TonyRizoWayyy better man... I had the MDR-1a and the MDR-1r.. love them both.. saw the Z7 which is totally different. It has a 70mm driver which is massive and awesome. They are way higher quality materials too, and equally as comfortable. They also come with balanced cables. Cups are made of magnesium and not plastic. Sound phenomenal to me. Much wider soundstage than mrd-1a.. The perfect next step from the mdr-1a..
Also, i found them on ebay with two Silver Surfcables.com cables for $350. I couldn't resist.
WildMurphDo it... the life the PHA3 will bring to your Z7s. I have since moved to the new Sony TA-ZH1ES and I will tell you the DAC quality is extremely close. Balanced outputs to your Z7s.... butter.
WildMurphDamnit, now I am tempted again. T.y
I do have the Sony xba Z5 IEMs excellent sounding. But I don't use them as IEMs bother me. In fact they are not even broken in. I will probably sell them. They are stored in the box.
TonyRizodamn, I've never seen the xba z5.. look awesome. i had mdr-xb90ex iem's from japan, they were good, but nothing like the xba z5.. My issue is that over the course of my life I have really abused my ears, and I have light light tinnitus. I read that headphones are way less likely to cause ear damage than IEM's so I had to give em up... other than a shitty pair of panasonics i use for spoken word/podcasts when i work out I wear headphones solely.
WildMurphI heard that too , they are the best sounding I have ever heard. I have many IEMs and are tossed around. I too went to the full size headphones. Now I have way to many headphones. LOL very good ones too....
WildMurphIt sure is buddy. I just purchased the little dot mk 2 and am enjoying it like crazy with my sony walkmanZX2, Fostex, Grados , hifiman , Sony's etc etc . Now rolling tubes. LOL it never ends. Just went on eBay looking at those Z7 s. I won't, wont I'm stronger than this..... LOL
Very tempted...