[giorgoxxi]

Which airport and was there some promotion or special offer ?

 
Any airport with a Dixons Travel will have these headphones for £269.99 (RRP is £329). You don't have to quote any special offer. Just call beforehand to check for stock and have it reserved.

 

[GrussGott]

  Bought the MDR-1000x yesterday from the airport, there is a nice £60 discount compared to Amazon here in the UK.
 
Compared to the QC35 (which I trialled at a store):
 
- The QC35 are slightly more comfortable as they are lighter.
- The build quality of the Sony's is better
- The Sony's sounds much better. The QC35 audio sounded a bit too compressed via BT. It doesn't support AptX which my phone does. The wired QC25 sounded much better in comparison. The Sony on the other hand was a noticeable improvement over BT in terms of sound quality. Wired through my HTC 10 (and its built-in amp) sounded even slightly better (not much more though).
- The touch features on the Sony are great and work really well.
- Noice cancelling on the Sony works better because it does a better job at muting voices, something the QC35 seemed to struggle.
- BT pairing on the Sony is much quicker than with the Bose, but then again the Bose was in a store with loads of BT interference.
 
Overall the Sony's are great so far, I just need to trial them longer to see how long they can stay on before they become uncomfortable. Glad I waited and didn't get the Bose.

 
GAH!  you're driving me nuts, this is exactly what I was hoping to hear ... If I had to list my disappointments with the Bose those three would be at the top.
 
I think the QC35s have trouble at BT pairing in noisy EMF environments - it took some finagling for me to get them to pair and they dropped out fast.  The B&W P7s are near instant which is unexpectedly quite luxurious.

 

[Onetwothree]

Bought the MDR-1000x yesterday from the airport, there is a nice £60 discount compared to Amazon here in the UK.

Compared to the QC35 (which I trialled at a store):

- The QC35 are slightly more comfortable as they are lighter.
- The build quality of the Sony's is better
- The Sony's sounds much better. The QC35 audio sounded a bit too compressed via BT. It doesn't support AptX which my phone does. The wired QC25 sounded much better in comparison. The Sony on the other hand was a noticeable improvement over BT in terms of sound quality. Wired through my HTC 10 (and its built-in amp) sounded even slightly better (not much more though).
- The touch features on the Sony are great and work really well.
- Noice cancelling on the Sony works better because it does a better job at muting voices, something the QC35 seemed to struggle.
- BT pairing on the Sony is much quicker than with the Bose, but then again the Bose was in a store with loads of BT interference.

Overall the Sony's are great so far, I just need to trial them longer to see how long they can stay on before they become uncomfortable. Glad I waited and didn't get the Bose.

How much better would you say the Sony's are in muting voices? Is it a noticeable difference or only a slight difference?

And do you hear any hiss from the Sonys? Some people are saying that the QC35's have a hiss. I've heard people say the Sonys have more hiss, others say they have less hiss.

I had the QC20's and the QC25's for a short while and my biggest disappointment with them was that they did very little to mute voices. Ear muffs for $25 worked just as good at reducing office noise like voices when I only wanted peace and quiet and not music .

The QC25's were just about dead silent with the ANC on though, I was impressed by that and their ability to drown at fan noise was amazing.

The QC20's had just as good ANC but they had a nasty white hiss.

 

[hoffstetter]

.

Awesome good to know !! Was this with NC on wired ? There are many NCs that for some reason can't handle extra bass or amping when the NC is engaged .. this was my worry wired both with and without NC and pushed !

 
NC and wired works. Tested on my flight. 
 
I was able to create some distortion on the 1000x when I was on the plane. The engine was very loud today to the point where I could feel/hear it rumbling even under the ANC (my wife even complained about it under the QC35). The ANC did a great job subduing 90% of the noise, but I had to make up the other 10% by cranking up the volume on the Mojo.
 
Doing so I created some distortion and crackle. These were actually more prominent on the mids and slightly screechy highs. I think some of this is the Mojo's signature pushing those out too much when the volume is high. I will test with some more bass heavy stuff to see what happens.
 
So you can't amp these like crazy, but I seem to have hit a limit on how much you can under some very high exterior sound duress and cranking up the Mojo. Under normal BT circumstances, you won't hit distortion. The volume in the end was too high anyway and I turned it down a couple notches and the distortion went away.
 
Would like to hear some other results of amping the 1000x while ANC on. Just one pea in the pod here and I'm sure other equipment could yield other results. So far extremely pleased with the 1000x!

 

[LajostheHun]

Tested on my Chord Mojo. 1000x Drivers are pretty solid I'd say. Pushed the volume until the point my eardrums were uncomfortable. Drivers handled the additional volume just fine. Bass did not crackle. 

The Mojo DAC added additional depth to the bass and expanded the soundstage a bit. Basically the same result as I always get adding the Mojo in between my iPhone and my cans. Definitely an improvement over Bluetooth.

Current feel is that these will be the ANC bluetooth headset that I keep. Will report back after my flight tomorrow. 

Was this in powered mode or passive?

 

[hoffstetter]

Was this in powered mode or passive?

ANC was on, so powered if that's what you mean. Not using the upscaling feature on the 1000x though. 

 

[mickeydean]

If you ignore personal financial situations and just consider function (sounds, connectivity, and NC ability) would the above reviewers rate the Sony MDR-1000's as being worth the premium (if they're $699 AUD compared to $499 AUD for the Bose QC35s) over the Bose QC35?

 

[bedlamite]

  If you ignore personal financial situations and just consider function (sounds, connectivity, and NC ability) would the above reviewers rate the Sony MDR-1000's as being worth the premium (if they're $699 AUD compared to $499 AUD for the Bose QC35s) over the Bose QC35?

For another AUD$200? Hell no. Sorry, but that markup is insane...I'd just go with the 35s in this case.
 
The 1000x's are approximately USD$30 more than the QC35s here in Singapore, which is a reasonable markup. 

 

[GrussGott]

  For another AUD$200? Hell no. Sorry, but that markup is insane...I'd just go with the 35s in this case.
 
The 1000x's are approximately USD$30 more than the QC35s here in Singapore, which is a reasonable markup. 

 
It's $50 more in the US, but if they sound better than the QC35s and cut out voices, then it's worth it for me.
 
As a side note, here in the US, Crutchfield just shipped my 1000Xs - so prior to the release date.

 

[hoffstetter]

About the ANC. It's hard to quantify which is better, Bose or Sony. Both are damn good at their primary function of blocking noise.

I did notice more of a "suction" feeling with the Bose. Almost too much for me, I have some vertigo problems and the Bose caused my inner ear issues even walking around. The 1000x are quiet with less of that suction feeling for me and my vertigo responded better. Not really a knock on Bose because the ANC is fantastic, but from a physical perspective I have a preference to Sony.

 

[giorgoxxi]

How much better would you say the Sony's are in muting voices? Is it a noticeable difference or only a slight difference?

And do you hear any hiss from the Sonys? Some people are saying that the QC35's have a hiss. I've heard people say the Sonys have more hiss, others say they have less hiss.

I had the QC20's and the QC25's for a short while and my biggest disappointment with them was that they did very little to mute voices. Ear muffs for $25 worked just as good at reducing office noise like voices when I only wanted peace and quiet and not music .

The QC25's were just about dead silent with the ANC on though, I was impressed by that and their ability to drown at fan noise was amazing.

The QC20's had just as good ANC but they had a nasty white hiss.

 
Regarding voice muting, it is noticeable but not a big difference.
 
You can only hear a slight hiss from the Sonys with the ANC turned on in an extremely quiet environment, in which case you should just turn the ANC off anyways (something you can't do with the Bose)

 

[giorgoxxi]

  If you ignore personal financial situations and just consider function (sounds, connectivity, and NC ability) would the above reviewers rate the Sony MDR-1000's as being worth the premium (if they're $699 AUD compared to $499 AUD for the Bose QC35s) over the Bose QC35?

 
That difference in money is not justified. I actually paid £20 LESS here in the UK for the Sonys so it was an absolute no-brainer.

 

[giorgoxxi]

   
GAH!  you're driving me nuts, this is exactly what I was hoping to hear ... If I had to list my disappointments with the Bose those three would be at the top.
 
I think the QC35s have trouble at BT pairing in noisy EMF environments - it took some finagling for me to get them to pair and they dropped out fast.  The B&W P7s are near instant which is unexpectedly quite luxurious.

 
I was actually surprised at how quickly the Sonys paired. I can't remember ever a BT device pairing so fast (mostly within a second or two).

 

[gabey]

hmm - so my biggest gripes with the QC35s are the voices you can hear still and the sound quality being flat.

I don't have any issue wearing the QC35s for hours. That was always a problem with most over the hear headsets that 1) my ears end up hurting & 2) Sweat/hot

How are the sonys ?

 

[dbdynsty25]

I currently have the MDR-1ABT and I love them, but I'm really looking forward to grabbing a pair of the 1000Xs...the NC and Ambient noise features look like killers.  Can't wait till these things release.