This is a review, listening tests and detailed measurements of the 7Hz Salnotes Zero IEM. It was kindly donated by a member and costs US $22 ($20 on Amazon now).
The molded plastic looks cheep and the left and right markings barely visible. The included tip was extra soft/thin which may be a good thing for comfort but made for very difficult measurements. You could easily deform it to the point of it blocking most of the sound in the fixture. When I wore them on my ear though, the fit was excellent and with their light weight, I could barely feel them.
7Hz Salnotes Zero Measurements
Per above, I had a heck of a time measuring these IEMs but as if by magic, I toughed the off channel once and it created perfect fit and alignment with the other channel:
As you see, compliance with our target is excellence. There is a peak around 12.7 kHz but the fixture is not accurate in that region so don't know if that is extra energy there or not.
Here is the deviation from our target:
Headphone/IEM measurements are not accurate enough for these differences to be descriptive but you are welcome to try to tune further with EQ.
Distortion was impressively low other than a resonance around 1 kHz that was still quite low:
Here it is in absolute:
Group delay is very clean other than another indication of something going on around 1 kHz:
Impedance is flat and low:
Combined with average sensitivity, you should have no trouble using this IEM with just about any source:
On my RME ADI-2 Pro, relatively loud listening was around -25 dB.
7Hz Salnotes Zero IEM Listening Tests
I always use the same tracks in my listening tests to allow good familiarity with their tonality. It took all of 2 seconds to realize this is the same accurate, neutral response I like to hear. Track after track confirmed the same. I was at times surprised by the good externalization/spatial effects of this IEM. Sub-bass reproduction was excellent for an IEM and overall fidelity beyond belief at times.
I took a shot at equalizing the peak at 12.7 kHz. Unfortunately I can't easily do that by eye. Trying anyway, with narrow Q, it made no audible difference. With wider Q, it may have gone past the peak in the response. There, some highs/brilliance were taken away. I could see someone liking it better that way but I liked it without.
Conclusions
Technically the 7Hz Salnotes Zero IEM is excellent. It has almost perfect tonality and combined with low distortion and excellent spatial qualities, it puts a smile on my face. The plastic is a bit cheap and so are the tips. But once I wore them, all of that was forgotten.
I am happy to put the 7Hz Salnotes Zero IEM on my recommended list. So much fidelity for so little money!
P.S. I bought this a year ago and only now getting to testing it! Since then, there is a new version called Zero 2. May get that to test as well.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The molded plastic looks cheep and the left and right markings barely visible. The included tip was extra soft/thin which may be a good thing for comfort but made for very difficult measurements. You could easily deform it to the point of it blocking most of the sound in the fixture. When I wore them on my ear though, the fit was excellent and with their light weight, I could barely feel them.
7Hz Salnotes Zero Measurements
Per above, I had a heck of a time measuring these IEMs but as if by magic, I toughed the off channel once and it created perfect fit and alignment with the other channel:
As you see, compliance with our target is excellence. There is a peak around 12.7 kHz but the fixture is not accurate in that region so don't know if that is extra energy there or not.
Here is the deviation from our target:
Headphone/IEM measurements are not accurate enough for these differences to be descriptive but you are welcome to try to tune further with EQ.
Distortion was impressively low other than a resonance around 1 kHz that was still quite low:
Here it is in absolute:
Group delay is very clean other than another indication of something going on around 1 kHz:
Impedance is flat and low:
Combined with average sensitivity, you should have no trouble using this IEM with just about any source:
On my RME ADI-2 Pro, relatively loud listening was around -25 dB.
7Hz Salnotes Zero IEM Listening Tests
I always use the same tracks in my listening tests to allow good familiarity with their tonality. It took all of 2 seconds to realize this is the same accurate, neutral response I like to hear. Track after track confirmed the same. I was at times surprised by the good externalization/spatial effects of this IEM. Sub-bass reproduction was excellent for an IEM and overall fidelity beyond belief at times.
I took a shot at equalizing the peak at 12.7 kHz. Unfortunately I can't easily do that by eye. Trying anyway, with narrow Q, it made no audible difference. With wider Q, it may have gone past the peak in the response. There, some highs/brilliance were taken away. I could see someone liking it better that way but I liked it without.
Conclusions
Technically the 7Hz Salnotes Zero IEM is excellent. It has almost perfect tonality and combined with low distortion and excellent spatial qualities, it puts a smile on my face. The plastic is a bit cheap and so are the tips. But once I wore them, all of that was forgotten.
I am happy to put the 7Hz Salnotes Zero IEM on my recommended list. So much fidelity for so little money!
P.S. I bought this a year ago and only now getting to testing it! Since then, there is a new version called Zero 2. May get that to test as well.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Answer is that I don't know. I don't have them handy to do AB and even if I did, it takes so much work to swap one for the other that it makes it very hard to compare. At high level I would say they are very similar.
