So I’ve gotten to spend a few hours over the last few days with my new (to me) Z1R’s. The first night I was completely smitten. I used both an iFi Hip DAC for up and around the house listening, and then a little bit of time at my desk setup where they got properly juiced up with my Ragnarok 2. I thought the bass was a little heavy-handed, but was able to adjust to the warmer signature, and was really enjoying the “V-shaped” sound, including the little extra pizazz and presence that that low-treble/upper-midrange hump brings to the equation. It struck a very interesting (and serviceable) balance between “fun” and “analytical” I found. Instrument separation is very good, and the stage is big and deep for a closed-back, just as everybody says. Imaging is similarly well above average, not best in class I wouldn’t say, but damned good. I was really pleased that the Z1R had strong forward-projected imaging and 3D “holography”, with nice channel matching, yielding a clear center image. Also, no 3 blob issues here. Instruments just left and right of center in the stereo field are placed very accurately. As someone who places imaging and separation at the top of my technicalities wishlist, I really appreciate this about the SONY. I went to bed on Friday night feeling a bit chuffed with the purchase, and was very much looking forward to more listening time over the weekend.
Then Saturday morning came. I did some more listening on the couch with the Hip DAC. The Z1R just sounded a little off to me, not particularly well-aligned with my expectations at all, nor with my glowing (if slightly inebriated) remembrances from the prior evening. The first thing I noticed was that vocals sounded really unnatural and a bit grating to me. Certain male vocals were a bit raspy and harsh and lacked body. And the bass… hoo boy! While it retained decent texture and thumped in a pretty satisfying way with big kick drums and both synth and electric bass instruments, it felt wildly out of control. I was constantly being taken out of the flow of the music by the poor tuning. I felt pretty disappointed, to say the least. I took them over to the desktop rig, and while this made a marginal improvement (a tiny bit more control over the bass), I still just felt generally let down.
So I decided to start experimenting with some EQ. I EQ most of my headphones, employing broad, sweeping strokes with my corrections, and really enjoy using an analog box to implement these changes. I have a Schiit Lokius, and have a lot of fun with it, owing mostly to the tactile experience of twisting knobs and fine tuning a headphone’s presentation. Right out of the gate I had to attenuate the bass frequencies, to try to alleviate the bloating. The Lokius has a 125 Hz knob, which isn’t exactly what I wanted to adjust. I really thought the flab was coming more from the 200 Hz range, but taking what I’d estimate was about 4 db out of this band helped immensely. Already I was beginning to appreciate the technicalities of this headphone more. Taming the oppressive bass increased my enjoyment of my music tenfold, and I was already starting to be less distracted by the wonky tuning.
The next area I found needed a touch of help was the area from around 5k - 10k Hz. I was needing a little more spice from hi hats, cymbals and snare drum hits, feeling like the stock tuning was a little rolled-off and lacking in clarity and sparkle. Adding an estimated 3 db to the 6k Hz band did the trick. This opened up the sound a bit more, and gave even more definition to the instrument separation (which was already extremely good). Now I was starting to get somewhere with the Z1R.
I was still feeling like the sound was a bit too V-shaped for me. A bit over-hyped… like aural MSG. I really value a well-balanced mid-frequency presentation, and with each passing track I was wanting more pure “tone” and musical, timbral qualities from the music. With both the stock tuning of the Z1R, and after the above adjustments, I felt the bass was nice and deep, and the treble offered nice texture and clarity, but the midrange was a bit scooped out and hollow sounding. I wanted these things to really sing and sound lush and syrupy. Bringing up the 500 Hz band a few db (again, this isn’t an exact science with the Lokius, so I can only estimate it was about 3 db) made another giant improvement to my ears.
With these 3 simple adjustments, they sound way more neutral and balanced, and conform pretty darned closely to my preferences. There’s still plenty of that luscious bass (and I can have more if desired… there’s plenty more on tap!) and the top end is totally working for me. The mid range is fleshed out and sounding much richer and more fluid. Vocals and instruments that depend heavily on an accurate mid range (piano springs to mind) sound perfectly natural now, whereas they were hitting my ears as hollow and strident before. And the sense of space and fantastic imagery they impart is actually quite thrilling. Their ability to differentiate between vocal harmonies, even when the panning of these voices doesn’t help to tease them apart in a mix, is some of the best I’ve heard outside the realm electrostatics. Very satisfying, indeed.
All in all I can say that I’m extremely happy with these headphones, but they’re far from perfect right out of the box. They need some massaging to one’s preferences. I didn’t even mention the build quality, which as everybody knows is stellar. They’re a touch creakier on the head than I was expecting, but it’s a minor annoyance. And the comfort is also perfect for me even for multiple-hours listening sessions. These are a pair I’m going to keep in the rotation for a while. I do want to explore both the Verite Closed and DCA Stealth as other closed-back options, but the MDR-Z1R has proven itself to be a worthy competitor in this arena.
Thanks for taking the time to read all this, and happy listening!!
) and I'm eagerly awaiting their arrival. I've been gravitating to a warmer, more lush sound signature lately, so I think these might really be a great addition to the stable. Over the last few months I've mostly been daily driving a Dan Clark Ether 2, and think it's got a pretty dark, syrupy and intimate sound to it. I EQ it sometimes (using Lokius... attenuate the 125 and 500 bands a little to open up the stage and thin it out just a dite, and up the 2k and 6k regions to add clarity). This is dependant on mood, but sometimes I just like to sink into that deep abyss of sonic bliss and mellow out. It's nice because the Ether 2 responds so well to EQ that it's basically just a blank canvas. I can make it sound however I want depending on the day and the genre.
