Nice, congrats!
How do you like them so far? Do you still hear spikes in the treble? I love the treble but my ears are nearly 50 years old so maybe not the best for comparison. For me, it‘s too early for a final verdict (honeymoon phase....) but so far, I‘m impressed. A/B‘d today with my Fostex TH900. Love both but the bass with the Sony‘s is even punchier. Didn‘t think an IEM could go that far.
I‘m also a treble and soundstage fan (love the HD800S) and the Z1R does a really great job for an IEM! Like mentioned often for the mids, there is a dip at around 2.7khz. I eq that, along with minimal bass and treble gain = sooo nice!
After a little tip rolling they are now perfectly comfortable for me. Started as always with size L silicon tips and it was a real pain. Thought I‘ll have to send them back. Then I switched between ML and M. M didn‘t give me the optimal seal but ML is perfect for comfort & seal. You really need to switch a couple of times to find the perfect match.
My ears seem to be contrary to the popular consensus and my initial reaction was my Nios + mx had the edge over the Z1Rs - and after having spent alot more time with them I'm still of this opinion (including the Nio with the m15 apex (which is my preference)).
The Nios seem brighter with better mids to my ears - I like to hear words when they're meant to be heard - eg the ansaphone message in the chromatics "there's a light out on the horizon". Or "aound for the aesthetic" by VANT.... Nio just does it better imo.
I completely agree with the consensus re the bass - Z1R is better/more controlled but not by much.
I don't like to eq - prefer bit perfect. No spikes in the treble for my 54 year ears. Comfort and seal is fine now I've done some tip rolling - smaller is better.
Honestly - if I'd got the Z1Rs first I would have stopped looking but I was put off by the fit issues reported by people and the Nios just looked like they'd be really comfortable (which they are) and up my street re the bass- I wasn't expecting to get everything else too - mids and highs (both IEMs)! Shocker!
Unfortunately for my pocket I got the Nios first; but I just had to audition the Z1Rs because of all the positive reviews everywhere.
They're sufficiently different and both excellent to justify me keeping both.
But if I could only keep one pair it would be the Nios.
Finally, anyone reading these posts and holding off on pressing the trigger on a kilobuck iem like either of these because you can't imagine they will be much better than say the fearless s8pro (circa £400 retail) or acscustom emotions (circa £800 retail), which I bought, don't worry. They are!
If you can get hold of something like this do it - you won't be disappointed!
Not maybe worth twice as much but a significant jump up in quality - like moving from a standard definition tv to HDTV, except for your
's