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,
