Mikey01
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2004
- Posts
- 1,602
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- 10
I returned the EX700LP to the Sony Style store where I had them do a price match to B&H Photo (online store) for $186.00 plus tax. Then I bought the Sony EX500LP’s for $98.00, again doing a price match. This was done at 5pm after work. I got home and hooked them up to a Zen and let her rip at 80% volume with a diet of 70’s rock n roll while I tended to other things.
Around 1pm in the morning I tried them out and found that they still need much more breaking in as I figured they would. However, the treble was a bit harsh yet and should be resolved with break in. The bass and mid range were creamy smooth. Bass was not ultra tight but tight enough to be a quality sound. You can hear all the detail in the things you don’t hear in cheaper phones. This is a quality piece of head gear. This 500LP merits a serious listen by Audiophiles. The unit displays a wide soundstage with good seperation and blackness between instruments. The unit is dead quiet where it should be. Bass amundo. In fact you may want to EQ it back a bit for some genres of music. But the bass, I thought, never over shadowed or clouded the mids or highs except in extreme case selections of music.
For less than $100 this unit can be had for which makes it an excellent bargain. If you cannot afford the EX500LP’s than enjoy the EX300LP’s which are the 500’s very close cousin and don’t look back. The EX500LP is a step up or a finely polished EX300LP which is excellent in it’s own category.
The EX700LP I find to NOT be a step up from the EX500LP. Much of the EX700LP sound is stellar, but some of it is sub-par and needs retuning. How a high end unit can “volume diminish” some things like rythem guitar or violins almost to a point of existence at all yet let the unit still chime with the seldom heard bells and things only a high class unit can display, is beyond me.
Don’t test my ears or ability as an audiophile. I helped to tune the popular Zana and had the first modification for the Beyer Dynamics DT 800/900 series currently available. I have been in this hobby and a musician for 40 plus years and know my stuff. In full size head amps and headphones you still have abundant bass to draw from. Why some people think the High End monitor type Earphones should not need the normal bass, is a lot of huey. The sound engineers make every effort to put the bass viole, bass guitar, or other bass instruments in the recording. So to, a monitor style earphone should be able to pick it out and display it in splender. Fact is, not many manufacturers have figured out how to do this well with earphones. A lot of people may like it that way but it is not true to the engineers portrayal as engineered on a CD or like media.
Conclusion: Still pending as unit needs proper break-in. However I am sticking my neck out to say it can only get better.
Around 1pm in the morning I tried them out and found that they still need much more breaking in as I figured they would. However, the treble was a bit harsh yet and should be resolved with break in. The bass and mid range were creamy smooth. Bass was not ultra tight but tight enough to be a quality sound. You can hear all the detail in the things you don’t hear in cheaper phones. This is a quality piece of head gear. This 500LP merits a serious listen by Audiophiles. The unit displays a wide soundstage with good seperation and blackness between instruments. The unit is dead quiet where it should be. Bass amundo. In fact you may want to EQ it back a bit for some genres of music. But the bass, I thought, never over shadowed or clouded the mids or highs except in extreme case selections of music.
For less than $100 this unit can be had for which makes it an excellent bargain. If you cannot afford the EX500LP’s than enjoy the EX300LP’s which are the 500’s very close cousin and don’t look back. The EX500LP is a step up or a finely polished EX300LP which is excellent in it’s own category.
The EX700LP I find to NOT be a step up from the EX500LP. Much of the EX700LP sound is stellar, but some of it is sub-par and needs retuning. How a high end unit can “volume diminish” some things like rythem guitar or violins almost to a point of existence at all yet let the unit still chime with the seldom heard bells and things only a high class unit can display, is beyond me.
Don’t test my ears or ability as an audiophile. I helped to tune the popular Zana and had the first modification for the Beyer Dynamics DT 800/900 series currently available. I have been in this hobby and a musician for 40 plus years and know my stuff. In full size head amps and headphones you still have abundant bass to draw from. Why some people think the High End monitor type Earphones should not need the normal bass, is a lot of huey. The sound engineers make every effort to put the bass viole, bass guitar, or other bass instruments in the recording. So to, a monitor style earphone should be able to pick it out and display it in splender. Fact is, not many manufacturers have figured out how to do this well with earphones. A lot of people may like it that way but it is not true to the engineers portrayal as engineered on a CD or like media.
Conclusion: Still pending as unit needs proper break-in. However I am sticking my neck out to say it can only get better.
