KZ ATE Review

The first thing I noticed about the KZ ATE’s is that the ear fit was not great, I had trouble sitting the foam olives in my ears.  This was surprising because I usually prefer Olives to Silicone tips; not in this case!!
The soundstage was unimpressive, it sounded like listening to speakers @ about three feet away.  Sound seperation was not especially noticed or engaging.
High-end:
I noticed a lot of distortion and shrill sounds listening to Change by Blind Melon (BM), although there was a reasonable level of detail.
The electronic sounds of Alphaville’s Big In Japan (BIJ) were flat and retained the shrillness when peaking.
Mid-range:
The mids sounded muddy in BM and BIJ.
The situation improved listening to The Doors WASP – Texas Radio and The Big Beat (WASP).  The recording’s intentional distortion tied in to the sound signature of these IEM’s and provided a better overall experience.
Best midrange for these IEM was found in Dr.Octagon’s Earth People (Dr.Oct) as the less nuanced sound signature and pushing bass seemed to open up the midrange to these urgent hip-hop vocals.
Low-end:
This was the best part of these IEM’s.  They seem well suited to hip-hop and rap and to open up when bass is pushed.
Noise Isolation:
Non-existant due to poor and shifting fit of olive tips
Genres:
Best suited to intentionally distorted recordings of classic rock or punk-rock.
Bass-heavy hip-hop and rap also opens these up to present a better sound
Jazz and subtle or detail-oriented sounds are not suited to these headphones.
Ear Fatigue:
These olives do not like me.
Build-Quality/Design:
Overall decent build but gaps on housing seams are noticable and detract slightly.
Olives are horrible.  Over-ear cabling is uncomfortable and just doesn’t work very well.
This design is generally improved and iterated on the exceptional ZS3’s from KZ
Conclusion:
Sound is okay, better than stock earbuds, but still has glaring issues.  Highe-end is shrill, mids are muddy and tend to dissolve into the lows onall but the most aggressive hip-hop.
The intentional distortion on WASP suited these headphones well.