[bedlamite]

Wireless really is the future, as much as audiophiles will want to resist it. Wired gear will still rule for home listening, but wireless gear is so handy when you're out and about. Purists will complain about audio quality, I'm just happy I can't tell the difference anymore, with a decent aptX headphone. Fat lot of good audio quality will do for you, when you're sandwiched between noisy commuters on a screeching train ride.

 

[Buddhahacker]

  Wireless really is the future, as much as audiophiles will want to resist it. Wired gear will still rule for home listening, but wireless gear is so handy when you're out and about. Purists will complain about audio quality, I'm just happy I can't tell the difference anymore, with a decent aptX headphone. Fat lot of good audio quality will do for you, when you're sandwiched between noisy commuters on a screeching train ride.

I'm finding that I am using my BT headsets at home more due to the convenience.  I just have to watch out for when my wife starts talking to me and I don't answer because I have my "stupid headphones on." 

 

[Buddhahacker]

Just noticed that the Amazon Marketplace vendor "Secondipity" is selling refurbed 1000x for $299 w/free shipping.  I purchased my MDR-Z7 from them and the product looked nearly brand new with all of the cables included.  They were fast as well.  If you click on their name in my note it will take you the their reviews and you can click on their storefront link towards the top of the page.  It looks like they do a lot of refurbs for Sony.

 

[kugino]

  Just noticed that the Amazon Marketplace vendor "Secondipity" is selling refurbed 1000x for $299 w/free shipping.  I purchased my MDR-Z7 from them and the product looked nearly brand new with all of the cables included.  They were fast as well.  If you click on their name in my note it will take you the their reviews and you can click on their storefront link towards the top of the page.  It looks like they do a lot of refurbs for Sony.

yeah, looks pretty good. i ended up getting an amazon warehouse deals refurb in "like new" condition. arrives tomorrow so i'll see how it looks. it was $299 as well...

 

[kugino]

yeah, agree with you guys about using wireless headphones more and more these days. i think i posted earlier that most of my listening tends to be via wireless...either connected to my iphone or to my macbook. everything's so portable these days it's hard to be tethered. 
 
now i just hope the 1000x will be everything i've read (sans squeak, of course)

 

[beowulf]

  yeah, agree with you guys about using wireless headphones more and more these days. i think i posted earlier that most of my listening tends to be via wireless...either connected to my iphone or to my macbook. everything's so portable these days it's hard to be tethered. 

 
The convenience is great. But it's still a huge gap between the best wireless models and good wired ones. I don't see myself having one replace the other except in cases when wireless is a huge plus.
 
Changing subject, I posted this before, but for everyone still annoyed with squeaking, take some comfort knowing that even headphones costing ten times more ($4000) can be... well, special in that way. Embrace the squeakiness or get the sandpaper.

 

 

[DoKaTSuYa]

Hello, how is the difference between LDAC and Apt-X  with this headset ? A real difference or placebo effect ?
 
And, do we need the stock player to make LDAC works ? or any music player works with LDAC ? like JetAudio, PowerAMP

 

[kugino]

just received my refurb pair i got on amazon. it looks brand new...and as it's my first ANC headphone, i'm pretty impressed. with ANC on, i can hear my kid screaming, but don't really hear the TV and no road noise and no refrigerator noise, etc. i can imagine how useful they are on airplanes...i'm usually a custom IEM guy on airplanes, but now i'm looking forward to my next flight just to use these.
 
as far as sound goes, haven't listened enough to give a detailed review, but perfectly passable so far. 
 
comfort is really good. i have pretty flat ears but can feel them close to the inner cloth of the cups...those with ears that protrude will definitely hit the fabric inside the cups. headband feels a tad hard. they're not the lightest things (not lighter than the jabra move, for example), but as i've spent hours with the he-6 on my head in the past, i'm sure i can wear these things for hours with very little fatigue. 
 
looks are perfectly fine. i got the grey ones as i have way too many black headphones. and i  wouldn't feel dumb wearing these out in public. i've worn akg k-1000s out in public before so these should be no problem. 

 

[HappyFace]

Hello, first time poster here.
 
Here is my brief review of MDR-1000X. I have purchased them on German Amazon.
 
Sound
I am not an audiophile by any means and the only HP I can compare these to are budget Sennheiser HD 215 II.
Over bluetooth MDR-1000X sounds a bit worse than wired HD 215. These are my first "serious" bluetooth headphones so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It's a bit disappointing but the sound quality is ok-ish.
Over wired, quality wise they sound about the same as HD 215 except for bass which is kinda non existent on HD 215. The sound character is different of course but it doesn't occur to me the sound is any better despite MDR-1000X being 5 times the cost.
 
Build
The leather polish on earcups is nice. The "creaking" issue is real and is coming from the plastic construction exactly as already mentioned in this thread. To reproduce, simply move your jaws Luckily, it is very easy to deal with. I temprorarily fixed mine using two tiny bits of toilet paper (creaking completely eliminated)... I will buy a dry lube and hopefully it will be just as effective and more permanent.
I wasn't really expecting the creaking noises from HP at this price range. Really disappointing but easily solvable with some DIY.
 
As for the rest, it's solid. They look decent and are comfortable enough for longer wearing sessions.
 
ANC
I am unfortunate enough to live in an aparment with a psychopatic stomping upstairs neighbour and bad sound isolation overall. ANC was the main reason of my purchase and boy did they deliver. I would love to have some direct comparison with Bose QC35 but the ANC here is trully brilliant and saved my sanity. I imagine the voice mode is good for traveling and the ambient one feels a bit gimmicky. Seriously I am not that lazy to just lift one earcup especially when I need to do the same body motion for ambient mode activation + the noticeable delay before it gets activated.
If no music is playing and ANC is on, one can hear the background white noise but it doesn't really bother me since I am forced to sleep with earplugs and a speaker blasting brown noise because of psycho neighbour
 
Overall I am suspecting these headphones are not built to last and will self-destruct just few days after warranty period. Still, I don't regret my purchase mainly because of its superb ANC.

 

[FenderP]

  Hello, how is the difference between LDAC and Apt-X  with this headset ? A real difference or placebo effect ?
 
And, do we need the stock player to make LDAC works ? or any music player works with LDAC ? like JetAudio, PowerAMP

 
Your source has to support LDAC, and that right now is only Xperia phones and various models of Sony Walkmans.

 

[rkw]

LDAC was developed by Sony and they couldn't convince anybody else to adopt it. Only Sony makes headphones and players that support LDAC. It is a dead end technology, especially now that Bluetooth 5 has been finalized.
https://www.bluetooth.com/news/pressreleases/2016/12/07/bluetooth-5-now-available

 

[Aischilos]

And how exactly is ldac undone by Bluetooth 5?

 

[BaTou069]

   
... a speaker blasting brown noise because of psycho neighbour
 

 
Do you mean that you have nazi neighbours or what do you mean by brown?

 

[Graham Baker]

And how exactly is ldac undone by Bluetooth 5?

 
Because BT5 will have better specs than Ldac and it will eventually become commonplace, unlike Sony's proprietary stuff that has not and will not catch on... 

 

[Graham Baker]

And how exactly is ldac undone by Bluetooth 5?

 
Because BT5 will have better specs than Ldac and it will eventually become commonplace, unlike Sony's proprietary stuff that has not and will not catch on...