www.head-fi.org/t/733404/sonys-new-2014-flagship-iem-xba-z5/75#post_10895411 www.head-fi.org/t/733404/sonys-new-2014-flagship-iem-xba-z5/75#post_10895797 His impressions differ remarkably from the others. No burn-in sounds about right.
Part of this may be due to Sony's new design philosophy that focuses more heavily on modern genres. I wrote about it in greater detail here. Cheers!
Well I could foresee a need for burn-in due to the dynamic driver...but I am a little mixed up on whose impressions differ remarkably from the others. Perhaps I'm just tired ahaha.
Sure, let me help you out. The recent impressions, state: Now, this is what the earlier impressions stated: So, you get the idea. "Smallish soundstage" aren't even what people would use to describe the H3 (Example), and the A3 is supposed to be an improvement over that, and the Z5 an improvement still. It's still marketing, but I really doubt that Sony would price the IEM the same as the headphones with the "feel the air" tagline if they didn't sound very similar (Supposedly like speakers). Not attacking the guy, btw. Just raising a point about burn-in and how the impressions differ.
small comparison between IE 800, EX1000, XBA-4, XBA-H3 http://www.head-fi.org/t/680119/sony-xba-h1-and-xba-h3-hybrid-dynamic-and-ba-iem/2340#post_10683683 Soundstage is also depend on music genre. For example, in my opinion, H3 soundstage is much better than EX1000 in electronic and bass music, especially on doom metal.
Thanks man! Yes, the recent impressions do seem a bit different. I'm willing to make concessions on the soundstage, but I'm not ready to say it is "smallish". This is the reason why I really need those review units now , so we can try and test these headphones in a better controlled setting!
A more literal translation of the comment gives "the soundstage is medium-small in size". Note that he seems to regard the Z5 treble as improved over the H3. I would assume soundstage characteristics would at least be similar between the two. Probably would make more sense speculating about the Z5 relative to established impressions of the H3 based on this comment.
I think the guy is quite respected in that forum and if I remember correctly, he has been reviewing for a long while but what he said did seems to differ quite a lot from others. in short basically he said it is a piece of trash, actually A3 as well lol Would wait for some more in depth reviews, mine own 2 minutes with it doesn't really convince me enough but I do not think it is as bad as he said, whether it is worth that much is another thing...
From my short impressions, I really didn't think it was as bad as some made it out to be. However, isolated testing will definitely tell us more. I hope shipments of the new monitors get to Singapore soon...
Question, does the Japan version of Z5 come with balanced cable? My friend Naotaka Tsunoda let me try his pair and I have to say it's the BEST universal IEM I've heard to-date. I'm getting a pair for sure!
Paying a quick visit to his youtube page (I'm a fan), he's a tried a lot, including the K3003, IE800, H3, MDR-7550, XBA-40, EX-1000(!) etc. So, therefore...
Played track 8 from this album in AIFF files on iPhone 6. The realism, the resolution, and the low frequencies definition nearly brought tears to my eyes. I was absolutely floored... Isolation on the Z5 is like being in a anechoic chamber. I did not want to give the Z5 back to Nao. Even though I know people at Sony Japan, I don't get discounts. I will buy TWO Z5 at retail, one for spare. It's that amazing... http://www.amazon.com/Brave-Enough-Live-Variety-DVD/dp/B00EQL4S4I/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1413220709&sr=1-4&keywords=sara+bareilles
