[ubs28]

For sound, you said it's darker sounding and has a peak up somewhere, but were you disappointed with the SQ or was it just an issue with portability?

It has very good sound quality. It is the lack of portability why I won't keep these. I was quite impressed by the sound quality for a closed headphone.

 

[Whitigir]

It has very good sound quality. It is the lack of portability why I won't keep these. I was quite impressed by the sound quality for a closed headphone.

You have the matching experiences with me, and how/why I moved toward Utopia . Utopia has a crazy price on it though

 

[up late]

That doesn't happen based on any of my experiences or anything I've ever read. It could be your source, amp, DAC? I've never seen headphones adjust that much over time with any quantifiable data whatsoever. The TH900s are horribly V or U shaped and that's the biggest reason I eventually sold them (that and the tizzy treble had me avoiding so many recordings). 

so the th900 is now "horribly v or u shaped"

 

[Naim.F.C]

Who is this guy who was speaking at the ZMF booth? I wonder if he was the guy on here a few weeks back knocking the Z1R's and promoting the Eikon's lol.

"My thoughts on Sony products are that you have to drop them once, then you have to drop them again to actually get them to work, and then after that you might get one more try."
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c10M-T9YZ0&t=14m59s

I heard him saying something about them being overly complicated too lol.
 
 
Ironically Zach from ZMF also made a joke about how you can drop the Eikon's on the floor a few times. I wonder if that was a dig at the Elear's based on the recent posts about how the Elear headband snapped when a user dropped them a few feet, and Focal said they weren't replaceable lol.
 
 
In any case Zach and Zeos both mention the Sony's (Z1R's) are great though. Zeos specifically states the Z1R's are "exceptionally good". Be interested to hear his extended impressions. From what I can recall, he quite likes his warmer sounding signatures (eg LCD range), so I think he might gel well with these too.

 

[zach915m]

Who is this guy who was speaking at the ZMF booth? I wonder if he was the guy on here a few weeks back knocking the Z1R's and promoting the Eikon's lol.

"My thoughts on Sony products are that you have to drop them once, then you have to drop them again to actually get them to work, and then after that you might get one more try."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c10M-T9YZ0&t=14m59s


I heard him saying something about them being overly complicated too lol.


Ironically Zach from ZMF also made a joke about how you can drop the Eikon's on the floor a few times. I wonder if that was a dig at the Utopia's based on the recent posts about how the headband snapped when a user dropped them a few feet, and Focal said they weren't replaceable lol.

Zach and Zeos both said the Sony's (Z1R's) were great though. Zeos specifically claims the Z1R's are "exceptionally good".

Uhhhhhhhh.....

Anyone who knows me knows that I love headphones. The Utopia and Z1R are two of the greatest things humans have ever brought to this earth. I will soon be a z1r owner and I hope to have a Utopia someday too. Going to headphone shows is amazing for me because I get to meet all the other headphone creators who I really admire. CanJam was so much fun!

I am not aware of any of the situations you reference and was just trying to do my best to interact with people at CanJam.

Please don't let me get in the way here let's talk about how awesome the Z1R is!

 

[AnakChan]

I've whacked out a whole bunch of OT posts, stay on topic.

 

[SHAMuuu]

Unfortunately all of the earpads are designed that way, which makes the fact that Sony UK charge over £350+ for each earpad even more absurd.

My specific issue was that one earpad had a weird curve at the front area, and the that the left and right earpads were also different thicknesses too.

As I explained to Sony customer service, ordinarily I wouldn't care about such QC tolerances, but with a £1500 pair of luxury premium headphones, the quality control expectation is naturally higher.

Here's an image of the issue, the same ones I sent to the Sony engineers who decided this did not constitute as a defect...



Ironically even my new pair don't have perfectly matching earpads, but they're not as wildly varying as above, which for a hand stitched product I can accept.

700 quid for for a pair?!

That red stitiching, i can;t believe that passed QC

 

[Fadamacka]

That is a line that Naim drew, I believe

 

[SHAMuuu]

  That is a line that Naim drew, I believe

Really? Also, is it not memory foam that you can beat into shape??
 

 

[Naim.F.C]

Uhhhhhhhh.....

Anyone who knows me knows that I love headphones. The Utopia and Z1R are two of the greatest things humans have ever brought to this earth. I will soon be a z1r owner and I hope to have a Utopia someday too. Going to headphone shows is amazing for me because I get to meet all the other headphone creators who I really admire. CanJam was so much fun!

I am not aware of any of the situations you reference and was just trying to do my best to interact with people at CanJam.

Please don't let me get in the way here let's talk about how awesome the Z1R is!

Well, can I just say I appreciate that you do stress test your products. It certainly gives me extra confidence in them, and by virtue, a greater sense of value proposition.

I actually work in numerous sectors of manufacturing and product design myself, albeit in very different fields, and I've pushed for very unusual testing procedures for some of the products in question, including pressure clamping, cooking things in ovens and controlled temperatures etc.

As an amusing pseudo parable, one of the time pieces I have formed a hairline fracture on a layer of the inside of its complex skeleton movement. We couldn't figure out what had caused it as there was no exterior physical damage or contact. It turns out that as I had flown to numerous extremely hot countries in short succession, the differences in temperature causing the watch materials to minutely expand and contract, had caused internal pressure which only affected a thinner sapphire crystal piece wedged inside multiple other components. This on a very expensive luxury watch. Limited edition at that.

As a result, I'm now cooking and cooling a prototype watch I'm currently working on, to replicate these temperature extremities and ensure the product can withstand them.

Obviously headphones do not require any where close to such rigorous testing, but some form of durability testing would still be welcome.

Here's hoping the Z1R's are a durable pair of headphones that endure prolonged use. My other flagships certainly have.

 

[Whitigir]

As well built as WM1Z, or even Zx2. If dropped on concrete floor, it would leave scratches and dents. Just common element of wear and tears. Everything will breaks when the impact and conditions , angles are rights. Especially headphones, I remember one member who bought the Z1R early, and had a dented cups. Who knows how it would have happened ? And it was new in the box. The Z1R was built with beta titanium bands and share similarly tank built like the Z7, judging from look and feel alone, the Z7 could be dropped a few times without real damages to it. Aluminum cups with solid plastic chamber inside, and no protruded angles. The Z1R most vulnerable part would be the protruded cups and the wire mesh, they are solid, but I wouldn't want to toss it around or drop it a few times. However, I do feel that the headband has that Tank-like build similar to Z7 as well.

Especially when Sony said that the cups contributes a lot into the sound quality, that they can't even put SONY logo onto it, proves that you would not want to leave any dents in it

 

[up late]

i'd expect the z1r to come off the worse for wear in a collision with a hard surface. i suspect that the same would go for most high-end audio gear.

 

[SHAMuuu]

i'd expect the z1r to come off the worse for wear in a collision with a hard surface. i suspect that the same would go for most high-end audio gear.

What about a T1 or dt150? They could probably survive a drop from plane.

 

[Whitigir]

i'd expect the z1r to come off the worse for wear in a collision with a hard surface. i suspect that the same would go for most high-end audio gear.

For safety measurements, I agree. Anything that comes with great prices, comes with great responsibility . Inspired by and From Spider-Man uncle lol

 

[up late]

i doubt that the t1 would come away completely unscathed from a two or three foot drop onto a concrete floor. i have no idea how the dt150 would fare.