Some impressions I gathered from comments on Japanese fora
- The size of the headband can be comfortably adjusted
- The lateral pressure on skull is not strong and bothersome, the 'adhesion' is adequate
- The ear-pads are soft and feel 'fluffy'.
- These headphones are lighter than they look
- The sound leaks in and out, Z7 are not fully closed headphones, more like semi-open or quarter-open
- The sound-field / soundstage is wide for closed headphones but smaller than the sound-field of good open headphones
- The Z7's sound effect is like listening to speakers that are close to one's ears, the intimacy of music that is specific to headphones is diminished [
that is not good news]; Z7 have similar presentation of 'speakers sound' like Sennheiser HD800 have.
- The imaging / localization Left-Right is better with PHA-3 than with only the portables
- Also the bass sounds fuller with PHA-3 but it sounds weaker with just Walkman / portable player
- The bass texture is better with Z7 than it is with MA900
- One guy : the bass is not excessive [
a big minefield of opinions on bass, everyone has a different view of how much is enough bass or not enough bass]
- Another guy : the bass is less than he expected, these headphones sound more flat than he expected, he puts the blame on the metallic coating of Z7's diaphragm; Z7 sound quite flat but they are not reference class balanced [
meaning Z7's frequency bands are quite balanced relative to each other but not properly balanced like those in the reference class headphones]
- Z7 have good composite tonality [
the composite sound of fundamental tones plus their overtones], good for the classical music and acoustic instruments
- On the other hand the treble extension of acoustic instruments, particularly of stringed instruments, is lacking
- Z7's treble resolution is inferior to the treble resolution of Sennheiser HD800 and of Beyerdynamic T1
- There does not seem to be a hole in the mid treble as is the case with MA900, the treble is more even
- There were a couple of voices that these headphones are overpriced. [
I do not share this view, 70mm driver does not come cheap]
A few photos
Metal coated diaphragm
Air pressure vent that helps to eliminate bass resonances [boominess]