[up late]

Tyll Hertsens - MDR Z1R - there is no accounting for taste.

he rated the sennheiser hd800/hd800s, stax sr-009 and focal utopia very highly...

 

[Whitigir]

he rated the sennheiser hd800/hd800s, stax sr-009 and focal utopia very highly...

Surprisingly they are all closed back in comparison to Z1R...oops...I mean open back...and why in the hell would you compare a room to a stadium or an orchestra

 

[nanaholic]

he rated the sennheiser hd800/hd800s, stax sr-009 and focal utopia very highly...

Every one on the planet rate those phones highly that it would be more surprising for someone to give a negative review to these phones.

That said I'll still never want to own a pair of HD800/s - I admire their technical merits but the soundstage is way too wide for my personal preference, I don't like the stadium-like presentation it does to my music.

 

[up late]

@Whitigir - that's a leap of logic based on three examples off the top of my head. I'd be surprised if he's only rated open-backed cans highly, and he did rate the denon d5000 as someone said earlier. that said, he does regard open-backed cans as technically superior.

 

[up late]

Every one on the planet rate those phones highly that it would be more surprising for someone to give a negative review to these phones.

That said I'll still never want to own a pair of HD800/s - I admire their technical merits but the soundstage is way too wide for my personal preference, I don't like the stadium-like presentation it does to my music.

they were three cans that immediately came to mind in response to another post.

if you think that most folks would regard those cans just as positively as tyll did, then maybe his critical review of the z1r might have some merit.

 

[Whitigir]

Every one on the planet rate those phones highly that it would be more surprising for someone to give a negative review to these phones.

That said I'll still never want to own a pair of HD800/s - I admire their technical merits but the soundstage is way too wide for my personal preference, I don't like the stadium-like presentation it does to my music.

It wasn't strange for someone to rate the Utopia poorly. However, it did brought the smokes out in Ninjitsu style, and god knows what happened in the smokes, but the price has gone down the drain...lol. It is wonderful when you have 2 reviewers with a religionous number of fan to contradict one another and then both would point toward the product faults or....the manufacturer, and voila....who is at the end of the stick ?

 

[YesThisIs]

I haven't heard the MDR-Z1R. BUT! Tyll's comment was that he would more preferably listen the ATH-M50Xs is hard to swallow.

I don't think the Z1R's are THAT bad. I absolutely hate the signature and sound of the M50's.... It's horrible and can't stand them.. (My opinion). I actually owned a pair and then i did give it to my brother for free.

From what i have heard other people i really really doubt that Z1R's are worse than M50X's.

And about the Utopia.... I have had opportunity to listen HD800S and Utopia together. I MUCH preferred the sound of HD800S. Reason is that Utopia sounds in compassion like an closed back-headphone. And to begin with in hi-end headphones the sound differences are measured in couple of percentages. Lack in soundstage is much much more noticeable.... Utopia was partly the reason why HD800S left the WoF. So take anything Tyll (or any reviewer) says with a grain of salt.

It's all mostly taste, when it comes to audio.

 

[emptymt]

I knew Tyll wouldn't like it, he made excellent review of it though.

I haven't heard the MDR-Z1R. BUT! Tyll's comment was that he would more preferably listen the ATH-M50Xs is hard to swallow.

I don't think the Z1R's are THAT bad. I absolutely hate the signature and sound of the M50's.... It's horrible and can't stand them.. (My opinion). I actually owned a pair and then i did give it to my brother for free.

From what i have heard other people i really really doubt that Z1R's are worse than M50X's.

And about the Utopia.... I have had opportunity to listen HD800S and Utopia together. I MUCH preferred the sound of HD800S. Reason is that Utopia sounds in compassion like an closed back-headphone. And to begin with in hi-end headphones the sound differences are measured in couple of percentages. Lack in soundstage is much much more noticeable.... Utopia was partly the reason why HD800S left the WoF. So take anything Tyll (or any reviewer) says with a grain of salt.

It's all mostly taste, when it comes to audio.

it is, every headphone that you are interested in buying needs to be demoed first, I sure like The Z1R but not so much the Ether Flow C/Ether C which he does.

 

[up late]

@YesThisIs - well without having heard the mdr-z1r, you're not really in a position to comment on the veracity of tyll's comparison to the ath-m50x, tho that may have been a throwaway line anyway - guess I should check out the video.

there are reviewers whose opinions I take with a grain of salt but tyll isn't one of them. not all audio reviews provide subjective impressions and objective measurements. i appreciate that his do. I also find his reviews comprehensive and often educational.

i prefer the utopia to the hd800s, so i agree with the wof decision fwiw.

 

[PCheung]

Just want to say, I love and enjoy this headphone from day 1.
Last night I listened to kalafina's album "the best BLUE" with my WM-1Z,
the atmosphere, the vocal and the "thick" "warm" sound signature from this headphone, is just what I want to enjoy this album.

 

[jscmd2000]

I am not surprised Tyll didn't like the Z1Rs. The Z1Rs are so far off from the current trend in high end headphones. Most high end headphones these days are so well rounded that if a headphone is lacking in some department, it gets tossed out.

For an audiophile, high fidelity equates to accuracy in sound quality and precision in imaging which are not exactly what the Z1Rs offer. When I try to listen to jazz or classical recording with the Z1Rs, it doesn't sounds as good as so-called well rounded headphones like Ether Flows or Utopias. In my opinion of course.

The lows are unbelievably resolving on the Z1Rs, though. I am keeping my Z1Rs not as my only pair of headphones but for certain genres and occasions. I would be very sad if I only had the Z1Rs. But I am very happy to have Z1Rs in addition to my other HPs. They're awesome and there is not many out there like them. The best closed HPs? Quite possibly. Although I mainly listen to calssical, I am a closet bass-head I like the Z1Rs so much that I purchased the PHA-2A with 4.4 mm balanced output. It definitely has a different sq than mojo with the added benefit of the balanced output that adds more sound stage that these cans are dying for. Also, it makes me appreciate the mojo a bit more.

I think maybe Tyll could have pointed out the strengths of the Z1R, not just how well they are made or designed but about the strengths in sound quality. I know what they are and I hear them. That is good enough for me. At the same time, I don't disagree too much with his opinion. Appreciate the honesty, good man!

 

[beowulf]

So, everyone ordered some ATH-M50x yet? I think I'll get a spare.

Tyll does have a few points, as the Z1R is not perfect, something all early users probably noticed. I still enjoy it a lot, but grab other headphones now and then, mostly when the source is very bass-heavy.
It's also true that they can sound a bit veiled at times, but the detail and resolution are there and the treble is quite sharp at times. Overall It's just a warm, silky, yet revealing sound that does remind me of certain speakers in a room. The soundstage and holographic sound is also something that makes me coming back to them. It's not easy to have it this good with closed cans.

Something that keeps impressing me is the comfort and overall build and feeling. Headphones can sound like angels singing, but if they're not comfortable, you're not going to enjoy them. The Z1R really get a 10/10 in comfort and build from me. I often grab them simply because of that and when I need decent sound isolation.

Sound is great IMO, but not for absolutely every type of track and mastering, plus it only works for people who like its type of tuning. In general, no regrets about these big domes of fun (well, except the regret of having failed the time of that awesome amazon UK price drop months ago).

Still, while I reacted to the review with some indifference since I plan to keep mine, it's true that Tyll's opinion and the usual echo chamber in these communities probably means that resale value (for those who won't keep them might be affected).

 

[nanaholic]

Regarding the veil comment - I don't really consider that as a negative for my situations.

The truth is a lot of the music I listen to are modern j-pop songs which are FAR from being mastered nicely, or even good, and the issue with a lot of the TOTL which goes for ultra-sharp resolution is that they are simply TOO revealing for j-pop songs that it reveals the faults/aliasing due to loudness/whatever else mistakes the engineer made, and that makes me hate the music I listen to, which I don't think should be the goal of enjoying music. If I get a pair of cans which I can only use with 3~5% of my music library, then is that not money wasted too? What the Z1R does great to me is that it just strides on that edge of being revealing enough but not too revealing, which makes it an easy listening pair of headphones that I can grab the majority of the times for my music. In fact for exactly the same reason when I was tuning my Just ear MH1 (that was before I purchased the Z1R) I asked Matsuo-san to dial down the resolution of the IEM - as the Just ear is actually perfectly capable of being super revealing as well which is what the MH2 Monitor Tune is, and my MH1 is actually LESS revealing the the Monitor Tune MH2, thus some would then say that my MH1 is, in fact, a bit veil.

 

[Rchandra]

I for one greatly enjoy the z1r I agree with beauwolf when it comes to closed cans these are really a solid pair. I think the price is its biggest con. When tyll said that sony should really listen to there headphones I lol'd I think the big picture here was that sony was trying to do something different and they did.

 

[daddyo1973]

Okay, the only thing this review tells me is that my personal preferences are now vastly different from Tyl's. First it was the Elears, he loves those things but I just can't get into them. Now it's the Z1R, I love 'em but they are clearly not his cup of tea...ATH M50s, really!?

It's all good, just another data point to use for future reference...next!