This is a short mainly measurement based post about Crosszone CZ-8A headphone. I thought it was a very interesting headphone and since I could not find any measurements I thought I would create a thread about it.
Note: This headphone was lent to me by a member over on Head-fi with a few of his other headphones but I thought this one especially was so unusual that it might be interesting to the members here. I believe there are 2 models a "normal" CZ-8A and an "enhanced" one, this is the "normal" one though the differences might be more in the packaging than the sound. I believe it retails for something like $1500 - lots more information on the company website here
I will post some other pictures after the measurements.
The CZ-8A is headphone from the Japanese company Crosszone who specialize in trying to simulate listening to speakers in a room using an "passive" Crossfeed design - where both channels are feed into each ear with the opposite channel delayed slightly. Here are 2 marketing images that probably explain what they want to achieve with their headphone:
So as you can see it has a very unusual / unique driver design and it looks the same in real life:
Crosszone CZ-8A Measurements:
Crosszone’s proprietary design actually makes measurements of this headphone both interesting and challenging. Since both channels are feed into both sides a single Left or Right sweep is not good enough but since each earpad has a complex design it can be worth trying to how much of channel contributes to the overall sound in each ear cup.
What is interesting IMO, is where the Left channel contributions to the Frequency Response i.e. Purple, specifically Crosszone have mostly pushed the midrange of the left channel into the right ear (and the opposite obviously happens on the other ear ) but what I thought was fascinating is that can see some phase cancellation (I think) with the combined measurement specifically in the 1-2Khz region.
This measurement also shows some of the things I didn’t like with tonality of the sound, for example, a very recessed treble region and a muddy bass. I have some EQ recommendations which I will show later will try an alleviate some of the deficiencies, but having tried many EQ options I did mostly leave that interesting 1-2Khz region alone.
Here are some of my headphones that do try to diverge from Harman in that region to give that effect that seems to be a natural side effect of the delay introduced by Crosszone:
First the “main” driver in each ear - that peak isn't nice and the very recessed treble:
Though it shows reasonable good channel matching and a reasonable match to Harman except for the recessed treble.
Note: I did measure with slightly different seatings including (with thin framed glasses) - the bass drops considerable:
Here is the FR of the opposite channels contributions:
But as a percentage it seems fine:
And given the driver playing the opposite channel has an easier job it shows very little distortion:
And the combined group delay looks even messier:
Some other comments:
It comes with in a nice retro style carry case:
It a pretty heavy headphone at 435g but its is comfortable and have pretty good adjusts to the headband:
Final Impression
Compared to some other 'high end' headphones that promise a wide soundstage but technically do nothing to really provide it, I think Crosszone are at least doing some clever engineering to try and achieve some special. It's a pity that the default tonality needs some EQ (at least to my preference) but with EQ it was a fun headphone to listen too. Whether it is worth $1500 or not, I don't know, but if you come across it at an audio show it would be worth at least giving it an extended listen.
Note: This headphone was lent to me by a member over on Head-fi with a few of his other headphones but I thought this one especially was so unusual that it might be interesting to the members here. I believe there are 2 models a "normal" CZ-8A and an "enhanced" one, this is the "normal" one though the differences might be more in the packaging than the sound. I believe it retails for something like $1500 - lots more information on the company website here
I will post some other pictures after the measurements.
The CZ-8A is headphone from the Japanese company Crosszone who specialize in trying to simulate listening to speakers in a room using an "passive" Crossfeed design - where both channels are feed into each ear with the opposite channel delayed slightly. Here are 2 marketing images that probably explain what they want to achieve with their headphone:
So as you can see it has a very unusual / unique driver design and it looks the same in real life:
Crosszone CZ-8A Measurements:
Crosszone’s proprietary design actually makes measurements of this headphone both interesting and challenging. Since both channels are feed into both sides a single Left or Right sweep is not good enough but since each earpad has a complex design it can be worth trying to how much of channel contributes to the overall sound in each ear cup.
Frequency Response
So due to the nature of the way each ear has multiple drivers and mixes both the left and right channels in a way that emulates listening to speakers in a room, there is not really just one frequency response or at least it makes sense to present both the left and right channel response separately and combined for each ear.
What is interesting IMO, is where the Left channel contributions to the Frequency Response i.e. Purple, specifically Crosszone have mostly pushed the midrange of the left channel into the right ear (and the opposite obviously happens on the other ear ) but what I thought was fascinating is that can see some phase cancellation (I think) with the combined measurement specifically in the 1-2Khz region.
This measurement also shows some of the things I didn’t like with tonality of the sound, for example, a very recessed treble region and a muddy bass. I have some EQ recommendations which I will show later will try an alleviate some of the deficiencies, but having tried many EQ options I did mostly leave that interesting 1-2Khz region alone.
The Soundstage “effect”
Just highlighting that specific region again where I believe the delayed Left channel audio is out of phase because of what Crosszone are doing to get that “speakers in a room” effect:
Here are some of my headphones that do try to diverge from Harman in that region to give that effect that seems to be a natural side effect of the delay introduced by Crosszone:
More Frequency Responses
So I thought I would show a little bit more of each of the separate Frequency responses.First the “main” driver in each ear - that peak isn't nice and the very recessed treble:
Though it shows reasonable good channel matching and a reasonable match to Harman except for the recessed treble.
Note: I did measure with slightly different seatings including (with thin framed glasses) - the bass drops considerable:
Here is the FR of the opposite channels contributions:
Distortion:
Here is main driver distortion - mostly pretty good other than maybe that increase in the 3rd harmonic around 1Khz:
But as a percentage it seems fine:
And given the driver playing the opposite channel has an easier job it shows very little distortion:
Group Delay:
The group delay from the primary driver shows possible some oddness in that 700Khz region:
And the combined group delay looks even messier:
Subjective listening comments:
The 2 things that struck me immediately with the Crosszone was that the tonality was off and it is very position dependent at least on my head, but there was a very spacious sound especially from a closed back ( even though there was obviously some "confirmation" bias knowing what this headphone was trying to do ). It was interesting enough initially to make me use the Crosszone off and on for a few weeks, tweaking around with some EQ. Once I got the tonality about right with EQ I really enjoyed this headphone as it doesn't sound like a closed back.My EQ recommendation:
So if you get a good seal (especially without glasses) I thought the main issue with the Crosszone is the recessed treble give it a dull sound, so after a couple of weeks I ended up using this EQ:
Some other comments:
It comes with in a nice retro style carry case:
It a pretty heavy headphone at 435g but its is comfortable and have pretty good adjusts to the headband:
Final Impression
Compared to some other 'high end' headphones that promise a wide soundstage but technically do nothing to really provide it, I think Crosszone are at least doing some clever engineering to try and achieve some special. It's a pity that the default tonality needs some EQ (at least to my preference) but with EQ it was a fun headphone to listen too. Whether it is worth $1500 or not, I don't know, but if you come across it at an audio show it would be worth at least giving it an extended listen.
