Tried the Z7M2 again today, playback was from the WM1A and output from a Hugo. No time really to get a Kimber Kable. This particular headphone sounded better than the one in the other store; on a side note, the guys at the Sony store were like children when I took out the Hugo to connect my T1 and the Z7M2, "I never thought I'd see one of these live." They listened to everything on their own for around 5 minutes, before we started swapping headphones back and forth to get a solid feeling of these two.
It took a bit of fiddling around with the volume control to get an "equal" sound pressure from both of the headphones, you can really feel the 600 Ohms of the T1 are no joke. Eventually I dialed in the volume so both headphones were equally loud, I had to this every time I switched headphones; this was by no means a scientifically controlled test, but hey, "We work with what we've got." Once both headphones; Z7M2 and T1 Gen 1 with Auteur Pads are heard at a similar sound pressure, the differences are not subtle but are not enough to warrant owning both of them at the same time.
When I told one of the Sony guys: "There really isn't that much difference between them, is it?" He shrugged and said: "...yeah" - with a kind of disappointed tone. They really wanted to make the sale, and honestly I also wanted to buy them, this pair of Z7M2 were at USD500, new! The Z7M2 bass is really nice, more elevated than the version of the T1 I'm using, but the bass on the Z7M2 is less focused, on the T1.1 with Auteur pads the bass wasn't as pronounced as on the Sony but it was more accurate, less blurry. Detail retrieval on both was more or less the same on the mid frequencies, but when it came to deliver nuances, the T1 trumped the Z7M2, no contest there.
This became the most evident when I played the first 30 seconds of Luminol by Steven Wilson on his "The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories)" album (great album by the way, it's one of the few works of the guy that I enjoy). I use this track to test, nuance, speed and BASS. On the T1 the first snare hits sounded so...natural as if the snare drum was in front of me, the decay of the snares could be easily picked up on the T1. The Z72M just couldn't do the same trick; mind you, it's open versus closed headphones and the T1 are known for its imaging and soundstage, but no matter how high I turned the volume up the Z7M2 just wasn't...there. When the speedy bass line came in, the Z7M2 just couldn't keep up, it fell apart, it still sounded REALLY good, but the T1 just owned that bass line.
After I heard that last song I unplugged everything, thanked the two Sony guys, apologized for getting their hopes up and left. The first guy really pushed the Z7M2 to me. "They give you more details! it has more bass! they're just better." I didn't talk much with that one, he did all the talking. The second guy was much more approachable and stayed with me throughout most of the audition, listening back and forth. Neither of them really knew Beyerdynamic, much less their flagship, but the second guy did pick up that he wasn't listening to ordinary headphones. I know the T1 nowadays aren't the same behemoth than a decade ago, but it's still a capable headphone.
At the end the second guy summed it up really well: "If you had heard the Z7M2 before the ones you have right now, it would be your first choice. But as it is now, you're better off tweaking other components of your chain than to own the Z7M2." I have to give it to him, it takes a massive amount of professionalism for a salesperson to say that someone shouldn't buy their product since it won't add much, nothing but respect for that guy.
One last note, they still have the WM1A at an scandalous price of USD540, NEW! it's an official Sony Store here in Colombia. Just leaving that here in case anyone wants to...complete that idea.