KZ Xtra TWS ANC IEM Review (2nd Opinion) – With Age Comes Wisdom, But Sometimes Age Comes Alone
Other than the random old guy sporting Air Buds, you rarely see anyone using cheap wired IEMs these days, and consequently the once-dominant KZ, which is a late entrant to the TWS game, seems to have lost some momentum.
It’s new XTRA certainly doesn’t break any new stylistic ground—it recycles the same somewhat heavy, tear-shaped shell as it’s used on a gazillion of its wired models, and the absence of an app and (esp.) volume control is puzzling. As Durwood (review here) notes, the ANC here works really well, and phone quality was good.
I hear these as dark, with a booming but lugubriously slow subbass, a conspicuous dip in the midrange and a soft high end which avoids harshness but lacks sparkle and extension. Midrange is pushed forward—voices have good body and clarity, and these work well for movies. However, KZ really whiffs here at its traditional strength, which is imaging and soundstaging—the XTRA bunches all the performers in the center, and it’s hard to separate and located the individual instruments.
I’ve seen these go anywhere from $35 to $75, and solely by virtue of their noise cancelling they’d be a decent pickup at the lower price. However, <$50 rivals from Moondrop, Soundpeats, etc. do a much better job with music, and my big takeaway is that these escaped the lab prematurely.
Disclaimer: borrowed for a quick listen.
SPECIFICATIONS KZ Xtra
- Bluetooth Version:5.4
- ANC depth:~55dB
- Bluetooth range:~15m
- Earhooks battery capacity:48mAh
- Charging case battery capacity:400mAh
- Earphone playing time:~8h
- Total Battery Life:~32h
- Charging interface:Type-C
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