[raybies]

positioned Z1R as their signature series

There's just one thing I don't get with the Z1R.

According to Sony, Signature Series = No compromise; been specially made for the ultimate sound experience.
Yet further in their press releases they state: Elevate an exceptional listening experience to new heights using cables engineered with Kimber Kable.
Why not just include them as stock for a truly uncompromising experience?

 

[nordkapp]

There's just one thing I don't get with the Z1R.

According to Sony, Signature Series = No compromise; been specially made for the ultimate sound experience.
Yet further in their press releases they state: Elevate an exceptional listening experience to new heights using cables engineered with Kimber Kable.
Why not just include them as stock for a truly uncompromising experience?

Simple. $$$. I'm totally satisfied with the stock cable.

 

[cjfrbw]

Listening with the Manley Neo 300b with Svetlana 300b tubes, the Z1R, like the Z7, becomes very pure and stat like. The bass is amazing.

If they actually get better with break in, I might not be able to stand it. Already powerful emotional connection, which is the most elusive audio spice.

Even more comfortable than Z7, which was already a most comfortable headphone.

 

[raybies]

Simple. $$$.

So they compromised. Surely if they thought Kimbers sound better they could have made a pure copper cable that replicates the sound signature, for less than a copper/silver cable.

 

[nordkapp]

So they compromised. Surely if they thought Kimbers sound better they could have made a pure copper cable that replicates the sound signature, for less than a copper/silver cable.

Yes. Their "no compromise" statement is factually incorrect. There had to have been a price point goal here after all. Looking at the whole Z1R package, I'll admit the cable appears weak, especially compared to other flag ships.

 

[up late]

Hmm, just got my pair. Right out of the box with no run in with an inexpensive Chinese JFET head amp and a listening session, some of the most REFINED dynamic headphone listening I have ever heard. This thing is cool, the detractors must be mad. Haven't even hooked it up the the Manley Neo 300b yet.

As much as I like the Z7, this is definitely much more.

they might be mad or they just might have different sonic preferences to you. it's been known to happen around here.

Z1R is unique sounding, nothing in the market is similar to it, except for Z7 of course. it is either you love or hate it.

i didn't love it or hate it, but i did like it

There's just one thing I don't get with the Z1R.

According to Sony, Signature Series = No compromise; been specially made for the ultimate sound experience.
Yet further in their press releases they state: Elevate an exceptional listening experience to new heights using cables engineered with Kimber Kable.
Why not just include them as stock for a truly uncompromising experience?

it's called marketing copy, not the gospel truth

 

[ervin192]

The price in Japanese yen implies something. Just a LITTLE bit lower than ¥200k, that's one step away from the real flagship stuff. So it's not a r10 or qualia model in the company's eye, but being their showoff of their latest techs.

 

[Witcher]

It does have XLR4, here is the full spec:
Balanced:
Balanced standard (4.4 mm in diameter)
3-pole mini (balanced connection, 3.5 mm in diameter)
XLR4 (balanced 4-pin)
Unbalanced:
Standard (6.3 mm in diameter)
Stereo mini (3.5 mm in diameter)

You can have all of them connected, and switch anytime necessary. plus it comes with a remote control.

Ah I see... so it's a switching mechanism. Can't run multiples at the same time. Thanks!

Hey, since you have one, can I ask something? Are you able to send the signal thru the pre-out, then loop it back thru the line-in? This is when you want to throw something in midstream, like say, and EQ unit or a tube buffer.

 

[Luke Redgen]

So I'm in a bit of a panic this morning. I put my headphones on this morning and they sounded off, like hollow and I played around a bit and noticed it was a lack of low end specifically in the right driver. At first I thought it might be the cable but then I looked at the driver itself and noticed that it seemed to be damaged:
https://imgur.com/a/bgh7G

There seem to be three small tears. I wanted to ask:
1. Am I correct in assuming this is the cause of my issue?
2. What can I do about it? These are by some margin my most expensive and favourite headphones. I have never had in eight years of owning many, many headphones had anything like this happen. I really don't know how it happened here, the earpads are always on and there is no tear in the webbing over the driver.

Any advice?

 

[raybies]

Any advice?

It's a little hard to see, but any damage to the driver will cause auditory distortions.
Since the outer grills are all intact it looks like a warranty repair to me... contact your retailer or Sony, they'll need to replace the driver.

Do you have a macro lens, where you can focus past the outer grills? I'd be interested to see a better image.

The only time I've woken up to discover damage to my headphones, was when I discovered a platoon of ants munching away on the headband... pretty upsetting.

 

[Naim.F.C]

Finally ended up selling all my other cans with the exception of my Beyerdynamic T1.1s (not worth enough to lose such a classic can, they're still my second fave) and my AKG K545 (wife uses them for portability), since for months now all I ever end up going back to is my MDR-Z1R's.

At first I thought I'd switch to my HD800S, HD800, LCD-3 etc dependant on genre of music, eg HD800S/HD800 for orchestral or classical, and LCD-3 for RnB, Hip Hop etc, but I'm just using the Z1R's for everything since they're so damn emotive, balanced, tonally accurate, non fatiguing and musical, including for gaming, hence not seeing the point of holding on to the others.

The main reason I kept the others was for curiosity and comparisons sake, but ultimately I think the Z1R is my final end game, it just works for pretty much everything. For me at least, based on everything I've listened to over the years, the Z1R's are the best headphones I've ever heard.

Whilst I listen to cans like the HD800, HD800S, T1 etc thinking they all could do with a bit more bass impact and/or warmth, and I listen to cans like the LCD-2, LCD-3 etc thinking they could do with more definition, air and a wider soundstage, I listen to the Z1Rs and don't feel I'm missing or wanting any particular thing or aspect of the sonic signature. If you asked my how I'd tweak their sound signature to improve them, I honestly couldn't tell you. I don't have any EQ profiles for them on any of my devices, apps or players, because they simply don't need one. They're slightly on the warmer side, sure, but only enough to be less fatiguing and more atmospheric, not enough to be slightly dark, cloudy or less wide sounding like certain high end warm cans, nor as shrill or harsh sounding as other V shaped high end cans.

In many ways the Z1R's sort of sound like a HD800S with more warmth, smoothness and a fairly notable amount of added bass impact (especially sub bass), which for me is pretty much ideal.

It's surprising and refreshing to have a warm, relatively bassy can like the Z1R that still manages to retain such a wide soundstage, coupled with a potent level of air, articulation, detail and imaging, whilst still being non fatiguing and/or inoffensive. Best of all, they're closed so you get minimal noise bleed and interference. I'm listening to mine as I type this right now and my wife is asleep right next to me!

Kudos to Sony for finding that magic balance.

 

[Luke Redgen]

It's a little hard to see, but any damage to the driver will cause auditory distortions.
Since the outer grills are all intact it looks like a warranty repair to me... contact your retailer or Sony, they'll need to replace the driver.

Do you have a macro lens, where you can focus past the outer grills? I'd be interested to see a better image.

The only time I've woken up to discover damage to my headphones, was when I discovered a platoon of ants munching away on the headband... pretty upsetting.

No macro lens but this image should be better (figured out how to attach something this time). It's the black bits on the white cone. I think warranty is the way to go, just hope they accept it since it's physical damage. I really have no idea how the damage could have happened.

 

[Slim1970]

Finally ended up selling all my other cans with the exception of my Beyerdynamic T1.1s (not worth enough to lose such a classic can, they're still my second fave) and my AKG K545 (wife uses them for portability), since for months now all I ever end up going back to is my MDR-Z1R's.

At first I thought I'd switch to my HD800S, HD800, LCD-3 etc dependant on genre of music, eg HD800S/HD800 for orchestral or classical, and LCD-3 for RnB, Hip Hop etc, but I'm just using the Z1R's for everything since they're so damn emotive, balanced, tonally accurate, non fatiguing and musical, including for gaming, hence not seeing the point of holding on to the others.

The main reason I kept the others was for curiosity and comparisons sake, but ultimately I think the Z1R is my final end game, it just works for pretty much everything. For me at least, based on everything I've listened to over the years, the Z1R's are the best headphones I've ever heard.

Whilst I listen to cans like the HD800, HD800S, T1 etc thinking they all could do with a bit more bass impact and/or warmth, and I listen to cans like the LCD-2, LCD-3 etc thinking they could do with more definition, air and a wider soundstage, I listen to the Z1Rs and don't feel I'm missing or wanting any particular thing or aspect of the sonic signature. If you asked my how I'd tweak their sound signature to improve them, I honestly couldn't tell you. I don't have any EQ profiles for them on any of my devices, apps or players, because they simply don't need one. They're slightly on the warmer side, sure, but only enough to be less fatiguing and more atmospheric, not enough to be slightly dark, cloudy or less wide sounding like certain high end warm cans, nor as shrill or harsh sounding as other V shaped high end cans.

In many ways the Z1R's sort of sound like a HD800S with more warmth, smoothness and a fairly notable amount of added bass impact (especially sub bass), which for me is pretty much ideal.

It's surprising and refreshing to have a warm, relatively bassy can like the Z1R that still manages to retain such a wide soundstage, coupled with a potent level of air, articulation, detail and imaging, whilst still being non fatiguing and/or inoffensive. Best of all, they're closed so you get minimal noise bleed and interference. I'm listening to mine as I type this right now and my wife is asleep right next to me!

Kudos to Sony for finding that magic balance.

The Z1R's are really good. They are so easy to enjoy and works with all genres of music.

 

[cjfrbw]

The main reason I kept the others was for curiosity and comparisons sake, but ultimately I think the Z1R is my final end game, it just works for pretty much everything. For me at least, based on everything I've listened to over the years, the Z1R's are the best headphones I've ever heard.

It's surprising and refreshing to have a warm, relatively bassy can like the Z1R that still manages to retain such a wide soundstage, coupled with a potent level of air, articulation, detail and imaging, whilst still being non fatiguing and/or inoffensive. Best of all, they're closed so you get minimal noise bleed and interference. I'm listening to mine as I type this right now and my wife is asleep right next to me!

Kudos to Sony for finding that magic balance.

I have just had them for two days and I think they are wonderful even without break in. If they stay just the way they are, they were worth the upgrade price from Z7.

I am wondering if some of the opinion dichotomy stems from where people are coming from. If you cut your teeth on high end audiophile speaker systems, then the Z1R is probably a headphone you will love because of the low bass and the bit of ambience that allows sensuous emergence and recession of tonality in the sound stage.

There seem to be "pure headphone" guys whose goals might be divergent in that they want absolute resolution at any cost, even if that is something you don't hear in live performances or even natural sounds in nature. They want headphones to give them "super hearing".

Like the Z7, the Z1R is more of a tailored and tweaked psychoacoustic headphone. My auditory processing center almost pops when they Z7 finally achieves critical brain acceptance. The Z1R does this much faster, which means I am in the psychoacoustic target zone of the headphone. If your acoustic apparatus does not do this, then I suppose both headphones could be a disappointment. This is something that can never be described in stock measurements.

 

[Naim.F.C]

I have just had them for two days and I think they are wonderful even without break in. If they stay just the way they are, they were worth the upgrade price from Z7.

I am wondering if some of the opinion dichotomy stems from where people are coming from. If you cut your teeth on high end audiophile speaker systems, then the Z1R is probably a headphone you will love because of the low bass and the bit of ambience that allows sensuous emergence and recession of tonality in the sound stage.

There seem to be "pure headphone" guys whose goals might be divergent in that they want absolute resolution at any cost, even if that is something you don't hear in live performances or even natural sounds in nature. They want headphones to give them "super hearing".

Like the Z7, the Z1R is more of a tailored and tweaked psychoacoustic headphone. My auditory processing center almost pops when they Z7 finally achieves critical brain acceptance. The Z1R does this much faster, which means I am in the psychoacoustic target zone of the headphone. If your acoustic apparatus does not do this, then I suppose both headphones could be a disappointment. This is something that can never be described in stock measurements.

I agree with a lot of your points. I too am guilty of exactly this, and I think headphone manufacturers, media, journalists, marketing, hype and forum chatter all contributed to this.

With headphones, notably in the last decade or two, products being more articulate, detailed, crystalline, airy and spacious, have all been pushed and promoted to justify premium pricing and be exemplary of 'high end' or optimum balance (eg Grados, K701, T1, HD800, Utopia etc).

The more revealing, spacious and hyper detailed a headphone, the more "reference" it supposedly was. But the reality is, that isn't and should not have been exemplary of what reference audio actually is, because being colder sounding or hyper revealing, isn't necessarily the same as being honest sounding or being sonically or tonally accurate.

The HD800 and K701 are not in my opinion ultra balanced reference headphones, even though they were routinely described as such. But of course, if something is hyper revealing at the behest of emotion and realism, it is still easy to sell and market, under the guise of listeners being able to hear more in their music than they ever have or could before, thus people assume it is more technically proficient, when in reality the sound signature has merely been artificially tilted towards more articulation.

In recent years, there has been more of a high end push back to that, popularised by the Audeze cans, and culminating with the MDR-Z1R. Essentially these warmer cans are trying to re-address what constitutes as accurate or balanced, by saying, no, colder, bass light and hyper revealing isn't necessarily more accurate or reference, and it is instead with slight warmth and more bass impact that you retain the accuracy, emotion and atmosphere of real life live performances, as well as sonic signatures from high end speaker systems. The MDR-Z1R clearly aims to evoke the latter, and I personally appreciate that.