AS16

KZ makes so many different models. Too many maybe. I've tried three of them and if I'm honest with myself, I feel like they were all just as good albeit slightly different in focus. So since you tried the hybrid designs, maybe go for 100% balanced armature like the AS series or planar magnetic like the PR. You won't get much better value for money no matter which model honestly. First time I've hear of KZ I almost couldn't believe how cheap they were.

I would agree that the vader & AM are standouts. I don't find them to perform particularly exceptionally, but they are certainly "fun and different" if you approach them with the understanding that they're not high end or high performance.

Not great, not the worst. They have the classic KZ issues with peakiness and "missing" certain portions of the sound. They're probably a high C tier overall. I don't have zero reds to compare to, but I'd say they don't really compare to my pures or daybreak.

Not great, not the worst. Would not recommend either way. They are tuned more aggressively than the base castor. I found them more cluttered sounding than just the castor.

KZ ZS12 Pro X is competent. Not a bass monster. Put some Tang Sancai Noble tips for better bass over stock tips. KZ AM16 is really good, fun set. My current favorite that I have.

KZ AM16 is a fun set.

I own both and they basically sound the same. You can barely tell them apart unless you check the screw color on the side. Really good sets, nice detail and that satisfying DD like bass

I’ve got the Vader Pro Bass, the PR2, and the AM16. I love the AM16 and the PR2 is on my daily rotation, but the Vader… I tried, man. just can’t handle it

I explored cheap stuff, frequency response graph and different reviewers, audio amigo is quite objective even with iems that isn't up to his tastes, i don't always agree with him, but I think he do good quality reviews, also ignore rankings, you first need to explore different sounds signatures and find or what you like and what not, maybe get cheap iem that responds well to peqing it and play with it using peqdb to find your preferred sound signature (if you go this route imo kz am16 or kz prx are good options, both are cheap have decent technical performance and responds great to peq), after that you can look for iems with similar sound signatures and find reviewers with similar preferences

Good for the price, you need to go to good 50$ iem to get something really better (kz has some better value sets below 50$, like kz duonic, kz prx, kz am16 (with peq), kz zs10 pro 2)