About me

I consider myself an audiophile, but I am not into Graphs and numbers (measurements). I listen to Classical music, mainly Baroque to romanticism. My library is my own FLAC and DSD Rips and downloads I have bought through the years.

DISCLAIMER

The Sony DMP-Z1 was bought by me at full price of eye-watering 8000 EUR on November 2021 at amazon Europe as my home rig.

Unboxing and accessories



Zhe DMP-Z1 comes in a huge white box which has the front of the device as main product image, you slide this carton to reveal a black box vontaining the player and accessories. Included in the box:

• DMP-Z1
• USB type C cable
• Carrying Suitcase
• AC adapter
• Euro and British plugs for the mains adapter

About the device, usability

The DMP-Z1 is sony’s first carriable DAP, a combo of desktop-grade amplifier with integrated Digital Audio Player. It runs in either AC mode or in batterz mode thanks to the 5 built-in Batteries, hence I call it some times a desktop-replacement unit.

The build of the unit is a single machined aluminum block of aluminum with a thick profile, the underside as well as the front and back panels appear to be aluminum in mirror/glass finish, while the top is either plastic or mrtal with a window,

The front houses the power button which also doubles as a screen om/off switch. In the center the enormous analog Volume pot finished in shiny Gold finish. On the right side we gave the headphone outputs – top right is the 4.4mm balanced and under this one is the standard stereo 3.5mm.

The right side houses the two microSD slots hidden within a nice door. One can add theorically up to 2TB cards in each slot. Providing a whopping 4TB öf storage.

There’s nothing on the left side. The rear has the USB C port, which can only be used for data transfers and digital audio IN (USB-DAC) and OUT, sadly is no battery charge function on the USB port. To the left is the DC-in jack to plug the included AC-Adapter or other source capable of sourcing 19V or 19.5V amd 2.35A pf current. Note that the polarity is as follows inner pin is positive and the jacket is the negative and the size of the plug is toughly 4.4mm. I use also the charger of my old sony VAIO laptop with no trouble.

The Underside has the rubber feet to prevent it from sliding off as well some infos on the model like exporter and serial number-


The top has the Sony brand and model logos below these is a 3.1’’ screen, which I find pretty lame giving the dimensions of the device thez could have smacked a bigge size here (minimum the same as the WM1A), below this is two LED indicators

• MUTING which flashes orange to denote that the auto mute function is active – more in this later – or to denote the headphone circuit protection is working,
• CHARGE which has three states GREEN means charging is complete and is connected to AC. ORANGE battery is being charged. OFF the unit is being use in Battery mode or it is turned off compl4tely with the AC plug removed,

Below is a view window to see the potentiometer in gold finish

Below are three playback buttons from left to right Previous track/rewind, play/pause and Next track/fast forward.

The UI is managed with the touch display, as the unit is only dedicated to play music the main screen is the Now-playing which shows song name, artist, album name, current track of x total, a progressbar for scrolling at any given point and on the center depending on zour choice of display type it shows either cover art or a spectrum analyser or an analogue peak (VU) meter,

On top of the cover display are some icons dedicated to the state of playback, if balanved or USB-out or Bluetooth is being used, high gain indicator, current track format and bit depth and sample rate and the battery status shown in both a battery icon and percent, and if the AC is being fed as well if a DC-in plug is detected

The UI is similar that of the original release WM1 walkmans from 2016, swiping from top to bottom reveals the library screen which has various categories to browse your music collection sd erll a button to enable USB-DAC and other button to enable Bluetooth DAC.

Back to the now playing screen. If one swipes from left to right it will show the playback queue, doing the opposite way (right to left) shown is the on-the-go playlists.

Dwiping from bottom to top shows the DSP effects area: with choices of EQ, DSEE HX (sony upsampling algorithm), a volume normalizer and Vinyl processor (recreates the warm sound of a LP),

On the bottom most area of the screen are there three icons; a playback symbol with a back arrow – returns you to playing screen, A Bookshelf – takes you to the library screen and a Toolbox icon opens the menu to access the settings and other relevant optiond,

If one taps the battery information area a pop-up shows to change between AC and battery modes and visceversa without having to go to the settings. A solid mains plug symbol denotes the AC current is being detected. This icon grayed out means the AC plug is detected but the device is running on “Battery preferred mode”, also accessed via settings, no plug icon displayed, the plug is not detected and running in battery mode- if one takes the plug out while turned on it will pause the music and switch to battery automatically and same for the other way around will switch back to AC mode when plugging the power adapter- unless battery preferred is turned on via the settings.



The auto mute feature disables volume when changing from DSP to source direct and visceversa, when enabling high gain and visceversa it requires one to turn the volume knob all way to zero and clicking on OK, fortunately it can be disabled (to some extent)

The supplied carrying case has a compartment for the player, a side flap for the AC adapter and under this one of the AC plugs, to be honest I was expecting a pouch to carry an IEM or some pairs and cables for these IEMs. Lugging zjr unit around home is not an issue. But to travel with it given the size and weight of 2.5Kg pf the player and the case plus adapter brings it to 3Kg.

Under the hood

The DMP-Z1 id equipped with dual DACs from AKM, namely the now-discontinued AK4497 in bslsnced config, supporting PCM up to 32-bit/384kHz in thr form from WAV and AIFF, for FLAC and apple lossless 24-bit/384kHz, abd for Monkey’s Audio (APE) 24-bit/192kHz. For lossy codecs we get MP3, AAC, HE-AAC and WMA. DSD is supported in dsf and dff extensions up to 11.2MHz (256x), sadly no ISO mor multichannel support.

For Bluetooth is the 4.2 version supported in both Rx and Tx duüüptzong SBC, LDAC, AptX, AptX-HD and AAC.

The operating system is sony’s Original OS, aka Walkman OS, that is simple to use and centered on Music playback at its highest quality.



On the analogue circuitboard features audiophile grade components such as; Nichicon and sony FTCAP 2 capacitors, as well dual Texas Instruments TPA6120 class AB amplifier chips in balanced config üroviding 3V (570mW) for stereo mini-jack and 5V (1500mW) for the balanced jack, both stated for a load of 16-Ohm.

For volume regulator, Sony has chosen the Alps electronics RK501 which is a high-end volume pot costing more than 1000EUR, sony has coated this piece in copper and then in Gold for an optimal sound reproduction.

The DMP-Z1 features 5 Batteries with separate supply for analogue and digital circuitboards. Made of high quality Li-Ion batteries, three (or four, I am not sure by the diagrams) are dedicated for the analogue circuit, two of them power solely the positive and negative rails. One (or two batteries) are for the digital section. My experience with battery life it is pretty close to the statements from sony





Notes on battery-life tests:

• NFC and Bluetooth Off
• Minimal to moderate screen use
• Screen brightness at 25 of 100
• Mix of 16-bit/44.1kHz, 24-bit FLAC and DSD
• Volume between 9:00 (mostly) and 11:00
• DSP used DSEE and some times Vinyl Processor, rarely EQ

Sound analysis.

Notes on perceived sound quality:

• Balanced and single-ended (3.5mm) sound identical to my ears, being balanced slightly better than SE
• Between Battery and AC mode the onlx perceived difference is a slight decrease in volume loudness when using battery
• Using High gain does not degrade the sound as badly as the Walkman DAPs

Listening was made with the following Headphones and IEMs:

• MDR-Z1R
• IER-Z1R
• IER-M7

Summary, aka TL;DR

Excellent treble extension and detail retrieval, excellent mids which are vibrant and present, superb bass resolution and textures. Impressive imaging and separation, ebveloping spherical sökndstage that gives a quasi binaural- or multichannel recordings effect in stereo tracks. Best in class dynamic range capabilities. No distortion until yet perceived even on sudden dynamic changes, dead-pitch-black background.



Detailed sound analysis

BASS: The bass of DMP is one of these highest quality bass that I’ve heard. It reaches very low frequencies without even distorting and kicks powerfully hard without booming or bloating things up. The feeling of air movement, vibrations and ondulations (For example kettle drums, the tallest organ pipes) is impressive. Additional to this the decay of the bass is smooth analogue life-like this can be exemplified with a bass string that is left vibrating freelx until it really stopped doing it in recording session

MIDS: the mid-sectopn is also life-like, brilliant, vibrant, non-shouty mids, simply perfect male and female voices with powerful notes without a single hint of distorting (Mozart concert-aria Popoli di Tessaglia at almost end part there is a sudden dynamic and pitch change)ä one can hear the inner resonance from certain instruments very well, especially violins, cellos and lutes. Verx clear notes with clear timbre definition to distinguish each instrument, DMP takes you to each instruments soul and characteristiscs, including the sounds from mechaniscal instruments or clapping of keys in s woodwind instrument.

HIGHS; like the Mids the highs have a very excellent extension and resolution without feeling fatigue, from crusp guitar or lute string plucks and riffles to very high pitched flute and voice solos all sound clear and decay life-like. Reverb decay is excellent with the tails following until total quietness DMP’s treble is one of the best of any sony DAP to date



SEPARATION, LAYERING: Ibstruments and each member/section from an orchestra or ensemble (as well solo instruments like organ or harpsichord) are presented clearly on its own dedicated space well separated amd layered without any sign of sounding all amassed or busy even in complex passages one can hear each layer and instrument participating on the piece with such a life-like experience



SOUNDSTAGE IMAGING: Simply wow, very cavernous and extremely large in both tallness and depth abd width, I could describe as a quasi binaural and multichannel recording like effect that’s quite impressive, literal notes come from everywhere, Is like an enveloping sphere around you that transports to the recording session. One hear this in front, in the middle, on the sides, on my back simply best Imaging in class. I can hear the actual room spaciousness where the recording was made. This is summit-fi level and these soundstage amd imaging I got onlx live events, not from a tiny Walkman DAP…



On all Headphones listed these characteristics are similar, only both Z1R beating the M7 across the board.

Bass MDR-Z1R>= IER-Z1R > IER-M7

Mids MDR-Z1R = IER-Z1R > M7

High IER-Z1R > MDR > M7

Separation/lazering MDR-Z1R = IER-Z1R > IER-M7

Staging/imaging MDR>IER-z1R>M7

About me



I consider myself an audiophile, but I am not into Graphs and numbers (measurements). I listen to Classical music, mainly Baroque to romanticism. My library is my own FLAC and DSD Rips and downloads I have bought through the years.



DISCLAIMER

The Meze Audio LIRIC was provided free of charge to me as part of a world-Review Tour. I was not offered any sort of financial or gifts to publish my honest review here and ultimately I have given the Heafphones to the next User in the row.



Unboxing Experience

The unboxing experience is pretty stabdard. A Cardboardbox surrounds inside it another hard cardboars box which contains the Headphones and accessories, much like what sony does for their packaging.

Accessories included in the box (Default retail packaging):

• Booklet explaining the LIRIC Making
• HARD EVA Headphones carry case
• Airline adapter
• 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapter
• 1.5m TPU copper cable terminated in 3.5mm SE
• 3m Soft TPU cable terminated in 3.5mm SE
• Pouches for the cables
• Meze LIRIC Planar Magnetic Headphones

Included extra but Not paty of the retail packaging is a 4.4mm Silver-plated copper cable as part of Mezes Upgrade cable series.

THE LIRIC INSIDE OUT

The headphones have a leather band with the Liric embossing, then there is on each side two metal rods to adjust the HP to head height.

The cups are made of plastic and there is a Golden button which is the pressure relief vent. On the otherside of the cups there is the grills that protecte the Drivers and the non-user-replaceable Pads.



The driver from the Liric is a planar Magnetic dual Array system dubbed the Rinaro/MEZ4 system, which is easy to drive at 30-Ohms and capable of 20Hz to 92kHz frequency response. In my experkence they are fairly easy to drive nut if you want to feel the rumbly bass vibes you must use a powerfuk source.

After prolomged listeninh i experienced pain as in the clamping force was too muxh



Sound analysis

Testing was made with the following

• Source files FLAC 16/24-bit from 44.1kHz to 384kHz & DSD
• Devices: NW-WM1A, NW-A25, DMP-Z1, Windows 10 VAIO Laptop
• Classical music

Bass: The bass while one can hear some bass amount on the Liric, and awesomely on low power sources like the NE-A25 (10mW per channel) or NW-WM1A Single-end output (60Mw). There is some lacking in the bass region as I describe it as lean-bass or “Bass for classical music purist”, the problem with this kind of bass is that it robs some music their essence. On Monteverdis Madrigal “Gira il nemico insidioso” and “Ardo avvampo” [La venexiana | Mobteverdi: Ottavo Libro dei Madrigale|GLOSSA MUSIC] there is a Bass Singer and I felt he was robbed of his deep notes and rumbly voice. Piano sounded a bit boring specially Mozart piano sonatas with Mitduko Ulchida on Philips and while organ music can reach deep lows, there is a a lack of the body in the bass registers.

Nonethelesss this kind of bass cleared up many bassy recordings from their weakness and made them sound great, specially older Karajan recordings and some of the Bach cantatas on the Hnassler klassik series with Helmuth Rilling Bachakademie Stuttgart.



Mids: extremely clear, like I never heard some of my music, even with my reference HP, the sony MDR-Z1R, hearing instrumental cues I never heard before with such a crystal clarity like a Cembalo continuo line in Albinonis Concertos Op. 10 [I solisti Venetia|Claudio scimone|Albinoni, Tomaso: Concertos Op. 10|ERATO], voixes and strings sounded sweet.

Highs: equally as clear and sweet as the mids, though, at times fatiguing with some Harpsichord solos from Bach and Handel, but it was rare to find a fatiguing recording with the lyric as opposed my Z1R with its blasphemous stock cable they are incredibly fatiguing in the highs.

Stage and separation

Good layering, Stage is not that huge, partly as they’re closed backs, some recordings felt that the sound was limited in a walled space, only showed stages incredibly huge if the recording had these.



Pair-up

Sony DMP-Z1 (Balanced/High Gain volume knob between 09:50 -12:00 ):

Wide soundstage, clear mids and highs, excellent separation, some feeling of the bass movements

WM1A (Balanced/High gain, vol. 80-100 of 120):

Good soundstage but smaller as on the DMP.Z1, bass a bit weak on moving air but still great, great clarity

WM1A (Unbalanced/High gain, vol. 100-120 of 120):

The stage is like a medium hall still hearing the bass and excellent mids and highs

A25 (unbalanced only vol. 20-30 of 30)

No soundstage at all, still able to hear clear sound esp in bass and mids highs

Laptop: Probably the worst of them all. Muddy sound absolutely no stage and separation



Comparison:

MDR-Z2R with Kimber axios Cu: less clarity in mids and highs than the LIRIC, more bass impact, more soundstage.



MDR-Z1R with Lavricables GRAND (pure Silver)

More clarity matching that of meze lyric, while retaining their bass impact and slam, larger soundstage than with the Kimber cable

IER-Z1R IEM: more bass slam and digs deep, lyric is cleaner in the mids. Om highs they are about the same, larger sound stage on the IER-Z1R with better separation.

IER-M7 Quad BA IEM: more bass slam and rumble on the M7 but same decay spped on both, mids and highs here LIRIC wins providing more details than the M7. On sound stage the M7 is slightly bigger thn the lyric but not by much

Koss porta pro

Tge koss may have more bass but it sounds dirty and not clear, here the LIRIC has a huge advantage of coming out super clean and clear, the sound stage feels quasi inexistent on the porta pro, despite being open back.

About me

As everybody here knows my Reviews are with classical music in lossless formats. I am not the Graphs and measurements kind of Audiophile.

Intro

I got this Little DAP because its Button navigation as my eye sight is failing and most modern ones are android with all the bells and whistles plus touch screen with no support for Accesibility.

Original MSRP in 2015 was of 199 Euro for the A25, I got it used here in Head-fi for 50 euro. Additionally got for another 50 euro the WMC-NWH10 digital output cable.

Packaging and accessories

I got it without its original packaging, so i can't really comment on this regard, but it may be similar to sony Hi-res walkman packaging that only feature the walkman, some papers (Instructions and Warranty card) and the USB data transfer cable. Maybe the HN variant includes Noise cancelling earbuds.

Usability, Appearance and UI

The usability is pretty straight forward with a home screen which features an icon Grid and each of these icons has a designated function. UI remains unchanged fron A10 series as well as appearance.

On the front we have a 2.0'' TFT LCD QVGA Screen with two rectangular buttons underneath
A. BACK/HOME Short press takes one screen back, e.g. from now playing back to the selected listing. Long press takes you directly to Main grid screen.

B) OPTION/PWR OFF short press opens a context menu to access additional features depending on the screen. Long press the devices "Turns off" (goes to stand-by rather than fully off)

Nest we have a Diamond with a circular button in the middle, this is the D-PAD and the circular button is the Play/Pause button. Each corner of the diamond is a direction e.g. Left/Right/Up/Down. On playback of video and music left and right serve as fast-forward/next track and rewind/previous track.

On the left side we have a volume rocker, a Hold (lock) switch and the micro SD slot covered by a door. Right side is plain, nothing's here. bottom, there is a wrist strap hole, the WM-port connector for Data trabsfer/Charging/Audio output and a HP jack (3.5mm SE). On the under side there is a RESET Hole.

Navigation is fast across the different screens. Audio listings have a Jump list based on the Alphabet accesed with D-Pad < and >. All lisyings display a popup balloon to show complete song name or album name etc. plus a cover if present in file (does not support external covers unfortunately)

Grid and icons
1. Heart with Music note -> SensMe channels. sony's Mood and tempo song classification system, creates Mood playlists
2. Radio-> FM Radio. Here you can listen and save your favorite FM-Radio stations (Headphone cord acts as antenna)
3. Bookmark -> On the go playlists slotted to only 10 lists and up to 500 songs each. You can add songs via pressing play/pause button for about 4 seconfs. The bad. they get erased if you remove the Micro sd card and you cannot export them
4. Photo with a mountain-> Photo viewer, only JPG is supported
5. Music Notes-> Music player
6. Film strip-> Video viewer, supports wmv, mp4 (m4v, mp4 and 3gp)
7. Headphonrd with "NC"-> Noise cancelling settings (only works with specific sony earbuds)
8. A beacon transmitting radio waves-> Podcasts
9. Bluetooth logo -> Bluetooth settings
10. Toolbox-> Settings /configuration menu
11. Micro SD Card-> Sd card settings like formatting and (Un)Mounting a micro SD card
12. Back arrow with now playing symbol-> Takes you back to Now playing

I didn't test BT, Radio, Podcast, Video and foto because i dont have interest in these features IMO screen too small to see a video or a pic.

Music screen has categories for
1. All songs
2. Artist
3. Albums
4.Genre
5. Release year
6. Folder
7. Hi-res content
8. Playlists and Bookmark lists
9. Received songs via BT

Pressing up and down on the music playback screen reveals sonys cover flow feature

The device does turn off automatically after 24 hours fixed timer of inactivity

Sound quality analysis

Used Gear MDR-Z1R Headphones, IER-M7 Quad BA/side Sony IEM, Koss porta pro and IER-Z1R Flagship IEM
Sandisk 400GB card
Lossless PCM from 16/44.1 to 24/192, Downsampled DSD (to flac 24/88.2 using DB Power amp music converter)

Bass The bass is quite good, punchy and hard hitting, but has some textures mssing as well it doesnt reach as deep as more modern DAPs

Mids. Smooth and natural mids, not too forward not too recessed, with nice clarity and details
Highs -> Nice silky smooth, not as airy as modern DAPs as well not as extended as recent offerings. But still not lacking
Separation and sound stage-> small sound stage and average separation but not bad if you use it as a travel DAP.

*1 NO DSD SUPPORT
Yup this device does not accept dff nor dsf files. However if you Have the WMC-NWH10 digital audio output cable you can output DSD encoded as DoP to a compatible DAC. As this device is limited to 192kHz playback it means that we are stuck to DoP'ing DSD64 (2.8224MHz) files, mainly because DSD DoP needs high sample rate PCM to blanket the DSD Dara F.E. DSD64 has a bitrate of 5600kbps so it needs 24/176.4kHz to cover this requirement (24/96 are 4600kbps) therefore DSD128 as DoP won't work with this walkman as DoP for 128 requieres 352,8kHz. Either you need to downsample DSD to PCM up to 192kHz 24-bit or use Dop for DSD64 (you'll need to downsample DSD128/256/512 to DSD64 and rhen Dop The files)

tl;dr
SMall device great for travel with some handy features such as Radio or podcast to photo and video. As music player works decent up to 192k 24-bit and DSD64 DoP (with the extra accessory WMC-NWH10)

Introduction – About Me:

I’m an audiophile but not the Graphs and number ones, more of a music lover type of audiophile who seeks the best true sound quality.


This review will cover some firsts for mw: My first ever experience with Dekoni Audio, My first full-size Headphone ear-Pad review and therefore my first earpad-rolling experience.

ABOUT DEKONI AUDIO

Dekoni is a company based in the US,, they specialize in Audio equipment, mainly the following: Ear-pads for diverse brands of Headphones like Sennheiser, sony; , IEM tips, earplugs.


I want to thank Dekoni for letting me review their ELITE series of pads for the sony MDR-Z1R, which were recently launched.


DISCLAIMER

I Asked voluntarily Dekoni for a review set of the Earpadz, I’ll receive no financial incentive for my honest review. I am also not affiliated to dekoni in any form, in fact this is my 1st experience with a Dekoni Product.


General Information

The Elite pads for the sony MDR-Z1R come in 4 variants with differing prices accordingly:

• ELITE Velour – Made of velour “cloth”, priced $59.99 US-Dollar
• ELITE Hybrid – A combination of velour “cushion” and leather sides, priced $99.99
• ELITE Fenestrated Sheepskin – made entirely of leather with a perforated surface, priced $79.99
• ELITE Sheepskin – Made of leather with smooth surface, priced $109.99

Each pair of pads comes attached with the mounting-ring as per sony’s specifications, so there is no need to fiddle and struggle to transfer this part from the original stock to the Dekoni pads.


UNBOXING

Each pair of pads mentioned above came in their individual color-and-design-coded box, all four packaging came sealed with a tape easy to break with a knife. Itself, the boxes struck me with the quality, Dekoni have outdone themselves on this department. They’re not a simple cardboard box, hell, wow, they are made yes of cardboard but they’re hard as if they were made of wood, plus they stay closed by a fancy magnet latch.



On top of the boxes the Logo of Dekoni Audio is printed big and clear this also has the word ELITE printed on them, under is the bar code and SKU number, sides are blank and the magnetic latch has the model for the corresponding pads, the other thing that varies is the design and color of each box.

• ELITE VELOUR comes in a turquoise/aqua color, on the magnetic latch side reads “Sony MDR-Z1R Elite Velour”
• ELITE Hybrid comes in an pastel sea green, half of the design is clear sea green and the other half sea green with mini polka dots in dark blue, it reads “Sony MDR-Z1R Hybrid”
• ELITE Fenestrated sheepskin comes in a plain pastel sea green design, it reads “Sony MDR-Z1R Fenestrated sheepskin”
• ELITE Sheepskin: same as Fenestrated sheepskin design but covered in dark blue mini polka dots in it’s enterity, it reads “Sony MDR-Z1R Sheepskin”.

Inside of the four packages is the same, on the bottom the dekoni logo and on the Lid a legend in bold stating their quality and satisfaction guarantee as well as a Facbook url to their FB page.

BUILD QUALITY, COMFORT & USABILITY


The build quality of the dekoni padz is as premium as the sony stock pads, the leather as well as the velour feel soft. The memory foam also feels light yet dense and bounces back quickly to form when squeezed.

The plastic mount-rings also feel pretty sturdy and durable, tried bending them to see the construction quality, with great confidence I can say they’re strong enough that they did not bend with moderate force.



Usability here perhaps doesn’t play a big role as when testing a DAC/AMP or DAP, but as every pair includes the mounting rings and the fact that sony was smart enough to make the lock mechanism identical on both cups it makes a breeze removing and swapping pads.

To remove the pads from the headphones just turn them counter-clockwise, this requires a bit of force. But once unlocked they come pretty easy off. To place new pads just align the pimple with the dots on the cups receptacle and turn clockwise to lock.

A brilliant move by Dekoni to include these rings attached, as trying to remove them is a monumental task.

Comfort wise they’re great, my ears don’t touch the driver grills anymore, ok, the stockpads maybe already a bit worn as sometimes my ears touch the grills with stock ones.

With all of the pads I had to adjust the headband two steps larger to fit them appropriately on my head.


SOUND ANALYSIS

Sound testing was made using the MDR-Z1R with the four variants of the dekoni elite series and sony’s own stock pads (2 years old or more as I bought my Z1R’s second hand). Alongside this I used a NW-WM1A walkman that has a 1TB Sandisk extreme micro SD.



I only listen to classical music, so the review is based with this type of music, which has been losslessly encoded from my Own CD or SACD or bought online:

• FLAC 16-bit between 44.1 and 48Khz, Hi-Res FLAC 24-Bit from 44.1 to 384Khz
• DSD

I am on the opinion that the sound of a headphone gets affected by the implementation as well by different cable materials, this is my first experience with pad rolling. I’ll do my best to try to spot a sound difference.

For this review I will be using the SensMe channels function of my Walkman (mood-based playlists crated by sony’s Mediago 12-tone analysys algorithm)

Dekoni Elite Sheepskin vs sony stock:

The sound comes off as cleaner on the dekoni sheepskin pads vs the stock Z1R pads, I heard as if the slight bassiness of the stock pads is cleared off when switching to dekonis pads, this clean sound can be heard on the Haydn Mass edition CDs 5 and 8 where Kettle drums are used to accompany the chorus and orchestra, the bass of the drums never overpowers the rest of the passages. , this may be due to the fact the stock pads are two years old and were used constantly.

Mid and highs remain almost the same, perhaps due to the perceived slight decrease in bass, it may come as slightly bright, but not an issue, I do note some slight treble sharpness, but that has been the character of the Z1R and also depends on the recording. Treble peaks are a bit noticeable on the track “Badine” from the album Louis Marchand & Nicolas Clerambaut: Pieces de clavecin (Plectra records/Davitt Moroney).

Stage and instrument separation remain rock solid as before on the Album Haydn the complete Mass edition CD 5 and CD 8 (Chandos/Collrgium Musicum 90), the choir is separated from the orchestra clearly, while also hearing the disctinct boices in the choir, stage on this album is big clearly representing the cathedral where it was recorded at.

Another great example of separation is the album Charpentier Musique Sacree (DGG – ARCHIV PRODUKTION/Musica antiqua Koln) in the track “Second air de trompettes, flutes, Violons, Hautbois et timbales H. 547” there is a clear separation of the sounds, one can hear the brass ection separated clearly from the kettle drums which are very powerful at the beginning of the track, in the middle there is a more calmly section of solo violin, flute and oboe where one can hear a cembalo.

Dekoni elite Fenetrated sheepskin

I found the sound a bit more brighter eith the fenestrated pads, but just a touch compared to the normal sheepskin pads. Bass precense is still there, still delivers a nice clean punch but the presence of bass instruments is a bit removed, a seconds version of the air de trompettes from the Album Charpentier musique sacree (DGG ARCHIV/Musica antiqua Koln) gives as if the kettle drums were equalized to sound not too present in the mix. One can hear the bang bang of the kettle drums but not the body of the bass (Mozart finales of symphonies 35 and 41 from the album Symphonies Nos 35-41 (SACD DG/Berliner philharmoniker & H.V. Karajan). Bass organ pipes seem as they don’t reach as deep one can feel this on the album Bach the four Great Toccatas and fugues (Sony classical SACD/E. Power Biggs). While one can still hear their punch, its so clean that may come as brighter sound, at times a mid-centric treble centric. The English suite No. 3 BWV 808 sounds mid and treble centered that the bass is almost non existent (ALBA records/Elina mustonen) at the same time the Harpsichord-solo concerto BWV 975 from the album Concerti arrangements (Hanssler klassik/Peter watctchhorn) the recording quality is cleared up with a nice balanced sound as the bass quantity is diminished (the flaw of this recording uncontrolled bass response due to excessive reverberation of the hall).

Mids and highs gets a boost on the fenestrated pads, some times giving the treble peak of the Z1R a boost but it is not that bothersome with the sony Kimber kable. But this decrease in bass and its consequences of mid and treble increase may be bad for bad recordings examples of this can be the Bach cantatas cycle by Helmuth Rillig on Hanssler that give the details of early cd masters and can be piercing while pushing the kettle drums further away from the song making them disconnected from the melody..

Separation and staging remains as excellent as sheepskin Fuga in C from Krebs die Sämtliche Orgelwerge (label Motette/Weinberger Bros.) you still get the sense of the room where the music was recorded at a big cathedral. The instruments are clearly separated and clearly distinguished, in this example the strings and wood winds with a Bassoon as continuo easily heard through the Symphony No. 38 Perger 30 from the album Michael Haydn Symphonies 34-39 (Johannes Goritki/CPO)

Dekoni Hybrid (Velour faces, leather sides)

The pads have a combination of leather in the sides and velour on the faces, to better clarify the pads are like a donut and the velour is the icing.

These have better bass impact and body as the other previously mentioned pads while still having a clean signature without the elevated bass of the originals but without the almost flat signature of the sheepskins. On the Track Ricercar I from the album Froberger edition volume 6 (AEOLUS/Bob van Asperen) at the end you hear the deep throbbing bass that’s is benefit of DSD recordings and large organ pipes. Revisiting Mozart symphonies Nos 35-41, this time the kettle drums have their body and great bass presence. Cellos now sound gruntier and well extended bass.

Mids and highs remain equally in the mix without being affected, voices and other instrument sound natural and effortless. Revisiting bach’s English suites album the bass is there while mids and highs are sparkly and still piercing but lessened. Switching to the album L’Orchestre du Roi Soleil (Jordi savall/Alia vox) the instruments are perfectly balanced, the drum that periodically kicks slams good and moves air while the other percussions instrument and the winds, violins remain well heard none goes missing. Piano sounds convincing with Robert schumann light hearted pieces (Complete piano works/Brilliant classics/Klara wurtz).

Separation and soundstage are preserved, mixtures of organ pipes are clearly separated as well the different sections of the orchestra. Reverb decays naturally conving (Toccata et fugue in A-moll/Mottette/Krebs- sämtliche Orgelwerke/Weinberger brothers). Rachmaninov’s Piano concerto No. 3 with Ashkenazy (DECCA SACD remaster) the piano at the beginning is clearly heard and then the horn and bass string sections slowly appear thumping and the winds instruments all clearly separated and coherent. On the last movement of this concerto, the initial orchestral strike gives a conving bass thump. Moving more into the song the complexity of the work doesn’t make the MDR-Z1R collapse all is maintained coherently even the soft flutes that appear to give dashes of music, the clarinets with a pianissimo easily heard.

Dekoni VELOUR

These share a timbre with the Hybrids where a balance and good bass impact is maintained.


The bass here, like with the hybrids retains it’s body and fullness, revisiting ricercar I from AEOLUS Froberger edition Vol. 6, at the end of the track the throbbing bass and depth is clearly felt and heard, also revisited the Pachelbel Toccata in C-Dur from CPO’s SACD recording of the complete Pachelbel organ works, here also the deep throbbing punchy bass is heard clearly while maintaining coherency of frequencies. Oh yeah that Jupiter symphony conducted by Karajan, at the final moments of last movement where the kettle drums give their shining mastery are well heard, not only a PANG PANG like on both sheepskin pads but also the characteristic rumble. Unlike stock pads which also give bass body these are cleaner and not bloated.

Mids and highs are like on the hybrid pads well maintained alongside with the bass lines, on Bachs first Brandenburg conducted by Il Florilegium (Channel classics SACD) the horns, the violins and violas are well coherently shown here, also the Harpsichord that gives these dashes if accompainiment is well heard even at moderate volumes. Switching to the 3rd and famous Brandenburg here all is shown in perfect harmony, the violins while the continuo line led by the Harpsichord is not lost when the bass viols enter the stage.

Staging and separation is equally huge as the hybrids and the other pads, this is demonstrated on Krebs Preludium et fuge in C-Dur from Mottete’s Krebs sämtliche Orgelwerke Vol. 2 the size of the cathedral is huge and it is extremely large and decay last a while.

On the symphonic works the instruments are clearly separated from each other and easily heard with the rest of the orchestra.

SUMMARY

Dekoni did a superb set of Replacement pads for the MDR-Z1R, however depending on your tastes you have between 4 options to choose from. The sheepskin pads give a more flat signature, especially the fenestrated pads while the velour gives a nice warm tonality without messing the rest of the frequencies. In a short summary the clean the bass presence natural of the stock sony pads.

Final thoughts:

I didn’t thought before that a worn set of earpads or a set that has not so much stuffing to make the pads firmer could seriously affect the SQ of a Headphone, this was proven with dekoni pads.

If I had to choose my self I would go for the velour or hybrid sets in a heartbeat because they maintain a nice bass body while giving off plenty of details without making things harsh.

From left to right the pads I prefer the most

VELOUR >= HYBRID > SHEEPSKIN > FENESTRATED SHEEPSKIN > STOCK

TL;DR

The working of all the pads, the craftsmanship is superb on all of the pads, also this applies to wearing comfort. Packaging is nice, could be more stylish, f.e the Boxes in black and a bit of gold for the Elite series IMHO.

The pads all clean the prominent bass that the stock sony pads have, but there are some caveats, the fenestrated sheepskin pads kills the bass entirely making the Z1R harsh sounding. The best balance of bass/mid/high detail clarity are the velour and Hybrid. And the Non-fenestrated sheepskin pads give a reference tonality without the harsh character of the fenestrated pads.

A little about me

I'm an audiophile but not the Graphs and number ones, more of a music lover type of audiophile who seeks the best true sound quality. My Genre of choice is Classical music from renaissance to Classism and abit of nationalism like Grieg, Dvorak.

Unboxing & Accessories
Good unboxing experience, as with the IER-Z1R, that I've already reviewed, it has plenty of accessories.

The IER-M7 Package comes in a white cardboard box with the augmented image of the product. Slide this box to reveal a Black box with the top engraved the Sony logo. The box opens up in a clamshell fashion, unlike the Z1R, it has just one "floor".




The Silicone tips come in sizes: SS, S, MS, M, ML, L and LL. The Triple comfort tips come in SS, S, MS, M, ML and L.. the tips of the M7 are black instead of white (gray for.the triple comforts)


It also comes with two cables: one 3.5mm unbalanced and a 4.4mm balanced cable. Next is a small cubic shaped case made of plastic instead of metal and leather like in the more expensive IER-Z1R. Inside this case is a short clip and a cable organizer to store the IEMs in the case. The case innards are like a soft wool finish.
Build Quality, Fit/Ergonomics, Isolation

The build of the IER-M7 is good
It is made up of lightweight yet durable glossy plastic. The nozzles are made of brass. The tip of the nozzles are covered by a filter to prevent debris getting inside and possibly damaging the drivers.

The back face.plates have no design, just plain black face.

The MMcx connectors sit flush on the body to provide a secure tight connection, as with the IER-Z1R, the M7 connectors don't spin.

The cables are plastic coated, yet they feel supple and pliable, they're not stiff or thick heavy as other cables.

Wearing comfort is great they stay put thanks to the small profile and ear hooks. The biggest issue for comfort is that with silicone tips there is a vacuum effect when removing or inserting them giving any discomfort similar to cabin pressurization on an aircraft. With triple comfort or custom tips this effects luckily disappears.



Sound Quality
They are the best full BA setup IEMs I have ever heard to date, in summary, they sound quite balanced yet a bit of fun. The BA bass has the timbre of a DD but without that decay and body.

SOURCE: Sony NW-WM1A Fw 3.01, 4.4 output w/ Lossless files ranging from 16 & 24 bit flac to DSD (some ripped with a Pioneer BDP-160)

Bass: The bass region has emphasis it digs deep but unlike a DD it decays fairly quickly removing the special.physical feeling that a DD provides. Yet I find the bass quite remarkable as it sounds like a DD from.a BA driver!

Mids: the mids are forwarder than the IER-Z1R, giving nice details to vocals. They feel natural not over boosted.

Highs: The highs are pretty well extended without being sibilant, no, they aren't recessed at all, very airy presentation with capability for details and resolution, despite this the M7 doesn't reach the level of.inner resolution of the Z1R.

Soundstage & Instrument separation: it is not huge as the IER-Z1R more small like the FiiO FA7, just above average size lacking in lateral separation.

Instruments are well-separated even in complex passages with many instruments/fast notes.

With silicone tips the sound is more neutral sounding, bass quantity decreases significantly. With triple comform tips the bass increases a bit more in the mid and upper sub bass giving them a bit of rumble, yet remaining.neutral in the rest of spectrum.

With custom tips (the custom art) the sound becomes.more vivid, bass emphasis in.all regions and better vocals giving the sensation of live monitoring.

Compared to my Previous Sony IEM, the XBA-Z5: the IER-M7 have better bass control and texture, better bass extension but with faster decay. Better mids, same soundstage size perhaps a bit smaller, Very airy treble and well extended (this was the Achilles heel of the Z5 a very rolled-off treble, every time i wanted to play a hi-res track, the Z5 wanted to give that extra detail but this tuning didn't allow them to, simply hearing this brick-wall annoyed me). The isolation and fit is clearly better ad IER-M7 has no vents

Compared to his TOTL sibling the IER-Z1R , clearly the Z1R wins in alls aspects such as bigger soundstage, more natural timbre, deeper and physical bass feeling. Other than that the M7 has nice.mifs and yeah the M7 is no slouch, let's say it is 60% of the IER-Z1R.

A more fair comparison is with the similarly equipped FiiO FA7, both are quad BA earphones. Th M7 has better tonality as the FiiO FA7 has too much mid bass that invades the rest of the spectrum. The Sony IER-M7 has more flat tonality .

The tuning of the FA7 made all sound congested and veiled with virtually no separation and smallish soundstage. The IER-M7 has better staging and separation
Doesn't sound veiled nor congested.

Summary
Very nice sounding IEMs from sony, neutral frequency with a dash of.fun to it
They offer great isolation levels and yes they're very capable n terms of resolution and detail retrieval.

It is a shame they're wrongly priced at 800€ (got them for 521€, which for.me, is a decent price) and therefore overshadowed by their siblings IER-Z1R and IER-M9

PROS
+Great bass extension and texture & control
+BA bass sounds like DD bass
+ comfortable tuning. Neutral yet musical
+Very capable.of detail retrieval
+Airy highs without being sibilant
+ZERO Hiss
+Vast array of accessories included
+Stupendous Isolation levels
+Sturdy build.

CONS
-Price
-vacuum, pressurization effects make insert/removal uncomfortable
-Require power to really shine
-Very revealing of bad recordings, bad music files (e.g. MP3 at lower than 320 kbps)
-Very dependent on tip fit

I'm an audiophile but not the Graphs and number ones, more of a music lover type of audiophile who seeks the best true sound quality. My Genre of choice is Classical music from renaissance to Classism and abit of nationalism like Grieg, Dvorak.

The Fiio FA7 come packaged on a black carton box with a sketch of the product in white, model name in white bold font on the lower left corner, on the right lower corner the Hi-res Audio logo.

On the side of the mentioned box it is a scratch-to-reveal authenticity code. At the back there is more information of the product and the logos of the other manufacturers Knowles for the BA drivers and HeyGears for the 3D printing tech used to make the FA7.


Removing the outer packaging you'll get the inner package, and the one that contains the FA7 and its accessories. There's nothing worthy to mention there as it is just a black box, only at the front is the FiiO logo. Opening like a book cover you'll get presented with the FA7 on a foam cut out.



Below the cut out, there is an assortment of tips, a small pouch containing a cleaning brush and a magnetic cable organizer. Finally there is instructions and a pelican hard-translucent plastic case.


The tips include the normal silicone foam with the M size already installed in the FA7, the silicone come in S,M and L, they're called balanced ear tips, asidenit comes with just M sized double flange tips.

The foam tips, which resemble comply foamies, come also in S, M and L

Next we have Bass and vocal tips which also come on S, M and L sizes.


The iem comes with a standard 3.5mm stereo unbalanced plug and silver cable in MMCX connector.

The build quality of the ear pieces is just stunning, perfectly smooth and seem durable to me. It is not.plastic but a German resin of.medical grade properties. Additionally the shells are made with a 3D printer to.ensure homogeneous production.

Absolutely love the transparent shells that enable to view the internals. I chose the blue and red faceplates with abstract finish, looks classy and sometimes it reflects light in a cool way.

At below the mmcx receptacle, there are L and R markings aside the left shell is blue and the right red.

The cable is nice, made up of high purity silver according to fiio, it terminates in angled L 3.5mm unbalanced stereo. The isolation of the cable is transparent enabling you to see the wires. At the mmcx connector there is a pre-shaped ear hanger /hook
Which is pretty stiff and difficult.to.mold unlike the hooks of the sony IER-Z1R which they are smooth and supple. In general the cable feels stiffer than that of the IER-Z1R.


Wearing comfort is superb, better than the IER-Z1R, no pain here, no bulky feeling
Insertion goes deeper but I can feel vacuum seal a bit uncomfortable at times.

Isolation is simply top nicht, better than IER-Z1R (vented, the FA7 is totally closed off).

My gear is a sony walkman NW-WM1A unmodded with 6500 playback hours since its purchase in 2016.
Additional HP I have a full size headphone the sony MDR-Z1R and another in-ear also sony, the IER-Z1R.

My music is only classical musical in lossless quality ranging from FLAC 16/44.1 to DSD 11.24896 MHz. I have no mp3 or aac and I dont support proprietary formats like. MQA which is really lossy/lossless hybrid alien.

In short summary the signature of the FA7 is tuned to the midbass and lower mid emphasis , giving it a warm but veiled signature with an intimate soundstage.

For the use I'll be giving to the FA7, commute in public transport (Germany) I won't be whining and crying that they must sound like the summit-fi IER-Z1R.

Stock sound analysis: medium sized balanced tips, SE stock cable.

BASS: the bass dominates the signaturex especially the mid bass giving it a hollow sound signature, too much bass makes string quartets sound too woody and grungy (Beethoven string quartets - ABQ - EMI - 16 /44.1 --- Bach Goldber variations- Canerata RCO - challenge records - DSD 11.2MHz) veiling the violin and viola. Orchestral music sound too bassy and reverberate it reminds me of this MEGABASS from early sony discmans (mozart Youth symphonies -
Pentatone /Phillips - sir Neville Marriner - DSD 2.8MHz & Zelenka the orchestral works - CPO - FLAC 16/44.1) overall presentation of large orchestral works.feels cramped.

Mids: while these sound lush they are marred by the bass bleed giving a lack fo resolution female and Male vocals can sound too in your face and shouty (Tallis the complete works - brilliant classic - flac 16/44).

Highs: they lack sparkle and excitement , at least they aren't shrilly, but can't.make up to the hi-res standard , the micro detailing is there but one must Equalize it. (Cesar Frank organ works , Audite, DSD 2.8MHZ , also in DSD64 Bach the four great toccatas and fugues - sony / Columbia records , E. Power Biggs)

Tip rolling sound analisys.

The double flange sounds like the stock tips but a bit more distant in sound. Bass in the subbass gets.more presence,, still hollow sounding.

Foam tips,.one of the best I think,.gives a nice subbass punch and add.more clarity to highs, stage is reduced some how sounding small.

Bass tips, the worst for the FA7. It only increases the veil the FA7 possesses, treble and mid energy get reduced and all detail and micro resolution is lost. Giving them a pretty bassy signature akin to having clogged ears with air /water .

Vocal tips: remove some.of the veil and midbass giving a bump in details and resolution, still sound a bit hollow tho, but they have more bass control and less flabby bass sound, more punchy.

Sony IER-Z1R Triple comfort tips: these new sony tips are an hybrid between silicone and foamies

They increase the bassiness and make the FA7 sound muddy but less shouty, like the fiio bass tips the FA7 on the sony TC tips sounds muffled.

Sony IER-Z1R silicone tips;

The sound improves even better than the vocal tips by fiio , the midbass is reduced, controlling the bass, but there is more midrange, especially lower mid accentuating a bit the hollowness at times, but overall clarity is improved, stage increases a bit they want to sound big like the IER-Z1R but still intimate.

I dont want to.make a comparison with the IER-Z1R, different price ranges and sound signature, feel it will be unfair. So will just give a short summary : the IER-Z1R has.more micro detailing, sprkliwr highs and organic mids, bass is more on the subbass but more controlled and physical feeling to it. The stage in the Z1R is also gargantuan , colossal , they have a stage like speakers or open cans.

FA7 is darker veiled and the sony IER-Z1R is more natural , lush organic sounding, even it comes as bass light after hearing the FA7 for a while.

But the FA7 are undoubltly great commute IEMs when you want isolation, sont care about sound because train or road noise.

Pros
* Great build quality
* isolation is top notch
* wearing comfort
* accessories, (sony really baffled me there with no cleaning tool for the Z1R)
* sound good when properly EQ
* stylish and cool looking.

Cons
* Bassy and hollow signature, making it veiled and not so resolving.
* intimate soundstage
* prone to tip rolling and perhaps cable rolling.
* stiff cable materials
* no included balanced cable. (Sony does include a 4.4mm in the cheaper options)
* must equalize to sound good
* performance not up to the price

I'm an audiophile but not the Graphs and number ones, more of a music lover type of audiophile who seeks the best true sound quality. My Genre of choice is Classical music from renaissance to Classism and abit of nationalism like Grieg, Dvorak.


In a few words: Simply the best ever Unboxing experience i ever had on an IEM product.

The IER-Z1R Package comes in a white cardboard box with the augmentated image of the product. Slide this box to reveal a Black box with the top engraved the sony logo, the top and front faces of the black box flap open with a magnet. Inside, the package is arranged in a drawer fashion.

On the top most part of the drawer-packaging is a small black-box, resembling a jewelery box, this tiny box is the carrying case, the top of it is made of brushed aluminum with the sony logo embossed, the rest is wrapped in what appears to be leather, perhaps Pleather, it is held shut by a rather weak magnet,

Opening the carrying case reveals the Earpieces, below the earpieces there is a cable-holder, a shirt clip and a cleaning cloth which i found a bit rough and hard, prefer to use the one i use to clean my eyeglasses. The interior of the case is covered in some sort of veñvet.

Moving on to the drawers these contain on each drawer one accessory, in total three drawers. One contains a 3.5mm SE cable, the other a 4.4mm Balanced Cable and the third one a vast assortment of tips in two flavours: Silicone tips and "Triple comfort" Tips (a mix of silicone with Foam).

Both cables feel supple and very flexible, they have a very nice silvery color and it seems like if they have scales like in fish, They have a silk threading for isolation, according to sony they are OFC silver-plated.

The Silicone tips come in sizes: SS, S, MS, M, ML, L and LL. The Triple comfort tips come in SS, S, MS, M, ML and L.



The Build quality is exceptional, sony claims to be made of a Zirconium alloy and CNC-Machined.
They do feel pretty sturdy and each shell is pretty heavy but thanks to the new fit (Finally sony got rid of this EX and XBA fitting and adopted a more standard fitting) and cable ear-hooks the weight is distributed evenly and they don't shift. They look beautiful silver shells in mirror finish (think of ipod classic back), on each piece they have engraved in black printing the model "IER-Z1R" and JAPAN on the stem they have the SONY logo. On the base of the stem they have R and L markings, next to these markings there appears to be a vent. The MMCX is a bit recessed. The back face of the shells is extremely beautiful, looks like circular brush pattern resembling that of the scales on a fish. The nozzles are not long, on the bore there is an acoustic absorber and filter to avoid wax/debris getting inside the IEM.

The MMCX connector feels pretty sturdy, very firm, no wobble (the problem of the XBA-Z5 MMCX), feels as solid as the MMCX of the XBA-H3 which i owned in the past.

Each shell inside has three drivers, all of them developed by sony in-house. a 12 mm Dynamic similar to that of the MDR-Z1R with an magnesium dome and LCP diaphragm, a BA with new silver wires and gold connectors. And a 5 mm LCP Dynamic driver. The housing also has a magnesium-frame and a acoustic tube system for handling the sound stage.

The fit for me was a bit tricky and painful the first weeks, then after my ears got used to it and after I figured out how to properly insert them, they are the most comfortable IEMs. What i do to insert them is to first push them into my ears without inserting them fully, then, after i continue to insert them i rotate them clock-wise and at the same time i push them deeper into my canals, thus achieving the fit i desire.

Isolation is damn, damn good, despite being vented, i've tried them in the house with the TV being loud, i can not hear a word. On the S- and U-Bahn (German Underground and suburban rail) there is a nice amount of isolation, but they like to pick up lower-frequency sounds like the noise from the train on the tracks and occasionally the announcements. On the Bus same as the "Bahn" (rail) nice isolation to shut up the crowd


They are the best IEMs I have ever heard to date, in summary, they sound like the bigger MDR-Z1R. They have no trouble spitting details and resolution, they have the most natural sound for an Hybrid IEM.

SOURCE: Sony NW-WM1A Fw 3.01, 4.4 output w/ Lossless files ranging from 16 & 24 bit flac to DSD (some ripped with a Pioneer BDP-160)

Bass: The bass region has emphasis in the Subbass, therefore, it reaches deep and very low notes can be heard, rumbles nice and has a very well defined texture, the mid bass is very well balanced, there is no bloat and no bleed into the Mids. The lowest of notes can be heard with these as well with the MDR-Z1R (Froberger edition Volume 6. AEOLUS /Bob van Asperen DSD 2.8MHz, Bach: The four great Toccatas and Fugues, SONY Classical / E. Power biggs DSD 2.8 MHz & Dittersdorf & Vanhal: Double bass Concertos. Hyperion records UK, Swedish Chamber orchestra, 16/44.1 FLAC).

Mids: perhaps a bit recessed, this can be attributed to the lack of power of sources. But they soubd pretty fine for me natural, voices have a very nice presentation Mozart Le Nozze di figaro Phillips Mozart edition (2006 REISSUE) FLAC 16/44.1, violin and pianos, in general instrumental music have a nice presentation, very accurate and natural Beethoven piano sonatas DECCA V. Ashkenazi FLAC 16/44.1, Charpentier Music for the Chappel of versailles, ALIA VOX/J. Savall (DSD 2.8MHz). Flutes don't sound shouty or aggressive at all, the same for female voices in operistic passages, (Mitridate Re di ponto Mozart Phillips edition, FLAC 16/44.1).

Highs: The highs are pretty well extended without being sibilant, no, they aren't recessed at all, very airy presentation with tons of details and resolution in both Macro and micro-details. Mozart Symphonies 35-41, HV. Karajan, DG, FLAC 16/44.1. J.L Krebs Complete works for Organ (11 volume, 16/44.1 FLAC, Felix Friedrich label Querstand). Mozart Flute Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, DG, Orpheus Chamber orchestra 16/44.1. The XBA-Z5 had pretty recessed treble, thus contributing to it's dark signature.

Soundstage & Instrument separation: Probably the biggest soundstage in an IEM I've ever heard, surpassing that of the XBA-Z5 and equating that of the MDR-Z1R/HD800S, pretty inmersive experience, same for instrument separation, each instrument is present as a single entity with it's own air arround it. Notes come from every where, basically you're gunned down with notes from every where wow, as like listening to a pair of professional floor standing speakers. (Krebs- Organ works. Weinberger brothers, label Motette 16/44.1. Striggio mass for 40 and 60 voices, Hervé Noquet, Glossa, DSD 2.8MHz. Bach the six partiten, Martin Gester, Ligia, FLAC 24/88.2).

One note: This baffled me as i never found a difference between tips with other IEMs, well, the IER-Z1R is my first IEM, that changes sound depending on fit (shallow vs deep) and tips (Triple comfort, vs Silicone vs Comply foamies).

Deeper insertion provides the best bass, while shallower insertion provides the biggest staging. Triple comfort tips provide a more emphasis on the lower end, the silicones being the most neutral, perhaps removing some bass, but i found that silicone tips provide a very nice isolation, better than TC tips. Comply foams are not a match with these IEMs, they mute the treble and affect the signature, making them less revealing and more darker sounding.



Compared to my Previous sony IEM, the XBA-Z5: the IER-Z1R have better bass control and texture, better bass extension. Better mids, despite the recession, bigger soundstage, Very airy treble and well extended (this was the achiles heel of the Z5 a very rolled-off treble, every time i wanted to play a hi-res track, the Z5 wanted to give that extra detail but this tuning didn't allow them to, simply hearing this brick-wall annoyed me). The isolation and fit is clearly better as for the build too, luckily the IER-Z1R don't have any paint job to discolor after years of use.

Compared to the MDR-Z1R, this seems absurd at first, to compare an IEM to a can, but woah, they share the same sound tuning and characteristics, big stage outside your head close to open-back Headphones. Very organic sound close to a speaker setup. Sincerely after of abbandoning my MDR-Z1R for burning the IER-Z1R in, I was expecting a difference in sound, perhaps being disappointed by the MDR-Z1R? No, I noted NO DIFFERENCE in signature AT ALL.

Very detailed IEMs a worthy TOTL from Sony, performing close to speaker setups and open cans. No trouble switching between MDR- und IER-Z1R.

PROS
+Great bass extension and texture & control
+Natural timbre
+ Gargantuan soundstage
+Very resolving while staying true to the recording.
+Airy highs without being sibilant
+ZERO Hiss
+Vast array of accessories included
+Stupendous Isolation levels
+Sturdy build.

CONS
-Price
-Shells on the big n' heavy side
-Tricky to get used to fit
-Require power to really shine
- You may get weird looks at public transport/The street
-Very revealing of bad recordings, bad music files (e.g. MP3 at lower than 320 kbps)
-Very dependant on tip fit

I'm an audiophile but not the Graphs and number ones, more of a music lover type of audiophile who seeks the best true sound quality. My Genre of choice is Classical music from renaissance to Classism and abit of nationalism like Grieg, Dvorak.

The headphones come on a pretty big box, let's call this the retail box, typical cardboard box, white background with a large picture of the product to show details. Inside that Colossal box comes another giant box, though, smaller than the retail box. This is the Storage case.

The storage case itself is made of Wood, mostly i think plywood or some other type of composite wood, nevertheless is still heavy at 2-3KG, The case is covered in leather (or pleather) including the hinges! on the top there is the Sony logo embossed into the leather. one of the sides has a magnetic latch with the words MDR-Z1R on it.
Opening it reveals the headphones sitting on velour-like material, on the right there is a small rectangular compartment for storing the cables. On the Lid there is a small bag, perhaps for more cables, but there si the usage instructions. In my Opinioin, this is by far one of the best headphone cases i've ever witnessed.

Among the accessories there is the normal 3.5mm SE stereo cable Sony original, a 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapter which is gold plated. Additionally made by @Purk it included a 3.5mm TRRS excellent-DIY made cable, as well an excellent DIY 4.4mm to 4-pin XLR to connect f.e a Walkman with 4.4mm to an analogue balanced input from an amplifier.



The build quality is top notch, all metal and real leather earpads and headband material. The exterior part of the cups is made from a mesh of woven stainless steel covered in chromium. After this layer then comes a paper filter to absorb resonances made from Canadian wood pulp using japanese paper methods, then the housing of the driver made of plastic.

The driver is a mammoth 70mm Aluminum covered liquid crystal polymer (LCP) with a magnesium dome. It self the driver had a new magnet which is developed by sony.

The drive is protected by a cloth mes and a beautiful fibonnaci-sequence patterned grille, it actually looks like nice flower petalals. The side of the head band has nice numbered slotted positioning to adjust the headband to your head. At the top of each cup near the edge there is bass port, so i consider there headphones semi-open (perhaps 1/4th open?).

The comfort is very nice, no sense of pressure or cramping arrounf your head/ears, very nice cushioning, the pads feel very comfy, like pillows.

They do fit pretty well arround my ears, and the do block some noise very well, including they muffle better the blast from the passing train's horn (at the office where i work there is a railway line) than the XBA-Z5 In ears.. I do get less sweaty than with the MDR-Z7.
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The sound they produce is akin to being there live at the concert hall or like listening to a big pair of speakers, they feature a warm sound signature not fit for every one's likings. They have powerful bass that goes deep and low. They are pretty immersive cans and pretty clean sounding. Their clarity comes due to the lack of resonances on the cups thanks to that paper filter explained above.

Bass: The bass prominence is even more thna that of the MDR-Z7, but no with the bommy mess the Z7 (i'm talking about the MDR-Z7 MK 1) are. The bass on these does not bleed into the mids and for my tastes it is not that too much as other say.
The bass goes damn deep that you can hear the deepest note on a church organ with such clarity even on lower volumes and it does tingles and massages your ears (you can feel the bass vibrations) a thing that never happened with the MDR-Z7 unless you cranked to ear-splitting volumes (due to resonances on the MDR-Z7 cups). Bass has texture and resolution, midbass is not bloated as it is on the Z7, despite sharing signature. Double bass string thump is very well rendered and felt, as do the cello rumble and grunge sound of it. Bass and tenor voices sound equally mesmerizing and low such typical hoarsely voice of very deep bass singers. Drum kicks and kettle drums are well represented with a nice satisfying slam and BANG sound to them. with nice dissipation and deccay times.

Mids: The mids in the Z1R are fowaarder than those of the MDR-Z7, therefore the more detailed nature of the headphone. String sections are well rendered, voices sound sparkly and lively with some recordings such as Froberger edition of AEOLUS you can even hear the musician slide the keyboards of the Harpsichord used, the plucks of the Lute strings on the Naxos Sylvius Weiss suites for Lute sound so realistic. Sopranos sound livery and well rendered. Decay of the notes is very well rendered, you can hear a string being released and it continues to vibrate until it fully stops.

Treble: The treble in this headphone is a bit weird as it has a dip on the 4-5KHz region but goes sharply up thru the 10Khz regions, due to this, sometimes I get a zing but it is not annoying nor harsh, is just okay, reminds me of the sparkly XBA-A3 highs. High pitched notes from piccolos, sounds sparkly, as do well female voices very smoothly and fluid. Sparkly harpsichord harmonics. The Mozart's glass harmonica pieces are just a prime example of sparkly zingy highs as this instrument features bowls of different sizes or wine glasses filled with water, where wet fingers are slid thus creating some screechy nature to them with a zing in the upper frequencies. Violin sounds very authoritative and well presented.. You can hear the most minuscule sounds. and microdetails.

Staging and separation: Staging is pretty wide, notes come from everywhere, very enveloping and immersive. They are the most open closed headphones i've ever tried, even the stageis bigger than that of the MDR-Z7
Separation is excellent too, you can pin point different instruments in the orchestra. The instruments have plenty of air arround them. The headphones don't lose coherence when playing very complex passages like a full chorus with brass section and violins (Claudio monteverdi Selva morale espirituale/Gabriel garrido Enselble elyma).
The 4 organs of the Freiburg cathedral are well pinpointed and localized that you can hear all of them in concert or as separate entities and you can pin point where the sound comes from. (E. power biggs The four great toccatas and fugues.)

A very big thank you note to @Purk for the nice deal i got them and for the extras included such as the 3.5mm TRRS and 4.4mm to XLR adaptor

Very clean sounding pair of headphones with a gargantuan stage giving you that live or speaker-like experience. They have very nice bass extension without intruding the mids. Very nice mids and sprakly highs that give the most minute nuances of music asw ell nice macro details. They remain coeherent even in complex passages.

All testing was done with WM1A walkman with 4.4mm and 3.5mm TRRS.
The test tracks:
Claudio Monteverdi Selva morale e spirituale/Enemble elyma & Gabriel Garrido 16/44.1 FLAC
Alessandro striggio mass for 40 & 60 Voices/Herve Niquet, le concert spirituel 24/88.2 FLAC
Bach, Famous works for pedal harpsichord/Luc Beausejour 24/88.2 FLAC
Bach: the four great toccatas and fugues / E. Power Biggs DSD 2.8824MHz
Handel: Concerti Grossi Op. 6 / Academy of Anceint Music DSD 2.8824 MHz
Telemann: Violin sonatas/ Arsenale sonoro 24/96 FLAC
J. Haydn: six sonatas for Violin and viola/ Anton Steck & Christian Goosses 16/44.1 FLAC
Thomas tallis Spem in Alium / La chapelle du roi 16/44.1
Monteverdi at corsica: La venexiana Live/ La Venexiana 16/44.1
Mozart symphonies nos. 35-41/H.V. Karajan 16/44.1
Beethoven 9th symphony/H.V karajan 16/44.1
Vivaldi Concerti per Archi III e concerti per viola d'amore/Accademia Bizantina 24/88.2 FLAC
Albinoni concerti Op. 10 ( a)I solisti veneti/Claudio scimone 16/44.1 b)Harmonices Mundi, Claudio astronio DSD 2.8824 MHz)

A little about me​

​

I'm an audiophile but not the Graphs and number ones, more of a music lover type of audiophile who seeks the best true sound quality. My Genre of choice is Classical music from renaissance to Classism and abit of nationalism like Grieg, Dvorak.


The box is simple cardboard box White with an amplified product Image, removing the outer cardboard you get a Black jewe-like box with the SONY Logo embossed in silver painting. The usual-Bling bling factor of the Black cloth used in previous Boxes was replaced by a meh! Foamie mold to hold the WM1A in place.

This time sony skimped in accessories only including tons of papers such as warranty card, contact info and a basic user manual, and the USB cable for charging and Data transfer. not much to say here, I wish they had at least included a screen protector or a silicone case.



The build quality it self is The best i have ever seen in a DAP after the NWZ-A818 back in 2007. A single block of aluminum CNC'ed, there is no seams, all aluminum chassis. The top where the Headphone jacks are located the finish is smooth aluminum and the rest downards is finely "scratched" finish. The front of the DAP has the screen which for me is fine (don't care for an HD display on a DAP intended just for music), covered in glass, the W logo is now protected by the glass it self. The back has a Genuine leather grip and the W logo has a Golden finish adding a nice touch. The bottom we have the charging and data transfer port AKA WM-port and the micro Sd card slot cover and a strap hole. On Top we have two Headphone jacks, one 3.5mm Single-end and TRRS separate grounds and the other is the balanced output Jack of 4.4mm a new JEITA std. Left side we have just the Hold switch to lock the operation of the player. and finally on the right we have a set of playback Buttons and the power button which click nicely.

The WM1A is the heaviest DAP i've had at 267g is hefty but actuaññy feel the quality sony did put into the product.











The UI of the WM1A changed from the legacy sony OS found in the ZX100 and older walkman models. The UI is more simpler and intuitive to use, as it has less menus. the Main screen is no longer a Home screen with icons of diverse functions found in older walkmen such as: Radio, Picture, Music, Movies etc. Now, the WM1A has as "home" screen the Now-playing screen and other screens are revealed in a cross-swipe pattern on the touch panel.

A) Library screen: Swipe downwards (top to bottom) and you have the library screen which has additional two pages which have all the Catehroies plus new ones.




Traditional categories found in older and new Sony OS

1. All Songs
2. Album
3. Artist
4. Release Year
5. Genre
6. Playlists
7. Hi-Res (for filtering hi-res audio content)
8. Folder
9. Sensme Channels (previously in old sony OS this was a separate "app")

New additions

1. Recent Transfers
2. Composer

B) Line-Up screen (aka tracks listing): swipe to the Left (Right to left) and you get the tracks of the current selection so you can quickly select a track, kind like ipods did in cover flow presented a track list from the selected álbum. Here you can add a track to a bookmark or a playlist



C) Bookmarks (on-the-go playlists): swipe to the right (left to right) and you get 10 book marks with up to 500 songs each, here you can manage them such as reordering songs, deleting individual songs from the lists or clearing them entirely.





D) Audio effects screen: Swipe towards the top (bottom to top): you get the DSPs screen: Disale the source direct switch toggle and you can use the following DSPS

1. EQ or Tone control (selectable from settings menú): EQ now has 10 bands and has a -10 to +10 db steps in 0.5db increments for finer tuning. The tone control is a simplified EQ with three base frequencies BASS, MIDDLE and TREVLE from -10 to +10db in 1db increment /decrement. It is very responsive EQ the best to date on a walkman
2. DSEE HX: sony Upscaling technology (32-bit 384KHz) and now has 5 modes to smooth the upscaling (female, male , percussion, stabdard and Strings)
3. DC Phase linearizer: According to sony it mimics the phase shift displayed by traditional analogue amplifier. It has 6 modes (High/standard/low A & High/standard/low B), ppersonally toghetehr with the DSEE nad this one i haven´t Heard a difference
4. Dynamic Normalizer: sony's response to replay gain and iPod sound-check. Found it makes music sound LOUDER.

The SOURCE DIRECT is a quick ON/OFF toggle to disable or enable DSPs. DSPS will literally "eat" the battery (last less)




The main screen, features a nice design, three big rounded buttons for FF, REW and play/pause, progress display, códec with bit-depth and simple rate. Volume bar (touching the volumen bar displays a volumen pop-up with a big nice old-school volumen knob and +/- buttons to fine tune).

The music área displays the song title in big whiet letters nice for blind people like me, Artists (now also featuring álbum artista or Artist) and álbum name.

Also the new OS has three display modes accesible from the settings menú

• STANDARD: Cover art (jpg)
• SPECTRUM ANALYZER
• ANALOGUE METER: two analogue needles to measure loudness on each cannel LEFT and RIGHT

.






My Listening was made with MDR-Z7 and XBA-Z5 both on SE, using classical music as usual for me .

New Features

1. Dual Gain (for both SE and BALANCED) H and standard gain
2. L/R balance that actaully Works to balance off-centered records. Values from -3db (L) to +3db (R) in 0.5db increment
3. Native DSD play back (in BAL only in SE is converted to PCM)
4. Improved volumen steps 120 total steps vs 30 of old sony OS
5. Improved EQ bands and responsiveness (31, 62, 125, 250, 500Hz, 1K, 2K, 4K, 8K & 16K)
6. Ability to save three different sound "profiles" with diverse combinations with the DSPs mentioned above
7. Increased power output in SE 60mW per cannel and in BAL 250mw per cannel both @16ohm

OVERALL SOUND SIGNATURE: Smooth and Lush with great detail retrieval, very very Organic and realistc sound, instruments come to life and i get soemthing i never got even from the zx100: ability to feel the emotions conved by the musicians. Clean signal across all the frequency spectrum. Not neutral but close to it with s nice warmth added to it.

BASS: well controlled and kicks Deep and rumbles when necessary, the bass of the WM1 has actually a presence in the body of the music unlike the previous zx100 tended to lack bass body. Cellos sounds so realistic, organs, especially the chamber organs kick some serious bass that rumbles and tickles. The WM1A bass is clean, resonant, rumbly not at all boomy, doesn't leak to the other frequencies. You can feel the vibrations of the bass instruments. My Z7 big drivers got to work here , perhaps it makes the XBA-Z5 a bit bassy but well controlled as well.

MIDS: The mids are lush, delicate. They contribute to the airiness of the music, Flutes don't shout, female vocals and male singers sound great and natural, violins, violas, piano, show their air on each instrument, Theres no sign or distorting, nor splashy mids. perhaps a bit recessed but not that much to sound dark. Coherent with the highs and lows don't feel detachment

HIGHS: Wow Terrific highs! not Harsh at all, well controlled highs and still capable of micro and macro details, aiiry and delicate highs. Now the Harpsichord becomes tolerable without the harshness associated with this bright instrument as well Organ register with much brightness like principal become bearable. They contrinute to the space, airiness of the player and realism it has to the sounds. Reverb tails deccay with such a NATURAL REALISM slowly and slowly fading away.

INSTRUMENT SEPARATION: Simply WOOOOW The best i have Heard to date, well pin-pointed locations and nice distributed in the sound field space. All instruments have their Air, even in complex orchestral Works it is caple of rendering instrumnets well and CLEAR even if they are played in a pianisssisiimo . You get the natural, YES NATURAL charcter fo the instruments, you can feel the instrumnest come to life and display their inner resonances and air.

SOUNDSTAGE: Huge the biggest and accurate sounstage depending on the recording, I can actually feel the size of the room the music was recorded at, be a catedral, a small studio fro mozart's time, a studio or a concert hall. I can Pin point from where is the sound coming f.e a Cathedral organ i can actaully feel it is coming in front of me from a very distant or back in a similar fashion. WM1A display the soundstage only if the recording has it.

I could describe the stage as spehrical 3D , enveloping you from everywhere, notes come from everywhere like a real presentation I am so woed by this Little bugger.

BALANNCED (1/JUNE/2017)

The Blanaced circuit is more porwerful and uses the more robust 4.4mm output.

Battery life seems the same as with Single-ended circuit.

To let you know you are using the balanced connection it display a small Brown rectangle wit the Word BALANCED in the Upper left corner


Equipment used for this update in the review, same MDR-Z7 with 4.4mm to dual 3.5mm TRS adapter made by @Whitigir and now i got a MDR-Z1R balanced cable for my Z7s

The same 4.4mm to 3.5mm dual TRS is used for the XBA.Z5


The SOUND QUALITY OF BALANCED is very well presented, it has better detail and microdetailing than the single ended circuit, separation and layering is also superior. more enveloping stage and bigger in depth and width.

BASS: The bass hits deeper and is tighter and more controlled, before burn-in the bass was very light and was a bit dissappointed, but after 500 hours the bass is nice and runbly.

MIDS: The mids are nicely spread on both Z7 and Z5, but Z7 gets a bit more mids with the MDR-Z1R 4.4mm cable, more stage and details than the std cables., the components of vocals, female vocals is so nice represeted as well strings music. Reverb is accurately represented, very natural deccay.

HIGHS: with highs you get a nicely detailed DAP with lots of background details going unnoticed on older players, even for 16/44.1 FLAC files, reverb decay, microdetailings of harmonics and background instruments/details just wow. Harmonics of violin strings on a reververous room wow just wow. threw a Liszt live recording and the coughs amazed me how natural they sounded (irony).

Separation/Stage: very accurate room feeling, very 3D stage wow, separation between instruments is also better than single ended, you can distinguish the sections of an orchestra very well, the Basson over the strings in the vivaldi basson concertos of the Naive edition.

Older recordings do shine i've got rid of some "bathrrom-recorded" feeling from some recordings, CD quality flacs also shine adnd gets better with Hi-res music, all formats i threw (only CD quality and studio masters) sounded pretty natural that amases me and causes me the chills.

Final toughts. REAL SOUND AS IT WAS RECORDED with airy soundstage, notes come from every where, able to display instruments feelings and inner resolution of each instrument THIS WITH 16/44.1 FLACs! and in SE... This means thah Bad records will sound Bad and good ones will SHINE BALANCED Makes everything better more realistic SQ, more powerful as well


PROS
+ LIFE-LIKE sound quality
+ stellar battery life with FLAC (16/44.1KHz)
+ Easy to use interface
+ 256GB microSD support!
+ Responsive EQ and L/R balance
+ Composer View at least
+ H gain option, 120 steps in volumen
+ Improved USB transfer speeds 25MB/s
+Powerful OUTPUT for botn SE (60mw) and BALANCED (250mw)
+GREAT SQ from BALANCED, makes older recordings shine and makes you question the real value-added of so called "hi-res" music over standard CD quality flacs

CONS
- Software a bit Buggy Random rebooting at times, lags Fixed as of Feb 21 2017
- DSD native only in BALANCED
- Lack of a basic screen protector by Sony and overall lack of accessories

+/- using the SD with the SD adapter in the USB 3.0 Slot because the sony is a bit slow
+/- Slow Boot times

 

A little about me​

 ​

I'm an audiophile but not the Graphs and number ones, more of a music lover type of audiophile who seeks the best true sound quality. My Genre of choice is Classical music from renaissance to Classism and abit of nationalism like Grieg, Dvorak.
 
 

Unboxing & Accessories​

​

 ​

The Z7 come in the now-usual sony double "layered" box, a Huge white cardboard showing the product amplified photo, some specs in the back (marketing

). removing the cardboard revelas a Lux black box with the SONY logo in the middle, open that box and the Z7s greet you. kind like a jewel box,  covered in black soft silky cloth to give that BLING
BLING factor.
 
They come with two pairs of cables, a Starbdard Single-end and a Balanced dual-3.5mm cable and a 6.3mm to 3.5mm adapter nothing more
 
​
 

Build Quality, Fit/Ergonomics​

​

 ​

The Build of these is superb, they are metal encased,  they feel cold to the touch and in my ears for a while, they seem to be very robust made, anyways i won't be dropping them just because they are metal.
 
The fit very confortable covering my entire ear, The créate a tiny bit of pressure but that is more than okay. I find the cables are way too long, even for home use. Te cables are the best i have seen. The pads are thick plush made of the real thing and not pleather, just in summer you can get sweaty with these (yeah is Winter at the time of review but have already seen 34°C)
 
 The headband is made of metal all is metal made and they feel very robust

 

 

 
They feature removable cables, the mechanism has a screwing lock mechanism which looks great and is gold plated, plus the extender to fit your head has nice markings from 1 to 10 and it is slotted, it clicks nice
 


 

Sound Quality​

​

 ​

In one word how i would describe these MARVELOUS, I love the big sound the output for a "closed" can. They are vented or semi-open that means you can hear most sounds from outside, even me typing this review but muffled, my Neighbor's dogs barking. I like the trade-off of open design and the BIG soundstage they give.
 
My gear used for them:  Sony Walkman WM1A and sony Xperia XA and Sont VAIO fit 14A and a Dell Latitude, this time tested with  16/44.1K Fand 24/44.1 ~ 96K FLAC files
 
BASS: the bass on these  has a presence but i am not saying Boomy or always present, it's the kind of warmth I like, well textured and controlled bass, kicks hard and very deep, I don't see any signs of mid-bass bloat, in fact i feel the bass of Z7 well controlled and smooth.
 
Cellos sound very natural the charcteristic of the grunt and runble of the deep bass is represnet as if you lsitened to the real thing for real, Yo-yo Ma's rendition of Bach 6 cello suites (1983, colubia records CD remaster) is very wonderful expression of the instrument, goes very deep. With Organ works is just equally phantastic, as it rumbles very nice deep that sometimes i get this tickling sensation on my ears needing a scratch . Same for Harpsichord, pianos, string or wind quintest/quartets/trios etc gives the authority to the bass instruments and tonal body of the works.
 
What impress me is that Z7, despite having this big bass, it renders the Kettle drums with a crsipy BANG, not the usualy BOOOM BOOOM you get with other IEM or headphones, bach Brandenburgs, in these the kettles a nice crispy bang and does not smear on quick drum rolling, stays authoritative. Chamber organs display a deepest bass i have ever Heard wow, Locatelli trio sonatas
 
MIDS. The mids on these are well presented perhaps slightly recessed but not that much, they give the sense of airiness, there is no signs of Mids-dstorting, there is no sharpness nor shouty. Violins, violas, female vocals are well represented, very organic and natural No signs of bass leaking, very coherent, yet detailed headphone but not to the extreme of super revealing. This contributes to the musical nature of these.
 
HIGHS:  The highs in these are very sweet, non-fatiguing, recessed yes but at the same time they don't let details escape. Harpsichord and organs are troublesome with such a high extension in some headphones like *cough* MDR-1R *COUGH* way too Sharp that i had ringing ears, with Z7 i can listen for hours and i don't get faitigued at all
 
SOUNDSTAGE & SEPARATION: WOW jus WOW a LIVE-LIKE EXPERENCE yes!! LIVE EXPERIENCE, a sound I never heard from any HP, not even the Ultrasone HFI 780, soundstage is BIG and airy (depends on setting not the same stage from a concert hall and a small studio room). Separatio is also very precise, i can distinguish many instruments  and pinpoint them, can distinguish a cello from a Viola, a cor-anglis from an oboe and  the inaudible instrumnets (Harpsichors, Bassoon) come to life in the satge. Symphonic works, large choral wokrs (think thomas tallis Spem in alium) rendered with greatness and nothing gest blurred smeary all sections of an orchestra well rendered, strings and flutes & brass even when being played at pianissimo levels
 
The staging is so damn 3D that i get this enveloping effect in both ears very well, te most 3D-sounding HP i have ever heard that it has removed my itch of getting a custom multi-driver speaker-setup
 
For the price range i got them THEY ARE A  BARGAIN they compete easy with $1K or more HPs, in summary, very controlled bass that adds musicality, airy mids and highs that contribute to the HUGE Soundstage and 3Dness, overall they are great for classical, fairy smooth and nothing stands out
 
Their signature is like an oversized XBA-Z5 but wiht less bass forcé, both are equally good SONY audio products
 

A Comparisons with other IEMs & devices i have owned​

​

 ​

XBA-Z5 VS MDR-Z7: They have the same signature, same driver technology except that z5 is an hybrid of BA and DD and Z7 are 70mm DD only, both have THAT SOUNDSTAGE, perhaps Z5, has a slightly bigger soundstage than Z7.
 
MDR-Z7 VS XBA-A3: Z7s are more smooth sounding with zero treble zing, no verdone treble on Z7 compared to the boosted trebles of the XBA-A3, bass on Z7 is more controlled down and not as prominent as the A3, the A3 are more V-shaped for me than the Z7s
 
MDR-Z7 vs MDR-1R: The Z7 win hands-down,  more smoother signature, more natural presentation, bigger soundstage than the 1R. Simply the 1R had a very Sharp signature too mid-centered and hot tebles to get that resolution for high-res audio, IMHO way too overdone, Harpsichords sounded way too strinent as well as strings, Z7 have a nice recessed trebles yet very detailed making Harpsichord bearable to listen to.
 
 
Driven By XA: OK sounding but as we know smartphones can't do what a dedicated audio rig can, ok mids, ok highs, slightly boomy bass, reduced soundstage
Driven by sony VAIO flip PC (2014 14'' inch): Not as great as the XA, a boomier sounding signature, veiled.
DELL LATITUDE 36400: The oworst ofender of the last two, worse than the VAIO, terribly boombastic and so veiled that i think i am lsitening to some beats by Dr dre
 
Driven by  WM1A: very airy, clean presentation, damn 3D soundatging, lean signature not at all boomy. WM1A drives them well on SE and high gain benefit  for difficult tracks (low volume masters)
 

 

A little about me​

 ​

I'm an audiophile but not the Graphs and number ones, more of a music lover type of audiophile who seeks the best true sound quality. My Genre of choice is Classical music from renaissance to Classism and abit of nationalism like Grieg, Dvorak.
 

Unboxing & Accessories​

​

 ​

The IEMs come in the now-usual sony double "layered" box, a Huge white cardboard showing the product amplified photo, some specs in the back (marketing

). removing the cardboard revelas a Lux black box with the SONY logo in the middle, open that box and the Z5s greet you. kind like a jewel box, the z5 are placed in moulded plastic holder, covered in black soft silky cloth to give that BLING
BLING factor.
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
on the left pane of the box opening the flap revela user manuals and warranty card, no body reads those anyways 

.
 
Removing the IEM holder revelas at the bottom the Basic sony accessoies I know since XBA-H3: a carrying case, pairs of silicone hybrid Tips in L and S and SS sizes (medium installed in the Z5), pairs of foam filled buds (S,M and L), a cable winder and a shirt clip (I never use those) and a Balanced-Audio cable ending in Two 3.5mm jacks (intended for their PHA-3 amp).
 
The case is padded inside  with two bag-style compartments to store the IEMs and a set of cables (or other IEMs i think), the case is soft and flexible, I was expecting a Hard shell case instead due the asking price.
 
One thing that baffled me is the lack of mic cable, for me is not that big deal as i Use my own DAP and my cellphone for calls, but it becomes handy, esp when you work with a greedy company that won't provide you for the right accessories for job interviews for their projects.

Build Quality, Fit/Ergonomics​

​

 ​

The Build of these is superb, they are metal encased, as i left them in the cold IT-site and they felt cold to the touch and in my ears for a while, they seem to be very robust made, anyways i won't be dropping them just because they are metal.
 
The fit is so-so, i blame the tips, it is a bit shallower than other IEMs, despite the earhooks, i struggle to find a staying-seal, it breaks sometimes and have to readjust from time to time, the earhooks aren't that memory as they advertise them, annoying i cannot mold them perfectly to my earshape thus securing the z5 better.
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 

Sound Quality​

​

 ​

In one word how i would describe these MARVELOUS, I love the big sound the output for an IEM. They are vented or semi-open IEMs that means you can hear most sounds from outside, even me typing this review but muffled, in the typical office environmet they shut the A/C noise but no the laughs and cought and chats of coworkers. I like the trade-off of open design and the BIG soundstage they give.
 
My gear used for them:  Sony Walkman ZX100 and sony Xperia M2 (non-aqua), this time tested with only 16/44.1K FLAC files
 
BASS: the bass on these is BIG has a presence but i am not saying Boomy or always present, it's the kind of warmth I like, well textured and controlled bass, kicks hard and very deep, I don't see any signs of mid-bass bloat like the XBA-H3, in fact i feel the bass of Z5 is slightly better than that of the XBA-A3.
 
Cellos sound very natural the charcteristic of the grunt and runble of the deep bass is represnet as if you lsitened to the real thing for real, Yo-yo Ma's rendition of Bach 6 cello suites (1983, colubia records CD remaster) is very wonderful expression of the instrument, goes very deep. With Organ works is just equally phantastic, as it rumbles very nice deep that sometimes i get this tickling sensation on my ears needing a scratch . Same for Harpsichord, pianos, string or wind quintest/quartets/trios etc gives the authority to the bass instruments and tonal body of the works.
 
What impress me is that Z5, despite having this big bass, it renders the Kettle drums with a crsipy BANG, not the usualy BOOOM BOOOM you get with other IEM or headphones, Beethovens 9th, bach Brandenburgs, in these the kettles a nice crispy bang and does not smear on quick drum rolling, stays authoritative (beethovens 9th ath the famous 3rd and last movent of the ode to joy you can experience this, HV Karajan 1986 recording for DG).
 
MIDS. The mids on these are well presented perhaps slightly recessed but not that much, they give the sense of airiness that is charcteristic of this IEM, there is no signs of Mids-dstorting, there is no sharpness nor shouty. Violins, violas, female vocals are well represented, very organic and natural No signs of bass leaking, very coherent, yet detailed headphone but not to the extreme of super revealing. This contributes to the musical nature of these IEM.
 
HIGHS:  The highs in these are very sweet, non-fatiguing, recessed yes but at the same time they don't let details escape. Harpsichord and organs are troublesome with such a high extension in some triple driver IEM, it can get fatiguing and harsh, not in these, i can listen to harpsichord withouth having to take a rest to de-ring my ears 

. The smoothest highs i have er heard yet with this inner resolution of a quality IEM, They render the room vert #$%&!!!! well, so airy room acoustics be a cathedral, a concert hall,a small studio room the reverbs deccay with such a natural way no fake reverbs or internal resonances. It can even extract reverb fromm difficult albums (Heyday in Weimar, Hanssler classic BACH edition (organ works) a prime example of this tiny church, other iems rendered the organ Tocatta and fugue in G, BWV 541 so dry and dull like being outputted from a CASIO kbd, not these, i could ehard for the first time the faint reverb i was amazed).
 
SOUNDSTAGE & SEPARATION: WOW jus WOW a SPEAKER-LIKE EXPERENCE and soem times LIVE EXPERIENCE, a sound I never heard from any IEM, not even the XBA-A3, soundstage is BIG and airy (depends on setting not the same stage from a concert hall and a small studio room). Separatio is also very precise, i can distinguish many instrumensta dn pinpoint them, can distinguish a cello from a Viola, a cor-anglis from an oboe and  the inaudible instrumnets (Harpsichors, Bassoon) come to life in the satge. Symphonic works, large choral wokrs (think thomas tallis Spem in alium) rendered with greatness and nothing gest blurred smeary all sections of an orchestra well rendered, strings and flutes & brass
 
The staging is so damn 3D that i get this enveloping effect in both ears very well, te most 3D-sounding IEM i have ever heard that it has removed my itch of getting a custom multi-driver IEM
 
For the price range i got them THEY ARE A  BARGAIN they compete easy with $1K or more IEMs, in summary, very controlled bass that adds musicality, airy mids and highs that contribute to the HUGE Soundstage and great separation that gives these Z5 that speaker-like experience.
 

 
 

A Comparisons with other IEMs & devices i have owned​

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XBA-Z5 VS XBA-H3: Clearly an improvement over the messy-sounding H3s, the mid-bass bloat and hollow tube, or bathroom sound has been eliminated on the Z5, The mid and high distortion and warble was also eliminated. Z5 sounds more closer to neutral (with classical music) than the H3 which sometimes also added fake reverb from the housing resonances. The good of H3 was the sturdier MMCX connection. I havent had any troubles yet with the Z5 but the connections IMO feels a bit flimsy (on the cables side).
 
XBA-Z5 VS XBA-A3: These two siblings resemble each other very close, they share the same signature, yet Z5 has more staging and speaker-like experience than the A3, Highs on Z5 are superb smooth vs in the A3 which were boosted and tended to sound shrill, sparkly, fatiguing and super revealing to the point of annoyance. Z5 are more musical and enganing than A3 for sure, both A3 and Z5 share similar bass signature but the mids dept the Z5 slightly rcessed but also non fatiguing unlike A3 which could get a bit hot mids too.
 
Driven By M2: utter garbage (the smartphone) they sounded like a pair of XBA-A3, soundstage made smaller and separation tightned, less 3D, boomier bass
Driven by sony VAIO flip PC (2014 14'' inch): GARBAGE WORSE THAN IN THE M2, super hollow Boombastic, like a pair of beats, worse than the H3.
Driven by ZX100: very airy, clean presentation, damn 3D soundatging, yet i find the zx100 struggles to drive them properly to its best.

I'm an audiophile but not the Graphs and number ones, more of a music lover type of audiophile who seeks the best true sound quality. My Genre of choice is Classical music from renaissance to Classism and abit of nationalism like Grieg, Dvorak.
 
The box is simple cardboard box, removing the cardboard you get a nice jewel case like box screaming luxury, the walkman is greeting you as soon as you open the box. the included accessories are the USB Cable for data trabsfer, a plastic bumper for portable amplifier (to level the walkman body flat), user manuals (there is another model Called NW-ZX100HN which includes NC earbuds).
 

 
 
The build quality it self is quite nice, made of a block of aluminum and machined via CNC machine, feel pretty heavy compared to other DAPs i've owned in the past (145g), it includes a square D-PAD, two buttons on top of the D-PAD back/Home and PwrOff/Options, the D-Pad has  a Play/pause button in the center, in the right side there is a Hold slider switch feeling pretty easy to operate with your thumb, two large volume + and volume - buttons and the SD card slot (microSD) stitting flush and well seal.
 
But the buttons feel creaky (options anfd home) the D-pad plate slides up and down and the screen is cheap plastic pronet to scratch with almost a feather, mine got a scratch after two weeks of use, so beware and get your screen protector, The WM-PORT feel sturdy and nice firmly placed, same for the HP jack
 

 
 

 
 
The UI of this walkman is very easy to use as it is the traditional embedded-OS "walkman OS" used since 2007 on "budget" walkmen, but this model departs from the traditional grid-based layout (as it removed all Photo, video and including FM Radio), instead it presents in a row of circular tiles. The rest is the usual "old-school" menu and list based system. go to now playing and you have the music screen wtih big font, nice big album art. Press back once and you go back to the song list, press back again and you go to either Album, Artist, year etc selection, press back once more and you go back to category nav. from Now playing you can left the Back/HOME button pressed for a while and it will take you to the home row.
 
The Option with a quick press in now playing you have access to common music settings such as DSEE, EQ, DSD playback settings etc, long-press that button and your device will go to stand-by mode (turns off completely after 24h of inactivity). The HOLD switch disables all input including volume buttons.
 
on now playing pressing the play button once toggles between play and pause, long press adds the currently playing song to a bookmark list (OTG playlist), pressing quickly < and > fastfowards and rewinds to the next/previos song long press these and you will be able to seek in the song. press the UP And DOWN arrows and you enter the "album scroll" (sony coverFlow implementation)
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
My two listening devices  are the MDR-1R cans and the sony XBA-A3 IEMs one is id-cenetered and the A3 is slightly v-shaped
 
The overall presentation of the music independant of headphones is very airy, very natural, organic sound i've ever heard from any DAP, even from Fiio x3 I and even from own sony's budget NWZ-A17, the sound is distortion free, soundstage is Big, bigegr than the one of A17 walkman. The player is super detailed compared to fiio and A17 and position of instruments is very presice.
 
Soundstage: Depends of the recording it gives you a nice sense of spaciousness for big-room music like cathedral, concert halls, even studio recorded music can sound a bit with reverb and nice deccay. you get the proper room widht and depth.
 
Instrument separation: I find this to be the most accurate represnetation of any DAP i've heard, each instrument/voice/organ pipe mixture is well separated form the rest, each instrument has it's own timbre (voice) easyli distinguished. you get proper separation for m each instrument group or soloits in case of chamber music /sinfonia concertante. an Oboe sounds like an oboe, a french horn like a horn and so on.
 
Bass: The bass on this player is very controlled, tight, it rumbles when needed f.e organ pipes is a good example of subbass or even my  few records which feature a Lautenwerck (lute-harpsichord) a harpsichord with gut strings instead of metal strings, thus the deep visceral bass of the lower register sets, this player manages to do this very well even on the bass-weak MDR-1R, it shines with the XBA-A3. tot he point i get tickles on mye ar canals .
 
Mids: those are a bit more forward than the A17 giving a proper sense of clarity and spaciousness, it gives the voices of the instruments that are not bass, like violins, violas, etc, very well and lushy mids. it complements the bassy nature of XBA-A3 leveling them very well it gives me the impression of quasi-neutral IEMs. French horns sound authoritative, violas and violins sound very nice, esp violins with gut strings very screechy, Harpsichords don't fatigue either despite the player reveal all the mechanism cues up to the harmonics of the plectra post-pluck phase.
 
Highs: Very airy highs, very well rpesented those give the airiness of the rest that is vital to the music without those cues it would be so boring... reverbs, mechanics of certain instruments, piccolos sound a bit shouty but manageable, the "harmonic warble distortion" present on the A17 series is gone, no more warble during comple choir/organ music, detectable with reverb-prone rooms. all is crystal lear. In renaissance style music the choirs extend very high up tot he "air" giving a nice proper deccay time. Some details seem too much like violins screeching detectable for a trained ear like when the bow hits the strings in the fine tuners area you geta high-pitched harminuc screech almost unpercetible.
 
Overall clarity of this walkman is very good, distortion free, very nice at dynamics of the orchestral pieces, proper time of deccay and recerv duration, organic sounding. Partd eu the inclusion of a 44.1KHz clock oscillator and a 48KHz clock oscillator.
 
The various sounds enhancements technologies like DSEE, CLearAudio+ Surrond(VTP) and some EQ settings cna sound artifical, so i never or rarely use them
 
With hi.res audio (24/48 ~192Khz flac) tho i don't have any DSD to test it. shines even more, all the talk above was with standard 16/44.1Khz FLAC files, hi-res sound as realistic as if you were with the artist / ensemble in a VIP invitation in the scene.
 
Battery life quote as above with 16/44.1Khz mostly gives me a full week of play (using it arround 5 to 12 hrs aday, averaging 8 to 10) so arround like 56-61hours.
 
PROS
+ Stellar sound quality
+ superrb clarity in the sound, very organic and natural
+ stellar battery life with FLAC (16/44.1KHz)
+ Easy to use interface
+ 200GB microSD support!
CONS
- Questionale build quality arround button mechanism and plastic LCD Cover, expected glass!!
- A *bit* LOW Power output at 15mW per channel
- Lack of a basic screen protector by Sony (my fiio x3 had 3 in the box) abd overall lack of accessories
- Does not do DSD Native (converst to 176.4KHZ PCM)
 
+/- USB Transfer speed still stuck in the USB 2.0 8 to 12 MB/s too slow for my modern sony VAIO with USB 3.0, using the SD with the SD adapter in the USB 3.0 Slot

Sony Introduced the XBA-Ax range in 2014, meant to replace the XBA-Hx range of a year earlier, the new range uses a new developed BA by sony which cliams better clairty and details than the traditional Rod-driven BA's.
 
I Find the Build of those is pretty sturdy despite bieng plastic unlike their more expensive brother XBA-Z5 which is made of magnesium. The XBA-A3, for now i iwll just refer to it as A3 - has an inner housing of magnesium to rpovide rigidity and remove unwanted vibrations. The stem of the MMCX is shorter than that of the XBA-H series thus the cables of the A series won't fit those, the earphone MMCX port is very robust but the cable MMCX end feels so cheaply made thant i fear it will not last long and you can fell it wobbles once connected to the earphone yough it does not spin.
 
The pianting on those is better than the one of the H3's, is more matte looking with black accents.
 
Comfort-wise and fit-wise they are better than the XBA-H3, as the casing was made smaller (slimmer) so i can insert them deeper withouth feeling pain, the sony Hybrid-tips seem to have removed the itching i felt. Despite having a deeper fit they don't iolate as well as completely sealed IEMs due to the vent for the Dynamic driver (moved to te MMCX stem and made smaller than that of the H3/XBA-A2).
 
The box comes with the same accesories as the XBA-H3, sony hybrid tips in SS, M, L nad S, foam-filled tips: in , M and L sizes, cable winder, cable clip for shirt, carrying case -  not hard as a pelican one but does a good job at protecting them - Two cables with supposedly separated grounds - tpught not completely as they are reunited in the Jack - one is normal stereo cable and the other has an in-line mic for smartphones (haven't tested it yet).
 
I listen to classical music and as gear i am using a NW-ZX100 walkman DAP, my files are 16/44.1 FLAC and some Hi-res audio (FLAC 24/48 - 192).
 
The inmediate changes over the H3 are the bass quantity and QUALITY and the mids and trebles being a forwarder than the H3.
 
Bass: They got rid of the Mid-bass bump of the H3 - which hindered clarity - the bass on the A3's extends deeper has no trouble reaching so low and add rumble. The good is the bass on these don't bleed on the mids like the H3 did thus maintaining the clarity, also i've noted the bass kiks hard only when needed (often older recordings which had  awarmer nature).
 
Listening to cellos, Organs 16-footed string Harpsichords and Lute-Harpsichords you can really fell the bass extends and rumbles withouth difficulty giving those instrumnets their character, gruntsy cello bass strings, rumbling 32 footer pipes and chamber organs with wood pipes doe xtend so low to the fundamental tones, The lute Harpsichord rumbles and sustains the bass thummm! for a while until the artist decided to depress the key...
 
Mids: Forward sounding, with the clarity need for a hi-res phone. It gives the rest of the instruments their voices, by being fowarder than those of the H3 the fake reverb of the H3 gets eliminated here and thngs sound more natural, seems the warble distortion of the H3 is addressed in these too.. They do retrieve lots of details with my ZX100 walkman.
 
Highs: Very nice extension and detail retrieval, Harmonics, reverbs, high-pitched instruments like piccolos and violins without being harsh, I don't feel any ear-piercing with these yet amintaining good extension.
 
Sound stage: Bigger, more natural than the H3, they manage to separate the instruments well and i can easily identify them one by one and sense their location, it has no hint of fake reverberation as dry recorings sound dry and reverberous ones sound quite well (cathedral music), The H3 seemed to add fake reverb and all sounded like it as recorded in a bathroom / tiled room due to the housing shape and the V-shape.
 
Overall i feel those to be more neutral sounding thnan my MDR-1R and the H3... they give an airier presentation, good detail retreival, nice soundstage, nice deep bass when needed.
 
PAINT has chipped after just one year of use

I am not an audiophile myself, rather a music lover, searching for the holy grail of SQ that repoduces life-like sound out from records
 
Very well done here, feels pretty sturdy, durable. It is definitively heavy. Button and switches feel pretty solid, esp. the volume pot which has a nice texture and feeling of resistance., the cables feel a bit cheap but not a major complaint here as i only use the USB micro-B, the 3.5mm one and that's all. The included rubber bands also feel sturdy, and hold my dap strong into the HA-2 yet no too tightly to press a button on the DAP.
 
I would have liked the leather cover to be removable, but well is a design desicion made by Oppo, but it looks classy with it and i think it eliminates the need for rubber bumper feet.
 
Kudos to Oppo team, unlike the sony PHA-1A which is similarly priced, the HA-2 includes a line in/out, USB-A port for charging and digital IN for iDevices, USB micro-B fro charging the HA-2 itself, charging your android or other gear with micro-B port and digital IN for those devices.
 
It offers a power bank feature as described above it can charge your devices batteries, it did work with my Walkman, i selected the switch to A and plugged my walkman computer cable to it and got it charging. Tough no data transfer for digital audio IN as sony makes a propetiary cable for that, the WMC-NWH10
 
It works with PCs & MACs as an external USB DAC, for windows i had to install the driver, dwnloading the file from Oppo website, installation was pretty straightforward, no hassles like Fiio DACs where yu have to go to windows boot options to disable the signed driver enforcement options.
 
Gear used: NWZ-A17 Walkman with a 128GB MicroSD card made by SanDisk, sony MDR-1R Cans and sony XBA-H3 Hi-res audio earbuds (IEMS), sony VAIO fit multiflip PC 14'' w/Windows 8.1x64
Software used: Sony MediaGO latest build
Music style: Classical from romantic to baroque, medieval, renaissance, classical periods.
File type: FLAC 16/44.1KHz  to 24/192KHz
 
AMP-ONLY SETUP, SONY WALKMAN A17 W/FIIO L5 LOD (POCC CABLE)
 
Dricving both MDR-1R and XBA-H3 had an improvement in all areas, Soundstage remains similar to that of the A17 which is already pretty wide. I have the volume pot on 1 to 3 depending on Gain, so it has plenty of room to drive more power hungry phones.
 
Driving the MDR-1R on L-Gain deifnitively imrpoves that mid.centric soundsignature by adding some bass extension, heard with organ music, detail and clarity (still burning-in) is somehow similar to the A17 which is great. Switching to H-gain definitvely adss the bass extension to subbass, cellos now have this full body, overall they osound more full-bodied and detailed in the bass area, they aren't those "telephone sound quality" anymore.
 
Driving the Bass bloated XBA-H3 was suprising too as i was expecting the worst for these, either more bass or no imporvement at all, Before they sounded so hollow and weird in the A17 and extremely bass heavy on the fiio x3 1st generation.
 
hooking them on the HA-2, tried L-Gaina nd the hollowness was almost gone but still a bit present, couldn0't get mid clarity nor subbass clarity well. Going H-GAIN did the trick, the hollowness is gone for good, midbass bump is leveled and now they sound closer to neutral, like my ultrasones HFI-780, detailed mids now more forward, and nice bass extension to the subbass.
 
DAC + AMP SETUP, USB AUDIO (SET TO 24/192 UPSAMPLING in windows) VAIO fit multiflip USB 3.0, Sony MediaGO
 
The sound qyuality jump is more niticiable here, i geta  wider soundstage, great presentation from both headphones. It's like eharing my music all over again.
MDR-1R similar to the sony A17 experience, nice subbass extension and detailed mids/highs, but this time with more soundstage . drove them on H-gain and L-Gain, again H seems to add more body and "puff-up" the music.
 
XBA-H3 also were the same experience with the A17, byebye midbass bump, sounding close to neutral on H-Gain and a wide stage.
 
 
Solid build, improves headphones and source quality esp when your source has a weak amp section like usually walkmans do and if it has audio signal processing like my VAIO does. I haven't tested with more headphones but with those two pais i have it deserves and i don't feel any hint of buyer's remorse at all

I really tried to like this player but the Buggy software and the bad button placement made me angry most of the time.
 
Build quality is lower than waht I expected as there is no frame to add strctural integrity, the Board is screwed on the plastic casing, unlike sony A17 which features a alumnum die-cast frame to add structural integrity. The hold (lock) switch felt loose.
 
Connecting to a pc is a flawless process as it works as a USB Mass storage device, transfer speed is slow in the internal memory and if the SD is inside the player (use a SD adapter to use it on the PC reader)
 
It has a case included (rubber) and a SPDIF Cable altought i never used it, has multiple jacks, one for HP out, one for coaxial (SPDIF) out and one for analogue line out, works as a USB DAC this was great to bypass my DELL HELL internal DAC. (currently owning a sony VAIO)
 
The player is fairly basic (no photos oe videos, anyways who wants to look at vids or pics in a smallish screen? me not), There is no radio on it, not even a clock., had to update the firmware to be able to use 128GB microSD card
 
The Player can browse by All music files (pretty slow as hell to render and build the data structure, clearly poor Software engineering here), Artist, Genre, Album and by Folder, tought no Composer View (like sony) but not a major problem (i'm not ultra-mega-super.duper purist to whine lbecause the lack of a Johann Sebastian Bach & Mozart View)
 
It has dual settings, sometimes confusing, this could be made a la Sony Walkman, Only one settings section and inside that a Music Settings and General settings (Common settings on my A17)
 
The music UI is fairly basic, providing cover picture (as FW 3.0 is cropped badly), Play/pause/FastForwad and rewind, It shows the Actual file name.flac or .mp3 etc instead of track title, and scrolling of this text is choppy and slow (in my A17 walkman is silky smooth)
 
The menu is not as intuitive as the Sony one, only showing pics (icons) is not nice to guess what one does what, in one occasion i ended up deleting a song because this.
 
The button layout is confusing for blind usage, i often mixed the volume up/down with the FF/REW ones and ended with a blaring LOUD SOUND, this to make it worse to lower the volume it exhibits a ******* lag becaise has to turn the screen on and then you have to press again vol + or vol - so it reacts after a lag, (my walkman A17 has inmediate effect even if screen is off idle)
 
My walkman is easy to use in blind situations due to it's diamond shaped D-pad, clever sony engneers on thi s one, browsing huge lists of songs is also smooth on the walkman due to good software engieering skillz like cache of lists
 
Sound quality is good better tha IDevices (had an ipod classic before fiio & returning to walkman) , this blew even the older walkmans (A818 & X1060) Out of the waer, the sound is amazing, warm and rich a tad bassy with bassy IEMS like XBA-H3, but neutral Phones like my XBA-1 sounded equally good.
 
Soundstage is wide but not accurate has a problem of presenting trebbly instruments or female singers "floating above my head" (the sony walkman has a better SQ, neutral and fixes this floating voices by presenting them in the correct position in the front).
 
I did not note a difference with 24/96 or CD quality (presumably because fiios HP out is capped at 20KHz), With the walkman this Hi-res audio gets pretty revealing and enveloping, that i often say OWO, holy Cow where is the violinist? and turn my head in my room to find no one
 
But Hold my irate hate of this buggy thing, god bless it not to crash, it forgot so often where i left my last play position after turning it off, also took a long time to turn off.. and 30 minutes to build a 128GB library really? (my walkman remembers always where I left, turns on and off instantly, and builds library in 10 seconds to 4 minutes for 176GB), not to mention the ****ty 5,800 FLAC limit on the fiio (when i had often like 7,000). My walkmas has no limit, i can play all my 9,600 FLAC i have there
 
Then it failed about two mohts ago due to a buggy FW update, contacting fiio on facebook "failure because battery was with no charge" REALLY? my ******* battery was at 50% wehn i upgraded the firmware, ti simply didn't turn on again dead as a brick, adn THE LOCAL DEALER IS A FRAUDSTER (AUDIOFILIA.COM.MX) the Telephone routing system robot says "El numero que usted marcó ya no existe" (the number you dialed no longer exists).
 
I had a hard time convincing fiio guys to send me one as a replacement DUE TO THE FRAUDSTER OF AUDIOFILIA.COM.MX DIDN'T GIVE ME ANY PROOF OF PURCHASE AT ALL (Sony gave me my E-invoice with it's PDF and XML documents, plus 2 year more warranty to the standard one year), I HAD TO TELL FIIO THE TRUTH IT COSTED ME MORE TO SEND THIS FAULTY UNIT VIA DHL MEXICO (******* EXPENSIVE, THE HALF OF THE FIIO X3 NEW).
 
But FINALLY THEY AGREED TO SNED ME OUT A FIIO X3 REPLACEMENT, I WILL use it as a ADC for my WALKMAN

This player got it a week ago, Sony mexico charged me the amount on Mondaya nd on tuesday was already at my home upon returning from work (my mom received the FeDex guy)
 
My Model is the international version intended for Mexico as o¿in it's back it has the mexican certification agencies, is made in Malasya (Hecho en malasia), The box comes with lots of papers on it, did not need to read any as I already owned 2 walkmans in the past with the same UI which is extremely friendly to use. The box has also the walkman and the USB cable, there are no earbuds included nor a SD card.
 
Mexico only gets the A17 which sports 64GB as internal memory (once formatted in windows mine has 56.8GB useable), I had this MicroSD from Sandisk class 10 UHS I (128GB, formatted 119.1GB), I formatted the SD using the player's built-in format uitlity, this player uses exFAT as default format for the microSD card and FAT32 for the internal system memory.
 
Works with MusicBee music management software, I did not even bother to check the "Detect MTP Devices" checkbox and worked just as fine, transfer speeds on the player are still on USB 2.0, but this walkman is faster than my other previous walkmans (A818 & X1060), Took 1 hour 50 minutes to transfer 42GB (Entire Mozart collection), Card speeds are the same if it's inside the walkman slot, so I used my 2014 Sony VAIO FIT MULTIFLIP built-in card reader which is USB 3.0, the same amount of music (Beethoven, Louis Couperin and Boccherini) took 30 minutes.
 
I have not experienced any card-readout errors as some one reported when he or she used the PC reader/writer..
 
Library creation process took 4 minutes for 176GB, I did connect it to the Pc to delete the songs I already listened and this time takes like 5 to 10 seconds. Speed of the player is fast, responsive, browsing a massive list of 9700 FLAC files is fast and smooth.
 
I cannot comment on Bluetooth as i don't like wireless audio quality (I use wired headphones) nor on video or picture playing as i won't use it for this purpose, fro that i Use my VAIO
 
FM Radio is good if your station is good, here the classical music station is on older analogue so it osunds like **** with lots of static, but is handy to have a radio in case of emergency situations like power failures during storms or so.
 
SensMe and podcast i don't use that as well
 
The Music "app" is very intuitive and easy to use, the diamond shaped D-pad is cleverly designed, pressing lef or right functions as FF or REW, long-pressing those buttons cues to any point of the currently playing song, pressing either up or Down takes you to the cool Jacket scroll (Sony's coverflow) which is nice only if and only if you have the jackets on your files. Haven't tested if it works with a Folder.jpg instead of embbeding the photo in the file.
 
The Option/Menu button serves a s a menu when pressed once and ppower-off when long-pressed (saves the point of time), I like the fact when you turn it on it does not start autoplaying the song like the fiio x3 i had.
 
Sound quality out of the box is pretty good, neutral and clean-sounding little player, mine has a louder volume than previous generation walkmans, I didn't note any difference in sound when using DSEE HX on 16/44.1 FLAC files, just when playing back Harpsichord music files i can note a more smoothed-out sound and less harsh if i Turn on DSEE HX For certain Harpsichord recording in 16/44.1
 
With 24-bit files this shines so good, the level of detail is very good, very enganging and enveloping, my 24/88.2 album of Striggio Grand parody mass "ecco beata di giorno" sounds superb and so realistic, I closed my eyes and i was inmediately involved in the recording as I was with the players there (Label Glossa / Herve Niquet, SACD ISO Rip to 24/88.2 FLAC)
 
switching to Franck's Organ works 24/96 sounded euqally good and enganging, the reverb of the venue was pretty good and the greatness of the organ regsters sound pretty good, even the most feeble pipes could be heard easily. Natural sense of sound decay esp in reverb.
 
Vivaldi 6 concertos for Anna Maria 24/88.2 (CPO) sounded very enganging, the playing of carmignola is very detailed as he was with me, the orchestra was overall balanced with the soloist,, you could heard a little error (Carmignola's bow somehow slipped a little bit) , the lute stood out form the orchestra too., very 3D imaging and very enveloping surround experience.
 
Then to try out 192KHz i had a Vynil rip of Vivaldi's 4-season on the organ, equally enganging and pretty natural sound, great bass rumble of the  deep bass pipes of the organ, nice crisp mids and highs, the pedals were als sometimes heard so nice, i felt like I was there except when the crackle and *pop* of the vinyl came out (very feeble but audible at times) 24/192
 
I turned off all other enhancements as they tend to ruin the sound of the player, such as clearAudio+ and the VTP technology
 
I used mostly the MDR-1R which i consider to be fairly neutral, slightly a bit mid-centric but fine, Using the XBA-H3 totally destroys the sound of this player as those have a mid-bass bump defect. I have tamed the Bass of the H3 using the A17 EQ but not that successfully to make sound like my MDR-1R.
 
I have not detcted any hiss so far, not even with the EQ activated, battery life so far almost 28 hours and syill has two bars left on the battery icon
 
Compared to my Fiio x3 I find this to have Better sound Quality despite the weaker amp section, the bass of the A17 is cleaner and soft lie a vinyl yet it goes deep as hell with Organ recordings and Harpsichords that Have 16' Stops
The sound stage is even wider and accurate than the Fiio x3. The walkman fixes the problem i ahd with the fiio x3 imaging , basically the fiio x3 presented the above striggio mass album with the female singers as "floating above" me, pretty annoying.. A17 walkman presents this a correct female singers at the front at the correct distance due to the huge recording venue ( a cathedral, to fit 60 voices, 40 human, 20 instruments).
 
Battery life is stellar, for a first charge and constant playing with the screen and setting of SQ, it lasted 39 hours 36 minutes, so impressive

These headphones are well constructed, altought they already have a tiny chip on the paint (right bud), they come with basic accesories like a case, tips in SS, S, M and L sizes, as well foam-filled tips for improved isolation in S, M and L sizes, a smartphone cable and a normal audio cable for use in mp3 players that don't support remote control or Mic.
 
I love the fact one can remove the cable when it breaks, instead of tossing your investment to the trash when the wrie breaks, I was tired of this having to throw earbuds and headphones because a broken wire/solder joint.
 
Sound quality is fine but not excellent as my MDR-1R, these have a mid-bass boost (I presume factory defect or bad engineering), they can sound really bad in songs that have bass like fro example a French Harpsichord which has a robust bass notes (16' stops) making the record sound as it was played on a 40's horn speaker. songs that don't feature prominent bass like masses by palestrina they do shine as well with hi-res audio they do shine.
 
I assume they do need an amp to overcome this bass bump or EQ on your DAP to tame the bass..
 
When it comes to isolation they don't do isolate well, you can hear outside even with the so called foam.filled tips, in  a noisy office environment, car, train etc they are practically useless, due to a small vent on the casing, My previous XBA-1 isolated way better and did not had this bass like dr. dre's beats

I Ventured to buy those headphones fater a massive discount in pre-christmas sales here in mexico, for $178 USD i consider them to be a great buy
 
The construction of those cans seems to be aluminum and plastic mix, the band is alumnum as well as the ear cups, the joints are plastic, overall they feel fragile, so I try to take great care of those, the good is that they feel very light. One minor gripe i have on those is the "jack rattler" the connection seems not got as deep as it should do.
 
They look pretty stylish, pretty conservative style, black with a red ring as accent and the sony logo on it, you are not promoting big brand names there, the cable seems to be well constructed, thicker and is serrated to supposedly avoid tangling.
 
The package has not so many accesories, just two cables (one is for smartphones and the other is a normal 2 ringed 3.5mm cable), a pouch, I was expecting a sturdy case there as sony used to in the past. I was expecting a 6.35mm adaptor (fortunately i have one from an older Noise canceelin sony headphones).
 
The sound quality is fairly flat, perhaps  mid accentuated , highs are nicely presented, signs of harshness, bass department can be a shocker for bass-heads, altought those have a struggle  deep punchy bass (Bach Organ works f.e.) they seem to lack some extension but i find this to be fine for me is the right amount of bass (only genre i listen to is Classical),  They lack power to get very deep bass and lack body.
 
The worst headphones i've ever bought
 
Pros
+conservative looks
+Detacheable cable
+well built
+nice inmersive soundstage
 
cons
-feel fragile (due to lightness)
-pads seem to be plastic-leather 'pleather'
-they have some openings on top of the cups so they let in sounds
-Not many accesories included in the 'lux box'
-jack connection defect
-Fatiguing
-Lack body