ZiiGaat x Fresh Reviews Arete

Absolutely love the sound. I use them primarily for gaming. 2 weeks into daily usage and the metal nozzle filter fell off and got stuck in my ear. Original cable and tips are subpar. After swapping them out, can’t get enough of them. So much detail at all volumes. Games feel more “happy”

As a gamer, I love these, sound is amazing, both for games and music.

I’m someone who is really sensitive to sharp sounds so it’s hard for me to really crank up the sound on my audio. The Arete have this really soft sound to gunshots and sharp sounds that allow me to hear footsteps better than any other piece of audio equipment I've used (I have hd560s, truthear hexa, and crinicale zero blue). I am able to crank up the sound really loud and get an incredible amount of detail. The 4ba 1dd also allow for an incredible amount of separation so if something is really loud, it won’t drown out the other important sounds. Although these iems are tuned for gaming, listening to music is a great and detailed experience (I listen to a lot of edm and rock). The bass is at a perfect level for me and female vocals shine.

I fucking love these super comfortable and sounds even better I paired them with the Eros S cable from effect audio and the Spinfit W1 eartips no pain at all I would recommend these to anyone if your wondering if these are an upgrade from the Orchestra Lites…. Kinda for me they were way to big and hurt my ears the arete is the way to go and I think sound better personally

I've used them for over a month and as far as gaming goes these are top notch. I suggest getting other eartips and going with a balanced cable aside from that I highly recommend the Arete.

I think Freshreviews was spot on in how he described these. The design is also amazing, small and gorgeous. I love using these to play Overwatch 2 and listening to music. It's more a studio sounding monitor with a bit of fun. I hope he makes more in the future

Pros: - Nice build quality with even better faceplate
- Balance midcentric tuning
- Distinct bass rumble
- Great vocal performance
- Relaxing treble
- Great imaging
Cons: - Lacks sparkles
- Not great resolution
- Not the best cable quality

Bass:
The Arete has quite a balanced amount of subbass and midbass, although subbass is still a bit more than midbass.
Why So Serious’s bass drops and Trentemoller’s Chameleon has good texture and reverberation and air movement. It’s tight, yet JUST sound diffusing enough. It has that classic lingering sense of dynamic driver while not being over done (which would then makes the bass hits too drawn out and too sluggish)
Midbass has good authority and texture as well. It’s not the meatiest midbass region ever, but it still packs a punch. Kick drums have good presence and definition to them, evident in AC/DC soundtracks. Not just kick drums but also contrabass, cello, taiko drums all sound nice.
Overall, my tiny nitpick about the bass is that i would’ve want a bit more midbass on some songs that have many bass instruments, so that they could have more heft and body to them. However, i understand the tuning of choice for the bass of the Arete, so that it’d not masked the details of the midrange and because the bass of the Arete already sound good with 80% of my library, i’m already quite satisfied with it. General pop, or electro pop sound quite fun with the Arete. The transients of the DD also isn’t the fastest, so don’t expect hardcore metal to sound good with the Arete.
Mids
With a bass shelf that got cut flat at 250hz, the lower midrange sound very clean and clear with just a hint of warmth to it. There’s no bleed or muddiness into the lower midrange.
Instruments have quite a natural timbre to my ears. Piano notes sound very pleasant on the ears with just enough amount of resonance. Violin and viola sounds smooooth and velvety, woodwinds instruments sound a bit mellow and rich while still keeping each of their natural tone. The note weights of these instruments are surprisingly good even if the graph shows there’s a flat upperbass and lower midrange. It’s not too light and not too heavy.
Both male and female vocals are on a balancing neutral spectrum. They’re definitely not thin sounding. I’d say female vocals are a bit better than male vocals with the Arete. With male vocals, baritones sound smooth yet not quite thick sounding. Tenor sounds exactly on point to my ears, I have no complaints about this.
For female vocals, mezzo and soprano have that classic lively and engaging sound to them, while also sounding silky. Contralto, although still sound expressive, lacks just a bit of depth or chesty characteristics. At higher volume, the Arete doesn’t exhibit any shoutyness.
With “Shivers” by Ed Sheeran, there’s very little amount of sibilant.
If i have to nitpick, the midrange does lack that very bit or sharpness and definition to it.
Treble
The treble to me sounds quite relaxing. It’s decently extended, just not the most airy or having a lot of sparkles and brilliance. The upper harmonics are there, supporting the rest of the frequency while not sounding too overbearing. The quality of the treble is actually quite good as it doesn’t sound harsh, splashy or spiky. There is also some slight sense of BA timbre, but after a while or when I'm not paying attention, I don't notice it as much.
With Caravan – John Wasson, cymbal crashes and hi hats just sound forward enough, still sound natural but more on a softer side. Besides the initial attack; the decaying, the tail notes extracted only slightly below the surface level. It’s not like a smooth glide where it extracts every minute detail. Because of that, I feel like the resolution is only at a decent level.
Read more at: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/ziigaat-x-fresh-reviews-arete.27294/reviews#review-34596