7Hz Salnotes Zero Review

This one is impressive. It really is.

I had received a set of boxes over the Summer, but due to various things going on in my life, I hadn't had a chance to open all the items sent to me by manufacturers and was trying to catch up on my review backlog. During a conversation with some audio friends on Discord, I was told that I should really check out the Zero. 

At first, I was thinking, "didn't I just review the Zero? Oh, there's another IEM released called Zero, that is not the TruthEar Zero?" Oh. Oh.... I ended up digging through and found the Salnotes Zero from 7Hz and opened it up, not knowing what it cost or much about it, other than people saying this was a good IEM.

And so I unpackaged it, saw the aluminum front-faceplates with a quirky "tree-like" design of a shell, and attached the included angled two-pin cables and quickly plugged it into my Cayin RU-6 R-2R USB-C dongle and away I went with music listening.

The Zero is well-tuned. It has great balance from the low bass through to the treble region. I quite enjoy its tuning as it matches quite well with my preferences, and a plot of the frequency response agrees with my initial impressions.

Zero is has a decent imaging and qualities to it that I did not expect for this asking price. I actually thought this IEM was targeting the $100-150 range given its sound quality, but was surprised when I found out this was selling for $20 on Linsoul (https://www.linsoul.com/products/7hz-salnotes-zero?variant=43091260866777), who sent me this in-ear monitor for review.

Seriously, Chi-Fi has come a long way, and to get me something that sounds like this at this price, is pretty incredible. I would probably reach for this IEM over a slew of others given to me under $200 because I enjoy its presentation, and its got enough technical performance to make it standout against much more expensive competition.

I enjoyed using the Zero for a good week before I left for my trip to Korea, while using it for parts of my plane ride over, and in my free time just before bed on this trip. I listened to a variety of jazz, classical, bluegrass, and rock songs and each one of these genres performed quite well with the Zero. I was pretty impressed with how genre-neutral this IEM was but this was really before I came to the full-realization that this IEM was tuned directly to my neutral preference.

If I was going to nitpick something about the tuning, it'd be that its just a tad bright at times. It's very rare, but sometimes when listening to some string instruments on Alison Krauss' greatest hits album from the 90s, I would get a slight-bright sensation, or when her voice reaches higher octaves, it'd be just a little piercing at times. I may contribute this to not getting a perfect seal with the tips I had brought with me and perhaps just that it is a little lifted in this region.

That said though, there was little more to really dislike given the price point of JUST $19.99!! I can't believe it! This is quite an easy recommendation for me. It hits a lot of my tuning desires, and its technical performance ain't bad. It hits well above it's bargain price point, and then some.

Go buy now.