KZ ATR Review

Item: KZ ATR Review
Rating: 58
Author: Ryan Miller

Ryan Ryan — Tue, 17 Jan 2017 03:04:25 +0000

KZ ATR Review

Ryan Miller

High End

65%

Mid Range

65%

Low End

30%

Build Quality/Design

60%

Soundstage

70%

Soundstage for Miles

Popping the KZ ATR’s in your ears feels great; the nice fit of the silicon tips is only hampered by some fairly audible cable noise.
Soundstage and High-End:
The sound of the cables are soon forgotten as you power these IEM’s up and a wonderful soudstage emerges before you. I was fortunate enough to begin my listening session with these and The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s ‘Three to Get Ready’ (Brubeck). I was instantly impressed by the seperation of instruments and the way they unfolded seemingly in front of my ears. This transportation to a seat in front of a spacious Jazz Club stage flowed through crisp and smooth high-end, it represented convincing and realistic snare drum and impactful, accurate sax.
Mid-Range
Amongst this wide soundstage and moving on to Blind Melon’s ‘Change’ (BM) I found that the mid-range of the electric guitar was somewhat lost or pushed to the back of the great instrument seperation. This midrange back-off was somewhat rectified when vocals were involved; they sounded clear, smooth and emotive in the same song. Moving on to Alphaville’s ‘Big in Japan’ (BIJ) I revelled in the continuity of the mid-range into the higher registers.
Bass:
The bass was the most lacking area of these headphones. The subtlety of great jazz standup bass was almost entirely lost (Brubeck). More balanced songs with driving bass rectified the situation a bit (BIJ) but still did not satisfy my urge for much more impactful bass. Moving on to Dr. Octagon’s ‘Earth People’ helped the bass out even more but still lacked the detailed and moving power required to truly enjoy such a track.
Genres:
As a genre-specific IEM the ATR’s excel with vocal and jazz tracks without an emphasis on bass
Build-Quality/Design:
Overall decent build but gaps on housing seams are noticable and detract slightly.
Over-ear wires would help greatly with cable noise (ATE and ZS3 nailed this one).
Conclusion:
These IEM’s have a fantastic soundstage with smooth and detailed mid/high registers only hampered by deal-breaking sub-par bass.
Brubeck sounded lovely as i could pick out each instrument and enjoy its clear reproduction.
The soundstage and imaging perfectly captures a Jazz Quartet

58%

KZ ATE Review

Ryan Ryan — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 20:08:51 +0000

Check Amazon Price for KZ ATE Here

KZ ATE Review

Ryan Miller

High End

30%

Mid Range

40%

Low End

50%

Build Quality/Design

60%

Soundstage

45%

Bassheads Only

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.

45%

Ryan Ryan – myhifi.ca

KZ ATR Review

KZ ATE Review