[eug]

I've never had to look for one, but the size reminds me of the original iphone's recessed audio plug. That might fit if someone wants to make a custom cable.
 
I think these headphones are great for what they are. I don't think we should expect it to sound as good as a high-quality external dac/HA though. You do pay a price for the convenience of having it all built in. 

 

[jwong77]

I guess Sony was really ahead of its time with this headphone, seems tailor made for the new iPhone.

 

[329161]

I just got mine delivered and have been using them all day. They've been discounted so I took a punt primarily based on a 5 star review in Hifichoice. Gotta say I'm REALLY happy with these. They have more detail, resolution and slam than the already excellent 1abt, which shares the same drivers. They're better, more evenly balanced than the identically drivered 1a as well. The bass bloat is totally gone and it slams like hell. Lovers of analytical sound will love these coming digitally from a compatible device. Also, unlike Bluetooth headphones, the digital sound from different devices always sounds excellent AND identical. Not sure why different Bluetooth players sound different to each other as it's just transmitting digitally, but anyway....love these. Definitely not a gimmick. Lovers of electronic styles should definitely give it a try.





Edit- well this is weird, but I just tried listening via USB from my Galaxy S3, and geez it sounds warmer and smoother than my zx2 and zx1. Not better, but different. I'm thinking this must be some kind of placebo because I know how this thing is supposed to work. Interesting note- the volume control works from my GS3, but not from my zx2/1. Could the phone be imparting some character on the digital signal? Can't be, right? Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[Mad Max]

It might have to do with any DSPs involved or how the sound signal is processed as it goes through the OS, I suppose.

 

[Richard Wray]

Has Sony given up on the approach of a built in DAC and physical digital connections?

I've owned my ADACs for 18 months, love them but honestly thought there would be more products like this.

With the removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone is Sony doubling down on wireless with the Mdr-1000x?

 

[bsd107]

Edit- well this is weird, but I just tried listening via USB from my Galaxy S3, and geez it sounds warmer and smoother than my zx2 and zx1. Not better, but different. I'm thinking this must be some kind of placebo because I know how this thing is supposed to work. Interesting note- the volume control works from my GS3, but not from my zx2/1. Could the phone be imparting some character on the digital signal? Can't be, right? Anyone else experiencing this?

 
This is just a guess, but I would imagine that, since the zx2/1 volume control does not work from the phone, that it is (correctly) sending the raw digital stream to the headphones, as intended.  This is why the MDR-1ADAC has it's own volume dial on the earcup.
 
Since the G3's internal volume controls ARE working, this means it is processing the digital signal before it transmits to the MDR-1ADAC.
 
Really, you want it to operate as your zx2/1 does.
 
I have MDR-1ADAC on the way to use with an iPhone 7+, and will be interested to see how this works with a variety of different apps, such as Korg's iAudioGate, TEAC's HR Player, etc.

 

[bsd107]

Has Sony given up on the approach of a built in DAC and physical digital connections?

I've owned my ADACs for 18 months, love them but honestly thought there would be more products like this.

With the removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone is Sony doubling down on wireless with the Mdr-1000x?

​I wonder this myself.  I just ordered a pair of MDR-1ADAC heavily discounted on Groupon.  I also see that stock with online retailers is getting very thin (Sony doesn't even list the black version being available any longer).
 
I am hoping that this is due to Sony getting ready to release an updated replacement for the MDR-1ADAC, as opposed to simply dropping the concept, but I don't know either way.
 
I hope Sony isn't trying to follow Apple's drive to wireless.  I just "upgraded" to an iPhone 7+, and my reaction has been the opposite of Apple's desired response (which would be to run out and buy wireless Beats with the W1 chip).
 
My MDR-1ADAC's will replace my current MDR-1RBTMK2.  I do love my current headphones, and while they work very nicely as Bluetooth headphones, I only bought them as they are a decent "Hi-Res" set when using the analog cable.  I just cannot consider any Bluetooth headset to be worthy of serious listening with good sources.  Of course, things are even worse on the iPhone, as it is incompatible with APT-X, and I am not even sure that it uses ACC when playing over my 1RBTMK2's, and of course Apple didn't add LDAC either.  Apple's W2 does nothing for sound quality - they are laser focused on the "Apple Music" lossy 256kbps streaming market and nothing more.  You can't even keep your own lossless ALAC files on your iPhone's music library if you subscribe to Apple Music - it overwrites those with lossy versions by design!
 
Anyway, although the iPhone-related "talk" is currently about going wireless, the loss of the headphone jack seems to have been a shot-in-the-arm for lightning-equipped headphones with their own DAC's.  We may see this market accelerate in parallel to the wireless market (which already existed in any case).

 

[reginalb]

I just got mine delivered and have been using them all day. They've been discounted so I took a punt primarily based on a 5 star review in Hifichoice. Gotta say I'm REALLY happy with these. They have more detail, resolution and slam than the already excellent 1abt, which shares the same drivers. They're better, more evenly balanced than the identically drivered 1a as well. The bass bloat is totally gone and it slams like hell. Lovers of analytical sound will love these coming digitally from a compatible device. Also, unlike Bluetooth headphones, the digital sound from different devices always sounds excellent AND identical. Not sure why different Bluetooth players sound different to each other as it's just transmitting digitally, but anyway....love these. Definitely not a gimmick. Lovers of electronic styles should definitely give it a try.

 
Probably a few things, bandwidth, version of Bluetooth, strength of the transmitter apt-x, ldac, or standard, dropped packets. The list of things that can go wrong with BT is pretty long. Note, that's things that could go wrong. I have the 1ABT that I use with a Sony ZX1 (not LDAC, but it is compatible with apt-x) and it works brilliantly, with a nice long range.
 
But the data speed of bluetooth is a bit north of 320k (for the audio portion - A2DP) I think. That means that depending on the codec being sent, you're on the upper edge of an ideal bit-rate, if the connection is working perfectly. Which, again, wireless radios? They never work perfectly, so you might very well be in the not so transparent bit-rates depending on the codec being used for compression. That's one of the values of apt-x or ldac, LDAC has way more bandwidth, can fit a CD quality FLAC's bit-rate, and apt-x uses AAC, which is transparent at a lower bit-rate than most other codecs.  

 

[Bunglebp]

I just got mine delivered and have been using them all day. They've been discounted so I took a punt primarily based on a 5 star review in Hifichoice. Gotta say I'm REALLY happy with these. They have more detail, resolution and slam than the already excellent 1abt, which shares the same drivers. They're better, more evenly balanced than the identically drivered 1a as well. The bass bloat is totally gone and it slams like hell. Lovers of analytical sound will love these coming digitally from a compatible device. Also, unlike Bluetooth headphones, the digital sound from different devices always sounds excellent AND identical. Not sure why different Bluetooth players sound different to each other as it's just transmitting digitally, but anyway....love these. Definitely not a gimmick. Lovers of electronic styles should definitely give it a try.





Edit- well this is weird, but I just tried listening via USB from my Galaxy S3, and geez it sounds warmer and smoother than my zx2 and zx1. Not better, but different. I'm thinking this must be some kind of placebo because I know how this thing is supposed to work. Interesting note- the volume control works from my GS3, but not from my zx2/1. Could the phone be imparting some character on the digital signal? Can't be, right? Anyone else experiencing this?

 
Im laughing at this too as I bought the Sony MDR-1 ADAC discounted too as going out of line and before I bought them I had Sennheiser Momentum 2.0, I tried some really crazy headphones ranging from 200 - 6000 AUD with my Xperia XZ, Z5 Premium and Samsung S7 edge through USB and also tried them with the FIIO E17K Alpen 2, I found i did not need the FIIO anymore and the Sony blew the Samsung away with sound quality, these are definitely NOT a Gimmick and sounded just as good as any headphones that cost a lot more (maybe as was testing through my phone on USB)
 
Using Sony Walkman app or Poweramp its crazy hearing what a difference in quality of the music with these headphones, nice and natural sound balance with gorgeous bass when it requires, def need to use on USB though as what a difference it makes!

 

[PuzzleTime]

Hi guys, new here but I just received these! I travel a lot and I'm away 22 days a month so portability and simplicity along with good sound were my goals. I posted this same review on the site they were purchased, and should provide a good understanding of the product without being overly technical.

Just received these, and I only have a couple hours listening time so far. Previous headphones include various sennheisers, Bose etc.

Many reviews say to give these an adequate burn-in time to reduce the initial harshness (it's there, but only at 80%+ volume and very slight) and improve bass before writing a review but I don't think that's truly necessary.

I got these vs a standard pair of "hi-fi" headphones + external amp combo for the portability alone and I have zero complaints.
Plugging into an iPhone 6s, using Spotify extreme-quality and the built in DAC/AMP is super user friendly. No tangled cords, no extra brick attached to my phone etc. Headphones are squeak free, have a metal band and metal accents, comfortable plush ear "muffs" and the somewhat initial heaviness to them disappears very quickly. Nice carrying case, cords seem to be decent quality. An included hard case should've been standard due to the extra electronics in the headset imo. Build quality is 9/10, very comfortable.

Sound - Very clear in separating all genres of electronic music, even songs with a large mashup of extreme frequency differences like dubstep etc. Bass "punch" is responsive but not overbearing, "sub bass" is there but a minor tweak to the low frequencies is needed for it to really shine through. I would say I prefer slightly more bass than average though. A wider than closed-headphone sound stage is immediately apparent, it definitely brings the music alive and opens up the listening experience, but won't leave you feeling like you're at the actual stadium. It does give the cans a bit more bass response though so it's all down to preference really. The sound and amp really come alive at 60%+ volume. The overall volume increases less past that point but the sound becomes much richer in all aspects. These go loud enough to do some serious ear damage though, don't worry. The built in amp along with the sound isolation of the mostly closed design easily takes care of the sound around you with fairy little sound bleeding. I listened to deep house, mainstream edm, dubstep, grimy bass, rap/hip hop and would recommend these cans for similar genres. If you're into classical or music with many highs and intricate detail a set of senns would be better, but I'm sure these would still do well. No break up even at 90%+ volume (only tested for this review, they don't need to be turned up more than 75% to pump)

For 219.99 you can't find a better portable setup that makes listening to music "fun" like these do. I can blast these for hours with zero complaints on sound, comfort etc anywhere. Can you get a better set of headphones and amp ? Sure, but not for an all-in-one price of just over $200 dollars with this much portability, and an included DAC.

 

[PuzzleTime]

A quick update:

I have approximately 40 hours on these and they are sounding much better every day. The initial harness has noticeably subdued, and I'm either more aware of the sub bass response or it truly does "wake up" like others mentioned. Location of the headset itself on your ears does affect the soundstage noticibly due to the drivers being offset in the cups, it's night and day with minimal position changing!

 

[SoundGoon]

So this may have already been answered, but can you or can you not use the amp built into these when using the normal 3.5mm plug? If I want to listen to these out of my FiiO X3 II, am I stuck using these in "passive" mode?

 

[Richard Wray]

Sorry, but the DAC does not work via the analog connection

 

[Richard Wray]

Does anyone know if it is possible to add MQA to these headphones?

It's unlikely I'm guessing

 

[Richard Wray]

well, i asked Sony about the DAC used and they said that they are not allowed to reveal at all :/

i do wonder if it is something like a wolfson WM8740 Lol.

Did this mystery ever get solved?