[thatonenoob]

   
Huh, I see...
 
So exactly when does this headphone go on sale?

In Singapore, November (if I'm not wrong).

 

[Bill-P]

  In Singapore, November (if I'm not wrong).

 
Well, okay.
 
Next paycheck.
 
If it does sound like a more spacious LCD-2F as described, then... I can foresee it being my one and only full-size.

 

[Makiah S]

Originally Posted by Bill-P /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Did you just say Z7 sounds like LCD-2F, only slightly brighter and a lot more spacious? And it's more relaxed than LCD-2F?
 

Spoiler: Long Winded Comment, Mostly me thinking out loud

I think this is a good way to sum up every one's impression thus far, which... my biggest issue with the LCD 2F which I spent a week with in my home and on my rig, was just too laid back for my tastes, combine it with my HM801 and it was no me gustah at all 
 
Buts it's any enjoyable sound, though to be honest I never felt the LCD 2F lacks anything in terms of 3D imaging, well... the colored frequancy response made the image a little blurry at times if there was a busy passage, which has a good bit to do with the some what recessed upper mids,
 
that aside though it imaged nicely, but moving on... and actually with the big 70mm Drivers [and honestly the LCD 2 F was HUGE, like it's a pretty big can. I never did measure the diameter of the Driver Houseing
 
but a More Balanced LCD 2F sounds like a winner for a Sony Headphone, hearing that it's a touch more relaxed than the LCD 2F worries me, as I felt that was too relaxed for my tastes, still though... I dunno the cosmic energy just feels right... assuming the MDR Z7 has a simmilar sound to the LCD 2F, the addition of more treble and a touch more spacious sound... I think the universe is supporting that statement... that or I'm getting really tired and delusional
 
but I'm going to sleep on that idea... and see how I feel in da morning. But, if the MDR Z7 can bring that same... relaxed yet detailed sound that the LCD 2F had, I could see it being a real winner. Combine that with a better sound stage and image and again, I could see the MDR Z7 being a real winner!
 
I never EVER felt the LCD 2F was "warm" 
 
for me it was dark, in that the lower mids n bass were a touch more forward that the  upper mids and treble. For me "warm" denotes excess decay, where as dark sound, bring a your bass n mids forward, without the "extra" deay. 
 
so again, I'm kinda diggin the idea of the MDR Z7 being a "dark" can,
I mentioned it in my review, but I was really blown away at how much detail the LCD 2F had, despite it being SO laid back. For me it really defines the "dark" sound signiture. Very relaxed but it had tons of detail!]
So again, I can see the MDR Z7 having that darker sound sig, spacious imageing, a touch of forward ness in the low mids n Bass maybe a slight dip in your upper mids [no peaks] with a peak in your treble, maybe around 9k just enough to give it a touch of brightness, a touch of nice treble energy 
 
The question though is will there be a peak in the mids? around 1500 hrz or so, that peak realitive to the dip in upper minds on the LCD 2F made it sound wonky to my ears, voices sounda kinda interesting, not NEARLY as bonkers as the HE 400, but still "different" 
 
Eitehr way , time will tell. But I might move the "assumed" sound sig of the MDR Z7 from the "warm" camp to the "dark" camp, and try to get a listen on it when I can. As "dark" cans intrigue me, 
 
and one last comment on dark, Curra him self described the mids on the NFB 10ES2 as being "dark" in relation to the "warm" mids on the NFB 10 [or what ever balanced model was like $100 less than the 10ES2]
 
But... his statement was very accurate, my hm801 is Warm, my NFB10ES2 is Dark. Both have impressive sound stages though the darker NFB 10ES2 is much faster, 

if your not into reading my thoughts, then here's the "tldr" summary
 
still... I am now intrigued by the MDR Z7, with this latest comparison of it to the LCD 2F 

 

[zorin]

Isn't that what the cd3000 et-all was?

You have to remember that the headphone market was very, very different at that time. Even the cd3000 at $350 or whatever it originally went for was quite expensive for a headphone. There was a market around that price point, and a much smaller one near the R10's price, but I doubt the market at the time could have supported many models in between.

You would not make a good big company executive [no put-down of you intended]. Some ten years before MDR-R10 there was a zero market for walkmans when Sony literally created demand for them. Astute marketing campaign convinced zillions of consumers that life is not worth living if they do not have a portable music system on their belts or in their handbags. Just a smaller push was needed to convince many this time to take their hi-fi stereo rooms with them wherever they go, just by buying a good pair of headphones. There was no effort on Sony's part, as I said before the top management of the company turned their sights to other things, they neglected the audio manufacturing part of Sony conglomerate.

 

[zorin]

Sony couldn't design and sell their replacement for $3k today. They reportedly lost money on them at $2500. That's ~$5000 today.

Try to get your head around this comical fact - the robbers responsible for inflicting atrocious Beats Solo headphones on the world made billions [X000 000 000s] of dollars selling them while Sony lost money on truly excellent MDR-R10s. What does it tell you about the donkeys who were in charge of Sony at that time ?

 

[gikigill]

Companies do benchmark products all the time. It is to showcase their technological prowess. Sony was a tour-de-force in
 
that era as evidenced by Trinitron,CD,TPS-L2 Walkman, Handycam, Betacam,Floppy Disk,Discman etc.
 
The managers of Sony in the 1980s were much better than the ones today.
 
 
Sony had a very different market in mind i.e the upper end audio who would pay 3K in 1980s money for a headphone.
 
Your average Beats customer wouldn't know a R10 if it hit them in the face.
 
Beats wasn't paid billions because of their amazing sound quailty, they were paid for brand recognition and the Radio/Music
 
Store bit.
 
 
Would you call Bugatti stupid because it loses money on every Veyron?
 
Yup, the Veyron is much more expensive that what its sold for.

 

[ogodei]

  No more pre-orders from Amazon.

 
Really? Still seems to be there in the U.S.
 

   
Huh, I see...
 
So exactly when does this headphone go on sale?

 
October 18 in Japan.  My guess is around the same time in U.S.

 

[thatonenoob]

   
Really? Still seems to be there in the U.S.
 
 
October 18 in Japan.  My guess is around the same time in U.S.

I thought it'd be a little later in the US....but definitely before the holidays!
 
Feliz navidad y propsero año nuevo!

 

[ButtUglyJeff]

   
Really? Still seems to be there in the U.S.
 
 
October 18 in Japan.  My guess is around the same time in U.S.

 
If you go to the product page you now get "sigh up for e-mail when it becomes available"...
 
And I wonder if we'll get them direct from Sony, of if they have to be turned around through an Amazon warehouse?

 

[HemiSam]

I have to agree with SOME of the comments made regarding Sony.  I used to bleed their brand...absolutely loved it.  Fell in love with their televisions when they made them to last and had great pictures.  Then I continued buying them and by the 2000's they were complete crap and I mean crap...  Now I don't buy anything Sony that I can avoid.  I have one vote and I cast it.  I now purchase Sharp AQUOS TV's...screw Sony.  I even quit buying their cameras/vid recorders.
 
This may be where I depart from my last 8+ years of boycott of their products.  The cans look to be of good quality and that's all I ever expect of a product...to be a good value for money proposition.  
 
Off my soap box now.  I really hope these turn out to be great.  I want a pair.
 
 
 

 
HS 

 

[ogodei]

   
If you go to the product page you now get "sigh up for e-mail when it becomes available"...
 
And I wonder if we'll get them direct from Sony, of if they have to be turned around through an Amazon warehouse?

 
I still see "Usually ships within 3 to 5 weeks", can add it to the cart no problem.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-MDRZ7-Hi-Res-Stereo-Headphones/dp/B00NBMHT7Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1412602077&sr=1-1&keywords=mdr-z7
 
I ended up ordering from PriceJapan a while back as I needed to burn through some PayPal funds and the price difference was pretty significant.

 

[zhenya]

You would not make a good big company executive [no put-down of you intended]. Some ten years before MDR-R10 there was a zero market for walkmans when Sony literally created demand for them. Astute marketing campaign convinced zillions of consumers that life is not worth living if the do not have a portable music system on their belts or in their handbags. Just a smaller push was needed to convince many this time to take their hi-fi stereo rooms with them wherever they go, just by buying a good pair of headphones. There was no effort on Sony's part, as I said before the top management of the company turned their sights to other things, they neglected the audio manufacturing part of Sony conglomerate.

I'm not exactly sure how this relates to my comment. In any case, making a market for $50 Walkmans is very different than that for thousand dollar plus headphones. My point was that at the time of the R-10, Sony occupied such a place technologically that it wasn't outrageous to build a price is no object headphone. Companies know going into this kind of project that it will never pay for itself, but that it pays back through r&d gained and through the trickle-down effect of their marketing. They then used that to build the CD-3000 which was pretty much the price ceiling that the mass market would accept for headphones. No amount of marketing would change that.

Today's headphone market is a specific result of a generation that grew up with the iPod, and has built their listening preferences around headphones and mobile. Some segment of us have grown up and developed that into a full on hi-fi hobby which can support ever more advanced (and more expensive) gear. Still, it's a tiny, niche market and no advertising campaign is going to change that. The billions are always in the mass-market (ie. iPods and Beats). Always will be. Even if Sennheiser manages to sell twice as many HD-800's as they have so far, it will still be a relatively tiny profit - maybe 20-40 million after they account for all of their costs - and thats likely the single most profitable truly hi-fi headphone ever produced.

 

[john57]

   
Really? Still seems to be there in the U.S.
 
 
October 18 in Japan.  My guess is around the same time in U.S.

Amazon was doing its off and on again. Last night it was put your name on a mailing list when it becomes available.

 

[Dopaminer]

Just went and gave the z7 a spin at the SONY concept store in Ginza.  It was on those kimbercables, the PH3 amp and that high-end walkman.  There were quite a few people jostling to listen to them, so I won`t bother sharing any SQ impressions because I wasn`t able to really relax into them.  I wil say that they are freakishly comfortable.  They look a lot like my beat up old Denon 2000s.  They`re pleasingly light, but feel really solid, buttery leather.  I still think the long-term comfort may go to the Shure 1540 and its alcantra.  
 
Regarding some previous comments about sony, I wouldn`t say that their management today is worse than in the 1980s.  I would say the rest of the world caught up and moved right past them, like with so many other companies in Japan. They only seem to suck today i comparison to the competition.  In the 90s, when I visited friends in other countries, no one could believe how advanced my Casio or Sharp cellphones were.  Now, Japanese cellphones are dated, clunky and about 3 times as thick as the Huaweis HTCs and Samsungs.
The domestic market is so huge here and so loyal, these dinosaurs are all lumbering to slow deaths, rather than feeling the heat and forcing themselves to change.  Sanyo is gone; Sharp is gone; Pioneer is a shadow.  Panasonic is huge and will take decades to die.  Hitachi and Toshiba are so diverse they`ll never die.  Sony seems to be the  only trying to regain some lost ground.  
 
But my ban is still in place, due to the SONY timer issues I had on the 90s.  After I read some of the impressions here and have a higher quality listening experience with the Z7, will I consider lifting it.  It will have to be a  pretty big deal to make me budge.  [

 

[grizzlybeast]

Just went and gave the z7 a spin at the SONY concept store in Ginza.  It was on those kimbercables, the PH3 amp and that high-end walkman.  There were quite a few people jostling to listen to them, so I won`t bother sharing any SQ impressions because I wasn`t able to really relax into them.  I wil say that they are freakishly comfortable.  They look a lot like my beat up old Denon 2000s.  They`re pleasingly light, but feel really solid, buttery leather.  I still think the long-term comfort may go to the Shure 1540 and its alcantra.  

Regarding some previous comments about sony, I wouldn`t say that their management today is worse than in the 1980s.  I would say the rest of the world caught up and moved right past them, like with so many other companies in Japan. They only seem to suck today i comparison to the competition.  In the 90s, when I visited friends in other countries, no one could believe how advanced my Casio or Sharp cellphones were.  Now, Japanese cellphones are dated, clunky and about 3 times as thick as the Huaweis HTCs and Samsungs.
The domestic market is so huge here and so loyal, these dinosaurs are all lumbering to slow deaths, rather than feeling the heat and forcing themselves to change.  Sanyo is gone; Sharp is gone; Pioneer is a shadow.  Panasonic is huge and will take decades to die.  Hitachi and Toshiba are so diverse they`ll never die.  Sony seems to be the  only trying to regain some lost ground.  

But my ban is still in place, due to the SONY timer issues I had on the 90s.  After I read some of the impressions here and have a higher quality listening experience with the Z7, will I consider lifting it.  It will have to be a  pretty big deal to make me budge.  [

So despite whatever ban you have. What does it sound like to you. Are they asking too much or is it a good sound for the money.

Honestly holding back impressions is a sin around here. You can get banned for not sharing impressions. J/p.