poniżej opinia gościa, który wstępnie słuchał i porównywał Z1000 i MDR-1 (źródło:http://www.headphiles.org/index.php?topic=5067.0) :
Okay, I had a chance to listen to the MDR-1R and and MDR-1RNC.
Full disclosure: I was invited to Sony\'s corporate HQ in Sydney to play with the new Sony gear announced at IFA. I\'m part of a social media / focus group feedback initiative Sony has in Australia. Essentially, a group of social media \'sharers\' who get product discounts and early access perks in exchange for gathering some pre-production feedback / market research / exposure on social media. I\'m not paid to give opinions or reviews, or even requested to do so, but at the same time Sony chose people who have a soft spot for the company and who are likely to share geeky gadget news with friends anyway. :3
Anyway, with that out of the way, I got to spend a good 40 minutes or so with the MDR-1R. All listening was done out of my iPhone 4 with 256k AAC files, and I brought along a Z1000 for comparison.
MDR-1R
First impressions, the headphones look exactly like they do in the pictures, but the earcups are actually larger than the Z1000, especially with regard to the earpads. While it\'s a stylish understated design, you do not get the impression that they necessarily went for high fashion over function. It looks more like they took the Sony V6 design and tried to make it \'street style\'.
The 1R is well built, but very obviously plastic. The slightly glossy silver arms that attach to the earcups on the black/red I think look a little cheap, but everything else is nice. I much prefer the silver/brown combination; to me it looks classier. I am surprised that the silver/brown is only available on the cheapest model, considering that I would imagine executive types would spring for the NC model. While we weren\'t told pricing for the headphones, the 1R does not exude the same premium material feel of the Z1000\'s. Again, everything seems solid and nice, but obviously its not magnesium.
The 1R\'s headband appears to feel the same as the Z1000\'s though, and actually in terms of wearing comfort the 1R is better by quite a bit. The Z1000 is already a decently comfortable headphone, but the earpads have quite a small surface area and the clamping force is quite high. The 1R has a much broader surface for the earpads, they are much softer pleather, and clamping force is spread out around the ears. Actually, the earpads are what seems like the most oldschool part of the design; they are soft and rumple easily compared to the Z1000\'s earpads.
So how do they sound? I only had a relatively short period with them (I totally had to check out the 84" 4k TV!) and only the Z1000\'s to compare with, these are pretty early impressions. I am pretty sure they were the final production samples. They had the same "not for sale" stickers that appear in all the previews floating around. My impressions are going to be a bit vague and perhaps even a bit contradictory, since I did not have a chance to listen to a huge number of tracks.
With the above in mind, I do think that everyone can relax; the Sony\'s 1R\'s are not terrible bassy fart cannon Beats knockoffs.
The overall tone was pretty neutral, with an overall tilt towards the lower mids and perhaps an overall darker tone. They are not obviously treble-shelf dark like something like the LCD-2, and they are definitely not warm and fuzzy like something like the B&W P5. The signature is tastefully done; bass is present but cohesive, punchy and not domineering. The Z1000 actually sounded more coloured than the 1R\'s; the Z1000 has a more energetic lower treble region, with a brassier, clearer \'bell\' tone to the sound. The 1R is comparatively less peaky in the treble; vocals and treble overall sound drier. However I did not get an impression that one extended further in the treble region than the other.
The biggest difference between the Z1000 and the 1R was in the bass. The Z1000 has a terrible bass response; playing back this sound test, the Z1000\'s bass is flabby and uncontrolled. You can distinctly hear the driver distorting and messing up the transients on the frequencies from 20-100. The 1R was much, much better. Bass rumble started at 20hz to my ears and went up smoothly and cleanly all the way through, with no obvious bloat anywhere on the rise to 200hz. This doesn\'t mean that the volume of the bass didn\'t increase up to 200hz (I didn\'t do enough repeat listens to work out whether that was the case) but it is certainly a smooth rise.
The other big difference between the Z1000 and the 1R is that the 1R sounds much cleaner than the Z1000. This is perhaps due to the Z1000\'s well documented distortion issues, but the actual effect was that the Z1000 sounded more congested and wooly compared to the 1R. This is despite the Z1000 having a more forward lower treble. On that basis alone I would choose the 1R as the technical winner.
The 1R did not have recessed treble, but sibilance should not be an issue with these headphones. Actually, nothing really leapt out at me about the 1R\'s. They sounded pretty competent and enjoyable, without any particular exaggerations. They had a cohesive and decently wide soundstage. I didn\'t hear any issues with plastic reverb or internal reflections, but those nuances would probably take a longer listening session.
So overall, early impressions, I was pretty positive about these. I did think that the 1R was more neutral and a technically better headphone than the Z1000. The Z1000 has a nice tone particularly for acoustic music, or female vocals where the treble gives everything a distinctive tone. The 1R seemed more like an all-rounder. Pity about the build, as I would pay more to have a 1R that felt as good in the hands as they sounded. If I had to name a figure for what I would pay for the sound, I would say $250 - $300. (I would pay $150 for the Z1000 sound and $350 for the build). I do think that these are going to be popular, just because they are a neutral headphone that works well from a portable source. They do NOT sound like \'upgraded Z1000\'s\', despite apparently having similar drivers. The signature is different enough that I think some people might still prefer the Z1000.
MDR-1RNC
I only actually played around with these briefly, so I\'ll keep my comments brief as well. The biggest selling point of the NC model is, predictably enough, the noise cancelling. It is amazing being in a crowded room, and turning on the NC to suddenly have all the voices suddenly become very tinny and distant. It really does help to enjoy the music when there is less environmental noise to distract you.
As suggested by the earlier posted specs, the in built amp also turns on and off with the NC. Here\'s my biggest issue: while it\'s nice to hear more of your music with the NC on, the actual tone of the sound changes completely when the NC is turned on. Everything takes on a much harder edge, with a kind of irritating rawness to the sound. When you turn off the NC, the tone becomes much more like the 1R. However, my initial impression was that the RNC did not sound as good as the 1R, which would be expected.
My hesitations about the 1R\'s plastic build also apply to the 1RNC, but even moreso considering that the RNC would be priced much higher and I would imagine be more targeted towards jet setting executives. Then again, everyone knows the company that took NC to street-style headphones right?
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So, I don\'t think that Sony is trying to do anything earth shattering here. The MDR-1R seems like it will be a pretty good headphone, though I really would need to compare it against more contenders to really test the validity of that statement. Nonetheless, I do think that everyone should quit worrying that Sony has just given up on the idea of making a good sounding headphone and gone hole hog for the STREET STYLE DUBSTEP CANS WUB WUB WUB WUB WUB. It seems more like they just made a good headphone that doesn\'t stuff up the sub-bass.
