Sony MDR-EX1000 Impressions

@Thenewerguy009

If you want the best basshead iem, the Sony XBA-Z5 + MUC-M12SM1 cable is the best I have heard so far, exceeding JVC FX series and Dunu DN2000J.

iem tips choice plays an important part in bass output as well.

 

Sony ex800st tops it, with the taped vent. Hits harder. Cheaper too

 

Bought a pair of ex1000s today. Always wanted a set and I offered to send a loaner set to Ken Ball so he can hear a decent dynamic driver that's not mid-bass bloated. I hope it inspires him as he remakes his Lyra into a new higher end dynamic driver iem.

 

Received both today. Listening through my Onkyo DP-X1 and last gen Nano. Initial impressions of EX1000 is positive. Will add more thoughts in a bit.

 

EX1000 preliminary impressions

The thing is definitely bassy. Very good initial impressions. CBSA and UPS got about $110 from me. Oh f**k.

The Good
- Overall clarity is amongst the best tier.
- Notes have body. Attack, sustain, and decay are correctly tuned.
- Highly competent in the plankton department almost across the board no matter price range.
- f'ing fantastic basshead bass quantity, timbre, layering, speed, texture, extension, and resolution (aka plankton). Nicely done! No intrusion into mids. Not typical DD IEM bass, which trades speed and decisiveness to a correct timbre and ooomph. Far better than IE800 bass, which can be overwhelming depending on recording.
- Soundstage presentation is wide, albeit a bit flat. Very lively imaging, typical in-your-face.

The Bad
- A tip stuck into my ear when I first attempt to roll tips. My ear's virginity!!
- The whole midrange is more or less honky. When the recording is decent, it feels kinda OK. When the recording is bad, vocals can go very shouty, and instruments sound floating.
- Some obvious f**k-ups past higher midrange. It's amongst the most fatiguing IEMs I've ever encountered. Not in a typical piercing way, but just seemed to me that the designers wanted to give this IEM excessive "air".

 

Yep, had a chance to listen to the Lyra yesterday, and while it has some things going for it, it just felt a step behind the EX1000 in most technical aspects, which is pretty evident with A/B.

 

My impression of the EX1000, with AK100 w/ output resistance mod as source:
Bass: Fast and resolving, responses well to heavy bass line (a good example is Metallica's Master of Puppets). Texture and extension are also well presented (really, I can't think of any other dynamic-based IEM has better bass than this bad boy). IMO, a little more punch would be perfect, but that's asking too much from a 16mm driver.

Midrange: High-mid range is emphasized, creating an edged and honky sound. Quite good for female vocals, especially those in "audiophile recordings", but sub-par for males and string-based instruments. Male vocals lacks the warmth and depth, as if the whole lower midrange is missing (Vern Gosdin for example) Guitar sounds rather plasticky. Violin can easily become pretty much ear-piercing and shouty.

Treble: Airy, lively and precise, though for me sometimes there is a bit too much presence at top end. Can be quite fatiguing to listen for an extended period.

Soundstage and Imaging: Really wide stage, but rather flat (think of the AKG K701 and Stax Lambda). Imaging is good, can render a large orchestral piece well, but still suffers from in your head feelings of IEM. Also, the stage and imaging are quite dependent on seal. With poor fit, it can sound artificially airy, diffused (HD800-like), and abnormally laid-back.

Overall, the sound is energetic and resolving, though can be slim and unforgiving at times. Details retrieval (plankton amirite?) is top notch among its class. With right recording, it feels like a treat, but on bad ones (or simply not suited), it can sound boring and unnatural.

 

I definitely agree that Akazakura are very similar and very in line with the flat-4 sound. I had the Kaede II and Akazakura together for a few months and to my ears the Akazakura was a bit more even FR wise especially in the treble, which even though was small change, went a long way in making them more listenable and versatile genre wise.

All the flat-4 phones are treble tipped, but when I had the EX1000's I found them a bit more ragged than the Akazakura up top. Both definitely have a sibilance issue and share a lot of the same issues that make them a poor value propositions in the dynamic driver IEM world to me.

 

bought them on a whim last evening after work. preferred them with wax guard comply over silicone tips imho. great vfm for what it does, almost like the ether closed done (almost) right. will most likely dick around with cables in due time, if not from SQ tweaking, then for the poorly conforming memory wires. btw wtf is that 0.6m cable about? might as well offer 1 decent cable over 2 so-so ones. (ime, most stock cables for sony hi-end 'phones are pitiful despite 7n or SPC claims as they are thinner than linum cables underneath all the rubber)

 

EX1000 is a good match with Sony ZX2.

Discounting my love for the good ol' Sony's signature, EX1000 is airy and I failed to be bothered by noticeable mid/high spikes. Lovely tight bass catches up with fast paced music quite handily.

 

almost a week in, it's my most used piece of head/ear phone so far, it's strangely addictive despite the various flaws mentioned in this thread.

It's what i had hoped the fostex th600 would sound like but didn't. and in some ways, a more enjoyable/intoxicating listen than my andros.

tip rolled a fair bit and settled for comply w wax guard (smooths the treble spike a little imho) and opted for an aftermarket litz cable (swans audio) with much better memory wires arrangement.

all in all a steal in a lot of ways

 

Anyone using custom tips with these and willing to post photos? Love em...But the isolation / fit makes them stay at home most of the time..

 

Biggest problem with them, the fit. I don't use custom tips, but I've had good results with spin fits, spiral dots, rha, and Sony.

 

Custom tips won't do much regarding isolation, since the earphones themselves are vented. And they won't do anything regarding wind noise either...

Let's face the hard truth, the EX1000 have just not been designed with outdoor use in mind.

From my experience, the best thing you can do about fit is this: link

 

I wonder if anyone has been insane enough to reshell. The connectors would likely pose an issue. And taking apart the housing...

Would probably be a real PITA, wonder how much the sound signature would change.

 

ergonomics aside, i liked that its shell is made from magnesium, reshellimg it into acrylic would likely mess up the resonant freq and a host of other issues.

i am still trying to find the mythical japan made mmcx adaptor because the memory wire and the overall flimsiness of the cable annoys the f**k out of me.

 

Reshell it WITH the original shell inside. Like that IE800 reshell.

 

@deafdoorknob I had a custom cable made by PETEREK from HF. Great cable for it.