KZ - Castor (Harman-Neutral Version)

Hello, I use 1000 switches setting with the Rhapsody. And I also use a pair of KZ Castor (Harman) with 1100 setting. I like Castor and Hola, but I prefer the Rhapsody, it's more my taste, just it has very large shells like the Castor. For comfortable listening the best of these are the Hola, but the sound is more muffled. When I don't use an Iem I listen music on a pair of Q acoustics 3020i or a pair of 3030i I love the two. I also thought to S08, Delci and also the Sivga Que. But I don't know what is the best for acoustic instruments. Looking at the shell geometry, I think the Sivga are more comfortable than the other two. The other one I thought was the Simgot EA500 LM. But I don't want harsh treble or too metallic sound. And maybe it's the case with this pair, don't know. Thank you for your suggestion, it helps me.

So I saw the pink Zero 2 IEMs on Amazon with a 20% off deal, I've heard a lot of good things being said about them and they're very highly rated so I'm tempted to give them a try as I've currently got the Harman Kz Castors that I got off AliExpress which I use with my rockboxed iPod Classic 6.5 gen and I just feel like I can't get on with them and I'm struggling to find a nice balanced sound between bass and treble even after doing the mini switches on them as they are quite treble heavy and lacking bass. I'm no bass head and don't like a ton of it but these could definitely do with just a little more bass whilst still remaining being clear and loud. I'm super fussy with how audio sounds and when I see everyone hailing them, I find it hard to understand whether I'm just over analysing and they do actually sound great or if I've very badly messed with the equaliser and dampened their full audio potential. To be honest, a lot of this may be due to my Rockbox audio settings, I'm new to the world of advanced audio and rockbox and I'd played about with a lot of the equaliser and audio settings so I've probably made it sound quite treble heavy myself so I could probably do with just completely resetting all the settings and start over and gradually turn up/down 1 setting at a time until I find the right sound for me. Also I struggle with the fit of the castors and figuring how how to wear them correctly with the wires that go around them as stupid as it sounds, I'd much prefer ones that just go straight in the ear with no wires or anything like the Zero 2s as I never felt like I was wearing them properly or they'd be loose or fall out, even after changing the earbuds sizes and this made me not want to wear them. I thought the Castors looked very nice but the Zero 2s are beautiful, I'm a big fan of pink and I've bought a pink skin sticker for my iPod so they'll go perfectly with it, plus they look as if they'd feel lighter in the ears and a much more secure fit than the Castors, I'm not sure if this is the case so do correct me if I'm wrong but this would be another big plus for me. I probably do need to experiment with different types of IEMs anyway and see if the Castors really were great or if there are better sounding ones to suit me as they're my first pair and they werent the most premium or expensive ones so I can imagine there are most likely better ones out there anyway. Plus I can comfortably afford them and just send back the ones that I don't like but I was just curious to hear everyone's opinions here to see if it's worth giving them a shot ☺️

Thank you so much for this amazing, helpful response! I really appreciate it a lot because I'm now having second thoughts about them after hearing all these mixed responses but that's what it's all about and I'm so glad to see so many unique responses instead of jumping straight into buying them pretty much blind. From your description, the Zero 2s do sound exactly like what I'm after as I certainly don't want a huge ton of bass, I don't think I tuned mine that way but I'll have another try with my Castors tonight (mine aren't the black bass improved ones so that's probably why I feel they're lacking bass in general) and see if I can reach a better sound balance with them by reconfiguring them. But if the Castors lack the clarity that the Zero 2s have then they're of no use to me and not worth me fighting with to try and get a better sound out of as more clarity's exactly what I'm after, as well as being lighter which is perfect. A lot of people have said about the cable and it sounds stupid but what does the cable exactly do? Does it improve the sound in any way? (I know there's some like Hi Res cables you can buy that improve sound) or is it just pretty weak durability wise and more prone to breakage? I'll definitely look into the Zonies, they sound perfect, anything in pink for me is brilliant. Thank you so much for your recommendations! 😄

For the price both are fairly good, but is possible that Zero 2 would have the technical edge over castor by a tiby bit, and also, the Harman version isnt that impressive to begging with, the bass version is usually recomended for its really good bass quality despite lower price, Harman is just fine-ish, either way, the biggest differences would be that: Zero 2 would have a more bassy and warm sound while the Castor Harman would feel brighter (more focused on vocals and treble) that could help with details, but also make it feel more intense than needed, and even with the tuning switches, bass on the harman castor wont be as especial or good as on the Castor Bass version*. that said, given that you also want to do some gaming, Zero2 is more commonly used for that as it works quite decently, so yeah, all in all, Zero 2 is the safer option here in terms of your use case.

It would recommend KZ Libra X (silver one) or KZ ZVX if you want something in that direction. Both have fairly balanced tuning and decent bass. Kz castor harman have clean bass that is nice if that what you want. But if you want fun punchy rumbly bass, this aint it. Or get KZ Castor pro bass for good quality fun bass but still not overwhelming like the og castor bass.

I also found the Castors to be a little bass lacking. If you want a head rattler, I would recommend the KB Ear Rosefinch. Great for my taste. As for Zero 2's, like I said, they're not bad and they do have some bass presence (naturally) but they sounded like the thinnest set of IEM's I've ever experienced. Just not enough for me and definitely less than Castors.

kz castor harman yeeeesssss

KZ Castor. No bass, shouty, just hurting my hearing

Yes, I meant the Harman version. Their bass is very very lean. The switch adds bass, but it's sound doesn't fit the rest of the tuning. The Castor Bass is much much better.

I've harman version, do you have any suggestions on which switch to turn on?

i have both truthear gate and kz castor personally i think that vocals are very muted on castor and rest is boosted too much and they dont have a punchy bass while gate has everything balanced bass isnt outstanding but its more punchier i enjoy gate more cuz its also smaller fits better and it feels more premium

well i have both of them also now i have experience with more expensive iems and i can easily say that gate is a lot better than castor dont worry gate will handle every genre u listen to i listen to almost everything and gate never fails to deliver a good listening experience compared to castor so gate easy recommendation for every genre castor isnt bad but its just worse compared to gate

They are for the most part similar in general sound experience and tuning. Just that Castor Pro has abit more clarity and minor details vs the original. Though the Pro is abit more larger in size and abit heavier. Like a little bit. Both are good tbh, though I personally go for the og version. If you want less treble with them, then you go for UUDD switches.

I currently use kZ castor IEMs and I've found them to be decent. Not too fatiguing and you don't need them loud.