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Sony Z1R....listening impressions only
Mar 13, 2023 at 3:28 PM Post #8,957 of 9,644
Mar 13, 2023 at 10:09 PM Post #8,960 of 9,644
tmaxx123 said:
They also gave the HD800s a lower score in soundstage then the mdr-z1r.....hmmmm very curious lol
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Depends on what they were rating.

The HD800S soundstage is insanely big, maybe one of the biggest, but wrong and off.

It's big even when it is supposed to be small, there are large holes in it and so on.

The MDR-Z1R is smaller but more accurate. If you listen to Hans Zimmer you instantly notice that. A lot of the Songs from him play immersively with the sound stage. Things are placed right in front of you while other things play it in the background. Or things travel towards you. They start far away and crawl to you.

The HD800S can't play any of these songs as it's supposed to be. It's soundstage is insanely big, but nothing else.

So I can understand that rating

The D8000 Soundstage can be larger then the HD800S but also smaller. In terms of Soundstage, I would say the D8000 is king
 
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Mar 14, 2023 at 7:22 AM Post #8,961 of 9,644
Vamp898 said:
Depends on what they were rating.

The HD800S soundstage is insanely big, maybe one of the biggest, but wrong and off.

It's big even when it is supposed to be small, there are large holes in it and so on.

The MDR-Z1R is smaller but more accurate. If you listen to Hans Zimmer you instantly notice that. A lot of the Songs from him play immersively with the sound stage. Things are placed right in front of you while other things play it in the background. Or things travel towards you. They start far away and crawl to you.

The HD800S can't play any of these songs as it's supposed to be. It's soundstage is insanely big, but nothing else.

So I can understand that rating

The D8000 Soundstage can be larger then the HD800S but also smaller. In terms of Soundstage, I would say the D8000 is king
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I'll add that the D8000's soundstage is more realistic in comparison to the HD800S's. The Z1R's have a more real life depiction of soundstaging as well when compared directly to the the HD800S's. It's deceptively wide for a closed back.
 
Mar 14, 2023 at 7:44 AM Post #8,962 of 9,644
Vamp898 said:
Depends on what they were rating.

The HD800S soundstage is insanely big, maybe one of the biggest, but wrong and off.

It's big even when it is supposed to be small, there are large holes in it and so on.

The MDR-Z1R is smaller but more accurate. If you listen to Hans Zimmer you instantly notice that. A lot of the Songs from him play immersively with the sound stage. Things are placed right in front of you while other things play it in the background. Or things travel towards you. They start far away and crawl to you.

The HD800S can't play any of these songs as it's supposed to be. It's soundstage is insanely big, but nothing else.

So I can understand that rating

The D8000 Soundstage can be larger then the HD800S but also smaller. In terms of Soundstage, I would say the D8000 is king
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Althought I agree that the D8K soundstage is very flexible, The D8K series doesn't have a soundstage as wide as the HD800s. But for me, it's better in terms of depth ,imaging and instrument separation.

I love the HD800s and it's an unique headphone but the D8K Pro gives me a lot of things that I love about the HD800s mixed with the bass pressence and dynamics that you get on Audeze big planars.
 
Mar 14, 2023 at 11:04 AM Post #8,963 of 9,644
Soundstage is still a very subjective matters. Many years back, when I started out to achieving myself a pair of 800s, I started to think it was somewhat artificial as the soundstage didn’t seem like it was coming from a headphones. But over the blessed years where I had experienced different setups such as Stax, and even Stereos system from Sony, Yamaha, and even currently Atmost and Dolby set up. I can tell you for a fact that the 800s does not have artificial soundstage. It is just extraordinary for what it is able to achieve as a headphones.

The MDR Z1R is similar, it has amazing soundstage. Many people would say that the Z1R has too much bass, which is again very subjective. But in my opinions and experiences, you will have to tweak it under different scenarios to change up to your very own personal preferences. The same as 800s, if you are so very particular about som specific things. Such as amplifier, DAC, cables, pads…etc…

Anyways, the MDR has 2 amazing points, the powerful and dynamic bass, it resemble a perfectly setup Atmos system, and you are sitting right at the sweet spot. Actually, I used MDR Z1R as a references to setup and scaled my Atmos tuning. I am not the kind of person who is all about measurements and numbers. But it was clear to my hearings that my Atmos speakers didn’t have coherences in bass and low mid. So, I went from 13.2 into 13-2.1 set up, and I am much happier

The HD800s requires a powerful amplifications with a proper damping factors. It isn’t all about the number of wattage available, but it is about the factor where the 800s can be kept under a controlled manner. The 800s sound closer to a proper Stereo system setup, or almost as a near field monitors.

Both compliment one another very well. 800s is neutral, wide staging and more upfront from the scape. Z1R is closed back with noise isolations, warmer and thicker bass with a scape that is very immersive and enveloping.

But in the end, I would never call 800s to be artificial in soundstage. It is an amazing pair of dynamic headphones that can bring the experiences of a proper near field or large stereos, which, only E-Stats would be able to outperform. It came to the point where having 1 pair isn’t enough, but 2X of them is a lot better, one at home and another at the office 😂. Yes, it is that good. Having 1 set of MDR is good enough though
 
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Mar 14, 2023 at 11:32 AM Post #8,964 of 9,644
Whitigir said:
Many people would say that the Z1R has too much bass, which is again very subjective.
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An OCC silver cable tames the bass and improvs the details and soundstage. I noticed this when I switched from the AXIOS Cu to DHC Prion4.
 
Mar 14, 2023 at 1:18 PM Post #8,966 of 9,644
Lookout57 said:
An OCC silver cable tames the bass and improvs the details and soundstage. I noticed this when I switched from the AXIOS Cu to DHC Prion4.
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Totally agree going from Axios Cu to Lavri Grand
 
Mar 14, 2023 at 9:32 PM Post #8,967 of 9,644
MDR is not everyone's cup of tea but after trying many wonderful headphones I still love my pair. I think it's better than the Ier-z1r though the latter is more highly regarded in the iem community.

Maybe the ZMF Atrium Closed was better but I'm not sure. Some open backs were perhaps better like the Nutopia and Susvara but those are also over twice the price!
 
Mar 15, 2023 at 3:44 AM Post #8,969 of 9,644
I just got my iFi Gryphon to up the experience of movies with my Z1R - the XBass and XSpace really take it to the next level.
It sounds so good I'm sure I'll end up using for music too.

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Mar 15, 2023 at 5:13 AM Post #8,970 of 9,644
Benesyed said:
MDR is not everyone's cup of tea but after trying many wonderful headphones I still love my pair. I think it's better than the Ier-z1r though the latter is more highly regarded in the iem community.

Maybe the ZMF Atrium Closed was better but I'm not sure. Some open backs were perhaps better like the Nutopia and Susvara but those are also over twice the price!
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I totally agree. In general, I think it's good to have several pairs. Because even the best ones (for us) will get bored after some time and we will start looking for new experiences... Some headphones are just fun to listen to. Sony Z1R, Fostex TH900, or Meze Empyrean. They're not the best, but they're often the most fun.
 
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