KZ PR2 Review! is it still KZ's best iem? (long ranty video)

links:
PR2:
a.aliexpress.com/_mr8PO4c
TRN T Tips:
a.aliexpress.com/_mtPaYoM

[@Grrrr3FKAGrrrrGrrrrGrrrr]

I bought PR2 because my 7Hz Timeless is too precious to me to be wearing outdoors. Had to pause the video a couple of times to check which version I had, and again to give them a listen. I was expecting to find I had the revised version, linsoul delayed by delivery for a few weeks because they had run out, but the dampers on mine are in the same place. As usual, your description of the sound and it's pros and cons is spot on.

[@colddish]

Dude you should listen to the v2 and you will not defend KZ’s choice of removing the mesh because it sounds horrible. I own PLA13, PR1 Pro and I have a couple of other planars, this PR2 v2 aka without mesh sounds broken! In the first place of the mesh solution is unreliable then it shouldn’t be implemented at all. It only means that the initial design is already flawed and instead of going back to the drawing board to redesign the iem, KZ decided that meeting the deadline is more important. It’s like a ship designed with a hull issue and the management decides to patch it with a duck tape! And so after finding out the mesh solution leads to low good yield they decided to remove it entirely and pray that people don’t hear the difference. They also claimed, during launch, that PR2 was supposed to be easier to drive, that is way off the mark! Being the cheapest planar is not an excuse either. KZ themselves have proven that they are capable of breaking the price barrier with good sounding iems that punch way above their price points. I’m not going to criticize HBB for keeping mum with this fiasco either. The one lesson I’ve learned from this disaster is that I will wait for at least 3-6 months after each KZ new launch before pressing the buy button if I like the what I read.

[@fiddlix]

Great rant and review Hi-Fri. I love your format just the way it is. I really enjoy the work Micheal Bruce has done retuning the Letshuoer S12. He calls the Glamdring S12. I have a custom made flathead from Once Upon Audio (Budapest Hungary) that has a single DD blue PET 300ohm transducer. It is by far my best sounding flathead. I have often wondered how this material would work in an IEM form factor with a lower impedance.

[@hi-friaudioman]

I still have yet to try Michael Bruce's iem. Some day I would like to try it or replicate it if possible. Yeah I'm curious then blue pet material. I have a 10mm blue pet DD and it does sound pretty good but I think I like my normal pet and graphene DD a little better.

[@fiddlix]

@@hi-friaudioman it’s all relatively new stuff to me tbh. I’m an old tube head from back in the day, the electronics is an easy one for me, interpreting freq. graphs, harmonics and its effects on timbre and the inter working relationships is mind boggling to an old fart like me.

[@paulhealy6390]

love your videos ,very technical but look forward to your future videos ect all the best.

[@supra8087]

Reversed starline tips goes well with pr2. Smoothens sound and adds soundstage (that is already huge). Combining with a powerful desktop dac amp you get nearly max level of a soundstage an IEM can have. (V1mesh)

[@hi-friaudioman]

Nice! Yeah that's a pretty killer combo. Truly encroaching on kilo-buck territory if you ask me.

[@StarBuccaneers168]

Crazy how KZ could build a planar at a such a low price! Always enjoy your demo tracks, they are cool to play on the IEMs!

[@good_deeds_always_get_punished]

Wonderful video with great details. I have a question - Have you looked into / checked out the Tangzu Heyday's ?

[@hi-friaudioman]

Unfortunately no. I would love to take a look at them but I can't afford to spend money on iem's right now.

[@Mark-hb2zy]

I have the non mesh version. Stock its kind if nice at first but for me (and probably most people) the novelty wears off after a while and the treble really ruins some songs. However, whith eq, adding a tiny boost at 80hz to add some boost, taking the sub bass down a bit (it seems to lose all its slam with stock sub bass), bring down the upper mids and mid treble a lot and also the air treble, it now competes with my blessing 2 dusks. I think i might even prefer them which says a lot. For ny set nost of the uglyness seems to be in the mid treble, spending some time on that gave the most improvment. Removes the harshness, metalic sound and sibilance.

[@arymaulan200]

Finaly you review this bro..thanks a lot

[@oijans]

Thanks for the reversed tip tip. Did that on my narrow bore Letshuor and now they can be used too. I sent you a message about Z300 a while ago but never heard back from you. I could have helped you out.

[@hi-friaudioman]

Sorry I may not have seen it. My apologies.

[@TheMausebert]

Thanks to your review I ended up buying the pr2 25 dlls and pr3 30 dlls on the 11.11 sale. I own other 2 KZ and the treeble spikes are completely mitigated by the EQ. Great quality for sound and price.

[@badgerbreasts]

Thanks for the video! Great info! I think for the price of the PR2 it's awesome - I have 5 sets for experimenting with. I like it with a Y400 on the driver rear vent, 5x5mm med foam in the nozzle and an O2 filter replacing the nozzle mesh 😊

[@hi-friaudioman]

Nice! I love it when people experiment with their iem's.

[@badgerbreasts]

@@hi-friaudioman cheers man! I've been modding a couple of years now - it was videos from yourself, Akros and Shortbus that got me started 😁 Done quite a few now. Notable was the Pandamon in the wooden shell (I fixed the 4-6k dip by making the chamber smaller and using a tube down the nozzle). And the ICP Pandamon was pretty cool 😁 At the moment I've stripped another PR2 and I'm painting the inside of the shell with liquid chrome. Also got to fix my wooden shell Khan project!

[@JohnRob98]

Oh man, that sounds like an interesting rabbit hole to dive down. Any good recommendations for websites to buy tuning foams and nozzle filters from?

[@badgerbreasts]

@@hi-friaudioman latest PR2 mod is Y500 on driver rear, 5x5mm med foam in the nozzle, O2 filter replacing stock mesh, '5' rated filter on front chamber, plus inside of nozzles and front chamber (I did the full inside shell, but I think likely only the front chamber and nozzle-spout matter) painted with 3 coats of liquid chrome paint. I just ran against my previous mod and to me notes are sharper and seperation/imaging is better

[@jeeewhyyypheee]

I got the non mesh version. By some FR graph the upper treble really similar to PR1 Pro, dunno why is that. And also PR2 is by far the hardest to drive amongst planar species, maybe due to that lower sensitivity. And I already tried pairing TE Zero Red 10 ohm adapter with my PR2, it decreased the upper treble by 5dB and I really liked it. Thus by making it even harder to drive than it already did

[@ItsJustChase]

Turtle rage!! 💢💪🐢💪💢

[@skburke2000]

ooooooooo show and tell. Bring on the snips! I would love to see the guts of the kiwi ears quartet.

[@matusjurcik6974]

TRN T tips are great, are comfy and have good synergy to many of my iems :). They seal really nicely in my ear.

[@hi-friaudioman]

I totally agree, that's my exact experience. As for best sounding tips or best comfort, I think there are better out there but the T Tips in my opinion are the best all around. They just do everything well and suit a lot of iem's well.

[@matusjurcik6974]

@@hi-friaudioman I also started to love moondrop spring tips and tri clarion. All three mentioned tips are also one of the cheapest ones.

[@Radugazon]

Always very interesting thanks a lot. Anyway, do you confirm the efficiency variations : 99 dB for the PR1 pro, 96 dB for the PR1 HiFi, 94 dB for the PR2 ? If yes, this could imply that they used in the PR2 either a thicker diaphragm, either less powerful magnets....all cheaper stuff that could partially explain the lower price. I don't think they used a wider air gap 😁

[@hi-friaudioman]

I think the efficiency could also be because of dampening. 99% of spl measurements are done at 1khz, so naturally if the tuning was changed the efficiency @ 1khz could change.

[@matusjurcik6974]

Design of the KZ PR2 should be identical to the KZ pr1 right? So the shell is actually closed because there is see-through resin under the grills, is that correct?

[@cesarcarranza42]

which KZ would you recommend for on stage musician (guitar player) ? Thank you

[@yo3429]

Good point with the 'crackling' timbre. I made some custom tunings with the KZ PR and the S12, but never got rid of the slight irritating coloration in the lower hights. I guess that's the sound of the foil, maybe a (heavier) compound foil will work better or AMT style. But otherwise, next to very good 7 mm or 8 mm DD drivers, the planars are very audiophile sounding IEMs, never looked back to BAs, but still prefer single DD. You find the PR2 for around 40 bucks on ali at the moment. But better the PR1 and EQing the 7-10 khz region. You will keep the amount of energy beyound 10k

[@randomdrifter]

Got the second version without the internal mesh dampers Gets piercing after a while even when compared to the Dioko Modded it with heavy dampening foams of roughly 2-3mm a side, and replaced the paper filter with a perforated metal filter. Really enjoying it in this state

[@iScorpio1971]

Hi, extensive review. Got the newer version and don't agree on the tip damper, as there is none as you mentioned... ...

[@hi-friaudioman]

Can you elaborate? I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the tip dampener. Do you have mesh over the driver? If so that is the old version or they changed back to the mesh on the planar.

[@Hijynx87]

I’ve got faeul hs70 tips on mine (basically azla crystal but wider) and a tripowin jelly cable. I think it sounds comparable to my z12, maybe better tbh. It doesn’t fit as well though.

[@anatol1204]

PR 1 has amazing air.If they could raise the bass and refine it from 6 khz and after it could sell very very well

[@AlexB-dl5ou]

S&S tips from dunu are close to reverse startlines

[@shambles3458]

By any chance do you know where to get the same nozzle filter for the pr2? I messed mine up after modding em and kz apparently doesn't know which ones they use.

[@jacobhartsoe3525]

Kz came out with a new iem called the ZAT I believe. Could you possibly do a review on those

[@jimawhitaker]

Food dehydrator where you can select the temperature of 90-110 degrees...

[@matusjurcik6974]

I bought two KZ pr2s from KZTWS in like month and a half interval and they sounded the same and were old units like your (dampener on the vent from inside). That second pair came to me just few days ago...

[@kamrankambang7953]

Do they differ?

[@matusjurcik6974]

@@kamrankambang7953 nope, they are the same

[@kamrankambang7953]

@@matusjurcik6974 mine might arrive tmorrow hopefuly its ok. Im not picky tho since im new to the hobby but it seems that like bright iem.

[@thomasre7276]

@@kamrankambang7953 how is it.

[@chrisvinicombe9947]

I got the wrong one that is not tuneing I paid for. Will never buy KZ again. EQ saves it requiering 6db down in highest frequencies.

[@debsattam1]

How does it compare to my moondrop Arya upgrade in sound quality and imaging or not so ?

[@ClassicalRomance]

We are waiting for the Teardown of this IEM.

[@atabayomer]

it would be interesting to see....x HBB x Hi-Fri collab

[@Hijynx87]

I’ve heard the newest ones ship without the black damper making it ear bleeding in the treble. I got lucky

[@isaiahschell]

“Ear bleeding” is a stretch. I’ve got the V2 and they’re absolutely fine. At least to my ears, the extra treble gives off a more precise sound.

[@Hijynx87]

@@isaiahschellood to know, I’m not super treble sensitive. I have a pair of dt990 pros after all lol. Never really listened to music much on them, more so for content and games.

[@Bored-G]

so the PR1 pro is still better? right?

[@joejunior4700]

Ok, you got the batch 1, lucky

[@vamplestat]

you got the mesh pr2. are you able to get the non mesh pr2?

[@Hijynx87]

Isn’t the non mesh one kind of a nightmare?

[@vamplestat]

@@Hijynx87 Yeah the non mesh one that people got wild

[@hi-friaudioman]

I'll look into it but it will probably be a little while. That or I'll mod my pair and listen for the differences.

[@winnieid2727]

@@hi-friaudioman yeah that would be great, since anything you said in video about dampening is "only in theory" it would be great if there is the concrete data to back it up

[@carvalho7davi]

What would say if wanna to use them for PS5 gaming?

[@MrGarkin]

just ordered them for $20 at ali, will see people saying there is as much "revisions" as there pr2's are in the nature

[@keshavkadam4567]

I bought a KZ x HBB PR2 recently like 2 weeks ago but suddenly the left side IEM stops working after some stuttering and screeching noise and after 2 minutes it starts working again. I tried to check with Multimeter both continuity as well as Ohm's the reading shows normal Iam using desktop dac/amp EPOS (Sennheiser) GSX 300. But the problem only arises when listening to music, but when i play pink noise @70-80% volume the left side does not stutter or stops working it only happens when playing Music Any solution guys 😅

[@chrisjohnson9306]

got my PR2 on order :) great vid!!!

[@viderethevaccinatorfromhol7536]

Did you say "your doctor", I hope that he handles his patients with a tiny bit more care

[@hi-friaudioman]

Yeah he's fine, it's his son who likes to break things. Lol

[@sushiplayzz674]

How can I know if I got the one with the mesh or not? I feel like the bass is there but highs at high volumes are a bit "spikey"

[@sushiplayzz674]

nevermind I took a look and the mesh isn't there, explains the highs tryne murder my ears xD

[@hi-friaudioman]

Yeah, you'll see the the mesh if it's the old version. You can always add more mesh or foam if you want and that should help. Also burn-in will help a little bit but it won't get rid of all of it.

[@viderethevaccinatorfromhol7536]

I OWN a PR1 pro still don't know exactly what the difference is

[@athenovae]

More pet cameos please 🥰

[@SgtR6motovlogs]

I picked these up as my 2nd set of iems. Their volume is definitely lower than my zs10 pro x, but I'm certainly happy with them

[@joejunior4700]

They need more amplification, since they're planar and have 94db sensitivity compared to dynamics that have over 100db.

[@keishammeitei3837]

Which one has better sound quality overall? I like clean, wide soundstage with slight punch in bass. Should I go for kz hbb pr2 or Kz zs10pro x?

[@joejunior4700]

@@keishammeitei3837 techs wise I'd go with PR2, it doesn't have much sub bass but it definitely has punchy mid bass

[@reversicle212]

Is it worth saving up for this instead of getting the switchable kz D-fi?

[@silentKeys20]

It's only worth it if you have an AMP for it. Otherwise go for non-planars.

[@reversicle212]

@@silentKeys20 I'm gonna buy a 7hz 71 anyway so the amp part is checked

[@reversicle212]

@@silentKeys20 do you have the pr2? did you buy it pre purchase or after it was sold in the markets? I heard that the pr2 has messed up tuning (tuning that is not in line with the one HBB showed in his video)

[@kazumasatou6124]

I think you will definitely enjoy the non mesh pr2 (latest edition and the one that ships out if you buy now) it keeps most of the sound signature of the pr2 with a bit more spice in the treble and less bass

[@Hijynx87]

Isn’t the newer one shouty?

[@kazumasatou6124]

@@Hijynx87 yes thats why a bit more spice in treble

[@kamrankambang7953]

I just ordered. Man i love a lil bit spicy treble. Hopefully its not too much. Im not sensitive to high frequency tho. I cant even hear after 12khz.

[@blorg8206]

@@Hijynx87 it's not shouty. The treble boost is insane but it's all above 8kHz. It's bright, piercing, shrill. But the upper mids are well done, not different from the OG version, not shouty.

[@ulamss5]

Thoughts vs d-fi? They're so similar in price

[@mateuszzimon8216]

D-Fi are heavier (metal bulid) u can get switch version, but it's still KZ tune. They have more subbass, but they don't have resolution of PR2..

[@hi-friaudioman]

I prefer the PR2. In my opinion the D-fi is redundant when ZVX and EDXS exist, plus the PR2 technicalities blow any budget DD put of the water.

[@namnguyentran2285]

Buy him a bigger tank please

[@darkchocolate4643]

Pro tip to reverse your Starlines: use a crochet needle.

[@vincent-zg2in]

a standard nail works too!

[@darkchocolate4643]

@@vincent-zg2in I'll race ya. :)

[@ta114]

Use a pencil,allways works to reverse them.

[@hi-friaudioman]

Oooo Thanks! I'll give it a try!

[@thedoujinguynico7315]

What kind of turtle do you have?

[@hi-friaudioman]

It's called a Florida Cooter.

[@hi-friaudioman]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal_plain_cooter

[@redgopnik2227]

here for the turtle kz has nothing on him

[@PaulBeetge]

I don't know why you would hand out the PR1 Pro. You said they are your favourite and you will always keep them. That's just stupid dude.

[@colinmartin9797]

The pr2 was changed to an unlistenable state shortly after release. They removed tuning foam and turned them into a completely unbalanced mess. They went from a segment killer to a complete pile of trash. Burnung trash. You have the original version in this video. The new one is missing the black sheet of tuning foam over the driver. The version you have isnt sold anymore, sadly.

[@stale_.]

They revised it again you dork. It was stated in this video.

[@arymaulan200]

Bro..take a look at some iem,the name is Lafitear LF4

[@oaktowndimond668]

If the "make or break" is a tiny piece of porous mesh over the driver, , then we got bigger problems. I have the "V2". I'm gonna guess the sensitivity might have kicked up a bit too without the mesh? I also bet KZ didn't like that low 94db sensitivity either. Listen, I like sparkly treble. I've had a pair of Yamaha NS1000M for decades. I play them with the grills off too. And I agree. Putting material over a planar only masks whatever inadequacies it inherently has.

[@ufopulse]

I bet it sounds just like the dioko shrill and unlistenable meh

[@pickandstring]

Put the drama aside, it's still a good iem

[@athenovae]

Sounds like you need a new doctor 👀

[@huckfin1100]

In other words, it's shit ! You must must have a DD dynamic driver to sound good, in my opinion of course

[@frogyafro]

So much for digress at the start lol. Just try to stick to the topic, saves both of us a lot of time. No hate just want to point that out. I love listening to you in the bg while at work.

[@dksun]

Less hands

[@obudaifourty9]

VERY annoying................. disturbing hand signaling I am out of here.............