After a few weeks casual listening (these are impossible to listen analytically), I think I'm finally ready to post my early-ish impressions on the EX1000!
I'm not going to start a new thread. I think this is the main EX1000 thread so I'm posting it here and maybe James can link this post to his OP.
I don't know where to start, I'm chuffed to bits with these IEMs! I think these are the first IEM / headphone that I've listened to that is "perfect". Before you send me death threats, let me explain what I mean first. In my limited experience with IEMs, I always have a feeling that they are either 1) not technically capable of reproducing everything in the recording or 2) capable but tuned rather immaturely. Despite the things that I dislike about the EX1000, I get the feeling that these are exactly how the Sony engineers intended it to sound, right down to the last detail. I feel that the huge 16mm drivers are capable of doing anything the engineers wanted them to but for better or worse they have this specific signature tuned into them. So what I mean by "perfect" is that the capability is near unlimited and the sound is exactly how it's tuned. No flaws, no bass bleed or piercing treble or recessed mids or roll offs or whatever.
Okay, I'm still alive! Now that you have an idea of how it sounds, let me talk about build quality, fit and comfort for a bit before going into detail regarding the sound. The build quality of the EX1000 is amazing, sturdy and classy looking. I'm not a big fan of paying £200+ for IEMs that are made of plastic. The metallic dark magnesium housing, sweet smelling leather carry case and carefully arranged colour coded tips are much more welcomed
It also shows that Sony is paying attention to other superficial details making me feel that my money even more well spent for a premium product.
I find the hybrid tips very good, offering me excellent fit even when trying 5 different sized tips. They fit so well and the sound does not change much with different tips. Now comes my first problem. While they offer superb fit, I have trouble with comfort over long periods of listening. The tips tend to push against the inside of your ear canal (explaining the good fit)
but that pressure will turn into pain and discomfort after an hour or so. In the end, I went with the smallest size (SS) which reduce the amount of surface area in my ear canal being pressured by the tips. Having played around more with the various size of tips, I have now overcome the pain that I once had. The pain is a non-issue now but it is still far behind my Westones with modded triple flanges which sit flush in the ears with superior comfort and isolation. Of course the EX1000 is vented so it doesn't have the best isolation. They look weird to put on at first but it comes very naturally and once it's on it stays there very well. They are light and nothing else touches your skin except the tips and the ear hook so they disappear after a while (or in my case until my ears feel pressured). Because the Sonys stick out quite a bit, it is useless for listening in bed. You won't be able to lie down on your side unless you like to feel them get shoved into your cochlea. I do miss my Westones when it comes to listening while I sleep.
Now the sound. As I said before, they're flawless. They are the best IEMs I've ever listened to period. There is a significant gap between the EX1000 and the W3 or IE8. It's no sidegrade but definitely an upgrade. It does everything better. Bass is so well textured and detailed. Mids are smooth and sweet. Treble is limitlessly extended. If you think the W3's bass is quality, wait till you hear the EX1000. You won't believe what you're missing. Listening to
Norah Jones' Not Too Late (or any Norah Jones song really) the bass just flows with all its glory and texture. EX1000 is very detailed across the whole spectrum; instead of me going "oh now I can hear this particular instrument more clearly in this particular section of the song", I listen to the entire song and say "I have heard so much more of the song than I ever did before, no doubt". There is a special way of how it brings different instruments into focus throughout the songs so quickly (as if you're switching between different layers of the song) and the imaging is unrivaled. So amazingly smooth and slick. It has a soul, a certain cohesiveness and / or dynamics that aren't present in other monitors, even the "fun sounding" W3 and IE8. I can write a 50000 word essay on why it's so good but you can read James' OP for that. I want to talk a bit more on what I don't like about it because there is little enough for me to explain them in detail.
As James said, they are romantic, soft and mellow. Very true. I personally find it a bit lacking when the song needs some slam or impact. Think of kick drums, piano keys slamming or full throated singing. The Sonys will smooth them out and soften them over. In
Glen Hansard's Say It To Me Now, the singer sings his frustration about his love affair but the Sonys will tend to sweeten his stretched vocal cords and frustrated strums of the guitar, reducing the amount of emotion he intended to portray. This is the romantic signature that James is talking about in his OP. Is this a technical flaw? No. This is exactly what the Sony engineers wanted. Is this good for you? Well it depends. Obviously for angry, frustrated songs, it may be too romantic. But for classical and jazz, the Sonys portray that romantic ambience perfectly. I also prefer a bit more bass impact (the impact of thunder at the end of
Guns N' Roses' Civil War leaves a bit more to be desired. But like I said, these are soft and mellow. The opposite of what an angry raging thunder is trying to show you.
Another slight problem is surprisingly timbre. While it's excellent and perhaps one of the best, I still find it lacking in some instruments. This might be due to my raised expectations after reading James' review and my bias towards acoustic guitars / string instruments. The Sony's smooth signature tend to sweeten everything including a screaming singer like I said before and also the vibrations of a guitar string. Guitars in real life don't sound sweet but they sound crisp. Again, that is the opposite of the what the EX1000 is trying to do. This softness and sweetness adds a bit of colour into the song / instruments, not much but like a tiny drop of vanilla. Because of that, it doesn't achieve a full realistic timbre. The tonality is still near perfect but there is some sacrifice in terms of realistic string vibrations. Again, I believe that the Sonys are purposely tuned so. However, it does do vocals and "slower" instruments like violins exceptionally well as you don't need to hear a "crunch" or "bite" an acoustic guitar will portray. For vocals, as James said in his OP about
Marina and the Diamond's Obsessions, her voice sounds near perfectly real. It's timbre is still miles ahead of an IE8 or W3 so it's not something to actually complain about really. Having heard James' FX700, I can say that the EX1000 is actually slightly better than the FX700 in that in nails timbre for more instruments than the FX700. The FX700 is still better with acoustic guitars as it does not have that slightly sweet extended treble (though the bass strings are a bit heavy) whereas the HJE900 is still better than both in electric guitars and drums with its aggressive distortion. For almost everything else, the EX1000 is better than other IEMs, making it the best IEMs for realistic timbre overall.
I think I have mentioned the 3 small problems I have with the EX1000.
1) Comfort compared to Westones
2) Bass impact, I'm a bit of a basshead
3) Sweetness (this issue almost doesn't even exist)
Don't take these as flaws but rather the only 3 things I thought wasn't "perfect" about the EX1000,
just excellent but not quite perfect! And what I mean by excellent is on par as any other top tier IEMs out there. Those are the only things I want the EX1000 to improve on, yet I don't blame it because I know for sure that it is intended to sound that way. If it is tuned differently to cater to my needs, I'm sure someone else will disagree. In the end I feel like Sony is not making an IEM for me but for themselves to show the world what they're capable of. And that's great.
Thanks for reading this far
I hope this post doesn't leave you a bad impression about the EX1000. I know quite a bit of it are about what I don't like about them. But I repeat, they are the best IEMs I've ever listened to and they are definitely keepers. I can even go on to say that they are a significant upgrade from other so-called "top tier IEMs". As quoted from Mike in the Headfonia review:
Quote:
Previously, most people’s quest for a high end IEM would be limited to the customs molded stuff. Not anymore, as the Sony EX1000 is here to provide a fresh alternative to the high end IEM world.
Edit: Continuous impressions.
