[davidmolliere]

These people love Sony so much, they are hanging around until Sony releases the IER-Z1R

Oh but I do really and we crave more info!

 

[Kitechaser]

I wasn't talking about you. But there are people who have great things to say about every CA product and do not mention things like the Andromeda having hiss with certain sources and how some sources can make them have more treble and how some can make them sound like they have more bass. If I knew that they would have a lot of hiss with the original Hugo and desktop amps, I would have never have bought one after having bad exprexperie with the Vega and Dorado. I tried the IEMatch and it just takes too much away. I'm still not finding much about the solaris and the Hugo 2 when the Hugo 2 is one of the more popular dac/amps out there. I think I've only read one person saying they had that pairing and it does have hiss, but everyone has an acceptable amount of hiss and unless I read more reviews or test it myself, I won't buy one. I also believe that while I would like the Sony, fit could be a major problem for me and I expect quite a bit of people to complain about it.

I'm not a DAP person as I'm home most of the time, but since I have chronic neck and shoulder pain I am trying to leave full sized headphones behind and throw all of my resources at IEMs with my desktop setup. If I do get a DAP, I'd likely just get something low end as I'd just use it before bed or at the gym when I'm doing my physical therapy.

Sony zx300a is my rec for you.
Amazing DAP for 380 dollars, and balanced out is almost top of the line.
As good as the 1200 dollar WM1A.

 

[Deftone]

I don't think so. All the discussions were centred around how good the Solaris is. Nothing in relation to the Z1R delay.

Its normal for people go off topic when theres threads about a new product that start months before release.

 

[Deftone]

On that note, there was once an IEM that sounded extremely natural. It had a midrange that rivaled the likes of LCD 4 and Orpheus 2. Bass and Treble to die for. The company listened to audience at trade shows and re-tuned it. Today that IEM is known as the tia-fourte.

I didnt know this, interesting. The intial hype for Tia Forte was crazy but then soon after release it died down fast with a lot of disappointed customers of build and fatiguing sound but now it makes sense.

 

[Kitechaser]

A lot of people considering the Sony IER-Z1R are also considering the Solaris.
Since Sony is MIA, this is as good of a place as any to have that conversation.

 

[dleblanc343]

Also from what I hear, electrostats have almost zero impact.
Can't have it all.
No such thing as a perfect IEM. Just a matter of tastes really.

Shure KSE have the farthest reaching bass I’ve heard of any type of transducer besides a quality subwoofer (7000$ canadian starting). And it packs a punch too which is the biggest shocker when first listening to these earphones.

I remember going from custom Roxannes wanting to upgrade, and tried a handful of iems (lcdi4, re2000, u18t, trio, atlas) and finally settling for S-EM9’s for day-to-day, never even giving a chance to try the Shure’s expecting them to be too technical. When I eventually tried them, once the kse1200 released - it was an insta-buy.

No iem’s compare to my HE1000v2, Utopias and HE6 as a whole; but the Shures do, and even outperform all those headphones personally.

That being said, I tried the Solaris today and was impressed, they’re really nice and I’ll be monitoring the Sony thread to choose between the Solaris or 1Z as my practical day to day carry. Unfortunately the Shure are a bit brittle feeling

After that, no more in-ear purchases for ever and ever...

 

[nanaholic]

Shure KSE have the farthest reaching bass I’ve heard of any type of transducer besides a quality subwoofer (7000$ canadian starting). And it packs a punch too which is the biggest shocker when first listening to these earphones.

I remember going from custom Roxannes wanting to upgrade, and tried a handful of iems (lcdi4, re2000, u18t, trio, atlas) and finally settling for S-EM9’s for day-to-day, never even giving a chance to try the Shure’s expecting them to be too technical. When I eventually tried them, once the kse1200 released - it was an insta-buy.

No iem’s compare to my HE1000v2, Utopias and HE6 as a whole; but the Shures do, and even outperform all those headphones personally.

That being said, I tried the Solaris today and was impressed, they’re really nice and I’ll be monitoring the Sony thread to choose between the Solaris or 1Z as my practical day to day carry. Unfortunately the Shure are a bit brittle feeling

After that, no more in-ear purchases for ever and ever...

I'm in the same boat - the Shure KSE1200 is quite special with unrivalled speed and instrument separation as well as accurate bass but also with meat that almost rivals dynamic driver IEM but won't find in BA only IEMs. Everything that BA only IEM does the KSE1200 electrostat does better, with the only exception being that the KSE still requires the amp which does make portability a little harder. But with many mini DAPs on the market with great SE output that is becoming less and less of an issue, and this is where I find myself having very little interest in BA only IEM ever since.

I also tried the Solaris a couple of weeks ago and what it impressed me the most was the rendering of guitars tones and the drum kicks - especially the punch of the drum kicks is where again something that BA only IEMs simply can't do. To me the Solaris has a very strong personality however the issue I have with it is that the guitar and drums were too nicely rendered and exciting that it has taken attention away from the vocals, which is what I personally listen to the most, so the Solaris is not going to suit my personal taste.

I'm eagerly waiting to hear the Z1R again as I have the feeling the Japanese tuning is going to be more inline with my own personal preference. I would like to have a high end hybrid universal IEM to use in cases where I can't use my Just ear customs.

 

[jmills8]

I'm in the same boat - the Shure KSE1200 is quite special with unrivalled speed and instrument separation as well as accurate bass but also with meat that almost rivals dynamic driver IEM but won't find in BA only IEMs. Everything that BA only IEM does the KSE1200 electrostat does better, with the only exception being that the KSE still requires the amp which does make portability a little harder. But with many mini DAPs on the market with great SE output that is becoming less and less of an issue, and this is where I find myself having very little interest in BA only IEM ever since.

I also tried the Solaris a couple of weeks ago and what it impressed me the most was the rendering of guitars tones and the drum kicks - especially the punch of the drum kicks is where again something that BA only IEMs simply can't do. To me the Solaris has a very strong personality however the issue I have with it is that the guitar and drums were too nicely rendered and exciting that it has taken attention away from the vocals, which is what I personally listen to the most, so the Solaris is not going to suit my personal taste.

I'm eagerly waiting to hear the Z1R again as I have the feeling the Japanese tuning is going to be more inline with my own personal preference. I would like to have a high end hybrid universal IEM to use in cases where I can't use my Just ear customs.

What style of music do you mainly listen to ?

 

[nanaholic]

What style of music do you mainly listen to ?

Jpop with female vocals

 

[jmills8]

Jpop with female vocals

Mostly treble, and up front clear vocals ?

 

[Kitechaser]

Shure KSE have the farthest reaching bass I’ve heard of any type of transducer besides a quality subwoofer (7000$ canadian starting). And it packs a punch too which is the biggest shocker when first listening to these earphones.

I remember going from custom Roxannes wanting to upgrade, and tried a handful of iems (lcdi4, re2000, u18t, trio, atlas) and finally settling for S-EM9’s for day-to-day, never even giving a chance to try the Shure’s expecting them to be too technical. When I eventually tried them, once the kse1200 released - it was an insta-buy.

No iem’s compare to my HE1000v2, Utopias and HE6 as a whole; but the Shures do, and even outperform all those headphones personally.

That being said, I tried the Solaris today and was impressed, they’re really nice and I’ll be monitoring the Sony thread to choose between the Solaris or 1Z as my practical day to day carry. Unfortunately the Shure are a bit brittle feeling

After that, no more in-ear purchases for ever and ever...

Thanks for the breakdown. I am going to check those out myself the next time there is a show in Los Angeles.
Right now I am enjoying my CL2 planar (almost 2 much really ) and that electrostat detail retrieval and speed are right up my alley.
As far as the Sony goes, I am in the same boat. Looking to go big, and then go home, forever.

 

[nanaholic]

Mostly treble, and up front clear vocals ?

There's no standard when it comes to mixing in Jpop, however there is one constant which is that the "sh" sound in the Japanese syllables sa/shi/su/se/so often causes sibilance if a phone is too treble focused as the sibalance is said to be around the 8kHz~10kHz range for the average female pronunciation of the sound. This actually poses a problem when it comes to sound tuning in headphones in my experience, because we know that a slight boost in treble can give the illusion of the vocals being upfront as well as the phone being detail/revealing and is a fairly common trick that is used by sound engineers, but this often comes with the "shhh" sibilance in Jpop female vocals which is very painful to listen to for long duration. However if you dial the treble back too much then the phone would often feel too warm/dark and that the bass overwhelms and drowns out the vocal. In lots of headphones/IEMs I tried most non-Japanese makers do not factor in this issue and thus most Western brand headphones rarely suits my listening preference for a phone which strikes the correct balance between a smooth treble response that's not too dark while also not bright to the point of getting that "shhh" sibilance. Thankfully I don't have to search anymore after I got my fully sound customised Just ear MH1 several years ago, I haven't found anything better suit to my personal taste since then and I suspect I would never find one from any other IEM either.

With that said I'm still interested in trying out new phones, sometimes you still want that mix up for a change of pace. This is why after I bought my Just ear I still bought the KSE1200 system because electstat accuracy and speed is pretty much unrivalled by any other drivers, but even the KSE1200 doesn't do vocals or overall musicality balance as perfect to me as my MH1 for the music I listen to simply due to the voicing of the headphone. When I demoed the earlier version of the Z1R there are some quantities of it which reminds me of Just ear tuning, namely the MH2 Club tune, this is why I'm still very interested to see what the final product will be like just out of curiosity.

 

[jmills8]

There's no standard when it comes to mixing in Jpop, however there is one constant which is that the "sh" sound in the Japanese syllables sa/shi/su/se/so often causes sibilance if a phone is too treble focused as the sibalance is said to be around the 8kHz~10kHz range for the average female pronunciation of the sound. This actually poses a problem when it comes to sound tuning in headphones in my experience, because we know that a slight boost in treble can give the illusion of the vocals being upfront as well as the phone being detail/revealing and is a fairly common trick that is used by sound engineers, but this often comes with the "shhh" sibilance in Jpop female vocals which is very painful to listen to for long duration. However if you dial the treble back too much then the phone would often feel too warm/dark and that the bass overwhelms and drowns out the vocal. In lots of headphones/IEMs I tried most non-Japanese makers do not factor in this issue and thus most Western brand headphones rarely suits my listening preference for a phone which strikes the correct balance between a smooth treble response that's not too dark while also not bright to the point of getting that "shhh" sibilance. Thankfully I don't have to search anymore after I got my fully sound customised Just ear MH1 several years ago, I haven't found anything better suit to my personal taste since then and I suspect I would never find one from any other IEM either.

With that said I'm still interested in trying out new phones, sometimes you still want that mix up for a change of pace. This is why after I bought my Just ear I still bought the KSE1200 system because electstat accuracy and speed is pretty much unrivalled by any other drivers, but even the KSE1200 doesn't do vocals or overall musicality balance as perfect to me as my MH1 for the music I listen to simply due to the voicing of the headphone. When I demoed the earlier version of the Z1R there are some quantities of it which reminds me of Just ear tuning, namely the MH2 Club tune, this is why I'm still very interested to see what the final product will be like just out of curiosity.

Just Ear Club iem sounded very nice, better than all the iems I demoed this year. I would buy it in universal form but its only made in custom.

 

[Redcarmoose]

The IER-Z1R is shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Makes it all more.........interesting. Said flagship introduced with it’s monitor style brothers, already on the market, yet the flagship remains elusive and in the dark..............a legend only.

 

[nanaholic]

Speaking of Japanese tuning, I also want to mention that besides the Solaris the Victor HA-FW10000 was the other IEM that left an impression on me a couple of weeks ago when I went to Headphone Matsuri, but the voicing between the two are worlds apart. The Victor wood flagship is a soothing, polite, classy and mature sounding phone with a huge sense of space, whereas the Solaris was very energetic, upfront and full of impact. What's great about both is that they had - as one of my friend would say - an outstanding personality. The IER-Z1R is going to be competing with these two phones mainly I reckon, and from memory the Z1R's sound sort of slots right in between these two extremes. Also in terms of exterior design they are also very far apart, as you have the classy and warm looking wood with the Victor, verse the modern metal of the Sony and CA. Personally speaking with respect to the music I listen to, the Victor is more to my taste (I tried it at e-earphones again today) over the Solaris - and that was using the SE of my 1Z against the balance connection of the Solaris using CA's best cable at Headphone Matsuri so I can only imagine what it would be like if I can use the Victor on balance, and I'm quite attracted to the handcraft of the Victor to the point where I can actually see myself owning the Victor because it has a different enough sound to what I have in my collection that makes it a good compliment, so now I'd really like to compare the Z1R against the Victor when both are more available widely.

However the most interesting to me is that these new TOTL IEMs are either pure dynamic as in the Victor, or hybrid, as in the Z1R and Solaris. It seems that makers are getting back into and making exciting breakthroughs with dynamic drivers either in design and/or building materials such that we are getting new levels of performances in packages that didn't exists before. As a fan of dynamic drivers it's definitely exciting times to see we are finally out of the "more BA driver" phase.