The high has sparkle but never fatiguing as it somewhat overshadowed by the bass. I can say that the high is smooth and detailed. The bass extends too far into the mids, resulting in a somewhat bloated and boomy bass, and reduced overall clarity. Opening the carrying case reveals the Earpieces, below the earpieces there is a cable-holder, a shirt clip and a cleaning cloth which i found a bit rough and hard, prefer to use the one i use to clean my eyeglasses. The interior of the case is covered in some sort of veñvet.

I wasn’t going to use David Guetta’s “I’m Good (Blue),” since I don’t want to over use it. But while the bass sounds excellent, the synths came across very metallic and harsh sounding in the upper registers – definitely a weakness in these headphones that the XTC doesn’t have. Of course you already knew that these sound like speakers in a room right? All I can say is if you never heard them then you actually don’t know what they sound like. I’ve done my best and it’s still inadequate. Each shell inside has three drivers, all of them developed by sony in-house. a 12 mm Dynamic similar to that of the MDR-Z1R with an magnesium dome and LCP diaphragm, a BA with new silver wires and gold connectors. And a 5 mm LCP Dynamic driver. The housing also has a magnesium-frame and a acoustic tube system for handling the sound stage. The vast experience and sense of our engineers is the key to acoustic design, which delivers the most natural sound. The finely tuned IER-Z1R acoustic structure steers audio from the trio of driver units as though they were a single, ideal driver.This section was to be left out as there is zero midrange. What? Yes you must have heard, the IER-Z1R has no mids at all. Huh? Disclaimer: The star of this weeks’ picture Sunday is Sony’s MDR-Z1R . We got this sample on loan for a few weeks from Sony Japan. This post is a part of our Picture Sunday series. At the same time I’m not sure about this particular U shape tone being an existing thing in headphone history. The 1989-1990s Sony house sound was more middle of the road. We may even have Dr. Dre to blame introducing the ridiculous bass-heavy “Beats” changing popular sound signature history, channeling the night-club spirit into everyday sound perception. If you choose to believe the new Sony sound is the old-school “Hi/Fi” sound or the sound of high school car stereos; it’s your call, not mine. At times other famous 2019 flagships have painted a pretty picture for me but it was painted on clear cellophane. At first I could recognize the musical information but at closer inspection it wasn’t truly there.

This ends up to be a really important subject. You may not believe me but the IER-Z1R with 200 hours was a very different headphone. The 200 hour model became noticeably louder with less power. The 200 hours model seemed both warmer and less warm at the same time? The soundstage was noticeably bigger too. So even if someone refuses to burn-in.......all is well as the IER-Z1R doesn’t actually need burn-in to correct anything like some headphones. It’s fine out of the box but simply gets better with hours used. My personal IER-Z1R changed at the 70 hour mark from what they sounded like out of the box. Though at 70 hours they still sounded rather bass heavy. At 100 hours they really started to sound like the pair I heard with 200 hours. In many ways it’s impossible to compare apples and oranges. Some may argue that I’m off my medication that the IER-Z1R is an IEM and the Z1R is a full size headphone. Ahh yep? But.......their sound signatures are actually closer together than apart. They do sound the same and have a list of similarities in sound. The difference is imaging placement. So I’ve simplified these concepts for you here. But seriously that is all it really is. The full-size headphone has transducers outside your ears so the soundstage is outside your ears. An IEM goes inside of your cranium so the sound is inside of your cranium and outside your cranium. Also amazingly both the IER-Z1R and full-size Z1R reacted the same way to burn-in with both smoothing out after 100 hours and gaining bass detail and finesse. From all the Headphones i've listened and/or owned so far (HD800S, HD820, Several Focal and LCD, pretty much everything from Meze and Hifiman, Moondrop VENUS and so on) nothing ever sounded as Live as the MDR-Z1R All these headphones come in nice boxes; though the IER-Z1R comes with a cardboard jewelry box, with drawers. Also for the record, the IER-Z1R comes included with the greatest of cables, both 3.5mm and 4.4mm balanced. Of all the headphones talked about here, it’s the IEM which is dependent on fit. Meaning they may not fit your ears, and if they don’t fit your ears the party is over. This single concept makes full-size headphones much easier to use in the end. Though for this extra effort we are gifted with a inner head-stage. As the tip sits inside your cranium the sound is both inside and outside your head. This concept in and of itself gets us a different perspective in sound display. Also I can’t help but reinforce the medical insertion of detail into your brain. The IEMs go the extra mile to put the music closer to your soul and under your skin. Also the display is like reading a normal size book where full-size headphones can almost take more effort to take in? This full-size flagship was introduced in 2014, two years before the Z1R. Sound-wise the Z7 offers a more focused, more robust and less refined signature than the full-size Z1R. We are gifted with a smaller soundstage though still amazingly expansive. Bass is all in one area as well as a lovely upper treble soundstage presentation. Build quality is through the roof as well as form factor being smaller of the two full-size flagships here. This headphone exudes excitement and fun in an almost wonderful expensive yet trashy but cool way.................. it’s the very definition of a guilty necessity.

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Compared to BX: BX has more bass quantity, however is more muddy and upper bass bleeds into the low ids, Compared to the cascades. Lol. Cascades are nuts - Overpowered bass with little control Cymbals, Rides and Crashes having natural timbre with decent amount to treble extension, giving it pleasurable decay Often based on Monitoring with pushed, piercing upper mids, sometimes in combination with pushed bass (no midbass though, we're audiophiles!). Tries to be as much as possible to be the opposide of Club to make sure, you know you're listening to an audiphile headphone. If it doesn't hurt, its not audiophile. If you can't bear the pain, you're not audiophile enough. --> Only plays well with selected audiophile songs. You are not an real audiophile if you listen to anything, that doesn't sound well with these. If anything sounds wrong and off with these, its always the song and the quality of your recording. In my review I will be using a couple pieces of the Signature Series. This ecosystem is actually designed to work together to bring about enhanced results. As equipment combinations are close to infinite; I can say with a small amount of testing that the Signature Series does go together well; not being simply a marketing ploy.

Micro details such from slight finger slides on the guitar to the moment the finger leaves the strings all adds to the organic experience of the songs Deeper insertion provides the best bass, while shallower insertion provides the biggest staging. Triple comfort tips provide a more emphasis on the lower end, the silicones being the most neutral, perhaps removing some bass, but i found that silicone tips provide a very nice isolation, better than TC tips. Comply foams are not a match with these IEMs, they mute the treble and affect the signature, making them less revealing and more darker sounding.Lost in all these is the miniscule side-firing BA treble driver that mostly handles lower and mid-treble. It’s a Sony proprietary T-shaped armature pin and has better timbre and slightly slower decay than typical Knowles BA drivers. Toto -Africa (have listened to this song about 20 times in the last 2 days, it sound incredible through the Z1R's) You may like the IER-Z1R or you may not. It all rests on a persons subjective sound personality preference. But if your truly into the modern Sony sound, I recommend the IER-Z1R wholeheartedly; as there is nothing not to like about it.