Excellent closed headphones for their price.
They come in a fairly good package, nothing luxurious like a pair of HD800, but a normal cardboard box, but there's a satin piece of material where the headphones rest to give you the impression.
Inside there's the usual manual and a booklet praising how revolutionary the Z1000 is
A leather/pleather carrying pouch, fairly unremarkable but well made enough, there's a secondary pouch inside to allow to to separate the cables and the headphones.
There's a 1.2 m cable with a nice angled jack and a 3 m one with a straight one, both are 3.5 mm and the converter provided only fits the 3 m cable. The cables are very nice in a functional way, very flexible and solid looking. They are somewhat microphonic though and tend to pick up sounds at the junction between the cable and the headphones. Imagine a decently made USB cable and you have an idea of how the main bod of the cables is.
Concerning the headphones themselves, they feel pretty nice in general. some precisions below
They come in a fairly good package, nothing luxurious like a pair of HD800, but a normal cardboard box, but there's a satin piece of material where the headphones rest to give you the impression.
Inside there's the usual manual and a booklet praising how revolutionary the Z1000 is
A leather/pleather carrying pouch, fairly unremarkable but well made enough, there's a secondary pouch inside to allow to to separate the cables and the headphones.
There's a 1.2 m cable with a nice angled jack and a 3 m one with a straight one, both are 3.5 mm and the converter provided only fits the 3 m cable. The cables are very nice in a functional way, very flexible and solid looking. They are somewhat microphonic though and tend to pick up sounds at the junction between the cable and the headphones. Imagine a decently made USB cable and you have an idea of how the main bod of the cables is.
Concerning the headphones themselves, they feel pretty nice in general. some precisions below
- False or real leather? IMHO, false leather, but actually there are 2 kinds of leather, one that feels pretty nice (if a little thin), which is on the headband and the external part of the earpads, on the internal part, another one is used, it's both thinner and looks less resistant, only time will tell how it will fare. The pads smell like leather, I wouldn't bet against chemists having developed a leather smelling false leather.
- They are pretty small as far as circumaural headphones go, the inner back of my ear touches the pads no matter how I position the headphones, nothing like a pair of K701 or HD600. Pads are fairly shallow, a little more than 1 cm, the exterior of my ear barely to the material covering the driver.
- They are hot, well not really but my ear are in a small confined shell which doesn't allow them to breath much, maybe it's due to my not being used to close headphones, but they are hotter that the SH 840 for example. Some microphonics issues since your ear is touching the pads.
- They feel sturdy, really solid, the shell is magnesium (an alloy I presume) and I'd guess they'd survive a few bumps without scratch. I wouldn't be sure of being able to preserve their good looks (the leather) but it would be difficult to break them, the structural strength looks good.
- They would fit without difficulty on a big head, no excessive pressure (I'm told my head is fairly large) and the branches can still be stretched more.
- Despite their rugged look, they feel polished, as if everything was designed with a purpose in mind. The different articulations feel as is they were oiled before as they rotate so smoothly.
- No flashy looks, not big MDR-Z1000 written to attract attention, there are 2 "Sony" on the side though, still I think that I could use them outside without attracting unwanted attention. A big reason for that is also the matte finish.
- Sensitive, at 108 dB/mW, at 5/100 directly from the headphone out of an Macbook Pro is a high enough volume for a long listening session.
- Fairly isolating compared to open headphones but nowhere close to a good pair of Etymotics with tri-flanges on. They leak very little sound, about the same as a pair of IEM on a table playing at moderate volume I suppose.
- Wearable with glasses as long as your glasses are adapted to headphone wearing.
- There are 2 ports/holes on side to the cups, the wind plays havoc on them, making all sorts of noise, in short, do go biking with them on.
- These headphones are fairly subject to break in, or more exactly, the earpads get a lot softer after 50 hours or so of use, allowing the drivers to get a little closer to your ear, it results IMHO (and considering my own HTRF) in a better soundstage and a better tonal balance.
