KZ AZ09

Quite good

Nice upgrade from wired to wireless. No noticeable sound difference though. Delay seems to be non-existent including gaming. Overall, nice product.

Stylish, Durable, but Clunky

I've been using the 09s for over a month now as my daily drivers, and I broadly like them. The build quality is great: the old necklace style KZ bluetooths were, essentially, just a power cord with a thicker sleeve for the earhooks. Regular rough use absolutely destroyed the earhook's ridigidty and made the hooksleeve peel away. Meanwhile, the AZ09s immediately feel much sturdier, and I know their design is going to fare much better over the coming months. The battery life is pretty darn solid, too. I've left the buds out of the case several times overnight and still had a respectable amount of juice. The case itself, while pretty, is extremely thick, and may be hard to comfortably put in a pucket. I'm a girl, but luckily I generally wear stuff with good pockets. Skinny jeans are right out, though. These boys are chonky. Not to mention the sleek black makes the case incredibly hard to find, compared to the white earbuds I've had before, or the grey of the old necklace model. That's not the only thing I find clunky about these guys: their volume situation is borked. Like the necklace models, these guys put out a prodigious amount of sound, which is absolutely amazing for finding my earbuds across the house. Pick a rock song, crank 'er up, and follow the noise. Unfortunately, the volume slider on my phone was not equipped for this level of range. My options are going a click up to make everything slightly too loud, or a click down so it's slightly too quiet. Maybe that won't be a problem when I'm an old lady and my hearing deterioriates. What won't change on the AZeds is their volume. There are no volume controls on this thing. There's a function for AI assistant and a super low latency mode, sure. But no way to change volume except by directly manipulating my phone. Combined with the aforementioned volume scale issue, I feel much more tethered to my phone now. Can't just keep my phone in a random pocket, stick these in and go for a run/drive. No, I have to know exactly where the phone is in case I want to change my decision of slightly too loud or slightly too quiet. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh. I really do love this thing, even if it's a direct downgrade to the old necklace model if you're looking for intuitive controls. I'm not someone with a lot of cash to spend on fancy hi-fi, so I've found KZ to be fantastic value for the money, with lots of stylish, consumer friendly stuff. The replaceable earbuds aren't made significantly less durable, but they extend the life of the device by a ton. If you can look past its flaws, there's a cheap, durable, stylish daily driver here. I certainly plan to use mine for a long time to come.

Good ease of use, lots of room for much needed improvements

Connection stability while using both buds could be better, frequently stutters stops playing in one of the buds. The voice notification (when powering on\off, switching modes) is also not great, much prefer simple beeping sounds instead. And I was also expecting better battery capacity from the case, given the size of it. Beside those, they fits my need with decent audio quality as a cherry on top.