[pietcux]

Right now listening to Pink Floyd's "THE FINAL CUT" When the Tigers broke free track. I am absolutely in love with how the Z7 presents this track and the complete album.

 

[gerelmx1986]

Absolutely lo ve mine a lot, Greta pairing with classical music

Glad you like it. Do you feel the air?

yes I do feel the air nice separation of the instrument and more tickling bass

 

[gerelmx1986]

Pietcux and many others are right these requiere good amp, gotta try my z5 too



A good denon CD player with burn brown DAC



Z7



Cool spectrometer

 

[Earbones]

I have to say, the MDR Z7 unfortunately has come to embody, for me at least, everything that is wrong with audiophilia. It's an excellent example of when people listen with their sense of fashion rather than their ears. I've been reading the lackluster reviews on this can for the last two years, and because of the response, never got around to giving them a listen. How stupid. Finally, I auditioned them. Twice.

The fact is, they are phenomenal cans for the money. HD800 or LCD2 killers? Maybe not. Their equal in terms of enjoyability? Absolutely. And for $300 less. Not bad. I don't know if it's some ingrained belief that Sony doesn't do speakers well, so by extension their cans are intrinsically limited, or these simply got on the wrong side of the hype machine, but the Z7 has not gotten a fair shake in the vast majority of ether professional or amateur reviews. Guys who's take on something I generally agree with seem deaf when it comes to this can. A real shame.

I wonder if when these start selling for $300-$400 in a couple of years, the industry will reevaluate. One would basically have to be willfully ignorant not to recommend them for that money...

 

[Buddhahacker]

I have to say, the MDR Z7 unfortunately has come to embody, for me at least, everything that is wrong with audiophilia. It's an excellent example of when people listen with their sense of fashion rather than their ears. I've been reading the lackluster reviews on this can for the last two years, and because of the response, never got around to giving them a listen. How stupid. Finally, I auditioned them. Twice.

The fact is, they are phenomenal cans for the money. HD800 or LCD2 killers? Maybe not. Their equal in terms of enjoyability? Absolutely. And for $300 less. Not bad. I don't know if it's some ingrained belief that Sony doesn't do speakers well, so by extension their cans are intrinsically limited, or these simply got on the wrong side of the hype machine, but the Z7 has not gotten a fair shake in the vast majority of ether professional or amateur reviews. Guys who's take on something I generally agree with seem deaf when it comes to this can. A real shame.

I wonder if when these start selling for $300-$400 in a couple of years, the industry will reevaluate. One would basically have to be willfully ignorant not to recommend them for that money...

You can occasionally find refurbs on Amazon for around $300 and change.  That's when I obtained mine.  "Secondipity" was the seller I purchased them from.  

 

[fullranger]

Agreed. They are excellent at their stated range of operation, which was aimed to be at the lower end of the top of the line headphone. I think they hit that target very well, and for $300-400 a good value in the resale market.
I have the MDR-EX1000 IEM with way more treble response, and they are pretty awesome, but the Z7 has maybe more stunning bass to make up for the lesser high end.
Glad I have the pair to use when I want.
Good observation that this can may have a great run in the $400 price range against many other well thought of designs costing much more.
In the end, most Sony loudspeakers were meant for the average home listener, but their finer headphone series are not for the "average Joe".

 

[Hi 5]

I have to say, the MDR Z7 unfortunately has come to embody, for me at least, everything that is wrong with audiophilia. It's an excellent example of when people listen with their sense of fashion rather than their ears. I've been reading the lackluster reviews on this can for the last two years, and because of the response, never got around to giving them a listen. How stupid. Finally, I auditioned them. Twice.

The fact is, they are phenomenal cans for the money. HD800 or LCD2 killers? Maybe not. Their equal in terms of enjoyability? Absolutely. And for $300 less. Not bad. I don't know if it's some ingrained belief that Sony doesn't do speakers well, so by extension their cans are intrinsically limited, or these simply got on the wrong side of the hype machine, but the Z7 has not gotten a fair shake in the vast majority of ether professional or amateur reviews. Guys who's take on something I generally agree with seem deaf when it comes to this can. A real shame.

I wonder if when these start selling for $300-$400 in a couple of years, the industry will reevaluate. One would basically have to be willfully ignorant not to recommend them for that money...

This man gets it!

Often overlooked and miss understood, When you take the time to brush off the dusty of bias.. you might find a gem of epic proportion.

:rolleyes:


But please don't tell anyone. Until I can procure a few more Z7's
I'm serious about that too.

 

[nmatheis]

I don't own Z7 but auditioned them at RMAF earlier this year. Great pair of cans. I ended up buying Nighthawks instead because they edged Z7 out slightly for my tastes, but Z7 were my second fave can in this price range at the show. They were my third fave can overall at the show, with HEX v2 and Nighthawks coming in just ahead. In short, I can see Z7 in my future. Something like HD800? Nope. No way. Z7? Yup. Good stuff!

 

[Hi 5]

I don't own Z7 but auditioned them at RMAF earlier this year. Great pair of cans. I ended up buying Nighthawks instead because they edged Z7 out slightly for my tastes, but Z7 were my second fave can in this price range at the show. They were my third fave can overall at the show, with HEX v2 and Nighthawks coming in just ahead. In short, I can see Z7 in my future. Something like HD800? Nope. No way. Z7? Yup. Good stuff!

The Z7 really starts to open up with a few hundred hours on them.

And more so running balanced.

And again to a nother level with Mods.

 

[Zimmermann]

Just got a 2nd hand MDR Z7, still in mint condition. Got it for $200 with a free case, but minus the balanced cable. Great synergy with my O2 amp and Fiio X5 even in its stock form. 

I'm just really happy with this purchase!

 

[Arctican]

I have to say, the MDR Z7 unfortunately has come to embody, for me at least, everything that is wrong with audiophilia. It's an excellent example of when people listen with their sense of fashion rather than their ears. I've been reading the lackluster reviews on this can for the last two years, and because of the response, never got around to giving them a listen. How stupid. Finally, I auditioned them. Twice.

The fact is, they are phenomenal cans for the money. HD800 or LCD2 killers? Maybe not. Their equal in terms of enjoyability? Absolutely. And for $300 less. Not bad. I don't know if it's some ingrained belief that Sony doesn't do speakers well, so by extension their cans are intrinsically limited, or these simply got on the wrong side of the hype machine, but the Z7 has not gotten a fair shake in the vast majority of ether professional or amateur reviews. Guys who's take on something I generally agree with seem deaf when it comes to this can. A real shame.

I wonder if when these start selling for $300-$400 in a couple of years, the industry will reevaluate. One would basically have to be willfully ignorant not to recommend them for that money...

I totally agree. Unfortunately, some enthusiasts I know still discredit Sony as not "botique" nor specialized enough when it comes to personal audio, unlike Audeze, Hifiman, or Sennheiser. They might have heard the earlier offerings of Sony or the low end audio products offered by Sony (plus Sony, being a corporation, sometimes has a reputation of being overpriced)- and I think this is the reason of the bias.

I must admit that I was very biased against Sony before, as I thought that these Z7s sound similar to Sony's earlier XB500 extra bass cans- bloated, bassy upon initial audition (even telling myself that Sony made another dud of a headphone). But now I stand corrected, as I use this more often than my HE500 at home. I guess we need to have an open mind, or an open "ear" in this case.

 

[LaCuffia]

The Z1R is an example of the levels Sony can reach with headphones. I can't make a blanket statement about how they compare to all brands of course but I know from reading the Z1R thread that others with more experience say the Z1R trounces the competition.

And for the record I really like the Z7 for the limited time I tried them. It gets a bad rap for sure.

 

[Newport]

Earlier this month, I bought another new pair of Z7 for spare as the Z7 is - in my opinion - the world’s best headphone value considering its performance/build quality/cost. My first Z7 serial number is 37XX and the second is 256XX. The two Z7s and the full Sony Signature set up which I got recently (Z1R + ZH1ES + WM1A) will likely be my end game. I am not a collector and will be selling off my other two headphones (Fostex TH-900 & Stax 007) which I hardly use after getting the Z7….more so now with Z7 + Z1R.

 

[pietcux]

Earlier this month, I bought another new pair of Z7 for spare as the Z7 is - in my opinion - the world’s best headphone value considering its performance/build quality/cost. My first Z7 serial number is 37XX and the second is 256XX. The two Z7s and the full Sony Signature set up which I got recently (Z1R + ZH1ES + WM1A) will likely be my end game. I am not a collector and will be selling off my other two headphones (Fostex TH-900 & Stax 007) which I hardly use after getting the Z7….more so now with Z7 + Z1R.

Have the Z7 and the Z1r is on preorder. I feel the same about Sonys current totl headphones. All I would love to see is an open sibling, as the MA-900 was not to my liking. And I need a real open can for times when I need to be aware of my surroundings.

 

[Mohamed Kurdieh]

im currently thinking about buying these, they are selling now for 650 usd. Ive spent like 4 days reading reviews about the Z7, many say that its the best but on the other hand i saw alot of comments saying that its now worth the money. Im really going crazy since i would like to buy these,but dont wanna throw away 650$ down the drain. Ive also read that somewhere that some people had the cable to be able to connect directly to ex phones, computers while others said that they didnt have 1 and needed to buy, like what?!!? im lost.....