[AppleheadMay]

Against all expectations the Z1R already arrived, very fast!
 
I have been listening to them for about two hours and two things I nioticed are:
- Man they feel light! I don't maind heavy phones at all so maybe it's just me. The clamping force is nice and firm enough but not overly so thes might be very comfortable for me, a good thing should I wish to use them for movies with the Realiser later on.
- Deep and clean bass indeed. But burn in will hopefully (and most likely from my experience with other phones) take the sharp edges off. Nothing bad, I'm just rather sensitive to highs. As it's only been a few hours I have nothing else useful to report about the sound. But I do seem to like them. Will have to compare them to the Pioneer and Lawton when they are burned in.
- The cable. Meh. Short, rubber, thin and it needs an adpeter as it's only a 3.5mm plug. I think this baby will get a nice present form Kimble.
 
Yep, enjoying some Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse through the Black Widow and these for the moment. Good times!

 

[AppleheadMay]

PS: bought them from a guy who works at Sony UK so I didn't pay the full price but more than the Amazon price right now.

 

[Whitigir]

Against all expectations the Z1R already arrived, very fast!

I have been listening to them for about two hours and two things I nioticed are:
- Man they feel light! I don't maind heavy phones at all so maybe it's just me. The clamping force is nice and firm enough but not overly so thes might be very comfortable for me, a good thing should I wish to use them for movies with the Realiser later on.
- Deep and clean bass indeed. But burn in will hopefully (and most likely from my experience with other phones) take the sharp edges off. Nothing bad, I'm just rather sensitive to highs. As it's only been a few hours I have nothing else useful to report about the sound. But I do seem to like them. Will have to compare them to the Pioneer and Lawton when they are burned in.
- The cable. Meh. Short, rubber, thin and it needs an adpeter as it's only a 3.5mm plug. I think this baby will get a nice present form Kimble.

Yep, enjoying some Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse through the Black Widow and these for the moment. Good times!

Get that Kimber Axious, coming to a dealer near you for a cheap low price

 

[AppleheadMay]

Get that Kimber Axious, coming to a dealer near you for a cheap low price

 
Gimme his address and I'll cut you in for 10% of the savings over MSRP.  ;P

 

[Rowethren]

On a serious note, I was looking at getting a silver cable for the Z1R any recommendations within the EU? I was going to get a Toxic Hydra but sadly he said they don't do the screw on connectors The Kimble Kable Axios do look amazing but just way to much money! Well over half the price my Z1Rs cost just on a cable seems mental! Would go to about £400 max. Thanks for any advice

 

[DoctaCosmos]

Against all expectations the Z1R already arrived, very fast!

I have been listening to them for about two hours and two things I nioticed are:
- Man they feel light! I don't maind heavy phones at all so maybe it's just me. The clamping force is nice and firm enough but not overly so thes might be very comfortable for me, a good thing should I wish to use them for movies with the Realiser later on.
- Deep and clean bass indeed. But burn in will hopefully (and most likely from my experience with other phones) take the sharp edges off. Nothing bad, I'm just rather sensitive to highs. As it's only been a few hours I have nothing else useful to report about the sound. But I do seem to like them. Will have to compare them to the Pioneer and Lawton when they are burned in.
- The cable. Meh. Short, rubber, thin and it needs an adpeter as it's only a 3.5mm plug. I think this baby will get a nice present form Kimble.

Yep, enjoying some Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse through the Black Widow and these for the moment. Good times!

Can we be friends? Like in real life. You've got the bestest of toys lol. Can't believe you have a black widow. I had planned on getting in on the preorder this year and funds ended up going elsewhere. Can only imagine how good it sounds with the z1.

 

[AppleheadMay]

On a serious note, I was looking at getting a silver cable for the Z1R any recommendations within the EU? I was going to get a Toxic Hydra but sadly he said they don't do the screw on connectors

The Kimble Kable Axios do look amazing but just way to much money! Well over half the price my Z1Rs cost just on a cable seems mental! Would go to about £400 max. Thanks for any advice

 
For 400 GBP you won't find the best of silver cables. Depends on the length too of course, I always need 10ft. minimum. Maybe check Artisan Silver cables in the UK as well as Toxic?
But hearing the Sony I'd go for copper myself. There probably is a reason Sony chose copper for the Kimber/Sony cable.
 

Can we be friends? Like in real life. You've got the bestest of toys lol. Can't believe you have a black widow. I had planned on getting in on the preorder this year and funds ended up going elsewhere. Can only imagine how good it sounds with the z1.

 
That's 'd be a long distance relationship mate!  
The Black Widow is great, for my taste it is the best SS amp I had or tried but that won't be the case for everyone, some will like brighter amps like the GS-X but I didn't.
It has a bit of the flavor of the Zana but it's not quite a Zana yet though. If you have the funds simply go for a Zana and never look back anymore. It's the absolute best amp I ever heard period. Pairs well with any phones I used it with and you can tune it with just switching one driver tube. I'm at my second Zana now (first an SE balanced, now the S) and have a lifetime supply of tubes here. Really awesome amp! Check out the thread for people's findings with various headphones.

 

[Rowethren]

I would have thought considering the darker tuning of the headphones silver would have been perfect, as I linked a few posts back Kimber/Sony are planning on releasing a pure silver Axios soon as well so I assume they don't frown at silver cables.

In the post you quoted I said I wanted the Toxic cable Hydra 22 but he said he couldn't source plugs sadly; for the 2.5m length I was looking for it would be about £470 which is just about okay price wise.

On the topic of connectors anyone know if the Switchcraft locking plugs would work? Looks like they have a separate locking ring which was the part that Whitigir's cables missed that he disliked. Here is a link if that helps:

http://www.bryant-unlimited.co.uk/35HDLBAU

 

[AppleheadMay]

I don't find them to have a dark sound like the HD650 for example. Lots of bass for sure but it's clean and controlled, not bleeding into the mids.
The highs are not sibilant by any means but they are bright enough for me not wanting to enhance them. Mind you, mine aren't burned in at all yet so this may change after burn-in.
Anyway, just my 2 cents, for the moment I 'd prefer copper.

 

[Rowethren]

Fair enough, I haven't heard them yet so I can't really comment too much on the sound. I mainly want a new cable because I have a Mjolnir 2 so need a 4pin XLR cable but I don't really want to re terminate the stock cable for warranty reasons.

After what you said it sound like Toxic Silver Widow 22 would have been perfect, real shame he can't find the right connectors. If anyone has a good suggestion regarding them I might see if he can make it using them.

 

[pietcux]

I have a Noir HPC MK2 cable from Forzaaudioworks.com. Handmade in Poland EU. It was made from copper. Very nice bass on the Z7. It will feed the Z1R once it gets delivered. The 1.5m version is 169€ plus respective shipping.

 

[Rowethren]

I have a Noir HPC MK2 cable from Forzaaudioworks.com. Handmade in Poland EU. It was made from copper. Very nice bass on the Z7. It will feed the Z1R once it gets delivered. The 1.5m version is 169€ plus respective shipping.

I have a couple of their cables and they are all really nice quality, I can't tell in the picture but does that have locking plugs? If so how well do they lock?

 

[deafdoorknob]

Naim.F.C

i really appreciate you detailed and exhaustive review of the z1R, i am just curious as to why you preferred the T1 on certain recordings, i ask as they are the majority of types of music i enjoy. The only times i felt the T1.2 weren't overly bright were when it's being driven by a high impedence amps, something that would have limited applications in my household.

regards

 

[thanatosguan]

Nope, it lacks balanced analog input

....and it however convert Analog into digital, and then reconvert back into analog again ? This gives it the full ability to upscale whatever and or interfere as much as it want though. IMO, it was made to be a pure DAC/Amp only, and not Analog amplifier alone at all.

Because there's no traditional analog amp circuit inside so it doesn't take analog signals. All signal goes through S-Master which is a full digital amp that "amplifies" the digital signal directly. It's not a traditional dac chip + amp circuit design.
 
Analog input on this might not be a good idea since an analog - digital - analog signal chain is excessive and introduces too much variables into the playback, unless we're forced to use analog for example plugging a vinyl player into this.

 

[sosrah]

Addiction induced sound signature for sure lol...

Seriously, i'm alternating HD800S and Z1R and are both new for me, i bought them almost together; i'm not an expert(these are my first TOTL) but considering that the Sennheiser are considered a reference for resolution, soundstage and detail, i don't think i'm wrong to say the enthusiasm in this tread is justified.