[Sp12er3]

I'm glad that you made this thread... the other one have been way too depressing to shift through nowadays... I did enjoy a couple of discussions early on when Tyll and Jude come in, but now damn they become waaaay~ too convoluted with people that seemingly came in like they "need" to argue with others or proclaim their opinion (repeatedly) to be regarded as "contributing" to the thread... having it as a headline is really a good advertisement for the topic of headphone measurement.. but it totally sidetrack the purpose of the thread and definitely contribute to the inflow of members that doesn't actually own or never even demoed the Z1R.

Will re-post my impression of the Z1R here later... though if you can read Bahasa Indonesia, you can find it in my blog down below.

Anyway, regarding music, have been hooked to Maria Mena's 2015 Album, Growing Pains especially the song "Good God"

now it sounds great on my MA900 and XBA A3, but I wish I know of this song before I demoed the Z1R back then.

 

[spwath]

I quite liked the MDR-Z1R. I had them for a week to try out. I probably would have purchased them if I had the money/if they were cheaper.
I found the comfort/build to be top notch.
Sound, I liked them. I liked the bass, there was a lot more than my modded hd650's. Also seemed to resolve more detail than my HD650.
However, the TH-X00 I like about the same, maybe just a bit less. Less comfort, for sure, but soundwise, not much below the MDR-Z1R.
Definatly a well designed headphone, if you like the sound signature. A lot of work put into them

 

[echineko]

Spoiler

Will re-post my impression of the Z1R here later... though if you can read Bahasa Indonesia, you can find it in my blog down below.
Anyway, regarding music, have been hooked to Maria Mena's 2015 Album, Growing Pains especially the song "Good God"

now it sounds great on my MA900 and XBA A3, but I wish I know of this song before I demoed the Z1R back then.

Interesting, I'd never heard of this singer before, curious to try more now. And I agree, with the bass note of the Z1R, seems an ideal match. Also, will check out your blog post later, terima kasih pak

 

[nordkapp]

The shear visceral impact these cans deliver with hi-rez music is nuts. Presently listening to .WAV files of Milieu. Blown away......as in going to the grave with me. That may actually be a good thread to start-"Which headphones do you intend to be buried with?"

 

[Beagle]

I was knocked over when I saw Tyll's report. Nothing in it corosponded with my personal experience. Here is my experience with serial no. 0257:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-16-sony-audioquest-headphones

I use the Z1Rs more than any headphone I have - just because I like it. It is sweet, comfortable, and (I think) enjoyably balanced. I use fancy-pants LP and a Manhattan II or Yggdrasal DAC.

In my experience, once a 'measurements person' sees the measurements he or she will never again be able to listen to the measured object objectively. They will hear what they think the measurements say they should hear.

And then there is Steve Guttenberg's C-Net story . . . .

peace and summer cheer,
herb

I copied Herb's post over to this thread because I feel that my impressions (thus far) of the Z1R match his pretty much word for word.

What I really find impressive is that it has a nice open soundstage yet still manages to have a large footprint with natural vocal and instrument tone and timbre. It seems to replicate images that you only get with good loudspeakers. Because of this, you feel like you can almost "see" the vocalists and musicians performing. I think Sony accomplished this with the large drivers being set away from the ears by using the thick pads.

Another asset of the Z1R is superb dynamics.....there is a wonderful sense of ebb and flow and things sometime seem to jump out at you.

 

[MacedonianHero]

The Z1R arrived and I am going to try it with its own cable as well as a Moon Audio Silver Dragon and the Dana cable, which I originally purchased for my McIntosh MHP1000. I'll spend a few days getting reacquainted.

Congrats Dave! These are currently my favourite TOTL closed-back headphone!

 

[Whitigir]

My review still stands

http://www.head-fi.org/products/sony-mdr-z1r/reviews/17806

 

[nc8000]

I copied Herb's post over to this thread because I feel that my impressions (thus far) of the Z1R match his pretty much word for word.

What I really find impressive is that it has a nice open soundstage yet still manages to have a large footprint with natural vocal and instrument tone and timbre. It seems to replicate images that you only get with good loudspeakers. Because of this, you feel like you can almost "see" the vocalists and musicians performing. I think Sony accomplished this with the large drivers being set away from the ears by using the thick pads.

Another asset of the Z1R is superb dynamics.....there is a wonderful sense of ebb and flow and things sometime seem to jump out at you.

Makes sense as they apparently wanted to create a sound close to Duntech speakers

 

[Whitigir]

Makes sense as they apparently wanted to create a sound close to Duntech speakers

That is nice ! Music and gears are arts, and there is no ugly arts, only ugly minds who can't see the beauty of it

 

[Sp12er3]

If any of you still wonder about how well Z1R's passive isolation is go to Youtube and search for ZReview's burn in (and later, Sound demo) test of it, he used a mic that's inserted into a Yoga block to place the headphone for tens of hours while monitoring it's sound with an HD600 (and of course recording it.. go out and back in in 10-16-32-64-128 mark hours to do check in), maybe if any of you hear a change? or have enough free time to do a proper analysis of before-after from it's FLAC samples?
Zeos' recordings are useful as always if you have a gear with relatively neutral signature may help you gander the sound sig of the gears he records.
It isolates just as much as I remember it did.

Interesting to say the least.

 

[buzzlulu]

What impressions do people have about the Z1R's performance when used with a balanced cable vs. an unbalanced cable?
When I had a pair here I only tested it balanced out from my WM1Z. Obviously run from a 1Z the balanced output is superior to the unbalanced so it is obvious that the Z1R will sound better.

I should have tested it single ended out of my Moon 430 amplifier however I did not. In this case the source will be considerable superior to the 1Z however the connection will be unbalanced rather than balanced.

Obviously both scenarios will be with the supplied cables

 

[MacedonianHero]

Sitting down to one of my favourite "Top 5" albums of all time: "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis (with John Coltrane and Bill Evans). I plugged my Z1Rs directly into my Benchmark DAC3 HGC and the level of transparency, clarity and musicality has me smiling from ear to ear! The soundstaging for a closed headphone is brilliant as well!

 

[buzzlulu]

Sitting down to one of my favourite "Top 5" albums of all time: "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis (with John Coltrane and Bill Evans). I plugged my Z1Rs directly into my Benchmark DAC3 HGC and the level of transparency, clarity and musicality has me smiling from ear to ear! The soundstaging for a closed headphone is brilliant as well!

Stock cable? Single ended?

 

[MacedonianHero]

Stock cable? Single ended?

Sony-Kimber upgraded SE cable.

 

[Beagle]

Sitting down to one of my favourite "Top 5" albums of all time: "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis (with John Coltrane and Bill Evans). I plugged my Z1Rs directly into my Benchmark DAC3 HGC and the level of transparency, clarity and musicality has me smiling from ear to ear! The soundstaging for a closed headphone is brilliant as well!

Soundstaging is indeed excellent. Imaging is recording-dependent but the Z1R gives lots of room for things to open up when required.