[Mickice]

Sony Australia will have them in December this year for Christmas.

Earlier would be better, but I'll easily have enough saved to drop on these by then.
Got the PHA-1 to run these on. I should be right.

 

[Benmor]

   
Dry, yes, airy, less so. More bass, less treble, though you could plug the ports to reduce it somewhat.
 
 

Thanks Currawong, may just do that. Look forward to the video.

 

[xxxfbsxxx]

   
I have heard the stock HD800 out of the HDVD800, and also the LCD-2 and LCD-3 out of the same rig.
 
Normally, I'd prefer the LCD-2, and to a certain extent, the LCD-3, but out of the HDVD800 specifically, I'd pick the HD800 over the other 2 any day. The LCD-3 was somewhat comparable, but the LCD-2 couldn't keep up at all.
 
On the other hand, if it's out of a Schiit Lyr with a Schiit Bifrost, which I have also had the pleasure of listening to, the HD800 would be just okay while the LCD-2 would rock.
 
So I still think synergy, or at least the very subtle differences between amplifiers can make or break the sound of a headphone.
 
 
Being able to make something sound loud and being able to make something sound good are very different in my opinions.
 
I have owned the E12 at one point.
 
I currently own the HE-560.
 
I have heard the LCD-XC and HE-560 out of the E12 very recently. The pairing is suboptimal to be polite... and in fact, I wouldn't even say it can drive the HE-560 to "satisfactory" level. The LCD-XC is loud out of the E12, but just that. I have heard it out of better amps, and it does sound better than with the E12. The HE-560 wouldn't even get loud, and at high gain, it actually started to distort a little at lower frequencies.
 
And yeah, some headphones are just that picky with source components even when they don't seem so. But that doesn't mean the headphone is "good" per se. It's just that it's picky. I am starting to think the Z7 may be conforming to this pattern.
 
Beyond that, if you want to go into the semantics of why different electronic contraptions (amp, DAC, or DAP, etc...) should sound different, I believe we can continue the discussion in the sound science section.

did you hear e12 pair with ak100? im talking about very specified combo which ak100 AND e12 made up quite reasonable combo. I tried ak100 with c5 and o2 and still prefer e12 to go with it, does it mean o2 and c5 are bad amp? 
btw, end here, you can just keep your belief, i heard it myself and have my own decision on this.

 

[Bill-P]

  did you hear e12 pair with ak100? im talking about very specified combo which ak100 AND e12 made up quite reasonable combo. I tried ak100 with c5 and o2 and still prefer e12 to go with it, does it mean o2 and c5 are bad amp? 
btw, end here, you can just keep your belief, i heard it myself and have my own decision on this.

Yes... E12 with AK100 and Fiio X5.
 
It's still not a very good amp IMO. Or at least not when considering headphones like the LCD-XC and HE-560.

 

[Dopaminer]

 
 
From what I heard of the Z7, I'd be inclined to call it somewhat close to a sonic inverse of the 1540—if someone considers the SRH1540 "warm" then the Z7 might be "colder". And certainly without the 1540's heavy bass emphasis.

 
Wow - that is interesting.  My enthusiasm for the Z7 has just been re-peaked, for the millionth time. 
 
Thanks
 
d

 

[grizzlybeast]

lol yes this thread will have you up and down very fast! lol

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

 
Yes... E12 with AK100 and Fiio X5.
 
It's still not a very good amp IMO. Or at least not when considering headphones like the LCD-XC and HE-560.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 
 
This was with gain on and volume 1/2 way up and everything going fine.
Have plugged the e12 into everything and the only thing that ever sounded very off prior to the Z7 was the HD800
T1, HiFiMan etc sounded fine . Not like a vintage or tube amp in their own special ways but lows and highs were fine.
 
 
Since the e12 is not a pairing most will use...hopefully...it's not an issue but you mentioned a specific can that was pushed to it's sub-bass edge with no sweat. noooooo sweat at all.
 
Nobody should pair the Z7 with an e12 but it's not a power issue.

 

[Bill-P]

  This was with gain on and volume 1/2 way up and everything going fine.
Have plugged the e12 into everything and the only thing that ever sounded very off prior to the Z7 was the HD800
T1, HiFiMan etc sounded fine . Not like a vintage or tube amp in their own special ways but lows and highs were fine.
 
Since the e12 is not a pairing most will use...hopefully...it's not an issue but you mentioned a specific can that was pushed to it's sub-bass edge with no sweat. noooooo sweat at all.
 
Nobody should pair the Z7 with an e12 but it's not a power issue.

 
Well, it's not a power issue indeed. But that has been my point all along. The sound is the one that may be off.
 
And the LCD-X is actually easier to drive than the HE-560. When I heard the prototype prior to the announcement, it would get pretty loud even with an iPhone.
 
People seriously underestimate the HE-560 IMO. It's only behind the HE-6 in terms of power requirement from what I can see of Hifiman's current line-up. The HE-500 is definitely easier to drive.

 

[rx79ez08]

it maybe the worst amp to run z7, but on the same day successfully drove other cans which supposed to be more difficult to drive with more than satisfied level, namely lcdxc, ak812, oppopm2 and even hifiman 560.
Are you going to say that z7 is much more difficult to drive than those?
Furthermore, we did not really expect to hear the best of z7 sound out of average portable source but at least it has to present some potentiality, but i could not see any worth mentioning with z7 sound quality. 
and thanks gizzlybeast,"transferable results" is kind of easier way to explain this.

 


Some combination of gears don't work together well. For example Violectric V200 is a very good amp for most headphones, but it does not work with Alpha Dog and LCD 3.

Having said that I also found the Z7 to be a bit disappointing. I have a listen at the show and found the mid range a bit muff. I found that for something with sound track that has no singing or jazz it performs quite well, but female vocal come out a bit muff. This is in a show environment off the Sony ZX1 (my own) and the PHA3 on demo as well. Having said that I have been using a lot of HD800, HE560 and Stax lately, so that might have affected my judgement. Would be interesting to directly compare it with TH900 in the same setting, but at a show it is obviously a difficult.

It is very comfortable and good looking pair of headphones, reasonable to drive with some isolation. I quite want to like it, so I think I will have to have another go once it is properly released in Australia in December. Look like it is going to have a bit wider circulation than just Sony store, that might be interesting.

 

[Zoide]

Having said that I also found the Z7 to be a bit disappointing. I have a listen at the show and found the mid range a bit muff. I found that for something with sound track that has no singing or jazz it performs quite well, but female vocal come out a bit muff.

 

  But female vocals, oh the female vocals.  I listened to Esperanza Spalding & Algebra Blessett sing "Black Gold".  And these might replace my HD650s as my go to, for my lady crush music...

 
Arrgghhh!!! Such contradictory impressions!

 

[xxxfbsxxx]

 

  it maybe the worst amp to run z7, but on the same day successfully drove other cans which supposed to be more difficult to drive with more than satisfied level, namely lcdxc, ak812, oppopm2 and even hifiman 560.
Are you going to say that z7 is much more difficult to drive than those?
Furthermore, we did not really expect to hear the best of z7 sound out of average portable source but at least it has to present some potentiality, but i could not see any worth mentioning with z7 sound quality. 
and thanks gizzlybeast,"transferable results" is kind of easier way to explain this.

 


Some combination of gears don't work together well. For example Violectric V200 is a very good amp for most headphones, but it does not work with Alpha Dog and LCD 3.

Having said that I also found the Z7 to be a bit disappointing. I have a listen at the show and found the mid range a bit muff. I found that for something with sound track that has no singing or jazz it performs quite well, but female vocal come out a bit muff. This is in a show environment off the Sony ZX1 (my own) and the PHA3 on demo as well. Having said that I have been using a lot of HD800, HE560 and Stax lately, so that might have affected my judgement. Would be interesting to directly compare it with TH900 in the same setting, but at a show it is obviously a difficult.

It is very comfortable and good looking pair of headphones, reasonable to drive with some isolation. I quite want to like it, so I think I will have to have another go once it is properly released in Australia in December. Look like it is going to have a bit wider circulation than just Sony store, that might be interesting.

thanks, i think this could be the reason why i dont like this cans. I prefer any cans that can focus on singer presentation such HE500, imo best mid ever, even rate it over 2f,xc or 800. The z7 is on  opposite side, vocal sounded so out of the phase. 

 

[Currawong]

The issue with the mids i'm going to speculate have to do with reflections behind the pads, given how successful my sponge experiment has been so far.
 
Before I forget: Cable pinouts:
 
For the plugs that go into the cups: Tip = positive; Ring = negative. Sleeve = not connected (or possibly only to the shield on one end).
The balanced cables are exactly the same on both ends (ignoring where any shield might be connected).
 
Seeko.co.kr has graphs up:
 

 

[allets]

Oh dear me. Those graphs are awful. What Sony?

 

[Currawong]

What is awful about them? Impedance and phase are flat, decay is very fast where it matters. FR is a bit of a head-scratcher -- I wish that slight dip at 400-500 Hz was further back in the mid-bass for preference, as then it might sound a bit more like the LCD-XCs, which are about spot-on tonality wise for me.

 

[allets]

What is awful about them?

 

To me, they look a bit uncontrolled. Dips and bumps where I wouldn't want them to be.