The Khan is so good it makes me angry. It just puts so many iems in my collection to shame.
The tuning of the Khan is genius. This is one of the most perfect tunings I've heard. It strikes the perfect balance for every segment of the frequency range where there could be a potential tradeoff in the sound. And this results in a set that sounds like it's achieved every benefit without making sacrifices in the sound. The bass is deep and rich with a huge textured sound that doesn't interfere with the mids. The lower mids are rich with a juicy weight to the sound, but at the same time the mids are clear and sweet and open sounding. The upper mids sound correct for vocals and instruments alike, and create an excellent sense of presence without ever being shouty or piercing. The treble is present with just enough extensions to to give lifelike edges to the sound, that never offends. The entire frequency is coherent, comfortable and engaging. Truly this tuning is rare, masterful and astounding.
Sound stage and imaging are very important to me in an iem. When I'm talking about sound stage I'm not just talking about the size of the sound, but the shape in all directions. And the Khan succeeds in creating one of the most 3-Dimensional stages I've heard in a dynamic set. The sound stage is wide, round and has a height to the sound that I almost never get in Iems. This just has an overall outstanding stage, that truly makes this set exquisitely immersive.
To add to the immersiveness of the stage, the khan is also equipped with superb imaging and separation. Instrument placement just feels so unrestricted in this vast soundstage. I can pinpoint sounds coming from all sides and nothing feels squeezed in or compressed. This iem can also provide some interesting insights into the audio engineering of a track, as you can really clearly hear when more or less compression is being applied by listening for the spread between instrument placement in the sound field.
The one element of Khan’s sound that I would not compare to top-of-the-line sets is the detail. This is not to say this detail is lacking - but with every TOTL set now equipped with planar, estat or the latest and greatest balanced armature super tweeter - dynamic drivers struggle to squeeze that same amount of detail and treble extension. That said, this is performing pretty damn well for the drivers it has, and because Khan has such excellent staging and imaging it creates a sense of realness that isn't dependent on resolution.
Some notes about accessories: The khan comes with the same basic black cable that nearly every budget set comes with and I find that a bit limiting to its image. Just the fact that that is the cable they packed it with will forever keep folks thinking of this as a budget set, rather than the work of art it is. I'd gladly pay a few extra bucks for this to have shipped with a slightly better cable, which would likely only cost QKZ slightly more to include. The set also comes with a gold colored metal commemorative coin, which is actually really cool, but since im not a closeup magician, I don't really know what to do with this but stick it in my drawer. And again, I would rather see that expense have gone into a nicer cable.
The box that the Khan comes in says “The Future of Audio.” and I have to say, nothing would make me happier than if this style of tuning was adopted as the new universal tuning target. This set could very well be a catalyst for a huge swing in i.e.m. tuning theory, and i'm here for it.
I would easily recommend this set to anyone looking for a comfortable all-arounder set with an immersive soundstage.
