The Arete II comes with the new Ziigaat packaging and accessories which I love. You get the IEMs, a nice case, a more than decent cable with interchangeable 3.5mm and 4.4mm termination, three sets of tips (brown silicone, stickier clear silicone, and one set of foam tips, and four replacement filters. The brown silicone ones, as they have with other Ziigaat’s, suit me perfectly and I used these alone for the review.
The shells look classy, with a metal face with ‘Arete’ written below it. On the side you have a switch to increase the bass, which adds weight and warmth to the sound. They sounded great with it on or off, as I like a little more warmth and weight in my sound I kept it on.
As they’re a collaboration with Fresh Reviews they are tuned for gaming so I used them for my gaming sessions over the past two or so weeks, and then as my daily carry for music for the past week. The interchangeable 3.5mm and 4.4mm termination worked extremely well here, allowing me to easily switch between 3.5mm while gaming, and then switching back to 4.4mm for music. I listened out of my AK SP4000 for music, for gaming it was a mixture of my Steam Deck, Asus Rog Ally X, PlayStation 5, and Switch 2. I had no issues driving it from any of the devices whatsoever.
As it’s a gaming IEM it has to be comfortable for long gaming sessions and I’m happy to report that I had absolutely no issues with long sessions with the Arete 2. Comfort will always be something that varies from person to person, however I don’t think many people will have an issue with the shells here. Once they were in my ears I pretty much forgot about them, the seal that I got with the brown silicone was near perfect, meaning that I didn’t have to adjust them over 3-4 hour gaming sessions.
For games I played Arc Raiders, F1, Call of Duty, Jurassic World Evolution 3, Nioh 3, Mario Kart World, and a number of different indie games. For music, as normal, it was a little bit of everything however a large focus on TOOL over the past week (which sounds amazing out of these with the bass switch on.
On to the sound!
Bass:
The bass here is great, it’s authoritative, physical, and big. With the switch off you get a wonderfully textured, punchy sound, with the switch on it sounds meatier, losing a tiny bit of the texture/detail but creates a deeper sound. Both are great, I prefer the switch on but I could easily see how some would prefer it off. Going to a trusty test track (Travis Scott – THE PLAN) the bass rumbles your eardrums from the get go. The bass drives the track forward, always present, with his vocals coming across clear and accurate over the top of the bass. Even though it’s a DD it still has decent speed and can handle fast sections quite easily. Really well done. With the switch on you’re somewhere close to a basshead set but I still wouldn’t call it that, it’s just a nice boost. This carries over to gaming, bass in cutscenes, or explosions while playing, have physicality and impact to them, increasing your engagement with the game. I’m listening to ‘Why so Serious?’ whilst writing this and the bass in this track has amazing impact through the Arete II, the sub-bass rumble in the middle of the track is hitting now and it’s shaking my ears, but I’m also noticing the other details in the track through here which sometimes get a little lost.
Mids:
With the switch on or off I find that bass stays put, not impacting the mids at all. Starting with vocals they come across with decent weight and authority, taking the centre stage when a track calls for it. It’s not a romantic vocal performance, and I wouldn’t call it a vocal specialist, but the weight and texture in the vocals is impressive and works with the rest of the tuning here. Instruments sound fairly natural, with weight and texture hitting the spot perfectly. Moving over to gaming it’s a similar story, with mids being delivered in a natural way, working well with the bass presentation that’s on offer. Overall, well implemented for a set that needs to perform for gaming and audio.
Treble:
Running through my treble test tracks the Arete II delivers treble well without causing an issues. There is enough air to give tracks room to breathe and little to no sibilance. It’s a little tame in some areas, with certain sounds coming across a little rounded/blunt, this is noticeable in treble heavy tracks. I’d prefer this over something too sharp/piercing however it does mean that tracks like Daft Punk – Contact don’t sound as good as they can. The flip side is that there isn’t anything here that fatigues you, so long music or gaming sessions never become uncomfortable. The weakest part of the Arete II for me from a music point of view, for gaming I understand and appreciate the tuning here.
Technicalities:
The Arete II has impressive staging and layering. It needed to for gaming and it hits the marks. The stage isn’t massive, but it is three dimensions with decent width, height, and depth. This, combined with the layering, means that you can pinpoint instruments, or directional cues in games, with ease. The detail retrieval on the Arete II is also a strong point, allowing you to pick out small audio cues within the soundscape that’s being presented to you. It works well for audio, and very well for gaming.
Subjective thoughts:
The Arete II leans more on the gaming side that audio for me, at its price point it’s competitive in the audio space, and outstanding for gaming. When I was using it as my primary music listening IEM it occasionally left me wanting more when it came to tracks that demand a strong treble presentation but excelled with bass and mid focussed tracks. For gaming I was happy throughout, the only call out is that it doesn’t include a microphone which I think would have been worthwhile for a gaming set.
Overall:
The Arete II is another strong IEM from ZiiGaat, if you’re a gamer and after a single set for gaming and audio the Arete II is a solid choice. For audio only the Arete II is still worth looking into, particularly if your music is more bass/mids focussed and you want a strong technical set at this price point.
Scorecard at $279:
| Category | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bass | 4.5/5 | Wonderful. The switch here should result in most people finding something that they’re happy with. |
| Mids | 4/5 | Nicely balanced with the bass. Vocals are done well for this hybrid tuning. |
| Treble | 3.5/5 | Enough here that you can listen to anything, but you’ll be missing out a little. |
| Technicalities | 4/5 | Well implemented for staging and layering, resolution strong across bass and mids, lacking a little in treble. |
| Build/Design | 4.5/5 | Lovely ZiiGaat presentation as always. I really like the packaging and inclusions |
| Value | 4/5 | Good value for a gamer who wants a great IEM that they can also listen to music with. |
| Overall | 4.2/5 | A great IEM all up, I’ll be continuing to use this for gaming on my switch 2 and steam deck where I don’t need a mic. |
Aussie Audiophile 
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