Review by Andrew Barlow
Ok – some housekeeping – Linsoul kindly sent these out for an honest and genuine review and that’s exactly what they’re getting.
You can purchase them here - https://www.linsoul.com/products/ziigaat-x-fresh-reviews-arete-ii
I listen with my sonic side-flaps, my gear and my love of music. Your mileage may vary……..
For the review I will be using my Hiby R6 Pro II 2025 Dap.
Playlist –
Out of Your Mind – Ava Max
Valhalla Calling – Miracle Of Sound
One – Metallica
Old Man – Beck
Don’t Start Now – Dua Lipa
Cike Cike – Bebe Rexha
Easy – Glasser
Thick Waltz – Glasser
Walked Away – David Guetta, Hypaton
Bubbles – Yosi Horikawa
What exactly are we working with here????
Now, I didn’t get a chance to try the Arete 1 so I can’t compare unfortunately.
The Arete 2 retail for $279 USD. They are a hybrid: one 10mm second‑generation dynamic driver handling the lows and four Knowles balanced armatures taking care of mids and treble, with a sensitivity of 104dB and impedance of 24 ohm.
We have a lovely box, colourful and detailed, and it opens like a book. Two aqua blue gems adorn my peepers, I love the style. Inside another box, we have a nice leather case with Ziigaat embossed on it. Inside, a decent cable with modular terminations, 3.5 and 4.4mm, 3 decent sets of tips and instructions. The cable is ok, nothing to write home about. I love that it’s modular but the plastic is a bit hard and a bit, well, not as premium as a lovely braided material cable.
One gripe – I want L and R on my cables, or at least red tips on one. I did put these in the wrong way first time and Metallica’s choppers flew right to left………I thought it was the edibles…………
Anyway, I put some tips on and I’ll go into detail about those later.
The fit of the iems and tips is spot on for my ears. Comfortable, not too big and heavy, and not light and flimsy. Goldilocks.
But Andy, WHAT ABOUT THEIR AURAL APTITUDE????????
Bass:
Ok, these guys are Sub‑Bass Punch First, Ask Questions Later……
Let’s talk about the elephant in the ear canal.
The Arete II uses a newly revised 10mm dynamic driver designed specifically to handle low frequencies, and it does not lack confidence. This is deep‑reaching sub‑bass, not a loose mid‑bass pillow. The emphasis sits low, stays controlled, and exits the room before it overstays its welcome.
With the bass switch off, the low end is:
Firm
Controlled
Textured
Surprisingly clean for the amount of depth on tap.
Flip the switch on, and Holy Boom-Boxes Batman, the Arete II suddenly decides it’s Friday night, 15 Jager bombs deep in the club……... Bass quantity increases, note weight thickens, and everything feels wider and heavier. It doesn’t collapse into mud, but yes — this is where restraint becomes optional.
Think: “subwoofer added,” not “subwoofer duct‑taped to your skull.”
I started with the bass switch off (in the 1 position). The bass hit hard on Valhalla Calling – snappy, punchy, deep and tight. Same with Don’t Start Now (that bass guitar run – wow!!) and Walked Away.
I continued to listen to most of the playlist with the switch off to start.
Then I flicked the switch……………….After I picked myself up from the floor, dusted myself off, I sat down…….and smiled! From ear to ear!
That extra 3 or 4dB in the nether regions kicked like a mule! Ok, I thought things would get woolly, bloated and over the top, but NO. Bass went down to my toes, started shaking the iems literally and things remained solid, they stayed taut and completely in control.
Suffice to say I finished my review (and re-listened to all the songs again) with the On-positioned super-glued into place.
Every song sounded deep, authoritative, like a professional Basso Profondo dropping down yet another octave and whispering “Oh, I can go lower…….”.
Bass is outstanding in my opinion.
Midrange:
The midrange is handled by Knowles balanced armatures, and this tuning makes their job very clear:
“stay intelligible, stay accurate, don’t dramatize the mix. F*%# it up and we all lose our lunch ticket!”.
Vocals land front and centre without being shouty. Instruments are easy to track, and positional cues come through cleanly. There’s a mild emphasis in the upper mids that improves clarity for gaming and spoken content — I imagine especially helpful for footsteps, dialogue, and spatial awareness in 1st person shooter games (I’m a JRPG fan myself!).
That energy can show itself more when you raise the volume, but it never crosses into outright aggression, in fact, quite the opposite.
On Old Man, Beck is centred beautifully with strong presence and body. Guitars are spaced around him and very natural.
The 1st song I ever played with these for the review (not my earlier casual listening), was Out of your Mind by Ava Max. I heard digital-ish vocals and thought wow – these don’t sound good. Turns out it’s the song – Ava’s vocals on this track, to me sound plastic and fake, but it wasn’t the Arete 2s.
Cike Cike up next and I know this song well. Bebe’s vocals sound forward but not in my face. She’s singing to me, not at me. She sounds natural and real. Bass slams on this song too!!!
On David Guetta’s version of I just Died…, named Walked Away, vocals again are focused, with body and weight and don’t dominate but compliment the other frequencies.
Treble:
Treble extension comes courtesy of dual Knowles tweeters, and the result is refreshingly civilized.
You get:
Proper air
Crisp detail
Good separation
No razor‑blade peaks
The tuning leans toward open and lively rather than smooth and dark, but it avoids that brittle edge that budget BA treble sometimes brings. At very loud listening levels, the upper treble remains assertive but acquiescent to its listener at the same time. It’s the kid wearing the t-shirt “Plays well with others”.
It has an airiness to it for me, almost reminiscent of Planar Driver speed and openness.
On Metallica’s One, the intro guitars by James and Kirk, as well as the cymbal hits by Lars, can get strident and harsh on some gear. It doesn’t on the Arete 2s (or the Hiby R6 for that matter).
Even in the frenetic passages later on, the treble never becomes piercing or crispy.
On Cike Cike, vocals, cymbal hits, synth sounds, all remain within their swim-lanes. I never have to turn the volume down (and I listen quite loud).
Technical Performance:
This Is Where the gaming DNA Shows. Imaging, separation, and spatial rendering are where the Fresh Reviews influence is hardest to miss.
The Arete II places sounds with confidence. Directional cues are easy to follow, layers don’t smear together, and the stage feels convincingly wide for an IEM at this price point. It handles complexity better than expected (One) and remains stable when mixes get busy.
Importantly, it does this without turning the tuning into a sterile reference blob, which is where many “gaming‑first” IEMs fall apart for music.
On One, the choppers are outside my left ear, behind the neck and then outside my right ear. They easily pass the staging test.
Tips: Almost forgot. I chose the large grey tips first up. From the getgo, the Arete IIs sounded bloody good. I actually didn’t have the heart to swap. This is almost a first for me – NOT tip-rolling. I really did NOT find a need to. Weird.
Comparison - Punch Audio Portazo
The Portazo is slightly cheaper here at $179 USD.
The Ziigaat Arete II and Punch Audio Portazo target very different listeners despite both being hybrid IEMs: the Portazo is an unapologetic basshead IEM with a massive ~15 dB low‑end boost that delivers huge, physical mid‑bass slam and visceral impact, often at the expense of vocal presence and balance, making it ideal for EDM, hip‑hop, and short, high‑energy listening sessions, whereas the Arete II is a more mature, all‑rounder tuning that still offers deep, satisfying bass but with far better control, cleaner mids, smoother treble, and a bass switch that lets you choose between fun warmth or a tighter, more versatile profile, resulting in superior imaging, coherence, and long‑term listenability.
In short, the Portazo is a “subwoofer strapped to your ears” built purely for excitement, while the Arete II is the smarter, more flexible choice if you want strong bass without sacrificing vocals, balance, or genre flexibility.
I preferred the Arete II across all the songs on my playlist. It was the more mature of the two, with better balance, wider and deeper staging and imaging, and a naturalness and body in the mid-range that sang to me.
Final Thoughts:
The Ziigaat × Fresh Reviews Arete II is not a reference monitor and doesn’t pretend to be one. What it is is far more useful:
A musical‑sounding IEM with real and deep bass authority,
A technically capable performer for gaming (and I have to assume this as I don’t game with iems, but it’s a fair and reasonable assumption),
A tuning that stays balanced while still remaining fun,
A hybrid that actually feels coherent end‑to‑end,
A snazzy looking beast that fits my aural side-holes perfectly.
If you want one IEM that handles late‑night gaming, casual listening, and serious music sessions without forcing compromises, the Arete II earns its recommendation.
Just remember:
that bass switch exists — and it absolutely knows you’re curious…………..
Linsoul have paid me for this review but have no influence in what I say.
