KZ Castor IEM Harman Target With Improved Bass Review: Unbelievable Value

These days, you can get your hands on a pair of half-decent wireless buds for under two grand easily. But, if you’re a stubborn, old-school audiophile on a budget, chances are you may be on a look-out for a pair of in-ear monitors (IEMs). The KZ Castor is a pair of such IEMs that may cost just Rs 1,649, but will put a grin on your face so wide that you’ll look like you just won the lottery, except these earphones won’t break the bank – they’re the real sound jackpot!

The KZ Castor has two variants, a no-frills, Harman Target-neutral version and the KZ Castor Harman Target With Improved Bass, the latter of which I received a month ago. Read on to know my honest review of it.

Note: For the sake of simplicity, I’ll be referring to the earphones in question as ‘KZ Castor’ through the course of this review.

KZ Castor IEM Review: Design and fit

The Castor has a detachable design, where its see-through cable has a 3.5mm plug on one side, and the other bifurcates into two ends with a slight contour. These can then be inserted into the earpieces.

The earpieces have a see-through plastic chassis with metal faceplates for a premium look. I personally like the way they look, because I can see what’s underneath.

I do have some concerns, however. The transparent plastic and the cable will definitely discolour in the long run, so just manage your expectations.

One interesting thing about the KZ Castor is that each earpiece has four tuning switches that can physically change their sound signature.

You can’t tinker with these using your fingernails, sadly. Instead, the KZ Castor comes with a tool that resembles a SIM ejector to do this. We’ll talk about how much of a difference it makes in just a moment.

To make things comfortable, you get a pair of memory foam tips along with three pairs of silicone ear tips with varying sizes. I have been using the memory foam tips, and for such a throwaway price, these are bang for your buck. You can easily wear these for hours and hours together, and because the cable reduces the amount of stress your ear hole has to manage, these feel lighter than a typical earbud of the same weight.

It does take some time to get used to the ‘looped’ cable moulding around the attachment points of the earpieces, but they are there to make long listening sessions comfortable.

KZ Castor IEM Review: Audio performance

The KZ Castor has a rather unique style of producing sound – it’s got a stacked design, wherein a dual magnetic driver sits on top of a smaller dynamic driver.

So, the larger driver is responsible for the rumbling bass and driving a high sound output, but the smaller driver focuses more on the nuances, especially the mids and the highs.

You might have also caught that ‘Harman Target’ thing in the full name of this product, and may think, “what’s that all about?”

Well, the ‘Harman Target’ is nothing but a frequency response curve developed by Harman International which tries to represent an ideal sound signature for headphones, aiming to provide a balanced and natural listening experience.

Simply put, the variant of KZ Castor I received tries to conform to this particular standard, just with a bit of extra oomphy-thumpy bass.

But here’s where it gets interesting: you remember I mentioned four tuning switches on each of the earpieces while explaining the design of these earphones? These are two-stage adjustments of low and high frequencies. Think of it as quick equaliser toggles, except that these are all-analogue.

So, you get a total of 16 unique equaliser combinations. The following is a chart which explains the switches do:

I usually kept the first and third switch on, for a little bit of extra low-end and mid-magic.

The sound profile here is fantastic for the price. That extra bit of control over low-end really makes for a nice, springy bass. The highs are balanced well, so that they don’t sound too sharp.

The mid-range is where the KZ Castor really shines – at least for me. I’m a person who enjoys noodling around on my guitar in my free time. I also have a preference for songs that are centred around guitars and instruments. So, I value the mids quite a lot. I love the fact that these maintain the texture of instruments and vocals with a natural representation.

The mic quality is fine – it’s just an in-line mic which is good for calls, but not for recording vocals.

KZ Castor IEM Harman Target With Improved Bass: Verdict

The KZ Castor in-ear monitors will do justice to your wired music collection, especially if it’s all on a portable device, such as a good-ol’ iPod. It’s a great purchase, in terms of build, design, comfort or even sound. It’s neutral yet polished, and the four tuning switches are an interesting addition to help you make tiny little adjustments that make your listening experience completely different from someone else.

You won’t even require any additional gear, such as an amplifier, to start enjoying music as intended, because its impedance falls within a comfortable range.

Their price, of just over a grand a half, makes me wonder – did I pay too much to buy earphones back in college? Because if this was available back then, I’d probably be a much happier kid during commutes.