Sony MDR-EX700LP

[sid311]

Just picked these up from Fry's today and am really enjoying them. IMHO they sound better than my Shure E500PTH. The sonys sound is much better in detail and clarity while maintaining good bass and mids vs. the shures. Don't get me wrong, the E500s are a great set of cans, but in the end I just couldn't deal with the high freq rolloff that has become the signature of most, if not all, of shure's products. So far I have noticed a little sibilance in the upper ranges but I imagine that will settle down with some burn in. Soundstage is pretty good too for IEMs. I've previously owned the Shure E2Cs, UE SuperFi.5 Pros, Altec Lansing im716s, Sony MDR-EX71LPs and the E500s. If anyone is interested my E500s are up for sale, unfortunately I don't have enough posts to put an ad in the for sale/trade forum. Anyone else have any experience with the EX700LPs?


-sid

[Cool_Torpedo]

Hi Sid,

Thanks for your comment. I have no experience with the EX700, but they're into my scope of interest. I'm about receiving the UETriple.fi 10, if they're not of my liking, since I fear that it's my problem to like the balanced armatures sound signature, the next to try are those Sonys.
Please keep us posted on your findings. I hope the slight sibilance goes away. Most Sony buds have it when new.

Rgrds

[sid311]

Burning in now, I will definitely keep you guys informed throughout the process. Upon further listening earlier I must refine some of my comments. Specifically about soundstage. While it does seem to be wider than most IEMs I've owned it is also slightly one dimensional at this point. Left to right separation is good and I imagine/hope that both of these will continue to improve with burn in.

There is a small amount of foam in each port which I removed as mentioned in the EX90LP modding forum. This brought the mids more forward while slightly decreasing the bass. I will probably end up replacing the foam with half of what was originally there to retain a bit more of the bass while keeping the mids slightly more forward.

:EDIT:
Forgot to mention my distaste for the cord on these things. It is pretty thin and easily tangles up, unlike my E500s. Also, Sony has gone with their famous one short side y-cable design instead of the even y-cable with slide as is found on most higher end IEMs. Annoying but I guess I can live with it. On the bright side the 1/8" jack is very nice, gold plated with a magnesium housing, much nicer than I've seen on any of the other IEMs I've owned in the past.


-sid

[winzzz]

can you post some pic sid ? how much do you pay for that ? i'm kinda interested in sony

[sid311]

Sure give me a sec I'll take and upload some for you.

-sid

[sid311]

Here you go-driver housing made of a combination of plastic and magnesium, very nice

[Jabada]

I bought mine 2 months ago, but I haven't listened to it so much.
Mostly I am on the go, so it's a bit risky for me to put such wonderful phones at reach of robbers.
Back 2 months, I got the EX-700 and the CK10 at the same time. As Ety lover, I tend to listen to the AT much more, and they are much smaller, so I can use it on the go and nobody notice it resting in my ears.
I removed the foams like you said, but I am so sleepy right now, I didn't noticed much difference.

[winzzz]

thx alot sid. i think they're the most beautiful IEM very nice

[ch28kid]

Is it me? Did Sony made the connector to work with iPhone?

[Cool_Torpedo]

Originally Posted by ch28kid

Is it me? Did Sony made the connector to work with iPhone?

I was going to say the very same. It probably fits iPhone very well.
They look very nice, I suppose they get pretty well fit into the ear's concha, and provide decent seal. Interesting.

Rgrds

[miranon]

Cant believe they sound better than the top model of Shure.

[sid311]

Have you heard either one?

-sid

[miranon]

Originally Posted by sid311

Have you heard either one?

-sid

No. That's why i can't believe it.
I wonder how a 3-driver armature can sound worse than a neodymium magnet (1 driver?)

Anyway i would buy this Sony but the price here in Europe is ridiculous high (300 euro or about 480$). How much did you pay for them?

[sid311]

I paid $306 for them, which isn't bad considering what they're charging for them over there! I'm not sure exactly why they sound better as far as the drivers are concerned. I agree with you a triple armature driven headphone, you would think, would sound better than a typical single dynamic driver. I think the main reason is the large size of the driver.

To my ears the EX700LPs just sound way better than the E500s. The shures just had such bad freq rolloff in the highs. To me they just never sparkled, even after EQing the crap out of them I couldn't get them to sound the way I wanted them to.


-sid

[soozieq]

Originally Posted by sid311

I agree with you a triple armature driven headphone, you would think, would sound better than a typical single dynamic driver. I think the main reason is the large size of the driver. To my ears the EX700LPs just sound way better than the E500s. The shures just had such bad freq rolloff in the highs. To me just never sparkled, even after EQing the crap out of them I couldn't get them to sound the way I wanted them to.

I think multiple drivers can be hit and miss. I prefer my single-driver Denon C700s to the E500 any day, but I remember someone posting a really condescending comment that they were 'surprised' I'd 'settled' for an inferior earphone to the E500! Talk about audio snootery!!

The treble was the greatest fault of the E500 (to my ears), but I also felt the frequencies were too disconnected to get me involved in the music. And at lower volumes, they sounded extremely average.

Yesterday I got to play with q-JAYS ALL DAY (dual driver with some kind of bass boost), and to be perfectly honest, I was very disappointed with them. I expected a lot more. My Denons have better bass and yet they only have one measly driver. The q-JAYS weren't bad by any means, but with a dedicated driver for bass, I thought it was very weak and clouded by the mids and treble. So multi-drivers aren't an absolute guarantee of better sound. I'm sure some do better than others, it's just I haven't found it yet!