[Scaroya]

I use Sony cable from MDR-10RC (mic cable and normal cable), fit perfectly. Mdr-10RC isn't expensive headphone (35€ on amazon flash sale).

 

[Untameable]

Okay here's my quick review after two days of use. Remember I'm a newbie who otherwise just uses $0 ear pods and a $30 HD 201 with a half broken cord.
 
* Noise cancelling is awesome. I couldn't hear any traffic as I walked to work. However there is occasional wind noise on the mic just from walking.
* Inside the building all voices and mechanical keyboards are GONE. Yay! However if you walk around you get a weird wobbling pressure noise as the headphones don't seem to be able to keep a seal very well despite feeling firm on the head.
* I wore them for 8 hours yesterday. The top head padding gets uncomfortable because I'm bald but it will probably go away soon enough.
* I didn't notice any creaks in the first day. However it all comes down to how much you move your head. I wore them while making breakfast this morning and listening to an audiobook and it was creak city and extremely obvious to my ears. It was really disappointing.
* The touch controls are SO convenient they totally make the entire headphone. "Ah I'd never use them," you'd think. But I must have used them 100 times just skipping tracks, pausing, and chatting with people in the halls, and answering calls. No buttons. Awesome! However I did activate them once or twice with my shoulder and when taking them off my head.
 
Now about sound quality, something I am absolutely not qualified to lecture you on.
 
1. I felt like my HD201 were better when plugged into my PS Vita vs Bluetooth on these. But it was really hard to tell because it was quite fiddly to switch them in and out and I couldn't control the game music.
2. Next I tried my laptop and with both plugged in hardwired. You'd think I'm crazy but the HD 201 sounded better. However what I discovered was that by turning on the Rock EQ the Sony suddenly blew the HD 201 out of the water (even if the HD 201 had a Rock EQ). The Sony is so obviously the far more capable headphone but I think I really don't like the EQ built into the Sony.
3. I also tried the headphones on Bluetooth with my Mac. AOK just as if it were wired to me. Still required EQ adjustments.
 
This is all weird and new to me because I never use an EQ on anything. I'm sure some of you will be laughing. Now it's too bad that the EQs aren't built into the Sony and selectable. And I won't be able to do anything on my PS Vita. I will also need to work out how to do it on my iOS phone.

 

[going28]

New guy here.  Hi.  I got the MDR1000x's hoping to replace all my other daily wired (noise-cancelling and non-NC) headphones (PSB, Pryma, Bose) and these are the ones I'm happy to stick with.  Now I haven't compared these to the Bose QC35's, but I did have the QC25's, which were (wired, but) awesome.  Those were WAY lighter and more comfortable than these, and the noise-cancelling on the QC25's was more powerful, and there was NO noise.  The Sony's have just the slightest bit of "ssshhh" fuzz, but with music playing, the NC is great, and with all the fantastic control features, these win hands-down over Bose. The bass is great.  Not overwhelming, not boomy, very tight, and bassier than the Bose, Pryma's, and PSBs. Oh, and these respond amazingly to DAC/amp EQ.
I think the Pryma's and PSBs sound better, but these sound great (better wired and DAC'd) and are for daily-driven convenience in the office, studying, and playing electronic drums (without hearing the stick clicks!). I have to go wired for drums because there's too much delay with bluetooth.
These do get pretty uncomfortable after awhile, but a quick adjustment and I can keep going.  I haven't had much heat issue unless I'm getting hot drumming (sweat! ack!) or unless I'm drinking coffee or getting emotional, then I run hotter and these follow suit. But 99% of the time they're cool. Overall they're fantastic, and I'm happy to sell all my other gear (headphones AND DACs) to just have these. Also canceled my Tidal subscription to go back to Spotify (again, convenience) and I can't wait until Spotify goes lossless. Such a better service than Tidal. 

 

[Joddop1sksk]

Am I the only one who experience a noise in the left ear on pressure changes? For example on train when entering a tunnel or when an opposite train cross by. Is there something wrong with my unit?

 

[going28]

I feel like there's a slight pressure bias on the left side of my set.  Have you tried the noise-canceling optimizer?  Hold the NC button for 2 seconds and release, and see if it's any different afterward.  Maybe you're not getting an equivalent seal on the left side as the right?

 

[Joddop1sksk]

Tried the optimizer with no success. The noise is similar to the one you hear when pressing the earpad towards your head.
Thank you.

 

[John Milton]

Bought mine two weeks ago (second hand) and I have to say I am very impressed. It won the direct comparison in the store with the Sennheisers and B&W's so this will replace my broken B&W P5. As a commuter this is quite a leap forward. Suddenly there is peace and quiet during my travels and I actually get to hear the music. All else fades away.
 
BUT *****: Today I did find an instance where over bluetooth the Sony couldn't seem to handle the nuance of a piano song. There seems to be some soft veiled crackling. 
 
If anyone is willing to try this: When I play the Greg Barley song Moonbeams on Spotify (streaming quality extreme, bluetooth connection) on my MDR-1000X from my iPhone 6, the crackling starts at about the 30 second mark of the song. 
 
-Cabled, without power and with the 3,5mm cable it does not seem to occur (but sound isn't that great that way) 
-Cabled, with power and noise cancellation on it does not seem to occur. Quite a bit of hiss though, but that seems to be the recording. My AKG-701 and Denon 300 also had some hiss, especially the AKG
- Cabled, with power and noise cancellation off it does not seem to occur
 
So it does seem to be a BT issue. It is not just one earcup. both give this gentle crackle or static, hard describe but evidently there. And very annoying.
I can't test if this is the lower iPhone Bluetooth standard, since we don't have a device with higher bluetooth standards. NO APTX or LDAC yet in this household.

Anyone willing to try as well and post the results?

 

[aertus]

  Bought mine two weeks ago (second hand) and I have to say I am very impressed. It won the direct comparison in the store with the Sennheisers and B&W's so this will replace my broken B&W P5. As a commuter this is quite a leap forward. Suddenly there is peace and quiet during my travels and I actually get to hear the music. All else fades away.
 
BUT *****: Today I did find an instance where over bluetooth the Sony couldn't seem to handle the nuance of a piano song. There seems to be some soft veiled crackling. 
 
If anyone is willing to try this: When I play the Greg Barley song Moonbeams on Spotify (streaming quality extreme, bluetooth connection) on my MDR-1000X from my iPhone 6, the crackling starts at about the 30 second mark of the song. 
 
-Cabled, without power and with the 3,5mm cable it does not seem to occur (but sound isn't that great that way) 
-Cabled, with power and noise cancellation on it does not seem to occur. Quite a bit of hiss though, but that seems to be the recording. My AKG-701 and Denon 300 also had some hiss, especially the AKG
- Cabled, with power and noise cancellation off it does not seem to occur
 
So it does seem to be a BT issue. It is not just one earcup. both give this gentle crackle or static, hard describe but evidently there. And very annoying.
I can't test if this is the lower iPhone Bluetooth standard, since we don't have a device with higher bluetooth standards. NO APTX or LDAC yet in this household.

Anyone willing to try as well and post the results?

buy a sony xperia brah. you might not have this issue if the headphones support sonys ldac. 
 
also why are such expensive equipments like the akg headphones causing hisssing? thats alarming for such high price and reputation. 
 
i always try to recommend this to people as an alternative to bose. as a commuter I don't like bulky stuff would prefer IEM's with passive or active NC because i hate carrying aroudn big stuff. But if im on a plane I would imagine these are beast headphones. 

 

[Godel Von]

It seems than QC35

 

[Maxi]

buy a sony xperia brah 

 


Or NWZ-A15, that too has LDAC (will appear after running firmware update 1.10 if not preinstalled already).

 

[Giani]

@John Milton. I absolutely hear the same distortion only via bluetooth, spotify extreme, no EQ activated. Everything fine via cable. Iphone 6s plus. Same with ipad mini 2. I live in the Netherlands and someone on coolblue.nl has the same problems 'distortion via bluetooth with piano music'.
Another example in which this problem occurs: 'are you with me'- herald van lennep piano edit-( lost frequencies) on spotify (extreme setting) starting the distorting in the ear cups after the first 30 seconds of this song. Really really very annoying. I really think this is a bug in this otherwise beautiful headphone. And no: I don't expect to have to buy additional Sony LDAC gear for flawless bluetooth for such a high end heafphone. Anyone contacted Sony engineers to fix this issue?

 

[frix]

I agree, there is some distortion with certain songs over bt. I Would love to know if aptx or ldac devices dont have this issue.

 

[Maddog510]

I see no one in here has mentioned that Sony is bringing LDAC to the next version of Android which should be released in the Fall! That's a very welcome addition & now I'm looking forward to getting the most from my 1000Xs.

 

[Maxi]

I see no one in here has mentioned that Sony is bringing LDAC to the next version of Android which should be released in the Fall! That's a very welcome addition & now I'm looking forward to getting the most from my 1000Xs.

 


You can be sure that there will be a volume limitation and constant nagging about hearing damage. Those were the reasons why I chose a device where those stupid things can be disabled. Seriously, anything other than modern overly compressed pop will not have enough volume and don't even get me started with live recordings.

 

[MrExistor]

As a student, my budget was limited. After reading lots of review, I pull the trigger to buy it. But am having an issue with it not sure if it just me or normal. While there is still creaking issue, but it only occur if I tilt my head forward down or upwards 90 degree. Jaw movement and walking don't cause the creaky sound. I have two issue. One is when I extend the headphone, at the 4th level it feels abit rough. And when playing music, usually the vocal is at center but mdr 1000x gave me sense that the vocal is that slightly to the right. Happen to all instruments that usually placed in the middle. I can verify is not my ear as when I switched back to V moda XS. The sound location are placed correctly. What could have caused this?

Product batch is January 2017.

I find the consistency of build quality of this headset is bad. I tried 3 set and all 3 set gives different issue. One bad sound, one headphone extender is rough, one is super tight.