[zorin]

  arent u guys disturbed by the TV/ sound around u? 
each time i auditioned it ( yesterday again) those shop noises got to me again...
the isolation sucx...
that sony gal is pretty though...my 3rd visit  
 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 

Can you upload a picture of her ?

 

[Lorspeaker]

  Can you upload a picture of her ?

 

 

[ButtUglyJeff]

^^^ I smell an avatar change...

 

[hola]

Not bad at all : )

 

[Ryanr1987]

Just some of my experiences with this headphone.
 
Build quality is spot on. They remind of the Fostex/Denon models done correctly. Really light in the hand but not to the point of them feeling weak. Pads are amazing but, I really can't deal with leather/pleather for too long. Cable is spot on, good to see in a flagship product! and the packaging is nice although simple.
 
The sound of these headphones is ok. The bass is flabby, soft. I like a softer sound overall but I felt that the mids were too thin sounding for my taste. The  midbass is pretty mad, it's like getting an ear massage at times but they lack overall impact in the sub bass. Vocals sound not too bad, I like lush, thick and intimate vocals and I felt these didn't have that. They are not what I call recessed but the bass is just over the top. The treble is dark. I actually enjoyed the treble as it's not harsh at all. They are darker than the HE400i I have and on par with the HD650.
 
Soundstage is top notch. It's spacious, layered with excellent imaging considering they are quite dark. I'm a gamer so a good image is very important. Headphones such as the DT770, B&W P7 and other V shaped headphones generally have the best soundstages when it comes to closed phones but  I would say the Z7 is on par with those give or take a shade.
 
They are fairly efficient but get them amped!
 
Overall they are decent but overpriced for sure. They are in line with headphones like the Mad Dogs, SRH1540, W1000X, TH600 but I find the Z7 out points them for mids except the MD and W1000x and wins in regards to soundstage over most but maybe on par with the TH600. 
 
If I had to rate them for performance and not personal preference it would go
 
Treble TH600>1540>W1000X>Z7>MD
Mids MD>W1000X>Z7>1540>TH600
Bass TH600>MD>1540>Z7>W1000X
Soundstage TH600>Z7>W1000X>1540>MD All have a good stage but after doing DH test I came away with this result.
Image TH600>W1000X>Z7>1540>MD
 
Hope this helps.

 

[Lorspeaker]

And that should bring the price down to .......  

 

[cdsa35000]

Just some of my experiences with this headphone. .. Hope this helps.

They should have used the nano-fibre HD porous diaphragms like the SA5000/Qualia010 instead of this crappy plastic aluminium-coated, liquid crystal polymer diaphragm.
Rigid alu/plastic diap. can't reproduce accurately the finer transient detail of the mids/highs.

You can improve the "sound balance" by dampening like this guy did:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/728006/sonys-new-flagship-2014-mdr-z7/3860

Sorry, I can't write a detailed guide this time... because there is too much to be done. But essentially...
Felt on the plastic rim/lip surrounding the driver. Then shelf-liner material in the slot left by the angle. This shelf-liner will absorb some excess resonance in order to reduce the midrange harshness that I mentioned (2-4KHz), I have used this technique with a similar headphone with good results.


Next: circular foam piece covering the edges of the metallic part in the back of the driver. This absorbs reflections that mess with the mids, too. Then another piece of shelf-liner in the lip here, too.

And here's the cup: treated to shelf-liner with bigger openings and dots. The bigger dots absorb reflection better than the smaller ones, so this one will allow for higher frequencies to come out better as they don't get reflected and cause destructive interference with the wave coming to the front. Edit: not visible from photos: dynamat under each piece of shelf-liner on the cups to dampen every possible resonance of the cup from lower frequencies. So essentially, I wanted to make the cup disappear...




And here are frequency response measurements before and after... I used my iPhone's microphone to record a sine wave sweep, so please ignore bass below 125Hz. iPhone mic sucks at recording bass. But midrange and especially treble showed some improvements.
Before:

After:


16KHz peak gives more air IMO. The Sony R10 also had that peak from one measurement I have seen.

Probably better just fill it with a piece of BAF wadding or acoustic foam to dampen the inner standing waves, without decreasing the calculated acoustic chamber size like the too thick rubber damping does.
http://www.qtasystems.co.uk/articles/how-to-damping.htm

 

[Mink]

  Tommorow my Z7s will finally arrive! Can't wait
Curiously the last week the price went up from 367 euro to 519 euro, and now it is back at the same 'low' price of 367 euro, so anyone in Europe who likes a good deal, follow this link:
http://www.bestekeus.nl/product_info-n-SONY_HOOFDTELEFOON_MDRZ7_ZWART-pId-238159.html

 
They arrived.
Love the looks and built quality.
 
The sound then...well...the first album I listened to was Schumann's 3rd symphony (Yannick Nézet-Séguin · Chamber Orchestra of Europe).
Thin, opague and brash at the same time!
Hahaha, I wasn't expecting a good sound from the 1st note, but still I was very disappointed.
Second album: Aimee Mann's Bachelor N°2.
Much better, but the vocals got shouty at times. The sound stage is really good though.
I like the bass, I don't find it that overblown and it goes pretty deep as well.
 
I will report later, I really have to get used to the sound, and need to find out how loud to play with them, they have excellent and fluid dynamics, I had to turn the volume down a couple of times.

 

[ButtUglyJeff]

They do really need some extra volume to open up.  Sometimes that can fun, and other times not so fun...

 

[Oregonian]

  They do really need some extra volume to open up.  Sometimes that can fun, and other times not so fun...

Agree on this.  Seems the more volume I add the better everything sounds.  First time I've experienced that with a headphone. 

 

[dweaver]

As my pair broke in and my brain got used to the signature I can now enjoy at lower volume levels.

 

[Mink]

Love the bass! With many recordings it blooms nicely and because it is less tight than ideal it gives me that old analogue vibe, like listening to an old tape deck.
I can understand some will find the bass disappointing, because essentially the quality of the low notes present gives you a good indication what these headphones are capable of if they were tuned slightly different.
 
Richard Buckner's Bloomed and Since sound incredible with these headphones, completely different than with any other headphones I have auditioned and own.
I feel the Sony's handle male vocals better than female.
Some claim the low mids are a bit lacking, I can hear what they mean, but I don't experience this as a shortcoming at all, male vocals sound intimate and full sounding, they don't lack any warmth.
 
 
Quote:

   
They arrived.
Love the looks and built quality.
 
The sound then...well...the first album I listened to was Schumann's 3rd symphony (Yannick Nézet-Séguin · Chamber Orchestra of Europe).
Thin, opague and brash at the same time!
Hahaha, I wasn't expecting a good sound from the 1st note, but still I was very disappointed.
Second album: Aimee Mann's Bachelor N°2.
Much better, but the vocals got shouty at times. The sound stage is really good though.
I like the bass, I don't find it that overblown and it goes pretty deep as well.
 
I will report later, I really have to get used to the sound, and need to find out how loud to play with them, they have excellent and fluid dynamics, I had to turn the volume down a couple of times.

 

[Ryanr1987]

They are quite dark sounding so high volumes on darker headphones in general makes them sound great, same with brighter headphones especially the V shaped kind that sound good at low volumes i.e Shure 1540, P7, DT770. 
 
The Z7 mods seem interesting, sadly I'm not one to play around with mods, not really into it. I just wished they had my ideal signature which is dark, thick mids and strong bass like the HD650, LCD2 and older Annies.

 

[Lorspeaker]

U should check out the dt150 then.

 

[purk]

  They are quite dark sounding so high volumes on darker headphones in general makes them sound great, same with brighter headphones especially the V shaped kind that sound good at low volumes i.e Shure 1540, P7, DT770. 
 
The Z7 mods seem interesting, sadly I'm not one to play around with mods, not really into it. I just wished they had my ideal signature which is dark, thick mids and strong bass like the HD650, LCD2 and older Annies.

 
You can always use silver cable to brighten and cleaning up the sound of the Z7.