Second trial different opinion. Thins time I used my (awesome) Dethronray DTR1 DAP which drives these like a charm in high gain. Barely at half the volume, and everything sounds well controlled. Recommended to Z1R users for on the go.
This tells me the first I had try at the Sony store was defective or that the WM1Z is not powerful enough.
The Z1R sounds great. Space, bass, resolution, everything. Such air and openness, never seen that in an IEM. But this I knew.
My surprise are the mids. They are indeed a bit thin but only slightly so, so I guess this is back on the list.
A bit huge though. Still very comfortable but huge.
Second trial different opinion. Thins time I used my (awesome) Dethronray DTR1 DAP which drives these like a charm in high gain. Barely at half the volume, and everything sounds well controlled. Recommended to Z1R users for on the go.
This tells me the first I had try at the Sony store was defective or that the WM1Z is not powerful enough.
The Z1R sounds great. Space, bass, resolution, everything. Such air and openness, never seen that in an IEM. But this I knew.
My surprise are the mids. They are indeed a bit thin but only slightly so, so I guess this is back on the list.
A bit huge though. Still very comfortable but huge.
Second trial different opinion. Thins time I used my (awesome) Dethronray DTR1 DAP which drives these like a charm in high gain. Barely at half the volume, and everything sounds well controlled. Recommended to Z1R users for on the go.
This tells me the first I had try at the Sony store was defective or that the WM1Z is not powerful enough.
The Z1R sounds great. Space, bass, resolution, everything. Such air and openness, never seen that in an IEM. But this I knew.
My surprise are the mids. They are indeed a bit thin but only slightly so, so I guess this is back on the list.
A bit huge though. Still very comfortable but huge.
I always felt some of the Walkman 1Z firmwares.....especially 3.01 were way too bass heavy for the IER-Z1R; making it appear slow and unresponsive in bass-land. 3.02 seems nice as well as offering expanded soundstage making the big IER-Z1R stage seem even bigger. The 1Z could be on the edge of not being powerful enough, though I feel it’s on the better side of that edge?
Nice to have your liking of the IER-Z1R. It’s slowly getting the respect it deserves at Head-Fi. But I have to agree that we can only judge whole systems not part of audio systems. That simple concept seems to be the cause of 1/4 of the confusion at Head-Fi.
I know I sound crazy. But maybe you would hear an improvement with a 1Z now? It’s like why buy a full-size headphone system; that your not even sure your going to like? When you could upgrade your IER-Z1R experience?
A couple of pages ago I asked for some advice about which full size headphone would give me the same listening experience as the IER-Z1R. Well, after some research on my own I went today to my local hi-fi dealer to try some stuff on. I'm gonna keep the story short and say that the thing that came closest (an was maybe better in some ways) was the combo of HE1000SE and Hugo2. The Arya was also very close, I would need more time to decide between it and the bigger sister, but I'm fairly certain that the HE1000SE sounded a bit clearer to me, which I prefer.
But! At 3,500 + 2,200 Euro for my preferred combo, I think this is insane and completely unjustified by the technology (the build quality is especially disappointing).
The second takeaway is that for the first time I actually heard a distinctive difference between sources. I was initially auditioning the headphones on a iDSD Micro BL, which I thought was fine with all the IEMs I tried it with and sounded pretty much the same as some very expensive DAPs. However, all the headphones I tried (btw, that would be the Hifiman Arya, Focal Clear and Audeze LCD-X) sounded a bit muffled. So I asked my guy to let me try another amp just to see if the sound clears up. So he gave me the Hugo2. Now, I didn't A/B or anything like that, but as soon as I switched to the new amp that's exactly what happened: the LCD-X and Arya became clearer and more defined (I had given up on the Clear by that point).
So, there you go, I might have to update my signature to specify that I hear almost no difference between sources only when it comes to IEMs.
Your spelling is elementary too but DTR1 is not bright at all. It is more powerful, but it would have made sense for the IER-Z1R to pair well with WM1Z. Once again, maybe the first one I have tried was defective, it was the Sony store and it was worn out with cables glued to the IEM.
Your spelling is elementary too but DTR1 is not bright at all. It is more powerful, but it would have made sense for the IER-Z1R to pair well with WM1Z. Once again, maybe the first one I have tried was defective, it was the Sony store and it was worn out with cables glued to the IEM.
Your spelling is elementary too but DTR1 is not bright at all. It is more powerful, but it would have made sense for the IER-Z1R to pair well with WM1Z. Once again, maybe the first one I have tried was defective, it was the Sony store and it was worn out with cables glued to the IEM.
Second trial different opinion. Thins time I used my (awesome) Dethronray DTR1 DAP which drives these like a charm in high gain. Barely at half the volume, and everything sounds well controlled. Recommended to Z1R users for on the go.
This tells me the first I had try at the Sony store was defective or that the WM1Z is not powerful enough.
The Z1R sounds great. Space, bass, resolution, everything. Such air and openness, never seen that in an IEM. But this I knew.
My surprise are the mids. They are indeed a bit thin but only slightly so, so I guess this is back on the list.
A bit huge though. Still very comfortable but huge.
I know I sound crazy. But maybe you would hear an improvement with a 1Z now? It’s like why buy a full-size headphone system; that your not even sure your going to like? When you could upgrade your IER-Z1R experience?
You may be right, but the only reason I even considered trying a new amp is because the headphones sounded a bit off. With the IER-Z1R and ZX-300 nothing sounds off to me, in fact it's pretty great in all aspects. I remember trying the Kann Cube with the Z1R and thinking that it sounded a bit different (harder hitting bass that obstructed a bit the clarity in the mids and highs), but it wasn't extremely obvious, so if you weren't looking for the difference, you might think there is none. And it wasn't immediately clear which one was better too. Whereas with the Arya, it just sounded like a better headphone when I switched to the Hugo2. Like a veil had been lifted.
So the reason I was looking at a full-size option was not because I am unhappy with the Z1R, I'm just interested in trying a different "delivery" experience. It's definitely not something I need, I'm just curious. And if it turns out that I need to spend $6k to get something I actually enjoy without reservations, then screw that. I can wait a few years until the industry comes to its senses... and if it doesn't, that's fine too. And just to make it clear, I don't mind spending a lot of money (money I don't currently have, but anyway ), but I do mind spending a lot of money on something I don't think is worth it. The HE1000SE probably costs no more than $200 to make and I refuse to allow myself to be robbed like that.
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but DTR1 is not bright at all. It is more powerful, but it would have made sense for the IER-Z1R to pair well with WM1Z. Once again, maybe the first one I have tried was defective, it was the Sony store and it was worn out with cables glued to the IEM.
