[kamigouki]

Treble sparkle would be the depth and detail that come along with forward sounding highs that occur in the 5K and higher ranges of the frequency spectrum. That can be fatiguing to some, other love it (like fans of etymotics). This headphone (as with most of Sony's audio offerings and "house signature") have a roll off in the highs starting at about the 6K region and upward. This means that the very high frequency sounds are generally going to be less audible than other parts of the frequency spectrum. This is going to impact the sound of a lot of percussion instruments, ambient sounds, and other sounds that generate high frequency. It will make them sound less sharp. I like the way Sony has done it because the detail isn't lost in these regions at all, but it takes away some of the sharpness of these sounds and makes it more comfortable for longer listening sessions.

I'll be honest, there are times where I hear things people say and it sounds like they are just making things up. Really what it is is a way of describing how the frequency responses impact how they sound to people. If you ever watch any of the recent videos from lachlanlikesathing on youtube, you'll hear him use a lot of terms like this. As you get to experience a lot of different headphones and sound signatures, you'll get a feeling for how to describe how things sound to you. The jargon will start to make sense.

Welcome to the wonderful world of head-fi!

 
I was lost until you said "less audible", then you lost me again. does something sounding "forward" mean that it sounds like it is in front of you? like when a band is in front of you, that is where the sound is coming from? I know I will get hate for saying this, but it is hard to communicate with people around here sometimes, because all you get to do is read their words, and you can't hear their tone of voice, and the words come across as just so pompous. I am not meaning you, I am speaking in general terms.
 
in college, one of my engineering professors told us "you are going to be engineers, but most of the people you are going to speak with, will not be engineers, so learn to take what you know, and talk about it in a way that non-engineers can understand." I wish there was a way I could say that to the audiophile world, without sounding like an *******.

 

[433521]

Well, can this 'quality' of the sound be measured with traditional thd measurements?

 

[GrindedDown]

I was lost until you said "less audible", then you lost me again. does something sounding "forward" mean that it sounds like it is in front of you? like when a band is in front of you, that is where the sound is coming from? I know I will get hate for saying this, but it is hard to communicate with people around here sometimes, because all you get to do is read their words, and you can't hear their tone of voice, and the words come across as just so pompous. I am not meaning you, I am speaking in general terms.

in college, one of my engineering professors told us "you are going to be engineers, but most of the people you are going to speak with, will not be engineers, so learn to take what you know, and talk about it in a way that non-engineers can understand." I wish there was a way I could say that to the audiophile world, without sounding like an *******.

With forward sounds I just mean that if something sounds forward, the volume level of that frequency range is higher and thusly more audible than other parts of the sounds. As an experiment, open up the equalizer on spotify or your music app of choice and try adjusting the different frequencies so they are higher or lower. If someone says that the mids are forward, that means the volume of the 500-2K range is higher. If someone says the mids sound veiled, try lowering the volumes of those ranges.

Yeah I sort of agree with you in a lot of ways. I think it takes a lot of the fun and simplicity out of buying headphones when people are focusing so much on these fancy descriptions. At its core, its really just peoples way of communicating how things sounds. Some take it too far or get lost in it. Others use it as a way of finding the sounds they like to make their buying decisions easier. There are some that get snobby about it too. Just take a look at how this community generaly regards the Beats headphones. There is a lot of distaste and hate from people who simply ignore why the average person may like headphones like that.

I would say that this community is wonderful if you stick with it. In general, people aren't trying to be pompous **********. They have simply learned ways to describe what they like from sound. Once I started learning these things for myself, it has made headphone shopping even more fun and listening very rewarding. I can truly seek out headphones I may really like or dislike without having to audition. It also helps me tell others how I think they sounds other than just "they sound great" or "not enough bass".

Cheers!

 

[GrindedDown]

Well, can this 'quality' of the sound be measured with traditional thd measurements?

Often times yes. A lot of what people are saying is simply their interpretation of what the measurements and charts will reveal. Other times the charts won't tell the whole story as certain sound qualities like soundstaging or air are impacted by the sum of the parts, or impacted by the build of the headphones (open back vs closed).

I would say that using people's narratives alongside the measurements is the best way to gain an understanding to how a headphone or speaker may sound. In the end though, it is all up to you.

 

[GrindedDown]

Back on topic, I am receiving the 1000x tomorrow and I cannot wait to run these through the paces. I will post my thoughts when I have had some time test everything out.

 

[kamigouki]

With forward sounds I just mean that if something sounds forward, the volume level of that frequency range is higher and thusly more audible than other parts of the sounds. As an experiment, open up the equalizer on spotify or your music app of choice and try adjusting the different frequencies so they are higher or lower. If someone says that the mids are forward, that means the volume of the 500-2K range is higher. If someone says the mids sound veiled, try lowering the volumes of those ranges.

Yeah I sort of agree with you in a lot of ways. I think it takes a lot of the fun and simplicity out of buying headphones when people are focusing so much on these fancy descriptions. At its core, its really just peoples way of communicating how things sounds. Some take it too far or get lost in it. Others use it as a way of finding the sounds they like to make their buying decisions easier. There are some that get snobby about it too. Just take a look at how this community generaly regards the Beats headphones. There is a lot of distaste and hate from people who simply ignore why the average person may like headphones like that.

I would say that this community is wonderful if you stick with it. In general, people aren't trying to be pompous **********. They have simply learned ways to describe what they like from sound. Once I started learning these things for myself, it has made headphone shopping even more fun and listening very rewarding. I can truly seek out headphones I may really like or dislike without having to audition. It also helps me tell others how I think they sounds other than just "they sound great" or "not enough bass".

Cheers!

 
this is seriously the most mature and relevant post I have ever read across the entire internet.
 
breaking into any new hobby or scene is difficult. everyone uses their own terminology for different things.
 
thank you for explaining forward and veiled. I seriously had no idea, and there is no resources for explaining it. I have yet to see an "audiophile for dummies", where it was actually written for people with no audio history.
 
my main issue so far when trying to communicate is, I have service related hearing loss. the natural frequencies that the machines that I worked on were loud, and prolonged exposure made those frequencies a bit difficult to hear. it isn't as if I am deaf, but some sounds will appear less loud to me than the average person. its like, how can you listen to perfectly flat headphones when your hearing isn't flat? does that make sense?

 

[steeves]

hello all
 
Can anyone tell me if the Sony MDR-100x (or any other for that matter) will connect to my Samsung 6xxx smart tv via bluetooth?
 
Thanks

 

[GrindedDown]

this is seriously the most mature and relevant post I have ever read across the entire internet.

breaking into any new hobby or scene is difficult. everyone uses their own terminology for different things.

thank you for explaining forward and veiled. I seriously had no idea, and there is no resources for explaining it. I have yet to see an "audiophile for dummies", where it was actually written for people with no audio history.

my main issue so far when trying to communicate is, I have service related hearing loss. the natural frequencies that the machines that I worked on were loud, and prolonged exposure made those frequencies a bit difficult to hear. it isn't as if I am deaf, but some sounds will appear less loud to me than the average person. its like, how can you listen to perfectly flat headphones when your hearing isn't flat? does that make sense?

While you may not be able to listen to perfectly flat headphones since your hearing isn't perfectly flat, that is actually the beauty of this community. If you can take the time to find out about the kind of sounds you like, you'll be able to find the headphones and speakers that are perfect for you, whether they are flat or not. That is my biggest, personal takeaway from this community. Through reading and listening, I have been able to discover the sound I like and don't like, but just as importantly, I have discovered why I do or don't like it. Now I don't need to bother experimenting with my money on headphones that can be expensive, but not to my tastes.

I would say to try and listen to as many pair of headphones as you personally can. Go to best buy and audition them, borrow them from friends and family, or whatever. Even if it is only for a few minutes. When your done with each pair, try to figure out whether you liked them or not and why. This will help you get closer to buying the perfect pair for you. This may also help you identify what parts of your hearing may have been impacted. You can then choose headphones that compensate for that or complement it.

 

[THFourteen]

Mine arrived yesterday (thanks Amazon Prime ). Went for black in the end, the beige ones were just a bit too beigy. Looks wise, they are fine, not as swish as my Momentums, and a little big as most NC headphones tend to be. Would have liked a splash of colour!
 
First impressions - the ambient noise mode works really well for me. I was watching Homeland in bed last night and my son started grumbling at 11:30 and i heard him through the monitor without any issues. This is great because it was my primary reason for wanting these. Next test will be tonight to see if i can still hear my wife talking to me when i'm playing something on the laptop and she is watching made in Chelsea or whatever rubbish on telly (urgh).
 
Pairing wise, i currently have them paired with my iPhone, ipad and laptop. Switching between them on the iPhone and ipad is pretty straightforward, you do have to go into the Bluetooth settings and "disconnect" and then connect them on the other device whenever you want to change. And the touch controls are fine to use - the only issue being when you accidentally activate them trying to take your headphones off.
 
Sound quality wise (source = Spotify on iPad, Extreme quality, AAC connection), I have no complaints so far. Have been mainly listening to trance this morning for which they are reasonably on par with my old Momentum 1.0s. I understand that the bass may not be "thumping" for some people, but for me it seems just on the right level not to overpower the other frequencies. With other music that's less electronic (say Stereophonics) I can definitely feel "something" missing or slightly muddled in comparision to the Momentums, I'm not sure exactly what though, i'm no audiophile, but is it just not quite as "clear" in the mids / highs?
 
The only down side (which i did know about before hand) is i would say these are very leaky. Have them on about 50% ipad volume with NC on, sat at my desk (admittedly silent) and i can use my iPhone to record the music if i hold it about 30cm away from my head (e.g. where someone might sit next to you on the train). I would need to never use these above 50% volume on the train, so will need to see if they are loud enough tomorrow.
 
Oh and no creaking so far for me.

 

[ucanuup]

Any of you hear a faint hiss in quite environment? Not the ordinary bluetooth current noise but more like a "wind " sound. And it only comes from right channel.

 

[THFourteen]

  Any of you hear a faint hiss in quite environment? Not the ordinary bluetooth current noise but more like a "wind " sound.

​With Noise Cancelling switched on? That's normal.

 

[ucanuup]

 
​With Noise Cancelling switched on? That's normal.

well I haven't heard the same sound with my qc35, and it's very annoying because a lot of time when I use nc I don't play music.

 

[GrindedDown]

TLDR at bottom

I finally received mine in the mail yesterday and have been using them as much as I can for the last 24 hours. I plan on writing a full review of these headphones in the near future after having more time with them.

Here are my initial impressions (listening was done on iPhone 6s Plus with Spotify Extreme and Sony A25.:

-Upon opening the box and first powering them on, I could tell I liked quality feel of the headphones. They feel rather solid and dense, have the right amount of heft to feel durable, but not to be heavy. The leather feels great.

SOUND:
-I am coming from the MDR1A (for sale in classifieds) and I loved those headphones. Upon first listen, they sounds great and clear with the sony house sound intact. It was missing a lot of the bass. Luckily with EQ on spotify and my Sony A25, they livened right up to be just good enough. I may get adventurous and try a bass mod in the future I don't know.

- Considering these are wireless, these sound damn good. This is a damn good pair of headphones wireless or not. Listening with the cable plugged in and the headphones powered on was also pretty damn good. Turning the power off and plugging into 3.5mm sounded surprisingly good to me. There isn't as much detail and the frequency ranges fromn 400 to 4Kish muffle up a little bit. I suppose the highs do to. The bass response increases and sounds very much the way the MDR1A does. The volume does reach higher as well, which can be a plus. Overall, wired with power off is surprisingly good and listenable. Most wireless headphones sound real bad when plugged in and powered off. This is a really huge deal for me and one of the big reasons I will keep these. Since these headphones can only pair for music with one device at a time, it makes it easy to plug the cable into my ps4 controller or ipad to watch a movie for a bit. Once I disconnect the cable, connecting back to the phone or audio player via bluetooth is easy and automatic (i think).

-Using these with my Sony A25 is pretty damn awesome. NFC worked super easy for pairing and reconnecting. Connecting with LDAC for 990kbps bluetooth shows a really high increase in detail and a smoother overall sound signature. Holy crap it was damn good listening and markedly better than spotify on the iphone. One cool feature that also helps mitigate the negatives of only pairing for music one device at a time was that I was able to connect to my A25 for audio, but still connect to my iphone (after paired with A25) at the same time for phone calls. I suspect those that own DAPs will like to hear that this is possible, I know I did.

Features:

-Touch controls are surprisingly easy, responsive, and work accurately. I have had very little friction trying to adjust to using them. The only issue I have had is that when I rest the headphones on my chest by folding them flat and lean back, I may trigger the tap to pause or summon siri on my phone. Not a big deal.

-Noise cancelling is out of this world good. I feel it really enhances the listening experience compared to regular headphones because now I can listen to music at quieter volumes and still here nothing but pure sound.

-The ambient noise modes are damn cool. The normal mode lets you hear all things around you while voice mode (my favorite) allows you to still hear people talking. Its shocking how good it works so far. I will say though that if you are listeneing at high volumes like 60% or higher, it becomes very difficult to hear these effects at all. This would be useful for quiter listening or watching movies and stuff.

-Cupping the right earpiece with your hand diminishes the volume to about 10% and lets in all outside noise. This is one of my favorite features. I have an amazon echo in my house and I use it a lot for adding things to a grocery list on my phone, or various other things. I can just place my hand on the headset, tell Alexa to do something, then go back to listeneing. Very handy and very damn cool.

-The comfort level is very good. I've had them on for a few hours and don't really feel the need to take them off for any reason. While the MDR1As were more comfortable to wear, the slid on my head to much whereas these stay in place much better. Probably because the extra weight and slightly deeper earcups.



TLDR; and conclusion:

At $400 these headphones offer a lot. Judging based soley on sound, they sound damn good and are amongst the best wireless headphones I've heard, but I wouldn't spend $400 on these just for sound quality. Of course, that's not all your getting with these for $400. You are paying for a package deal and boy does it deliver. My two biggest worries were not enough bass and pairing with only one device. The bass was mitigated with EQ (mostly....i want MOAR). The pairing problem was mitigated through a combination of NFC pairing, a very good sounding wired mode, and the ability to pair with a DAP for audio while still connecting to a phone for calls (that's the big one for me).

These things are keepers.

 

[Brava27]

Until 4 days, creaking will find you.

 

[329161]

TLDR at bottom

I finally received mine in the mail yesterday and have been using them as much as I can for the last 24 hours. I plan on writing a full review of these headphones in the near future after having more time with them.

Here are my initial impressions (listening was done on iPhone 6s Plus with Spotify Extreme and Sony A25.:

-Upon opening the box and first powering them on, I could tell I liked quality feel of the headphones. They feel rather solid and dense, have the right amount of heft to feel durable, but not to be heavy. The leather feels great.

SOUND:
-I am coming from the MDR1A (for sale in classifieds) and I loved those headphones. Upon first listen, they sounds great and clear with the sony house sound intact. It was missing a lot of the bass. Luckily with EQ on spotify and my Sony A25, they livened right up to be just good enough. I may get adventurous and try a bass mod in the future I don't know.

- Considering these are wireless, these sound damn good. This is a damn good pair of headphones wireless or not. Listening with the cable plugged in and the headphones powered on was also pretty damn good. Turning the power off and plugging into 3.5mm sounded surprisingly good to me. There isn't as much detail and the frequency ranges fromn 400 to 4Kish muffle up a little bit. I suppose the highs do to. The bass response increases and sounds very much the way the MDR1A does. The volume does reach higher as well, which can be a plus. Overall, wired with power off is surprisingly good and listenable. Most wireless headphones sound real bad when plugged in and powered off. This is a really huge deal for me and one of the big reasons I will keep these. Since these headphones can only pair for music with one device at a time, it makes it easy to plug the cable into my ps4 controller or ipad to watch a movie for a bit. Once I disconnect the cable, connecting back to the phone or audio player via bluetooth is easy and automatic (i think).

-Using these with my Sony A25 is pretty damn awesome. NFC worked super easy for pairing and reconnecting. Connecting with LDAC for 990kbps bluetooth shows a really high increase in detail and a smoother overall sound signature. Holy crap it was damn good listening and markedly better than spotify on the iphone. One cool feature that also helps mitigate the negatives of only pairing for music one device at a time was that I was able to connect to my A25 for audio, but still connect to my iphone (after paired with A25) at the same time for phone calls. I suspect those that own DAPs will like to hear that this is possible, I know I did.

Features:

-Touch controls are surprisingly easy, responsive, and work accurately. I have had very little friction trying to adjust to using them. The only issue I have had is that when I rest the headphones on my chest by folding them flat and lean back, I may trigger the tap to pause or summon siri on my phone. Not a big deal.

-Noise cancelling is out of this world good. I feel it really enhances the listening experience compared to regular headphones because now I can listen to music at quieter volumes and still here nothing but pure sound.

-The ambient noise modes are damn cool. The normal mode lets you hear all things around you while voice mode (my favorite) allows you to still hear people talking. Its shocking how good it works so far. I will say though that if you are listeneing at high volumes like 60% or higher, it becomes very difficult to hear these effects at all. This would be useful for quiter listening or watching movies and stuff.

-Cupping the right earpiece with your hand diminishes the volume to about 10% and lets in all outside noise. This is one of my favorite features. I have an amazon echo in my house and I use it a lot for adding things to a grocery list on my phone, or various other things. I can just place my hand on the headset, tell Alexa to do something, then go back to listeneing. Very handy and very damn cool.

-The comfort level is very good. I've had them on for a few hours and don't really feel the need to take them off for any reason. While the MDR1As were more comfortable to wear, the slid on my head to much whereas these stay in place much better. Probably because the extra weight and slightly deeper earcups.



TLDR; and conclusion:

At $400 these headphones offer a lot. Judging based soley on sound, they sound damn good and are amongst the best wireless headphones I've heard, but I wouldn't spend $400 on these just for sound quality. Of course, that's not all your getting with these for $400. You are paying for a package deal and boy does it deliver. My two biggest worries were not enough bass and pairing with only one device. The bass was mitigated with EQ (mostly....i want MOAR). The pairing problem was mitigated through a combination of NFC pairing, a very good sounding wired mode, and the ability to pair with a DAP for audio while still connecting to a phone for calls (that's the big one for me).

These things are keepers.

Nice review, thanks.
You have noted the bass on the 1000x as being too light. Coming from the 1a that isn't surprising, as it is generally considered to have overblown and bloated bass. The 1000x is generally relatively neutral compared to a lot of other headphones (eg Momentum wireless, PXC 550), it's just that a lot of consumers prefer a slightly bass boosted contemporary signature. I have owned all these headphones at one point or another.
A few people have also reported that the 1000x is rolled off at the treble. While it doesn't reach as high as some open cans like the hd800 or Grado's, to me , it extends further than many consumer friendly tuned cans like the ones I mentioned. The wireless Sennheisers sound relatively veiled (and bass boosted) to me. The B&W series are all tuned with this consumer signature as well, although the P7's treble is very well done for a closed can. Overall I prefer the 1000x to all the closed headphones I mentioned. It's actually one of my favourite closed cans period.