[StephanSchiller]

i have bought this here MUC-B20BL1, its balanced but with two 3.5 jack connectors. Your Tazzy has 4.4 and 2x3.5 balanced output

 

[kefs]

i have bought this here MUC-B20BL1, its balanced but with two 3.5 jack connectors. Your Tazzy has 4.4 and 2x3.5 balanced output

Sounds good with this cable

 

[kefs]

Funny thing happened to me today, I slipped in front of my desk and my hand landed on my keyboard typing in MDR-Z1R into eBay and buying it.
Really strange.

Anyway, time to immediately look into getting the best out of a thing I don't have yet (a longer cable mainly).
If I wanted an aftermarket cable, would people recommend going the classic 6.3mm unbalanced or the XLR4 on the Tazzy?
I assume balanced would generally be the optimal choice.

Still loving the IER-Z1R, but I'm really enjoying swapping back and forth between headphones at the moment, especially if it's so easily done with everything plugged in.

Longer, all silver, 4.4mm. Imho

 

[Alu]

i have bought this here MUC-B20BL1, its balanced but with two 3.5 jack connectors. Your Tazzy has 4.4 and 2x3.5 balanced output

I can't seem to find a reliable source for this cable, maybe I'm not looking in the right places.
There's one I see that's on eBay, but their feedback doesn't seem to be that great.

And since 4.4mm is taken by the IER I think I may go Forza Audioworks for now on the XLR4 - I'm a Forza fanboy and they've all been decent up to now.

But the double 3.5 looks like something I want to keep an eye out for, given the decent reviews I've seen.

 

[nc8000]

HAH!

Thanks for the recommendation!
I would rather leave the IER-Z1R plugged into the 4.4mm, which would leave me with the 6.3mm or the XLR.
Or would you say that the 4.4mm is by far the superior option?

I have a 4-pin xlr to 4.4 mm adaptor built into a xlr plug from ddHifi so alle my cables are 4.4 m

 

[Lookout57]

I'll be putting my Kimber AXIOS Cu up for sale soon, US only.

 

[Foyzy]

Hi all, what in your view works better with the MDR Z1R - the TA-ZH1ES or the Chord Hugo2?

I’m currently running my Z1Rs with a Mojo2 but looking to upgrade, and can’t decide between these two. Love the Z1R sound signature and listen mainly to electronic music (house and techno) so need bass slam but also detail and soundstage. Don’t need portability as it will only be used a desktop.

Interested to hear from anyone who has heard both with the Z1R, thanks.

 

[Vamp898]

Hi all, what in your view works better with the MDR Z1R - the TA-ZH1ES or the Chord Hugo2?

I’m currently running my Z1Rs with a Mojo2 but looking to upgrade, and can’t decide between these two. Love the Z1R sound signature and listen mainly to electronic music (house and techno) so need bass slam but also detail and soundstage. Don’t need portability as it will only be used a desktop.

Interested to hear from anyone who has heard both with the Z1R, thanks.

The TA-ZH1ES sounds faster which, imho, is favourable for the MDR-Z1R because they are, even though they have an warmer sound, extremely fast. Not just can the MDR-Z1R utilize that, it also helps them as warmer sounding headphones loose texture very fast when they are getting sluggish. That is not an issue with the MDR-Z1R, but an faster source makes more obvious, that this is not the case with the MDR-Z1R.

But the TA-ZH1ES is officialy dead. For the rather high price of this amp i would think twice if getting one is really worth it.

Of course there is never consent in the audiophile world and especially not on head-fi, but Sony says the best source for the MDR-Z1R is their current Walkman lineup (they say that this is generally the best they have right now). As someone who owns both, i would not say they are better, but i would say they are as good.

So my personal advice as an owner of both would be, to get an current WM1 M2 Walkman for your MDR-Z1R and either wait for an successor of the current TA-ZH1ES or skip it completely. I think that is currently the best device you can use to drive those cans which, by the way, won the VGP Gold Award in 2023. Its hard to believe that they are from 2016

 

[kefs]

A new TAZ in the UK is up for £2300 !!!!!

 

[Alu]

But the TA-ZH1ES is officialy dead. For the rather high price of this amp i would think twice if getting one is really worth it.

I actually saw one on eBay a couple of weeks ago for around 800 GBP, which was an insane bargain for this thing - I wanted to post it here, but I'm not sure what the rules are regarding the posting of eBay links.
I got mine for around 1050 - I would highly recommend it around that price point, but it seems to really depend on the mood of the sellers whether we're getting offers of around 1k or 2k.

 

[Alu]

Got a Forza XLR cable for the MDR-Z1R today - sounding pretty good from that output!

I just wanted to confirm that the cable doesn't seem to go in sort of as deeply as some of the other ones, where I would normally feel a click at the end of insertion.
It's a standard Furutech XLR4 cable, so I don't think there's anything wrong on that end, I just want to confirm this is normal.

I tried to force it in a bit deeper, and while there is a tiny bit of give, I feel like I could break the device if I applied too much strength.
Which leads me to believe this is how it's meant to sit in there.
I don't think I've ever used an XLR balanced headphone cable now that I think of it.

 

[nc8000]

Got a Forza XLR cable for the MDR-Z1R today - sounding pretty good from that output!

I just wanted to confirm that the cable doesn't seem to go in sort of as deeply as some of the other ones, where I would normally feel a click at the end of insertion.
It's a standard Furutech XLR4 cable, so I don't think there's anything wrong on that end, I just want to confirm this is normal.

I tried to force it in a bit deeper, and while there is a tiny bit of give, I feel like I could break the device if I applied too much strength.
Which leads me to believe this is how it's meant to sit in there.
I don't think I've ever used an XLR balanced headphone cable now that I think of it.

My xlr4 does not click but only pushes in. I assume this is because they are just stright plain pins whereas all the other termination ha a drop with a grove at the tip

 

[Gamerlingual]

Has everyone's TA been as bulletproof as mine? Really surprised that these came out more reliable than I expected. Listening with the MDR-Z1R and my Focal Clear at the moment

 

[kefs]

They are a well built unit that's for sure

 

[nc8000]

Has everyone's TA been as bulletproof as mine? Really surprised that these came out more reliable than I expected. Listening with the MDR-Z1R and my Focal Clear at the moment

No problems after 6 1/2 years near daily use