Senzer S10

I recently began a quest to find the best IEM under $30. I started with the buying guide on r/headphones and haven't looked back. Chris from Senzer Audio was kind enough to reach out to me to offer me two Senzer IEMs, one of which was the S10. Despite receiving these in exchange for my review, all opinions expressed are completely mine and I always write reviews as unbiasedly and honestly as I can.

TL;DR: Incredible bass from such a small driver. V-shaped signature that features soft highs and great bass but recessed and slightly muffled mids. Great soundstage and detail and would compete with the "kings" of budget IEMs with better clarity.

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After posting pictures of the S10, B9Scrambler pointed out that these looked like the Advanced AcousticWerkes Q, a >$220 ICM (in-canal monitor). After doing a bit of research I found that they are almost carbon copies (the only major difference I saw was the shape of the rear vent) so I reached out to Chris. He confirmed that the S10s are modeled after the AAW Qs in terms of shape but might not have the same level of quality. I don't have a pair of the Qs and I doubt AAW will give me a sample to compare them to an ICM a tenth of the price of theirs so I will write about the quality of the S10s and update the review if I can test them against the Qs.

EDIT 1: Apparently, the S10 was supplied to Senzer by AAW. That explains the similarities and I've updated my final thoughts (I can't call the S10 a "Senzer remake" anymore).
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At the time of posting, the Senzer S10s are $27.99 on Amazon. This places them just out of range of being a true budget IEM but are still quality drivers for under $30.

Packaging and Accessories:

Senzer made just the right first impression with their packaging. A branded black box - branded with just the Senzer name in silver, a nice touch - opened to reveal the S10s sitting in soft foam cutouts.



The foam under the S10s lifts to reveal a branded soft drawstring bag, a user manual, and extra eartips. The S10 comes with medium black silicone ear tips attached and also has S/L black silicone, S/M/L clear silicone, and medium foam ear tips.



The cord is rubber above the connector and fabric below it, just like the cord of the AAW Q. Unlike the Q, however, the S10 has in-line controls on the right side - a microphone, media control button, and volume controls. The one thing different about these controls from most others I've seen is that media control button isn't in the middle of the volume controls but under them - a setup that looks identical to the in-line controls on the AAW Nebula One, which further cements the S10 as a budget version of an AAW.

The cord feels very durable and seems like it can handle being ripped out of my ears and carried (in its bag) in my pocket. When the S10s are worn down they have some microphonics issues but those can be easily taken care of by wearing them over-ear (which I find more comfortable anyway).

The plug is straight, which I generally like less than angled plugs, but is made of metal rather than plastic and has a bit of rubber under it which provides good strain relief.



Fit/Isolation:

I said at the beginning that these look like a knockoff of the AAW Q but I feel the need to stress again how TINY the S10s are. In fact, AAW calls the Q an ICM (in-canal monitor) rather than an IEM due to their reported size of "8.8mm in length, 6mm in diameter and weighs less than one gram per side". When I put these in my ears, I use one hand to make sure they are firmly in my ear canal - otherwise I don't get a good seal. Seriously, this is what they look like:



These ICMs are about 90% eartip, which is partially due to also being about 90% nozzle.



This structure may seem a bit strange at first (and it definitely did to me) but their compact size makes them one of the most comfortable things I have ever put in my ear, whether IEM or earplug. They fit snugly and, because they sit only in my ear canal, have incredible isolation. The passive isolation they give is enough to seriously muffle conversations around me and I can hear almost nothing else when I'm playing music, no matter the volume. These are also incredibly easy to wear and don't give me either fatigue or pain, even when I wear them for up to a few hours. I haven't tested it yet, but these seem like an excellent way to listen to music when you go to sleep.

Sound:

When I asked a representative at Senzer if the S10s were modeled after the Q, he said that they look similar but the quality is different. Unfortunately, due to the mostly glowing reviews of the Q that I read and my own tests of the S10, I have to agree. These truly have a V-shaped sound signature - with bass that I didn't think could come from a driver this size and emphasized treble - to a fault. Mids are recessed and often muddy, and the S10 as a whole has a great soundstage but suffers from a lack of detail and clarity. In my opinion, if Senzer could make the sounds sharper and clearer, these would be among, if not the best itself, the best IEM/ICM I own.

Changing the tips between silicone and foam on the S10 changes the sound signature significantly. The foam tips highlight bass and make it much more fun to listen to, but unfortunately do this at the cost of mids, treble, sound quality, balance, soundstage, and detailing. That's great if you just want to listen to a fun bass line repeated over and over with maybe some other sounds in there (I'm looking at you, EDM) but in any other situation you should favor the silicone eartips, which present a more balanced and detailed sound.

Every single IEM is going to sound slightly different in every ear. The shape of the listener's ear, the fit and amount of isolation, the shape of the IEM, the eartip material, the source, and the listener's ability to hear different frequencies - among other factors - can affect how an IEM sounds. The descriptions I put forth accurately describe the way I hear these IEMs but may not be accurate for everyone.

Bass:

Man, these have fun bass. It's loud, punchy, and has great thump and rumble to go along with strong sub-bass. I don't know how Senzer (or AAW for that matter) managed to fit that into an ICM of this size but as a borderline basshead I'm not complaining. These are the only pair of IEMs or ICMs I own that made me turn down the bass boost on my equalizer because it was just too strong. In fact, I had to check multiple times that I didn't have bass boost on while testing these because it's just that powerful.

The intro of Seven Nation Army sounds like it was made for these ICMs - that is, until the bass drum comes in. The bass is great in a vacuum but loses definition when other sounds come in and bleeds into them a bit as well. Even a song like Sail, which is famous for its bass-heavy intro, sounds fuzzier the more non-bass sounds interact with the bass.

Mids:

Listening to the Pentatonix version of Somebody That I Used To Know explained the S10's mids perfectly. The tenor comes in second, after the bass, and sounds fairly prominent and is as clear as these ICMs allow. However, as alto, treble, and beatbox come in, the mids are pushed to the back. They don't become more muffled or lose sound quality, like the mids of some other budget earphones, but simply go from the front of the sound to the back. The S10's major problem is that sounds don't play well with each other - mids again sound great in a vacuum but recess almost immediately when other sounds are introduced, which isn't helped by the power and bleed of the bass.

Treble:

Treble is pretty prominent and is neither too harsh (though it almost gets there on the intro of Hundred) nor sibilant but unfortunately sounds a bit blanketed. It sounds more like you're listening to a recording coming out of a car radio or speaker rather than listening to the original source. High vocals - both male and female - sound a bit better than background treble but not by much.

Soundstage:

If only they were clearer. The S10s have a surprisingly good soundstage (I sound like a broken record, but especially for a driver this small) and, despite the lack of clarity, I can pick up where each sound is coming from. Rather than sounding like I'm surrounded by the music, it sounds like I'm surrounded by a series of speakers, each of which is playing a different layer of a song, and the speaker for the bass is twice as big as the others.

Comparisons:

vs Rock Zircon (~$13 USD)

At first I thought the S10s could be compared to the Zircons if they doubled the bass, halved the mids, and took 1/3 of the clarity away. The soundstages, after all, seem similarly broad, and both have excellent imaging for the price. However, that description doesn't do enough to cover the differences between them. The S10s are a bass-heavy, fun ICM for casual listeners while the Zircons present a more balanced, clear, and detailed sound that makes all music sound better rather than highlighting music that highlights bass.

vs KZ ZS3 (~$10 USD)

I thought it would be fair to compare these fun, bass-heavy ICMs to the king of fun, bass-heavy IEMs, the KZ ZS3. However, the ZS3 blows these out of the water in terms of clarity and detailing. You can hear where more of the sounds are coming from on the S10s but not by enough to make up for the better treble, mids, clarity, detail, and overall balance of the ZS3.

Final Thoughts:

These are decent ICMs with incredible bass that would be great ICMs with incredible bass if they were clearer. However, they are uniform in their slight lack of clarity, which makes my ear adjust to their sound rather quickly and forget that they could be better until a treble-heavy song plays.

They are also built incredibly well - even though they're a copy of the AAW Q I still have to compliment their construction. The earpieces - which are mostly nozzle and smaller than the tips they come with - are made of metal but are also extremely comfortable and isolate incredibly well.

These are a good buy for a very casual listener and definitely geared towards bassheads; audiophiles should stick to the original Qs.