KZ Castor in Ear Monitor Headphones with Mic, HiFi Improved Bass Earphone Sound Tunable Noise Isolating IEMs, Dual-Dynamic Driver Wired Earbuds, 2PIN-C Detachable Cable for Singers Musicians

I was looking for a set of entry level iems and these do not disappoint. The gimmick being the switches. I like how there is versatility to tuning with the switches built in if you dont want to use a dedicated app. I still used these to this day and they have some bass that isn't overbearing. Cord length wise it is decent. The ease of use is simple. Quality is top notch. These dont have noise cancelation but the ear buds do block out some noise. I plan to buy more of these.

I will admit , I had my doubts about these headphones based upon the price, however, they are worth 10x the money you pay for them. I bought these so that I can use these thru my effects pedal to play my guitar or work on mixing tracks while my 5 year old sleeps. I have tried many different headphones for this purpose and they all fell short in some aspect. Not loud enough, couldn't handle distortion well, heavy bass notes on clean channels were distorted, or high notes would freak out. These headphones take everything I throw at it and begs for more. Sub bass response is phenomenal, highs are crisp. When most headphones freak out on sub bass frequencies and cant still produce good mids and highs. these headphones laugh at them. I only wish there was a Bluetooth version of these for my EDC. If your reading this to make an opinion, stop questioning and just buy the things, you wont regret it.. but go ahead and buy the 10' extension, your gonna need it.

In a word "detail", these have way more detail than my Pixel Buds (which I like). The stereo image is good. The sound quality is good. These things seem to have a balanced frequency response when I listen to music. Bright vocals. Good low end without needing to turn up the volume to 100%. Yet when I did turn it up they got loud and are punchy from low to high. When I listened to pink noise, the upper mid range is louder than the other frequencies. Not a deal breaker at all. Normally I use Comply foam tips with earbuds. These were good with the large tips that were in the box. So I listened to these on my Pixel 8 Pro via a USB adapter. I listened to Justin Timberlake's new song "Drown". I also listened to some songs from BEP "Energy Never Dies". I paid $17 for these! The quality to value is massive (quality really good / ultra low price). I won't say these KZ DQS in ear monitors/ear buds are perfect. But I will say they are really good and enjoyable. I'm glad I bought them. I will buy more (one in my backpack, one at work, ane at home. Update - March 8, 2024 I put some unused Comply foam tips on them and they really helped to reduce noise around me. But my Comply tips are large and aren't as comfortable as the stock tips that came with KZ DQS. I plugged them into my laptop, played Apple Music's Hi-Rez audio and I am still content. In fact I happen to have some $99 Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones where I am at right now, AND... the KZ DQS are more enjoyable. Dare I say, sound way better? Um, ya. Ya they do. Probably cuz I don't have an external DAC and headphones amp for the Sennheiser to make it a fair comparison. The KZ DQS gets plenty loud and would blow up my ears if they got louder. I will to remember to add updates to this review over time.

When i opened the package, i wasn't expecting much judging by the packaging, but i was pleasantly surprised. Shocked in fact! These sound better than my Floyd Rose in-ear monitors (compared them side by side). The clarity is not what i expected from this price point. crystal clear and clean highs, tight and balanced bass. There are 4 small switches on each ear piece that lets you boost or cut lows, highs, and to an extent the mid response. I chose an overall flat response which was satisfying to listen to, then i tried bass boost 1 setting, nice subtle but effective low curve boost. not overpowering. When i finally settled down for an extended listening period, they seem to disappear sonically in a way where you almost can't tell you're wearing them or where the sound is coming from. That illusion is consistent with high quality headphones and speaker systems. As sound engineers, this is what we strive for in our designs. Before you spend big bucks on custom in ear monitors, give these a try. Warning, Technical stuff: Passive and tuneable in-ear monitors, so there's obviously no active noise cancelling, but when properly fitted using one of the 3 different size silicone ear fittings, they block out much of the ambient room noise. Mind the placement in your ear. the part that goes into the ear canal is in the down most position and the stiff formed part of the wire wraps around your ear and exits around the back of your head. this ensures an non slip fit. All things considered like pricing, fit, and tuning controls, this is a lot of bang for the buck. I give this a 9 out of 10 rating

Very good headphones been using for a month now. Sound quality is good and the build itself is solid. They’re also very cheap and cost little to nothing. The part that goes in your ear has started to hurt my left but that’s a personal thing with my ear. The cord length could be longer but they’re easy to take on and off so no biggy. THE ONLY THING is that the right earbud disconnects due to faulty wire connection. If the ear strap isn’t around my ear they disconnect. The gold rod in the wire has bent a bit and doesn’t work without the strap. Again no big problem but that’s all I got to say. Very good stuff for such a low price.

Comfortable and good audio quality. Plus the crystal and white color looks nice.

I'll get my honest bias out first: I hate IEMs. I always have, and from my experience with these KZs, I very likely always will. IEMs are extremely uncomfortable in my ears, which have odd-shaped ear canals to make things even more annoying. Granted, I did use 3rd party memory foam tips, so that nullified the issue of these falling out, but that only introduced even more issues. Wearing these IEMs with memory foam tips felt like I was always underwater. And even with the tips, they always felt extremely uncomfortable and like they were about to pop out, even though they weren't. It's just an extremely unpleasant experience, which really bums me out because I REALLY wanted to love IEMs since I've heard nothing but awesome praise from KZ. For all of my sound testing, I used a flat equalizer in the phone app Power Amp. I always want to hear the natural sounds of the headphones I buy before messing with the equalizer. It's also a great test for Youtube videos because there is no equalizing Youtube videos without some sort of 3rd party equalizer app (that I'm not going to download or use; if I have to use a 3rd party equalizer to make headphones usable, the headphones are garbage to me). Sadly, these IEMs are literally unlistenable with certain genres of music. I am *extremely* sensitive to sharp treble sounds, like cymbal crashing and harsh high frequency sounds, making these KZs unbearable at listenable volumes. Eurobeat is completely out the window because the sounds coming out of these KZs are so harsh that it's quite literally painful, even at low volume. Technical death metal, symphonic metal, black metal, and even power metal sounds absolutely terrible with these. It's muddled, unclear, and just sounds like a cacophony of noise due to the fact these IEMs have absolutely atrocious mids. I know it's the IEMs because all the songs I test sound perfectly fine through my Anker Q20s (which I really hate for technical reasons, even though their sound signature isn't bad). Japanese hardstyle/speedcore sounds either awesome (if they are bass heavy songs), or utterly atrocious (if they are treble or mid-focused sounds); there is no in-between. Acoustics and distortionless music are actually really awesome and when there's little going on in the song, these IEMs are clear as a bell. Opeth's 'To Bid You Farewell' almost sounded better than my SHP-9500s listening through an FX-AUDIO- DAC-X6. But the absolute dealbreaker was listening to Wintersun's awesome song 'Sons Of Winter And Stars', which sounded so muddy that I couldn't even get past the first minute when the band starts playing. These IEMs are just terrible with fast music, which is the vast majority of the music that I listen to. However, with that said, these IEMs are absolutely awesome for most 90s and 2000s drum n bass and Jungle. Every dnb and Jungle song I played through these sounded awesome, and is the only redeeming factor for me. All in all, IEMs just are not for me. I have always hated them, and I wanted to try some from a company with incredibly high praise to give them a fair chance (and for good reason; KZ makes awesome sounds for the price you're paying, even if I can't tolerate the highs). I gave them an honest shot, even trying to seek genres of music I love that would work, and there are some I love that I can easily jam out to with these. It's just incredibly unfortunate that IEMs are just plain *UNCOMFORTABLE* in my ears and makes it impossible to eat food while wearing them due to the pressure to my sinus cavity; something I have no issue with at all with over-ear headphones that have been my mainstay for over 20 years. I honestly wish I had something like these growing up in high school because I went through headphones like a kid with candy. I will keep these KZs and continue to use them to see if I can ever get used to the feel. But it really does bum me out that I just hate the feel of IEMs and was straight up unhappy with the intolerably sharp highs that physically hurt my ears even at 35~40 (out of 100) volume, which is extremely low even for many low impedance headphones I have and use (for reference, a comfortable volume for me is around 60~75 in PowerAmp, and around 75~95 for Youtube videos since those are always way more quiet than through PowerAmp). Maybe I just have to go to more expensive IEMs to get something that has a sound signature that doesn't physically hurt my ears with piercing sharp highs.

These have to be the best budget IEMs on the market. They are crystal clear and the soundstage is wide. For the price these are super comfortable very high quality and the sound is comparable to those on a higher price bracket.