[Grey Owl]

Hi,
 
Yesterday I received My Sony MDR-Z1000 & I was really happy with its sound & comfort. It is a huge step forward from my Presonus HD7 (Superlux HD668B Clone). I listened to music with Z1000 for 2 hours.
But today I wanted to go outside and I borrowed my brother cheap Sony MDR-EX100 which costs around 30$. I was listening to this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxDMHiJb7Vs) & I was shocked when I noticed that I hadn't heard that noisy texture (noisy rumbling-like sound) in the first 10 seconds of the song on my Z1000. When I came back to home, I tried my Z1000 again to be sure of this matter & I even noticed that I can hear that part much more easier on my broken 10$ Philips headphone than Z1000. On Z1000, that part can be heard if you try hard, but it is buried and muted.
I'm going insane. I can't believe it. Z1000 is better at everything else, and it should be, but an 30$ IEM & a broken 10$ headphone surpasses my Z1000 that costs 15 times more in one important area.Why?
 
By the way, my source is iPod touch.
 
Thanks in advance

 

[NA Blur]

Did you try the IEm and broken headphone at home with the same exact gear and track as your Z1000?
 
The Z1000 does roll off a bit in the bass, but you should still hear some nice rumble.
 
What pair of broken Philips headphones did you use?
 
I ask this because there could be a few things going on that we need to eliminate first before jumping to conclusions.
 
For example, if the broken Philips and the EX100 have exaggerated bass one could expect the Z1000 to sound more neutral.  This could act like it is hiding the bass, but in actuality is simply not making it much more pronounced.
 
Secondly, there could be impedance differences because I know the Z1000 has a 24 Ohm impedance which is getting pretty low making some devices struggle to properly control the damping factor in the bass frequency.
 
Many people think that more bass equals better which technically is not the case.  In a technical sense neutral or at least forming to the head transfer function of the average listening.  There are other measurements that can be made to determine if a headphone is technically better than an other and this is what I suggest using when making the call about which is "better"  Otherwise it is going to be very subjective and one person may really enjoy a neutral headphone while a bass head may not.

 

[Grey Owl]

First, I should thank you for your reply.
 
Quote:

Did you try the IEm and broken headphone at home with the same exact gear and track as your Z1000?

Yes.
 

What pair of broken Philips headphones did you use?

Philips SHP2000.

 

For example, if the broken Philips and the EX100 have exaggerated bass one could expect the Z1000 to sound more neutral.  This could act like it is hiding the bass, but in actuality is simply not making it much more pronounced.

Yes, maybe you are right about bass exaggeration, but what makes me annoyed is not bass presence, but bass texture & details in that mentioned 10 seconds.
 
Z1000 is much more coherent, focused & deep with much greater vocals & electric guitars & its soundstage & sense of space is really good, but I don't know why it behaves like that.
 

Secondly, there could be impedance differences because I know the Z1000 has a 24 Ohm impedance which is getting pretty low making some devices struggle to properly control the damping factor in the bass frequency.

I didn't know anything about this matter. As I've mentioned earlier my source is iPod touch 4th generation.
 
 
Thanks in advance

 

[Grey Owl]

Any idea?

 

[NA Blur]

My initial inclination is to realize that it is more likely the sound signature of each headphone that you are hearing and not something else.  Without hearing the exact combination of headphones you have listed I really cannot comment any further other than if all else is the same and only the headphones are changed, then it is most likely the sound signature of the headphones.  This is one reason that measurements are so headphone.  They keep the objective guessing out of the price and allow a user and manufacturer to make a great decision based on actual measurements rather than what they think should happen.
 
If you do not like the Z1000 return it.

 

[Headzone]

The rumbling at the beginning sounded very low, like something in the 30-40hz maybe. I don't think any flagship headphones play that low with authority. 
 
Some 30$ IEM's especially "enhanced bass" ones may play that low, but they have so much trouble producing a good midrange & usually have very slow boomy bass response.

 

[Grey Owl]

 

My initial inclination is to realize that it is more likely the sound signature of each headphone that you are hearing and not something else.  Without hearing the exact combination of headphones you have listed I really cannot comment any further other than if all else is the same and only the headphones are changed, then it is most likely the sound signature of the headphones.  This is one reason that measurements are so headphone.  They keep the objective guessing out of the price and allow a user and manufacturer to make a great decision based on actual measurements rather than what they think should happen.
 
If you do not like the Z1000 return it.

 

Thanks again for your reply.
 
Yeah, maybe I don't like Z1000 sound signature, but I prefer to spend 1-2 weeks with it & if I didn't like it, I'll have to sell it. Because I can't return it to the store that I bought it from.
 
 

The rumbling at the beginning sounded very low, like something in the 30-40hz maybe. I don't think any flagship headphones play that low with authority. 
 
Some 30$ IEM's especially "enhanced bass" ones may play that low, but they have so much trouble producing a good midrange & usually have very slow boomy bass response.

 

Thanks Headzone for your reply.
 
Maybe Z1000 is closer to reality, but you know, it is my first mid-fi headphone & I was really annoyed that I couldn't hear that noisy texture on Z1000 & I could hear that part really easy on my cheap headphones.
Today when I listened to some of my Dark Ambient stuff, this happened again, but I don't know which one is more true to source. My cheap headphones or my Z1000?

 

[Grey Owl]

And maybe it was better to use noisy texture or rumbling-like noisy sound at the first ten seconds instead of "noisy rumbling". Because it seems that initial phrase that I used is a little bit misleading.As I don't necessarily mean mere rumbling (Deep Sub-bass related), but also the sound that is similar to a noisy rumbling.

 

[Grey Owl]

Last bump

 

[StudioSound]

You're probably hearing distortion on the cheaper headphones which is not there with the Z1000.
Rather than distorting, the Z1000 rolled-off sub-bass frequencies. (most headphones cannot accurately reproduce them)
 
I don't know if it's just the YouTube version of that track, or if it's intentional, but the whole thing sounds horribly distorted here.

 

[Headzone]

Yeah maybe the cheap headphones are just distorting the sub bass, creating a thick texture which may sound pleasing to you? But is not real to the signal?

 

[Grey Owl]

@StudioSound
 
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, that Youtube version is almost the same with the original song on CD.
 
@Headzone
Thanks again for your help.
 
If I understand your words correctly, you mean it amplifies & elevates that sound/texture (I don't know what to call this) & makes it more pronounced? Because the texture & roughness of that part is not what that is missing on Z1000, but I should try hard to hear it on Z1000 but I can hear it clearly on EX-100 or SHP2000 (& even it is more textured, but as you say maybe it comes from over-pronouncing of that part that leads to a kind of rougher but more hearable sound)