y-splitter is not in that much danger of over-wear, but it would still be a nice if KZ added a dash of additional mechanical robustness.
Disclaimer: comfort is a highly individual metric — no two people will have the same experience.
The ZA12 is of average comfort. Its shells are sculpted with ergonomic intent, but there’s only so much you can do with this many drivers. I was able to get my work done without discomfort, though I took a 5 minute break every 60 minutes for the sake of my hearing health.
1: iVipQ Shanhai ($65)
The Shanhai is a 3x dynamic-driver IEM that targets a much more midrange-focused signature. It has as less-emphasized treble, warmer midrange, and slightly stronger mid-bass. The Shanhai’s sub-bass is similarly well-extended, though it lacks the emphasis you get from the ZA12. The ZA12’s hybrid driver configuration gives it an edge in transparency and treble-based detail retrieval, but at the cost of sounding less organic and less cohesive.
These are very different IEMs — from sound design to material choices to accessories, almost nothing is in common. The Shanhai features a thicker resin shell with metal nozzles. It uses the highly-standardized 0.78mm cable standard and includes a thick, robust 4.4mm cable in the box. The Shanhai also comes with a semi-hard carrying case that is spacious and functional, while the ZA12 comes with nothing. Again, these two IEMs target very different crowds and utilize very different tunings — but for those like me who want warmth and organic timbre, the Shanhai is the way to go. For those who don’t mind KZ’s material downsides, the more V-shaped and resolution-oriented ZA12 offers a good value.
The ZA12 is a solid IEM, but I struggle with KZ as a company. Their reliance on deceptive driver-count claims and loyalty to an uncommon cable standard are an ongoing frustration of mine. KZ’s single-minded focus on driver count, and to a lesser degree sound quality, yields some impressive performance, but at the cost of long-term durability and reliability. Thankfully, the ZA12 is not a $500 IEM — it’s a $65 IEM. With that in mind, I think there’s a crowd that will still appreciate the ZA12 for what it is: a competent, interesting, and imperfect, earphone. For those with more-traditional expectations for warranties, build quality, and advertising ethics, you may want to look elsewhere.
As always, happy listening!
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