Sony MDR-EX600: Impressions, appreciations, and cake (not included) - Page 30

It is not just about the sound, it is about the system, lol, you know IEM gives you full sound, but makes you feel closed and so while earbuds are open, and to me at least I never had the full sound feeling at least when not fitting them with my fingers. 

With ex600 I have the full sound of iem and open feeling of earbud.
 

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Originally Posted by kiteki 

 

That is interesting, I know you like earbuds, so you think it's something between an earbud and an IEM in sound?

 

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Originally Posted by Inks 

@Confispect, I mention those IEMs because I actually don't like them at all or have not heard them because I know I most likely won't like (W4). So yeah preferences vary a lot, I would actually take the HJE900 over the SM3 despite the inferior performance. 

Agreed.
 

Been tempted by one of these three Sony variants, 600's seem esp. appealing due to their price/perf. ratio.  At the same time, enthusiast adrenaline is also plateauing, as don't feel the impulse to follow every greatest and latest as much now, as it seems to becoming almost somewhat pointless.

Average price of these already starting to hover around $150, from official retailers... 

That said, once they start hovering around $100-110ish near fall/winter probably, I'll put in my chips and play a hand.

Yes but to be technical I must digress, I don't think the EX700 is sibilant, at least not like the CK10 or the SA-5000 which is what I call sibilant, especially the SA-5000 where "s" sounds are actually resonating into your nasal cavity but I could live with it it was pretty cool.

The EX700 is just harsh in a dissonance of the mids kind of way, which becomes literally deafening with extended use, it's literally impossible to listen to the EX700 with sony hybrids, flat eq, and high volume, impossible, after half an hour my ears are ringing, but I have learnt to circumvent this flaw with decored Shure Olives tips and eq'ing, and now I just get the best qualities out of them which is excellent transparency, tonality, decay, resonance and sweetness/clarity which is what I attribute to the 6kHz FR boost, but I do find the imaging really quite weak especially on the Y axis, and I certainly miss the flat-FR of the ck10.  If I could sum up the EX700 in a few words I would call it the "harmony of dissonance" IEM, or "the deceitful angel", whatever Sony has magically done to the housing or driver of the EX600/1000 it seems to have exfoliated into the harmony of resonance.

There has been some discussion on the FR graphs of the EX700/600/800/1000 created by sonove.angry.jp, mostly along the lines of "what was Sony thinking?" with the 6kHz boost, but it is now clear that that boost is intentional, as we can also find it in high-end custom IEM's like the Rooth LS8 which even goes over and beyond whatever Sony was thinking with that SS.

The most interesting graph to me was the EX800ST, which looked a bit more well-tapered almost like a perfect sine-wave, but he was using "Sony Hybrid S" and changing tips will change the FR a bit, and then source synergy is important too, I do most of my listening with the Teclast T51 which has a good synergy with the EX700, another strength it has, source transparency, I can now hear the difference between my laptop and T51 clear as day, which was much harder with the ck10 as it is more forgiving and just takes whatever signal it gets and says "let's ck10 this", whereas the EX700 is let's the signal shine through, albeit it is stained glass.

Quote:

Originally Posted by munkyballz 

Been tempted by one of these three Sony variants, 600's seem esp. appealing due to their price/perf. ratio.  At the same time, enthusiast adrenaline is also plateauing, as don't feel the impulse to follow every greatest and latest as much now, as it seems to becoming almost somewhat pointless.

 

Average price of these already starting to hover around $150, from official retailers... 

 

That said, once they start hovering around $100-110ish near fall/winter probably, I'll put in my chips and play a hand. 

 

Resistance is futile.

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Originally Posted by JoeyRusso 

The 600's have been in my ears for about two hours so far, and they sound......  I'll save that for later..  It's way too early for impressions, but I do like their soundstage and I don't hear any glaring faults at this point.  I'm impressed for $150.  More to follow in a few days..

Hey Joey!!! You took the plunge sooner than I expected!! This is my second day of commuting with the poor isolation EX600. What does that tell you about how much I like this iem?

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiteki 

Even if james444 jokingly posted the picture of the apple earbuds, there is a video on youtube of an AE showing that they do have a very flat frequency response apart from a large bass roll-off, and they do sound pretty decent for the price.

Don't get me wrong, my response to Pianist's statement ("There simply cannot be a perfect headphone that everybody will like") was only half-joking. In fact, if there's a phone that almost everybody likes, then it's the apple earbuds. Ever wandered the streets or rode public transportation with open eyes? A vast majority is perfectly happy with their small white buds. Out of all my colleges at work that I've offered to try better headphones, only very few were even interested. Most of them told me they're perfectly content with what they have.

Head-Fi is a nice and interesting community of enthusiastic audiophiles, but measured against the bulk of audio consumers it's rather elitist and certainly not the hub of the music listening universe.

Augh, all these talk --- waiting for my 7550 is becoming unbearable!!! :D

DBA lover here - I'll soon find out which ones to keep.

The EX700 was kind of a failure in tuning from Sony. The potential was there because of the high quality driver, but the tuning was poor because they overdid the lower treble/upper midrange. With the new EX line they are using a different method of tuning (and maybe a slightly different driver?) which pretty much corrects the main flaw of the previous flagship while maintaining a similar sound. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by james444 

...In fact, if there's a phone that almost everybody likes, then it's the apple earbuds. Ever wandered the streets or rode public transportation with open eyes? A vast majority is perfectly happy with their small white buds. Out of all my colleges at work that I've offered to try better headphones, only very few were even interested. Most of them told me they're perfectly content with what they have.

 

Head-Fi is a nice and interesting community of enthusiastic audiophiles, but measured against the bulk of audio consumers it's rather elitist and certainly not the hub of the music listening universe. 

I'm actually one of those who thinks Apple earbuds are quite decent sounding, but I've always had fit issues with them as I did with my old E888s, so I never bother with this type of phones; when pressed against my ears, Apple iBuds have always sounded very nice, certainly a lot better than what is often written about them in these forum threads.

I often cringe when I see people bashing iBuds - it's as if people were given audiophile membership cards when they spend over $200 on a set of phones. Spend over $300 and you're an even bigger audiophile. Spend over $1000 on a set of customs and you're a true audiophile. My dislike of the T word is nothing compared to my dislike of the A word. 

Ordered the EX600 yesterday and they arrived this afternoon (Amazon Prime.. yeeeaaaah buddy).

They had been burning in since 3pm today.. out of the box, they were (as many reported) harsh, bright, and generally rough around the edges.  After 6 hours or so, they settled down a bit.. the bass began to show better texture and presence.  the mid-range on up still sounded grainy, metallic, and "silvery".

After 10 hours.. I'm beginning to hear why these get the praise they do.  The mid-range and treble smoothed out a ton.. a ton.  They're still very crisp and airy, but now have better tone as the timbre seems more balanced and realistic.  Excellent instrument separation and detail.  The soundstage is simply fantastic.. w i d e .. but not to where imaging is smeared or inaccurate.

These are in many ways, kindred spirits with the GR07.  They share a very similar crisp, slightly mid-forward, neutral signature.  But where the GR07 is smoother and slightly warm, the EX600 is crisper, cooler and airy (reminds me some of the RE0's mid range and treble presentation.. with better note weight).  

The EX600's bass isn't as full bodied or impactful as the GR07, at this point.. but it's closing in nicely.  The EX600 seem capable of going nearly as deep though.  Again, I'm barely 10 hours into these, so I'm confident they'll improve with time.  Like the GR07, it seems significant burn in is required for them to reveal their true character.

Every genre the GR07 excelled at, the EX600 seemingly does too.. with a slightly different (and welcome) signature.. so I don't have any qualms keeping both of them in the arsenal.  

A correct fit is imperative with the Ex600.. The M hybrid tips have always been the best fit for my ears on other phones, but i found the L hybrid (w/o foam insert) to be the best fit.  Once secured, they're very comfortable and feel like they can be worn for hours on end without any discomfort.

I'm kinda of surprised to say this but it's honestly a toss up between the GR07 & the EX600 right now.  I love the GR07's refinement, smoothness, and lovely bass.  I also love the EX600's crisp RE0-ish midrange & treble.. so it's really a case of each phone adding their own touch to a shared signature of sorts.

Regardless of the "competition", it's great to see two top tier (IMO) phones at relatively modest prices available to the masses.. it's a good time to be into hifi on a budget!