[BlinkST]

Here are some impressions posted on AndAudio, a Taiwanese audio forum. They're impressions off a demo unit at a Sony location in Ginza. Original text found here: http://www.andaudio.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=115589&start=3875. The poster has the following gear listed in his sig:

Closed: W5000/W3000ANV/W1000X/W1000/A900XLTD/A900Ti
Open: SR-507/AD2000X/AD2000/AD1000PRM/AD1000/SA3000/MA900
IEM: EX1000/CK100PRO/IM02/Aurvana-In-Ear2

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.

 

[thatonenoob]

  Nothing in the IEM world has the EX-1000 soundstage, nothing. 
 
How hard is it for sony to focus on remaking the EX-1000 with the treble fixed, they already have the design just focus on the tuning. 

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! 

 

[thatonenoob]

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.

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. 

 

[violencer]

  Part of this may be due to Sony's new design philosophy that focuses more heavily on modern genres. 

Like my H3 with modern genres

But wishing that Z5 was more coherent than H3.

 

[BlinkST]

  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:

The Z5's bass is powerful (in fact perhaps too strong), mid is weighty, with a smallish soundstage that feels very enveloping. Treble is improved in fullness and extension from the XBA-H3, but overall there is still a sense of grain from the BA driver (an unnaturalness to the sound seemingly created by vibrating metal parts). The Z5's resolution is comparable to triple BA IEMs [perhaps referring to his own CK100PRO], though maybe slightly better than Sony's own XBA-30/40.
 
My present assessment is that the Z5 still isn't a replacement for the EX1000. The EX1000's soundstage is large and natural, with a complementary signature that is smooth and easy. The Z5 tends toward a modern popular tuning, bass hefty and rhythmic, mid forward, vocals in particular, and treble bright.
 
The Z5 is a bit like the CKR10, with the same bass heavy, mid forward, and enveloping sound. Actually their treble response is rather similar as well. Currently I would rank these two as equal. According to a clerk, the Z5 is not burned in at all so once the unit is sufficiently burned in, I'll find time to give the Z5 a final evaluation.
 
As of this moment, I don't think the Z5 is worth its price of 65000yen. Overall it doesn't perform as well as the EX1000, or Audio-Technica's ATH-IM03.

 
Now, this is what the earlier impressions stated:

XBA-A3:  
Definitely an improvement of H3. I can hear the treble has become more smooth and detail than H3, and no more congested and fall back mids like in H3. The whole soundstage has become more widely opened. Bass is still tight and deep as H3, quality seems the same. I think the improvement mainly focus on treble, mid and the sound stage. If anyone who did not pull the trigger on H3 last year, I can say A3 is the right one this time.
 
XBA-Z5:
 
Compared to A3, Z5 provides a wider and clean soundstage, more detailed highs and mids, more analytical, and tight and deeper bass! Very rich sound. I would say a 10-15% level up. it sounds like A3 but all high, mids, low and timbre are all refined to another level. It does have the 'Feel the Air' characteristics. It is airy, which is lack of in A3. Looks like the magic coating that Sony put onto those drivers works.
 
I pretty enjoy Z5 above A3, but the build quality and the price difference between Z5 and A3 - HK$2K/US$260 is kind of drawback indeed. Its predecessor - EX1000, its build quality is much, much higher than Z5 if compared.

  Moving on to the sound quality, I was quite impressed by the tight and punchy bass. The bass hits where it needs to without overreaching to the point where it becomes a nuisance.  It adds a solid grounding to the sound without compromising the sense of spaciousness significantly.  The trebles were clear, and as with the MDR-Z7's, helped to provide the extra sparkle needed to expand the soundstage significantly.  However, this does not mean that the XBA-Z5 is a pair of bright IEMs (they aren't).  The mids have a good presence in the overall sound, and are not recessed.  However, I do think that they have been dialed back a slight bit due to the fact that having a forward mid section would probably have reduced the spacious sound that Sony engineers were going for. 
 
Overall clarity was good.  As was the case with the MDR-Z7, the Z5 has a very comfortable sound that doesn't require much effort to enjoy.  It is slightly warmer, but that warmth goes to creating an overall richness that made for very pleasant listening.  I really enjoyed the sound signature on the Z5's, and I can easily see this as something that could sustain hours of smooth, easy, hi-fi listening.
 
 

 
 
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. 

 

[violencer]

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.

 

[thatonenoob]

  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. 

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!   

 

[audionewbi]

Just wondering can the new kimber balance cable be used with EX-1000?

 

[yaluen]

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.

 

[mark9104]

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...

 

[thatonenoob]

  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...

 

[HiFiGuy528]

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!

 

[warrior1975]

Wow...may I ask compared to which unis that you've heard?

 

[BlinkST]

Wow...may I ask compared to which unis that you've heard?

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...
 

 

[HiFiGuy528]

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