[Jozurr]

Please don't be encouraged by what I said. All of this is true only in relation to the SE-M1. As I said, it's all about subjective impressions and preferences. I still haven't made my mind up about the Z1R, so I have held back with impressions. But a user asked about this specific comparison (more specifically, about clarity and airiness), and I was able to compare as I happen to own both units, so I did. In fact, "boring" might have been the wrong choice of words. It's not boring per se, in fact I have described it as having a "fun" signature before. I think what's lacking to me has mostly to do with the slightly rolled-off highs. It's probably just that little bit of sparkle up top that's missing. Again, I'm not trying to diss the Z1R. It's a fine can, and I actually like it. It's just that I love the SE-M1. Also, it might be what I compare is just open vs. closed sound in general. Perhaps I like open headphones more than I realized before I acquired the Z1R. They just belong to different segments. Very different specimens.
 
One word on the Pioneer SE-Master1: To me, it does things that no other headphone does. It has the most "speaker-like" presentation that I ever heard emitted by a can. I'm in the lucky position that I have been able to listen to almost all of the current flagships, and the Pioneer, to me, is an absolute singularity. It really is your dark horse, and for me, personally, it's hands-down the best dynamic headphone there is. Its soundstage is vast, there's the most incredible amount of air between notes, and at the same time the bass can hit really hard. It has often been described as a crossbreed between the HD800 and the TH-900. As I said, I don't particularly care for either, but if you take only the best traits of both (i. e. the HD800's soundstage and the TH-900 "prodigious" capabilities in the bass section), you might have a rough approximation of what this headphone brings to the table. It's literally quite unheard of, I think, almost magic, lol. To be fair, I have heard of people that hate it, even if they mostly seemed to base their impressions on graphs alone.

 To my knowledge, no one could sufficiently explain what exactly it was they hated about it. It probably has to do with its singular sound, but the only thing I can imagine someone not liking is the huge soundstage that some, like with the HD800, could find "exaggerated". I could get that, even though I happen to adore it. There you go, maybe I just don't like headphones, lol.

 
That doesn't help much with this case. Makes me want to try the M-1 even more 

 
One of the reasons I like the HE-6 (or a funktion one system) is because of the high energy ALONG with very good bass. I've also noticed you in the techno threads a lot, and I mostly listen to techno music, so I feel I can go with your judgement, which makes this all the more difficult to ignore the M-1 in favour of the Z1R. The problem is there's no way to try the M-1, and see if it's better than the HE-6 to begin with.
 
Also, I'd love to read the PM by up late for the summary of the things people didn't like about the M-1, if you can share. You can PM if you dont want to share here.
 
Regarding the Utopia Discusssion, flat or not and them being on the wall of fame etc, they just don't extend as low as the HE-6 and neither do they hit as hard. Someone who has heard good club systems like Funktion one or Void Acoustics would know the kind of sound I mean, and headphones wise, The HE-6 are the closest I've come to a big club system. With what you say @phonomat , I think M-1 would be worth a shot too.

 

[AppleheadMay]

   
Please don't be encouraged by what I said. All of this is true only in relation to the SE-M1. As I said, it's all about subjective impressions and preferences. I still haven't made my mind up about the Z1R, so I have held back with impressions. But a user asked about this specific comparison (more specifically, about clarity and airiness), and I was able to compare as I happen to own both units, so I did. In fact, "boring" might have been the wrong choice of words. It's not boring per se, in fact I have described it as having a "fun" signature before. I think what's lacking to me has mostly to do with the slightly rolled-off highs. It's probably just that little bit of sparkle up top that's missing. Again, I'm not trying to diss the Z1R. It's a fine can, and I actually like it. It's just that I love the SE-M1. Also, it might be what I compare is just open vs. closed sound in general. Perhaps I like open headphones more than I realized before I acquired the Z1R. They just belong to different segments. Very different specimens.
 
One word on the Pioneer SE-Master1: To me, it does things that no other headphone does. It has the most "speaker-like" presentation that I ever heard emitted by a can. I'm in the lucky position that I have been able to listen to almost all of the current flagships, and the Pioneer, to me, is an absolute singularity. It really is your dark horse, and for me, personally, it's hands-down the best dynamic headphone there is. Its soundstage is vast, there's the most incredible amount of air between notes, and at the same time the bass can hit really hard. It has often been described as a crossbreed between the HD800 and the TH-900. As I said, I don't particularly care for either, but if you take only the best traits of both (i. e. the HD800's soundstage and the TH-900 "prodigious" capabilities in the bass section), you might have a rough approximation of what this headphone brings to the table. It's literally quite unheard of, I think, almost magic, lol. To be fair, I have heard of people that hate it, even if they mostly seemed to base their impressions on graphs alone.

 To my knowledge, no one could sufficiently explain what exactly it was they hated about it. It probably has to do with its singular sound, but the only thing I can imagine someone not liking is the huge soundstage that some, like with the HD800, could find "exaggerated". I could get that, even though I happen to adore it. There you go, maybe I just don't like headphones, lol.

 
@Phonomat, have you had a chance to compare the M1 to the Utopia?
I have done so this weekend for a day and a half. Before I started I was really planning to sell the M1 and get the Utopia instead. I compared and listened any way I could, various amps, straight out of the dac, even the phones out of a simple speaker amp. All genres of music, whole tracks, repeating passages over and over, etc... Even had my wife help a bit and we came to the same conclusion.
I found the Utopia's sound to be very akin to the M1's but the M1 was just slightly better in every regard: bass and highs extension, bass control, highs detail, mids detail and forwardness and clarity, wider soundstage, more involving. Three points for the Utopia though: ultimate comfort (never did a phone feel better on my head), some more intimacy (due to a slightly lesser soundstage) and a little warmer in the mids which is something I actually like. But that wasn't enough to disregards all the points where the Pioneer did just a tad better with a very similar sound signature and ultimately made it the better heaphone for me.
So I ended up sending the Utopia and Elear back to the dealer that lent it to me and kept my M1s and about 2k in my pocket. But I'll be keeping a close eye on Focal in the future though, who knows what they'll come up with next.
If you haven't compared them yet you should and I'll promise you you'll have a smile on your face.

 

[LaCuffia]

What are your thoughts on the Elear as compared to the Z1R?

 

[kumar402]

do we have list of authorized retailer in US?

 

[HiFiGuy528]

  do we have list of authorized retailer in US?

 
Woo Audio is an authorized Signature Series reseller.  We have all three products.

 

[Bern2]

  do we have list of authorized retailer in US?

Copied and stolen from earlier in this thread...
 
Natural Sound Boston MA
Northern Audio/Music to My Ear Pittsburg PA
Listen Up Denver/Boulder/Colorado Springs CO & Albuquerque NM
The Source AV Torrance CA

Woo Audio NY is the only authorized online only dealer and has a small supply of the MDR Z1R

 

[kumar402]

  Copied and stolen from earlier in this thread...
 
Natural Sound Boston MA
Northern Audio/Music to My Ear Pittsburg PA
Listen Up Denver/Boulder/Colorado Springs CO & Albuquerque NM
The Source AV Torrance CA

Woo Audio NY is the only authorized online only dealer and has a small supply of the MDR Z1R

Thanks 

  Copied and stolen from earlier in this thread...
 
Natural Sound Boston MA
Northern Audio/Music to My Ear Pittsburg PA
Listen Up Denver/Boulder/Colorado Springs CO & Albuquerque NM
The Source AV Torrance CA

Woo Audio NY is the only authorized online only dealer and has a small supply of the MDR Z1R

Thanks, i also see https://www.audioadvice.com selling Sony with a generous 30 days return policy. Are they Authorized dealer?

 

[jp11801]

I have lived with the Sony Z1R for about a week now and I can say for sure that the headphone changes with some hours on it. So far my impressions are very favorable:

1. great bass resolution - with the ability to resolve very deep bass and provide tone, texture and frequency extremely well. Often many cans will reproduce bass with somewhat indistinct frequency sounding one note or muddled. 
2. Bass bump is clearly evident but reminds me of a large format speaker that can resolve low or a 3 way speaker set up with the sub set a few db north of flat
3. Great texture in the meds - vocals are slightly recessed and this is a valid criticism imho for some recordings where the bass overwhelms the mids
4. highs are generally good but they do not extend fully which can lead to a somewhat different sound that can take a bit of getting accustom to. Slight sibilance with some vocals for modern hot recordings. Crappy recordings sound crappy on the Sonys. I found the LCD 2 to be the antidote to modern recordings but flawed with great recordings
5. the Sony is deceptively resolving I think they will out resolve most top tier headphones with the sole exceptions of the Utopia and 009, maybe the HD800 but that may be a draw. 
6. They groove and involve better than most top tier headphones due to the bass hump and the guitar tones are to die for as well 
7. Sense of space is great side to side and depth is pretty good but the stage does feel somewhat low - imagine a room with a low ceiling
8. did I mention I think they resolve well! If I had to venture a guess they will have extremely low levels of distortion and a resolve a square wave pretty well. 
9. The cable is very cheesy for the class of headphone - grateful for the sony format balanced cable that I will likely never use but I get it they want me to pair it with their flagship amp/dac or portable. I ordered a Moon Silver Dragon 4 pin XLR balanced to see if they respond to after market cabling or balanced output.
10. Comfort is great except for a guy with a shaved head (ok bald) the pad presses into my noggin after a while. The pads are extremely comfortable. 

 
To those that want to compare these to the Elear - imo these are significantly better than the Elear. I feel the Utopia is miles better than the Elear and is well worth the 4 fold price increase to the Elear. 
 
I am running these against the LCD-X and they may edge them out in most areas. I do feel that when I switch from the Sony to the LCD-X the feeling is going from a studio room to an open space. This may be due to the damping of the Sony earcup vs the LCD open design. 
 
The Utopia is still the better overall headphone and I think by years end I'll have the Utopia and Sony as my main two headphones. Overall I'd give the Sony 4-4.5 stars on a five point scale. Not perfect but nothing that would disqualify them from serious consideration for most members providing the bass lift is not a deal killer.
 
I'll likely do a full blow review in a few weeks once I get the Moon silver dragon 

 

[Whitigir]

I can not wait to get an upgraded cables for my WM1Z and the Z1R .... sad, the 4.4mm takes forever

 

[echineko]

I can not wait to get an upgraded cables for my WM1Z and the Z1R .... sad, the 4.4mm takes forever

You're making your own, I take it?

 

[Naim.F.C]

Why did Lauryn Hill never release another album?
 
Side note Run The Jewels 3 is quite a musical riot with these cans. Free on their website. Well received by critics too.

https://runthejewels.com/ 
 
http://www.metacritic.com/music/run-the-jewels-3/run-the-jewels

 

[sluker]

Perhaps this is already mentioned but I did not see it.
But why the 4.4mm balanced connector? Seems cumbersome if you don't own Sony balanced amp?

 

[nanaholic]

  Perhaps this is already mentioned but I did not see it.
But why the 4.4mm balanced connector? Seems cumbersome if you don't own Sony balanced amp?

 
The 4.4mm connector is a new Japan audio industry standard that is agreed upon by all members of JEITA - Sony's the trail blazer at the moment so they are the only one currently with source gear that uses it (but plenty of aftermarket headphone cables are now available, some headphones even come in pre-configured to 4.4mm is showing up as well), but you will be able to use the 4.4mm connector with other Japanese makers in the near future. The connector is also license free to use, so perhaps some other non-Japanese companies will pick it up also depending on popularity and rate of adoption (which actually looks pretty good at the moment, since the new Walkmans seems to be selling really well) - AK not withstanding since they created the 2.5mm AK "standard" (which is not a standard by definition). 
 
Tokyo's PortaFest is happening in mid February - I'm expecting some new gears outside of headphones and cables using 4.4mm connectors to show up there.

 

[Sonic Defender]

@jp11801, almost in complete agreement with your impression of the Z1R. I actually found the vocals quite good, but perhaps that was just due to different past experiences setting expectations? I fully agree about the sound stage being perceived as a little lower, I like your low ceiling analogy there. There is still a very intriguing way that sound is presented that I can't quite identify well enough and articulate, but I'm hoping with more listening I can get there. I have probably had only about 3, maybe 4 hours of actual listening so far and I am jumping around testing more than listening which I always do with new headphones. Hopefully after helping get my friend off to France I will find a little more time. The bass is actually very impressive. Even demanding passages are presented clean and very well defined I find, and I'm slowly but surely finding the bass less soft than I first believed it to be.

 

[Drumonron]

first impressions - Show me where to get a new cable - this chinese cable is CRAP!
Sony, How could you!  So much work went into the design of the phone, the box,etc...why would
you put such a horrible cable on it.
 
As for the early early early impressions of what I'm hearing - exactly what I knew
Sony could do - so lush, so detailed, good prat but somehow it is able to extract the same amount of details
as my HD800 but with a good amount of warmth...very comfy headphone and breathtakingly beautiful in person -
pictures do no justice at all.  Sony shot for a live performance sound - early impressions for me - clearly they've achieved
something special with this phone.
 
Gotta let these break in - very early but let's just say, I'm liking what I'm hearing and I can state for a fact the overbloated bass
comments were way off base.  Bass is lush on these and somehow politely controlled.
 
reaching out to SAA to see if an Endorphin will be in the Z1Rs future - how beautiful would that be, huh?
 
PS:
SN 27 here