A friend of mine recently got a pair of Sony Z1R in a trade and has let me borrow them for a few days. I've not been a Sony fan for decades. Back when the ES line was introduced I thought it was over-priced (of course, that was before I had a real job, so everything was over-priced) and I didn't really like any of their "regular" components. He's let me borrow a couple other pair of Sony IEMs recently, and each of them was, "meh" to me. Combine that with the notorious fit issues and you could have knocked me over with a feather when I liked the Z1R. I think I'll even start eating Life cereal! How's that for dating yourself?
For me the fit isn't problematic. I got secure fits with both Spin Fits (which I use for everything) as well as original Spiral Dots (my previous go-to). Getting the sound pipes deep enough for a good seal did result in mild discomfort, but I listened to them for four hours continuously at work this morning and enjoyed it quite a lot. The overall sound is more analytical and sharper than I'm used to from my Trio, but not fatiguing to me. They are fairly even top to bottom to my ears. Bass is an interesting combination of deep and extended while still being lean. I'll chalk that up to quick decay perhaps. I need to listen to some acoustic jazz music where the bassist really attacks the strings to hear the strings rattle. Treble is clear and crystalline. I don't think "forward" is the right adjective to use to compare the Z1R treble to the Trio. The two differ in a similar way to well-executed titanium and silk tweeters. Mids are bright, not lush, but overall tonality is musical. I need to get my "audition" play list out again and listen to some well-worn tracks. I haven't challenged the Z1R with deepest bass, bass detail retrieval, vocals, or treble I know to be well recorded yet.
I switched to my Trio, with the Custom Arts tips, and listened for a few minutes before lunch. The Trio are more relaxed than the Z1R. I think I hear all the details through both IEMs, so I think the Z1R are more analytical with more separation between the notes while the Trio are more relaxed. I have a hard time here because I'd would think you'd lose some detail retrieval if your IEM was skewed to the soft/ musical side rather than the sharp/ analytical side of the spectrum but I think both the Trio and Z1R have great technicals. I'm glad I get to keep the Z1R for a few days. They are fun to listen to.
