Vader Balanced Version

Snobbish, deluded and dumb. There's no freaking way the AM16 sounds "cluttered". OP's earwax must be impacted, which is probably given he doesn't hear the flat coldness that the apple dongle has to it's sound signature. PRX (if you can get one without QC issues) AM16, Decet, ZS12 Pro X are all fantastic sets. And sets like the Vader Balanced and Kunten are pretty great when you factor in that they're $10. I dgaf how stupid their marketing is or what shitty things the brand did previously with bargains like that. The hurrr durr KZ bad group think is so dumb and seems to be parroted by people that haven't been into iems pre 2020.. what you can get these days in the budget space is nuts and KZ's sets in the last year or so are even out competing a lot of other budget sets on price/performance.

Personally I like the Trio and the Vader Balanced over any of the Truthear Zeros. You can get the Trio or Vader Balanced for under $30, and with a good cable from KBEar, you will still be under the price of the Zeros, and have better overall tonality, without the oddball shortcomings of the Zeros. I still feel, personally, that the Zero Blue is better than the Blue2. But I am in a minority for this opinion.

From that list Castor or Castor Pro but honestly I prefer Vader Balanced, Zenith, AM16, and ZS12 Pro X as my favorite KZ IEMs.

The og KZ Castor has more bass than the Castor Pros, The og Vader balanced Edition sounds more cleaner than the Castor/Castor Pro with good bass punch & rumble. The KZ Saga Bass Edition is another set to consider, its less technical with details then castor & vader but has more subwoofer bass thump with a smoother treble than them & is an all metal. The Moondrop Chu II DSP is a safer pick if you get fatigue or dont like the sharp treble tuning from kz iems also is all metal with brass nozzle

KZ Castor, Vader, Duonic, Decet, PRX, AM16 & Zenith are the only KZ iems worth it IMHO others are just kinda slightly refined spin-offs that sound similar to other models in the lineup. GK Kunten (made by KZ) is really popular due to the hype its basically a better EDC Pro, good if on sale or under $15

Check KZ Vader (Non-pro). The balanced version gave me slightly better spatial awareness compared to Castor Harman - have to EQ down some lower frequencies though. Consider if massively discounted and similarly priced to Castors For FPS I can recommend KZ PR2 v3. Superior to Castors, both 7hz and Truthear zeroes and many other budget sets imo when it comes to fps. 15 USD or less, but you can not be 100% sure which version between v2 and v3 you're getting. Honestly great for music too KZ Gale are copying Kefine Klean to a certain extent, so check them out as well.

For real dude. I was already amazed by my OG Vader balanced even though I didn't care much for the tuning, upgraded to the S08's and gave them some more top end sparkle and HOLY THEY'RE SO INSANELY GOOD I CAN HEAR THE TEXTURE AND WEIGHT AND DEFINITION OF THE MIDS I CAN FEEL THE RUMBLE OF THE BASS BUT WITH SO MUCH DETAIL AND SEPARATION ON EVERYTHING AAAAA

As someone that owns the prx, which i find to be extremely power hungry, he might want to look at the vader pro since it has more bass which will help in gaming (footsteps) and is the easiest to drive iem i own. Along with the prx and vader pro i also have the zs10 pro. I've powered all them with usb c dac, fiio btr11, and ae 01 and ae01 pro ear hooks.