purk

Have a great Birthday Justin! How about another wild night in ATL?

Although I'm not a big fan of the Z1R, I still think the soundstage and image placement are what great about them especially for closed headphone. I was a tad surprised that Tyll didn't mention that in his review.

Nah, it starts at 38.

My mistake. What I find pretty impressive about the Utopia is its ability to sound wonderful out of portable DAP. I don't think the LCD-4 or the HD800 can do that.

The Utopia is no longer on the Wall of Fame....the LCD-4 now is.

Open up the earcup and u will see how crappy the wires are. I can't stand a stock SA5000 either, but my recabled pair has considerably less bright with a better bass to boot. Extracting details has never been the sa5000 problems. The SA5000 was around $690 new a few years back while the the Z1R doesnt sound quite as good as my recabled pair for three times the price hence the reason why I think less of the Z1R.

It really is.

For the Qualia it is all about the fit. Mine has a small headband so it does fit me perfectly. The sonic difference can be night and day between good and bad fit Qualia. I do enjoy the Z1R as well but I don't think it is as balanced sounding as a recabled CD3000 & SA5000 in a direct comparison. If you like a lot of bass and punchy sound signature with good sense of soundstage, the Z1R can easily be your favorite headphones. Never said that we all hear the same or prefer the same sound signatures. Plus, the Z1R works well with portable source.

They are enjoyable that's for sure but they are hardly a "reference" type headphones. Plus, they are less balanced sounding and bassy heavy compared to headphones in the same price bracket.

Very much agree with you Tyll on the Z1R review. I much prefer the recabled SA5000 and CD3000 actually.

I was just listening to Melisa and Mountain Jam on my drive to Florida earlier today. RIP Gregg...you are truly transcendence.

You won't get a balanced drive from the PHA-3 unless u do a digital input because there is no phase splitter to convert SE to Balanced signal. Still You may find the PHA-3 a tad dark but it is very refined. I think the Pico Power is a better match tonal wise with the stock Z7 but the PHA-3 should impress u as long as use balanced output.

That is correct on the PHA-3. Have you tried the PHA-3 in balanced? You can take an advantage of direct digital connection if you buy the ZX100. I find the PHA-3 in balanced to be quite a good performer.

I agree in on the amps. The Mjolnir 1 was bassy and lack depth cues. The Yggy has proven to be a very strong contender. It sounds noticeably better than M51, Oppo HA-1 & 105, and all of my modified SACD players that I have on hand. For hi-rez PCMs playback, it surpassed the new Matrix X-Sabre Pro but loose out on a native DSD playback on the Matrix DAC.

I still say go for a used Walkman ZX100 and then add Sony PHA-2A to it...and run your Z7 balanced.