starfly
1000+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2013
- Posts
- 1,424
- Likes
- 543
Yeah, that sounds like what I'd expect from a Sony studio monitor headphone. Very revealing, and thus also recordings that were mastered less than perfectly will not sound as great. Still haven't gotten around to doing a back to back with my 7520, but they appear to have similar characteristics.It's been two months since I bought MV1 and I compared intensively with Z7M2 and HD660S. My conclusion is MV1 is a full spectrum nice sounding positional monitor headphone. HD660S is Gaussian smoothed with an emphasis on lower mid. Z7M2 is Sony's extended Sennheiser without the veil.
The biggest difference between MV1 and Z7M2 is sound stage and imaging. Z7M2 simply cannot get away from closed backs and echo. It can tell you whether you are in a concert hall or in a stadium, but it also reminds you that you are listening to recordings. MV1 on the other hand lets you immerse in the audience with its precise imaging at full spectrum. The difference is quite apparent when watching soccer and live concerts. Z7M2 also rolls off a little bit earlier than MV1. It's not a problem in general. But if you want to enjoy Lang Lang's piano, MV1 is the way to go, fully extended and fast.
The biggest difference between Z7M2 and HD660S is that HD660S loses subtle information due to earlier roll offs at both ends. HD660S kind of simplifies music. Sometimes, it actually works well although not faithful. HD660S has a warmer lower mid range which also contributes to the veil. I do feel Z7M2 lost Sony's lineage, clearly not as vibrant and lively as 1AM2, rather more towards Sennheiser's laid back sound.
The ways they deal with sibilance are different. HD660S makes sibilance longer and weaker. The Sony's filter out and leave some at the end. So, you may hear a grainier and weaker S sound with HD660S, and a shorter and a little sharper S sound with Z7M2 and MV1. In general, they have about the same amount of sibilance. Sometimes I feel HD660S creates weak grainy sibilance out of none sibilant sound due to its aggressive algorithm.
Switching headphones, I can only pick up more details in one way HD660S -> Z7M2 -> MV1. From HD660S -> Z7M2, it is mostly in the treble. From Z7M2 -> MV1, it is in both bass and treble due to imaging.
Since I started using MV1, I do find myself pay more and more attention to recording and mixing because I started to notice mistakes and brilliance from sound engineers. There are cases for what used to be good music I now wish they have had done it differently, for what used to be a big mixed up of everything, now I am amazed by the level of details they put into it. I also noticed that sometimes the vocals drift around the center. At first I thought the sound was not stable, then I realized it's actually the singers moved back and forth from microphones. The awareness of sound engineering sometimes bothers me and distracts me from what I am doing especially when I need to read and write. It doesn't bother me when I code.
So for me, they all have good use cases, MV1 when I want to enjoy music, HD660S when I don't want to be distracted by music, Z7M2 when I want to block background noise.
One main concern that did pop up for me is comfort. Ear cups might not be deep enough for my ears as my ears get a bit itchy after a while. My benchmark for comfort is my Fidelio X2HR which I can literally wear for hours and they just disappear on my head.