Castor (Harman-Neutral Version)

I bought my first iem, castor neutral priced at 10$ and I am amazed with sound quality, better than my xm4. So I wanted to upgrade to potential end games and got myself a xenns tea pro for 340$ and a used wm1a and oh boy it's a clear upgrade in sound quality, and the tea pros are not fatiguing. Money well spent. I have now found my end game iem and will stick to this. Hope you find yours. 😇

I should have bought kefine klean instead of the kz castor.

Good point. Thats why i did tons of research after buying my first iem and dap which are kz castor and sony a35. Was overwhelmed with the vast number of iems and daps. Wanted to try it all in every price point but later decided it was not worth spending so much money so bought what i think is the best for me which was the wm1a and tea pros combo and sold my kz castor but kept my a35 as a backup. Now i can say i reached my endgame and no longer need to buy another device except when my current one breaks.

I'd pick harman neutral over bass-boosted. You can eq castor harman using peacegui and make a preset for gaming and music. The cx31993 is driverless so it'll be fine, personally i'd go with fiio ja11 purely because onboard eq.

I feel you, homie :D Just watch a load of reviews, scour reddit for all the info you can, then just pull the trigger on a cheap set that you instinctively feel might match your preferences..! Then, give your brain and ears time to get used to it, then go from there, IF you need to! (No need to go down the rabbit hole if you like what you have :D) Honestly, among the sets in my collection, one of my all time favorites is the original (ie: NOT the pro version) KZ Castor Harman (the silver one), it has great imaging and soundstage! Edits for typos PS: Ma sei italiano? :3

Try the og non-Pro KZ Castor silver (and set the switches to 1100 for a bit more bass!), you can buy it for basically spare change now, it will start giving you an idea, and it's great for gaming to boot! Yup this is all so subjective and solipsistic, but it's part of the fun! ps: yeah, the 'Vito', plus 'infinito' means infinite/neverending in italian as well, ahah

In all honesty, yes: I have the og Castor Harman, the Zvx pro, the Prx, the (CCA) Rhapsody, amd the AM16 Balanced, and they're all banger, banger sets. I've been lucky and haven't faced breaking QC issues, but then again, what brand doesn't have QC issues?

Castor Pro (Silver) might be touch bit brighter (abit more leaning towards neutral bright) than the OG Castor Silver, OG Silver seems to have a little bit more smoother sound experience than the Pro Silver. OG Silver, even in FR graphs is more versatile from neutral bright to a Mild-V warm-ish tuning. On the Tangzu Wan'er SG 1, yes its really warm and chill sound experience, though same with your guess it sounded abit too relaxed. Wan'er SG 2 changed that, so you can definitely go for that one as well. If you like bass, then Castor Bass definitely. Imaging wise its better than Tangzu Wan'er SG 1, though male vocals gets drowned, female vocals does not get affected as much. This based on my own personal experience on all 3 https://preview.redd.it/pq76zelzj8xf1.jpeg?width=9720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1e9a811c03703d0c885fd03d7a806392ba2ec491 Though in the end, these are just subjective and personal opinions, everything will end up on your own preferences, likes, and dislikes.

The original EDX Pro is really more on the V-shaped bright tuning, and many don't like its bright tuning. If you really like bass, Castor Harman is not your IEM. I would either suggest going to like Saga Bass or Castor Bass, or Dawn. Castor Harman (1100 switches), Gale, EDC Pro, EDX Pro 2, and Saga Balanced is more leaning towards balanced-ish tuning. Castor Harman (0000 switches) is more leaning to mild-V shaped bright, (0011 switches) neutral bright tuning Terms of improvement or any differences, if you want versatility and easy to adjust to almost any tuning, go for the Castor Harman (tuning switches and EQ) If you want to not fiddle with switches and/or EQ, go for the EDC Pro, EDX Pro 2, and Saga series.

difference is more into maturity, general sound experience, and refinement. but it definitely depends on your preference tuning(s). I previously came from the original KZ Castors (both Bass and Silver Harman), then jumped to KZ AM16 Balanced, but I have already experienced few higher end IEMs around 50-200 USD. AM16 Balanced, especially if bought on a discount or at low price (just like mine at $33 locally here in the Philippines, but in the US it might be around $50-60). Better terms of detail retrieval, instrument separation, and "soundstage" vs the Castors (even if I EQ them to a similar preference EQ I like) But with a little bit more pricy set than the AM16 Balanced, because of its deep V-shape tuning and a little bit more refinement on those more expensive sets, those sets sound better overall. (specifically Ziigaat Odyssey 1) Though personally the AM16 Balanced with PEQ is getting there, sounds wonderful, though definitely those two sets are better, But definitely I know now what to upgrade to and most likely I know what are my end game sets. Until I don't need to EQ. My Mild-V/U shape EQ is around the Xenns Mangird Tea Pro and Ziigaat Odyssey 1. https://preview.redd.it/enkhr59aqhyf1.png?width=2400&format=png&auto=webp&s=35e8f417e92d2acc4f2be3885944fbb1a67f9a52

The original EDX Pro is really more on the V-shaped bright tuning, and many don't like its bright tuning. If you really like bass, Castor Harman is not your IEM. I would either suggest going to like Saga Bass or Castor Bass, or Dawn. Castor Harman (1100 switches), Gale, EDC Pro, EDX Pro 2, and Saga Balanced is more leaning towards balanced-ish tuning. Castor Harman (0000 switches) is more leaning to mild-V shaped bright, (0011 switches) neutral bright tuning Terms of improvement or any differences, if you want versatility and easy to adjust to almost any tuning, go for the Castor Harman (tuning switches and EQ) If you want to not fiddle with switches and/or EQ, go for the EDC Pro, EDX Pro 2, and Saga series.

The original EDX Pro is really more on the V-shaped bright tuning, and many don't like its bright tuning. If you really like bass, Castor Harman is not your IEM. I would either suggest going to like Saga Bass or Castor Bass, or Dawn. Castor Harman (1100 switches), Gale, EDC Pro, EDX Pro 2, and Saga Balanced is more leaning towards balanced-ish tuning. Castor Harman (0000 switches) is more leaning to mild-V shaped bright, (0011 switches) neutral bright tuning Terms of improvement or any differences, if you want versatility and easy to adjust to almost any tuning, go for the Castor Harman (tuning switches and EQ) If you want to not fiddle with switches and/or EQ, go for the EDC Pro, EDX Pro 2, and Saga series.

What's your top IEMs there Personally my top faves are - AM16 Balanced - OG Castor Harman (Silver) - EDC Pro EDC Pro sounded a little bit too upper midrange bright for me with average bass impact, lacks enough details for me. OG Castor Harman sounds good at 1100 setting, but it sounded thin overall. Closest sound experience I have with it is the Truthear Hexa. AM16 Balanced seems to be the least excessive upper midrange bright for me (even vs EDC Pro), and has the wider imaging both horizontal and vertical (almost holographic)

The original EDX Pro is really more on the V-shaped bright tuning, and many don't like its bright tuning. If you really like bass, Castor Harman is not your IEM. I would either suggest going to like Saga Bass or Castor Bass, or Dawn. Castor Harman (1100 switches), Gale, EDC Pro, EDX Pro 2, and Saga Balanced is more leaning towards balanced-ish tuning. Castor Harman (0000 switches) is more leaning to mild-V shaped bright, (0011 switches) neutral bright tuning Terms of improvement or any differences, if you want versatility and easy to adjust to almost any tuning, go for the Castor Harman (tuning switches and EQ) If you want to not fiddle with switches and/or EQ, go for the EDC Pro, EDX Pro 2, and Saga series.

EDX Pro 2 and Saga Bass would definitely be a slightly more warmer set than EDC Pro. EDC Pro would be similar-ish in bass and mids with the EDX Pro 2, but a brighter treble, abit closer to balanced than warm or bright. But the EDC Pro was original reference tuning for many newer KZ IEMs, like the EDX Pro 2 and Saga Bass. They just refined the sound overtime, Zenith was the pinnacle of that tuning, especially alot of people really preferred the warmer sound. Even other KZs have been tuned to a tamer treble than classic KZ sets. Though recent new new releases have been using the Castor and Castor Pro Bass tuning with refinements on treble, and bass for the bass versions of the new KZ IEMs. https://preview.redd.it/rwodxqaqc3yf1.png?width=2400&format=png&auto=webp&s=cef5c06819544d7d3340234c1640b7dc24e72474

Wait for your brain to get used to one IEM first, this happened to me. My original IEM was the QKZ AK6 Pro like yours (just the pink and blue one). I have used that for years as my daily driver abused IEM. Still works haha, until I end up buying the KZ Castor Bass. After few weeks, I noticed the QKZ sounded duller and has less clarity. It gotten way way worse as soon as I swapped to the KZ Castor Harman, which has way less bass than both. I ended up liking the Castor Harman vs both the Castor Bass and AK6 Pro. Now the QKZ just sounds like mud for me, too much bass.

I have seen a comment (maybe from Audio Amigo) where the Soundbrenner might just be a rebadged TRN ST2 shells with an additional BA driver. Seen frequency response graphs of it somewhere from ASR Forums, wacky and maybe shouty and shrilly graph. https://preview.redd.it/05hgzaaiqxqf1.png?width=2400&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc1d239095b5772b4ab21beb2e973abb64f6a65d I would personally stay away from the Soundbrenner if this is the actual graph, I would rather personally use my KZ Castor, AM16 Balanced, or my EDC Pro over this. In your case, go ahead and buy the Kefine Klean!

Have you tried the KZ Castor? I know the Castor is the more expensive one, but the GK Kuten looks really promising with such an expensive driver from the KZ Zenith. I'm kind of tempted to hop on the hype train, but my Castor has already been great for me. I haven't thought of getting another IEM for a while since I've been fine using my Castor.

Thanks for the reply. I don't own the Pro variants, just the standard and the Harman versions. The UDUD settings have been perfect for my needs, as I'm not a serious audiophile and just wanted decent audio gear for gaming and music. From what I understand, there's a negligible difference between the Pro and the Base/Harman models, but the Pro Bass and the Bass non-Pro model are significantly different.