[kms108]

Well hopefully that will change soon and we'll be seeing more 4.4 balanced full sized headphone options. With a balanced mmcx cable you have quite a few choices in iem land, but not so many in full sized land.

Manufacturer has got to give people options out of the box, either through supplied MMCX cables, of some sort of detactable connectors, having either just one out of the box like 3.5 or 4.4 means loosing business, having people to make the decision of either one, means people get less choice and are forced to go custom or modify, or go for alternative choice.
Sennheiser with the IE800S is sort of going in the right direction, but I do prefer the traditional two pin or MMCX.

 

[nanaholic]

Well hopefully that will change soon and we'll be seeing more 4.4 balanced full sized headphone options. With a balanced mmcx cable you have quite a few choices in iem land, but not so many in full sized land.

Oh I know IEM is choke full of choices right now at every possible price range you can think of, even sub-100 dollar IEM has removable cables which makes going balance easy. The issue is on the portable over-ear (heck even on-ear) close backs, that segment is seriously lacking products with balance/audiophiles in mind, rather the new ones seem to be all consumer focused with non-removable cables and/or designed with inline mics for smartphone usage, and whatever that's left on the market are old designs which hasn't been updated, such as the Audio Technica, that aren't balance ready. This weirdly leaves the MDR-1A as the only choice. It's no wonder Sony quickly released the MDR-1ABP (which is really just a MDR-1A with packaged 4.4mm balance cable) last year and is now releasing the MDR-1AM2 soon (the true update, and of course with balance cable included) - they are seeing a market segment that hasn't been served, and I happened to be one of those unserved customer. The second hand MDR-1A Limited Edition I bought which has better earpads than the stock version leading to a better sound along w/ balance cable out of the ZX300 is good enough for the time being for me, but it's not completely satisfactory, I can of course go bonkers and move to 500+ range but it begins to get hard to justify for a very narrow and specific usage.

 

[jonmbarlow]

I cannot get the zx to connect to my Samsung S8....am I missing something obvious? Have made sure devices are discoverable and checked Bluetooth is on but still nothing

 

[kms108]

I cannot get the zx to connect to my Samsung S8....am I missing something obvious? Have made sure devices are discoverable and checked Bluetooth is on but still nothing

Why would you want to connect through BT, it can't be done.

 

[jonmbarlow]

So what will it connect to via Bluetooth?

 

[kms108]

So what will it connect to via Bluetooth?

remote, depening on region, headphones and speakers.

 

[zeta555]

I have tried it back at CES, it's not released yet as far as I know of though, it's warmer sounding and has more bass than the HD800S, I actually like the HD800S better, but that's because I am an open back headphones aficionado. (I like the greater soundstage)

i need to listen to this, sennheiser is hit and miss in my experience.

I use the 1000XM2 on the plane - my only choice for that job. The "hand over ear cup" gesture to enable outside sound is useful, and the NC is of course brilliant. A couple of drawbacks is that even when folded it's bulky as it's pretty thick, and it's not balance ready, though having LDAC is handy in the fully in Sony's ecosystem way.

Seeing this is the ZX300 thread I'd say people are probably thinking of phones that can accept balance out of box without any mods to get the most out of their ZX300, and seriously I've looked pretty darn hard for something below 300 that does it and I've yet to find one that ticks all my boxes. In terms of sound signature my top pick would've been the Audio Technica MSR-7, cheap around ear with good size cups, foldable and a treble and vocal sparkle which I like (which BTW, I also find most closed back around ear headphones under 300 to all be too warm/dark, probably a reflection of the consumer demand in that segment as everyone is thinking they are competing with Beats or Bose), except the MSR7 isn't balance capable without a mod. Going upstream would be the MSR9 which is balance ready, but a big F U to that AT proprietary connector. If someone else has good recommendation I'm all ears.

there's MSR9? why haven't I seen this? is it out yet?

I'm keeping an eye on the campfire audio cascade. it's 1000$+ with a decent 4.4mm cable so I can't really just impulse buy it.

 

[abitdeef]

Wish there was a way to use the 200 mw amp section on my suv, It sounds good but more power is always better. And I have no idea how much power blu tooth and such outputs because I couldn't get it to connect to the rover. I'm just using a cable from the SE out to the aux in.

Like I said it sounds good, just more juice would be awesome.

And I just had one of those wow moments. I was just listening to Styx (greatest hits) and the song Don't Let It End was playing and around 29-30 seconds I hear a soft triangle or something in the left channel I never noticed before. ( only lasts about 7 seconds or so ) Now I'm sure I could hear it on ak70 if I listened for it, but it is so distinct and layered on the ZX300 everything is audible and right there for you to bask in it- you don't have to listen for it

Oh yeah balanced using ibasso it01.

 

[nanaholic]

i need to listen to this, sennheiser is hit and miss in my experience.

This is my experience as well, I just can't find a Sennheiser that matches my taste.
Anything below the HD650 is too warm and dark, whereas anything above that the treble is too shrill and bass lacks body. The HD800/s soundstage is too wide which is not good for the songs I listen to. The only "wow this is seriously out of this world good" Sennheiser phone I've listened to is the HE-1, but that costs as much as a new car.

there's MSR9? why haven't I seen this? is it out yet?

I'm keeping an eye on the campfire audio cascade. it's 1000$+ with a decent 4.4mm cable so I can't really just impulse buy it.

https://www.audio-technica.co.jp/atj/show_model.php?modelId=2903

It's the SR9, no M, my mistake. Though it is still considered the one model which sits above the MSR7. The only issue I have with the SR9 is that it's too bright with sibilance when it comes to female vocals, I actually prefer the MSR7 tuning to the SR9. Though I've only heard the SR9 on SE on my DAPs, as I've said the SR9 uses proprietary Audio Technica connectors which makes cable selection nearly non-existence, so not worth considering.

I want to try the Cascade, they make nice stuff. Though it's all going to be about the sound tuning, I like a bit of warmth, but not too much, so the impressions saying it leans towards Vega sound signature is a bit worrying. But I'm open minded.

 

[zeta555]

This is my experience as well, I just can't find a Sennheiser that matches my taste.
Anything below the HD650 is too warm and dark, whereas anything above that the treble is too shrill and bass lacks body. The HD800/s soundstage is too wide which is not good for the songs I listen to. The only "wow this is seriously out of this world good" Sennheiser phone I've listened to is the HE-1, but that costs as much as a new car.



https://www.audio-technica.co.jp/atj/show_model.php?modelId=2903

It's the SR9, no M, my mistake. Though it is still considered the one model which sits above the MSR7. The only issue I have with the SR9 is that it's too bright with sibilance when it comes to female vocals, I actually prefer the MSR7 tuning to the SR9. Though I've only heard the SR9 on SE on my DAPs, as I've said the SR9 uses proprietary Audio Technica connectors which makes cable selection nearly non-existence, so not worth considering.

I want to try the Cascade, they make nice stuff. Though it's all going to be about the sound tuning, I like a bit of warmth, but not too much, so the impressions saying it leans towards Vega sound signature is a bit worrying. But I'm open minded.

wow, haven't seen that one yet in my country. there's only the DSR9? the bluetooth one. but it's pretty expensive here.

I really have no problem with ath proprietary connection as I mostly use custom cable. it's even cheaper than the connector that Hd800, JH sirens series, or even Sony EX series use.

how about ultrasone headphones? it's not very popular here (it used to be), but they have many closed portable headphone right?

 

[nanaholic]

wow, haven't seen that one yet in my country. there's only the DSR9? the bluetooth one. but it's pretty expensive here.

I really have no problem with ath proprietary connection as I mostly use custom cable. it's even cheaper than the connector that Hd800, JH sirens series, or even Sony EX series use.

how about ultrasone headphones? it's not very popular here (it used to be), but they have many closed portable headphone right?

I prefer more standard connectors - I don't want to spend too much money on cables, plus I prefer things that I can more easily find and fix myself.

For portability and sound quality and all the other bells and whistles - I'd say the Ultrasone Edition M Plus also ticks a lot of boxes for me, but it's a bit on the expensive side and as I own the Edition 8 I also have minor issues with how Ultrasone put together their headphones, namely how they just sticky tape the earpads to the phones which I don't think is acceptable for phones at that price range, though I'm not sure if they changed that for the Edition M.

 

[Bepli]

Well, I hope you're wrong about that. Anyway, I was planning to check out the Spring Headphone Festival in Tokyo, which is at the end of April, and pick them up then. I live about 100k outside of Tokyo so I don't really go there too often.

I dont know if you saw it already but Sony Japan pushed a great article about the headphone together with ther engineers interview. It will be available 10 of March.

 

[rlanger]

I dont know if you saw it already but Sony Japan pushed a great article about the headphone together with ther engineers interview. It will be available 10 of March.

No, I didn't. Thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out.

March 10th is great. Can't wait to try them out. There are so few closed back HPs in that price range that I enjoy, and like I said in my earlier post, the MDR-1A aren't perfect, but I really do enjoy listening to them, especially balanced out of the ZX300. So, I would expect the M2s to be a definite improvement.

 

[nanaholic]

The MDR-1AM2 interview:
http://www.sony.jp/headphone/special/park/products_m1/tech11.html

tl;dr - while the say it's a Mark 2 they've changed the internals quite a bit. Driver unit is newly designed, grill is new, new earpads, new slimmer housing for compactness, new sound tuning etc. Makes me wonder why they don't just give it a new model name.

Looking forward to trying these out. The silver version looks pretty nice.

 

[mutnai]

can zx300 send file via bluetooth?