- Is it really worth spending over $700
for custom in-ear monitors, and do
these $60 headphones live up to all the hype about them?
Well, in this video, I'm gonna compare the RSM Quad Drivers
by Alclair, these are custom in-ears
that cost over $700, I'm gonna compare
them with the KZ ZS10 universal fit headphones
that cost $60, and believe it or not,
these have five drivers,
and the Alclairs only have four drivers.
So keep watching this video to the end,
because you will gain some clarity
on why you would spend the money
on custom in-ear monitors versus
just picking up a cheap pair on Amazon
that still, quite frankly, does the job.
Coming up.
(upbeat electronic music)
This video's brought to you by Worship Leader School,
where you're gonna find all the essential advice,
training, and support you need to plan and lead worship.
Visit worshipleaderschool.com,
or click the link below in the description to learn more.
My name is Jake Gosselin, with churchfront.com,
helping you lead gospel-centered and tech-savvy worship.
If you haven't already, consider subscribing
to the channel so you don't miss out
on any of our latest videos to help
you grow yourself and grow your church.
And make sure you check out the show notes below
for links to where you can purchase
both of the headphones that I'm gonna talk
about in this video.
So now, let's dive into the comparison,
and I shot this comparison, actually,
three weeks ago, and I'm just getting
around to shooting the intro portion of it,
and I'm not wearing the same shirt, today.
The lighting probably looks different.
So that's why you're about
to see things change a little bit, right about now.
In-ear monitors are becoming an
increasingly popular solution for a lot
of church worship bands, these days,
because with in-ear monitors, your mix is gonna sound better
at front of house, because you have less stage volume
with the floor wedges, and with in-ear monitors,
you can use a click in backing tracks in worship.
But one challenge a lot of
us are facing is finding affordable in-ear headphones
for our worship bands, because
not all of our band members can drop hundreds
of dollars on high-end in-ear monitors.
And that's why I ordered this pair of headphones.
These are the KZ ZS10 headphones
that run for about $60 on Amazon,
which is very reasonable considering
that they've packed five drivers into these headphones.
Drivers are the little speakers
that produce the sounds at varying frequencies
of your music, so the more drivers
generally bring greater clarity
to the sound of your headphones.
The fact that they put five drivers in here,
at this price point, is mind-boggling.
So let's go ahead and remove them from the box.
So in the box, we have the earbuds,
and then we have a bag that has the cable,
and another little bag that has the extra earbuds.
Here's a closer view of the earbud itself.
I got this blue-red design, and then
it's transparent, here, in the shell,
so you can actually see all the little drivers inside.
Tech specs-wise, the design's pretty simple.
These headphones have five drivers,
and of those five drivers, one of
them is a dynamic driver, and the other four are balanced,
and my understanding is dynamic drivers
cover a wider frequency range, and the balance drivers have
more focused emphasis on different parts
of the EQ band that you're hearing.
Build quality-wise, my initial impression,
they do feel pretty cheap.
They're plastic, so I don't expect
these to stand up to the abuses
of my worship ministry, but we'll see.
My least favorite thing
about KZ headphones is the connectors
that they use to connect them to the headphone,
the cable to the headphone.
I just feel like it never really is super solid.
So I'll go ahead and get these cables connected.
The nice thing is that it feels like
these cables lock into the earbuds a lot better
than the KZ ZST $20 earbuds that I got from them.
So that's nice, I won't have an issue
with these earbuds flying off of my ear and onto the ground.
Now, I'm gonna go ahead and put them on,
and we'll talk about comfort and the look of them.
They go on pretty easy.
I like the cable, how it goes back behind my ears.
For some reason, they don't put that little rubber thing
that tightens up the cable behind your head.
I think that's a must on headphones, these days.
But overall, tell me how they look.
Does it look like I have these big old blue things
in my ears, 'cause that's what it feels like?
They don't feel super secure.
I have heard that getting better earbuds will help
these fit better, and sound better,
but I wanna test these like they are, straight from the box.
So now, it's time for a listening test.
I'm going to plug it into my laptop,
and I'm gonna pull up some music.
(whispers lyrics)
♪ When they laid it down ♪
♪ Find me here, at your feet again ♪
♪ Reaching out I surrender ♪
Not bad, not bad at all for $60.
My initial impressions, when I first heard the music
through these things, is that there's clarity.
I think there's great high-end clarity,
but then as the rest of the band came in,
and I was listening to kinda some fuller-sounding stuff,
with bass, and lots of other instruments going on,
it just felt thin.
It wasn't, just, as beefy as what I'm used to,
and I'm actually really interested, now,
in comparing these to my Alclair RSM Quad Drivers.
So here are my RSM Quad Driver headphones.
I've been using them, now, for over a month,
in a worship band context, and they sound fantastic.
I have never had any headphones sound
nearly as good as this.
And I'm not expecting the KZ ZS10s to sound
nearly as good as this.
Obviously the price point,
there's a huge quality difference.
These just feel so much sturdier.
You can just tell there's so much better craftsmanship
that go into these things.
Who knows how many labor laws were broken making
these cheap things in China.
But these Quad Drivers, by Alclair,
I feel like they're very balanced and clear sound.
I have low-end, but not too much.
I have the high-end, but not too much.
And they're supposed to be reference monitors
that have very balanced sound across the EQ range,
so it's not boosted or cut anywhere.
So now I'm going to do a comparison
in the sound between these Quad Drivers and the KZ ZS10s.
So obviously the fit is a lot better.
They're custom molded, so they fit in my ear really well.
They isolate really well, and they look better,
because they're not these big old, bulky, blue things,
sticking out from the side of my head.
Now, let's go to part of the song,
the same part of the song that I was listening to.
(inspirational music)
♪ When they laid it down ♪
Switch those out for the KZs.
(thinner-sounding music)
(inspirational music)
(barely audible music)
Not bad.
So I went back and forth with these different pairs
of headphones a billion times,
to try to hear what the differences are,
and to be honest with you, there's
not a astronomical difference in the overall clarity,
sound quality, bass.
They're actually both very flat-sounding headphones,
and they both sound great.
And of course, I'm not a audio expert.
I do not know the nuances of listening
to the different frequencies, but again,
it's like, for your average Joe, if you were
to put these two headphones in, sound quality-wise,
you probably wouldn't know which one's which.
So all of that said, if you're looking
for an affordable pair of headphones
that's less than $100, give these guys a try.
Obviously, read all the reviews
for yourself, and what other folks are saying.
Overall, most of the reviews are positive
on Amazon, but there's some people
who said they just randomly stopped working on them.
I think that's the minority.
It's probably not a high chance that
that would happen to you, but you never know.
So give these a try for yourself.
Explore getting some different earbuds for them,
maybe a better cable, as well.
But if you have some serious money to spend on headphones,
then I obviously recommend Alclairs.
I've had great experience with
these RSM Quad Drivers, so far.
They look great, they feel great,
they sound great, they're gonna last long,
I can just feel it in the build quality of these in-ears.
I've included a link to both of these headphones
below in the description of this video,
so you can pick up a pair of these,
the KZ headphones on Amazon, or
you can check out Alclair's Website.
Now, the purpose in doing this comparison is
I thought it would be kind of fun,
and it would intrigue your interest
to know what is the difference
between $60 headphones versus $700 headphones.
So let me know in the comments below,
if you have any questions.
Let me know if this comparison was helpful for you,
and finally, let me know what headphones
you're using in your worship ministry.
It'll give me more ideas of what headphones
I should check out and review,
and that can also help other folks
who are searching for great in-ear monitors
for their worship band.
And before you head out, I wanna invite
you to check out Worship Leader School,
where you can find all the essential training, advice,
and support you need to plan and lead worship.
Click the link below to learn more.
Thanks for watching this video.
If you found it helpful, hit that thumbs-up button,
and share it with all your friends.
You can check out some related in-ear headphone videos
right over here, and don't forget
to subscribe to the Churchfront channel,
so you can continue to receive
all their latest content to help you grow
yourself, and grow your church.