[Whitigir]

I have the ZX2 and Sony MDR7520. I want to upgrade to either Z7's or XBA-Z5's. Which is the better choice? Thanks!

I don't have a Z5. I went with ATH-IM04 instead. Because it was designed more comfortable. I don't know how Z5 sounds like. But I know Headphones are always better than IEMS, because "out of your head" soundstage. Z5 is ways more portable, and Z7 is more like home/office uses. Beside, ZX2 Euro version with the sound cap will not have enough juice to power Z7.

The Z7 stock form is not that well received. Have to get a pure solid silver for it. I can not imagine how I missed my Silver Cables today....because I went to work with stock cables and forgot it at home......it tone down the boom, gives the bass more adrenaline...he is a bit lazy...also polishing mid and highs with better continuous energy flows and linearity within a tone body.

In fact I would be so proud to let people experience this combo....I am sure if that somebody is like me, who is more about musical, flows, but with realism details within the reproduced music, he/she will love it !

 

[albumnut]

I don't have a Z5. I went with ATH-IM04 instead. Because it was designed more comfortable. I don't know how Z5 sounds like. But I know Headphones are always better than IEMS, because "out of your head" soundstage. Z5 is ways more portable, and Z7 is more like home/office uses. Beside, ZX2 Euro version with the sound cap will not have enough juice to power Z7.

The Z7 stock form is not that well received. Have to get a pure solid silver for it. I can not imagine how I missed my Silver Cables today....because I went to work with stock cables and forgot it at home......it tone down the boom, gives the bass more adrenaline...he is a bit lazy...also polishing mid and highs with better continuous energy flows and linearity within a tone body.

In fact I would be so proud to let people experience this combo....I am sure if that somebody is like me, who is more about musical, flows, but with realism details within the reproduced music, he/she will love it !

thanks for your input. I have the US version of the ZX2 and with all of the sound enhancements turned off I can listen on my MDR7520s at 35% volume and it is loud enough so I dont think I will have a problem driving the Z7s.

 

[dweaver]

I have the ZX2 and Sony MDR7520. I want to upgrade to either Z7's or XBA-Z5's. Which is the better choice? Thanks!

I own both Z7 and Z5 and think they are both excellent. The Z7 has the bigger sound but the Z5 has more detail and sounds more 3D to my ears. They share a very similar sonic signature with the Z5 having a bit more sub bass. If you want portability primarily go Z5 if you want them for home use and comfort go Z7. I have both and don't plan to sell either one.

 

[albumnut]

Thanks, I appreciate your feedback.

 

[Sonic Defender]

thanks for your input. I have the US version of the ZX2 and with all of the sound enhancements turned off I can listen on my MDR7520s at 35% volume and it is loud enough so I dont think I will have a problem driving the Z7s.

Man, either I'm nuts (very plausible) or most people listen to music extremely quietly. How can you even feel the music when it is so quiet? I know I listen quite loud compared to most people, but when I used a Sony A17 with the 1As it was on full volume, and that wasn't really very loud at all. My hearing is still quite good, I think I have just acclimated to louder music over the years as that is where you can feel it not just sort of sense it.

 

[Whitigir]

Normally during the day, I enjoy ZX2+Z7 at 65-70% or so....during night time it is like 45-50%. The loudest I enjoy would be 80-85% and can't go any further.

 

[Headphone4Life]

I really don't get all the hate of the Z7. Mine is still in stock form and I think it sound great compared to other hp's I have and have had or listened to for extended periods.
 
The bass that's been such a controversy sounds very good to me with plenty of sub-bass. I like my bass to sound a bit "loose" as they say but I like to say it sound nice a dirty which is a good thing. Mids are very smooth as is the treble which I like a lot more than some and I also think the treble has opened up more after 40 or 50 hours of use and no its not brain burn-in .
 
One thing I think most agree on is the open feel of the soundstage. Compared to my open hp's (HD600, HE-400 and DT 990 Pro) the Z7 comes really close in over all soundstage with the width sounding almost as wide and I think the Z7 has better depth than all 3. Imaging is also very good and I love the 3D presentation.
 
The Z7 is a very good hp and I think well worth the street price you can get them for now. I'll see how much different they'll sound when I get the Kimber Kable but I've never been one to think cables make that much of a change in SQ.

 

[Sonic Defender]

I would agree that the Z7 is well worth the street price, and I agree that the bass is overall quite nice. As I always say, my only quibble of any substance at all was wanting better sub bass performance, but it wasn't as if the Z7 had no ability in this area, I just felt I needed more and that big driver should have been able to deliver more. If you consider the overall quality of the sound, the design, comfort and build quality, the Z7 is at street price an excellent value.

 

[Whitigir]

Sub-bass gets better and more textures with better accuracy after an upgraded cable.  But it is understandable that many will not want to take the risk of paying another 250$ for an upgraded cables.  I did some reading, and decided to go with silver, and have no regrets.
 
Though, it maybe better to shell-out a total of $1,000 or so for the TH-900 and get a good quality HP off the box.  Because that would be how-much the Z7+cables would cost.  Unless, you get the Japan version, which is risky as it may be defect, and you would be hanging with shipping back/forth....etc....etc

 

[Sonic Defender]

  Sub-bass gets better and more textures with better accuracy after an upgraded cable.  But it is understandable that many will not want to take the risk of paying another 250$ for an upgraded cables.  I did some reading, and decided to go with silver, and have no regrets.
 
Though, it maybe better to shell-out a total of $1,000 or so for the TH-900 and get a good quality HP off the box.  Because that would be how-much the Z7+cables would cost.  Unless, you get the Japan version, which is risky as it may be defect, and you would be hanging with shipping back/forth....etc....etc

I used very nice Norne Audio Solv X cables with the Z7. I had cCasper TFG make me small adapters so that the SMC connectors on the Norne cable (I had it made for my HE 560) could work with the Z7 so I don't think it is cables in my case anyway.

 

[Whitigir]

Am I reading it right that the Norne cables is just a silver plated cables ? I don't know what to tell yah, but any kind of hybrids cables are just...meh....I always go with pure material, either pure silver, or pure copper....I don't go with silver plated, gold injected silver, or hybrid silver+copper stranded cables.

Silver plated OFC is the stock cables that Z7 has .

 

[Whitigir]

I am sorry, but I did an 1/2 ars job at taping and dampening the Z7 as I said before. I left a few plastic parts exposed, especially the plugs, and the grooves around the driver backs. I wanted to see how it would improves. As said, it did improve....so

Today, I went in, did the best I could to cover everything up....did not take pictures, but I covered those said above, and it improves even further ! Sub-bass is dang clean, and that spirals rumbles effect.....Jesus! Such little exposed plastic surfaces were exposed, I really didn't think it would be that huge of the differences.

This mod really brings out the best of Z7, I have silver cables on now. I will let you know what I can have with stock cables tonight. I would advise that you do it with cares, and baby it. Like I stated

1/ the driver is dang huge, one finger slip into it, and you can ruin the membrane.
2/ the inner wires and spaces are really, really tight.

***It is not an easy job***

Is it worth it ? To me, as a first time modding something this god dang expensive.....hell, I was worried, and scared of damaging it and had nothing much back in return....I am not lying to you, it is hell a lot of worth to it.

Improvements ?

Just like what it was before, but better. Better bass, and sub bass, better rumbles, better housing resonances, better reverb, better trebles extensions.

My biggest appreciations to a member CDSA35000. Thank you sir!

***updated with pictures***

 

[Sonic Defender]

Am I reading it right that the Norne cables is just a silver plated cables ? I don't know what to tell yah, but any kind of hybrids cables are just...meh....I always go with pure material, either pure silver, or pure copper....I don't go with silver plated, gold injected silver, or hybrid silver+copper stranded cables.

Silver plated OFC is the stock cables that Z7 has

.

No, the Norn Audio cables are highly regarded and I'll bet in a blind listening test you telling cables apart would be very difficult if not impossible. I'm sorry, but the notion that a cable can change something such as sub-bass response seems extremely far-fetched. The issue is the design of the Z7. Sony likely had to make a decision about what the response of the design would be and in order to balance the sound with their design goals, deep sub-bass response was not considered a design priority. No one design can do everything and the Z7 is an excellent sounding headphone with slightly reduced sub-bass response. It isn't a cable issue.

 

[Whitigir]

No, the Norn Audio cables are highly regarded and I'll bet in a blind listening test you telling cables apart would be very difficult if not impossible. I'm sorry, but the notion that a cable can change something such as sub-bass response seems extremely far-fetched. The issue is the design of the Z7. Sony likely had to make a decision about what the response of the design would be and in order to balance the sound with their design goals, deep sub-bass response was not considered a design priority. No one design can do everything and the Z7 is an excellent sounding headphone with slightly reduced sub-bass response. It isn't a cable issue.

That is fine, believe what you hear is the saying in this hobby. We all have different ears and structures. I may be crazy that I can tell you in a blind test the differences from my silver to stock cables on the Z7. I will try and video them, hopefully the microphone can pick up...

Otherwise call me crazy for I had spent another money just for the cables alone, and getting ready for whatever I may want to

 

[Sonic Defender]

That is fine, believe what you hear is the saying in this hobby. We all have different ears and structures. I may be crazy that I can tell you in a blind test the differences from my silver to stock cables on the Z7. I will try and video them, hopefully the microphone can pick up...

Otherwise call me crazy for I had spent another money just for the cables alone, and getting ready for whatever I may want to

Believe me, I'm not trying to attack you, or put you on the defensive, but I would really need to know how you have conducted these blind listening tests. It is actually hard to design and implement such a test properly, and even the assistant can give clues by accident. Consider that the different cables may have different materials so if they touch your skin, you know what the cable is, perhaps one cable is stiffer than another ... there are likely many factors that can give away information that invalidates a blind test. Plus, you need to do multiple trials, like at least ten, and you need to correctly identify the cable differences about 90% of the time. I would have to look and see what a significant percentage is, but I'm sure it is quite high.
 
My point is, unless you have taken great care, and done multiple trials you really can't have much confidence in results otherwise. And while too a small extent there are individual differences, for most people, our sensory systems are very, very similar. So yes, it is possible that you might have some kind of evolutionary adaptation which makes you more sensitive to very small differences, but again, this isn't really very likely.
 
An equally plausible explanation is that after spending time, effort and money on different cables, you expected to hear differences, and some of these expectations would be specific as you would have read what others reported hearing, or what the manufacturer suggested you might hear. Anyway, I shouldn't do this whole cable debate thing as it takes the thread off topic so I will desist and agree, it is what we hear that matters, so continue to enjoy your experiences.