$9 Headphone Review: Sony MDR-ZX110

[restorer-john]

If your a more a gear head that wants to play with toys, your doing the vinyl thing.

I haven't listened to vinyl for probably a few years. I just can't be bothered with it at the moment. Took several turntables down to Dad's place for him to play with. Get this, set him up my favourite Technics SL-1200mk2 with a Shure V15 III Supertrack Plus NOS stylus upstairs in his main listening room about a year ago, hooked up to a nice Luxman amp and the NS-1000Ms. He hasn't even listened to one record on it since the day I put it there!

 

[restorer-john]

It does excite the mind and may ward off dementia.

Really? ASR as an early-onset delaying tactic? Too little too late I'm afraid.

 

[Doodski]

I haven't listened to vinyl for probably a few years. I just can't be bothered with it at the moment. Took several turntables down to Dad's place for him to play with. Get this, set him up my favourite Technics SL-1200mk2 with a Shure V15 III Supertrack Plus NOS stylus upstairs in his main listening room about a year ago, hooked up to a nice Luxman amp and the NS-1000Ms. He hasn't even listened to one record on it since the day I put it there!

What is NOS? I googled it but no definition.

 

[amirm]

What is NOS?

New Old Stock.

 

[restorer-john]

Back to the Sony's.

@amirm I've just ordered a pair to see what the fuss is all about. My lovely partner was trying to misappropriate my 35 year old Sony MDR-70s for her laptop/netflix watching in bed. I'll do a shootout when they arrive.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Really? ASR as an early-onset delaying tactic? Too little too late I'm afraid.

Well maybe you're right. Doesn't hurt. Number 3 wife and teenage son at my age has delayed something. Certainly has delayed retirement to a coffin. Definitely has delayed boredom.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Back to the Sony's.

@amirm I've just ordered a pair to see what the fuss is all about. My lovely partner was trying to misappropriate my 35 year old Sony MDR-70s for her laptop/netflix watching in bed. I'll do a shootout when they arrive.

Just order 2 to avoid domestic misappropriation. I have three Senn 598's for domestic tranquility. I only took about 10 years to brainwash the family.

 

[FulyenCurtz]

Gee, why didn't I think of that. :^P Too late.
View attachment 107324
They're in my hands.
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The paint and overall finish on the plastic is nice. Definitely better than a great many pairs of headphones in general, let alone in its price range. It reminds me a lot of the finish on my Sony WH-1000XM3, which retailed for $300.
View attachment 107322
The cable is wayyyy nicer than what I was expecting. To me, premium even. Most cables that come with headphones under $100 aren't even decent, from what I've seen.

Sound wise, well, there isn't much to say, really. My impression matches Amirm's, especially the bass portion. Luckily, I don't prefer the 5dB suggested bass boost of the Harman target, I just like it flat. So, while it certainly isn't anything to write home about at all, the drivers don't distort with deep bass with my flat bass target as bad as they do with Harman's recommended one. I'll post my EQ settings once I have access to my laptop.
One thing I will say is that the stock sound is very comfortable, almost giving me Dan Clark vibes. They are extremely light, really in the tier of a Koss Porta Pro, and simply fit on the head cozily. Everything about these headphones is comfortable. I think that's the biggest takeaway. Also like a Porta Pro, they fit very securely. I've already worked out in them, and can say they get a pass for all but the hardest of sprints and springiest of burpees. They're fine for mile runs and typical lifting. Unlike a Porta Pro, the MDR-ZX110 have a very conventional, modern design that is subdued and easy on the eyes. The Porta Pro's retro style is cool, but it stands out, and some may not like that. The Porta Pro is also often triple the prize of the ZX110 or more, and the Porta Pro already was cheap!
So, all in all, the Sony MDR-ZX110 make a nice, knock-around pair of cans that are ready for whatever. I'd say their sound is still cozy, if a bit muffled, for those who I don't want to know who disagree that EQ can improve any pair of headphones.

I've had these headphones for several years - just some thoughts for other users who are thinking about using them for workouts. If anything goes first, its going to be the pleather earpads - especially if you workout and sweat on them. The pleather will crack and chip away. Also when working out, I found the cord to be a bit short. Hope this helps other users

 

[restorer-john]

Just order 2 to avoid domestic misappropriation

My 16yo liked my AKG-702s so much, we bought him a pair. Seemed ridiculous but he was wanting to do music production and they were on the list for approved studio monitoring headphones. Since then, I have made him three replacement cables (thank goodness for the mini-xlr). The cat (Julio) likes to chew on expensive headphone cables. It's good to keep a 100M roll of Canare 2 core shielded for making up custom replacements...

My partner has AKG-601s I bought her, but wanted something "light". These little cheap Sony's may do the trick. As for my collection, it's not remotely as large as some of the headphone guys on this forum for sure.

 

[brimble]

There's a less expensive way to get a custom fit; manufactured custom eartips start at ~$150USD mark:

https://www.adv-sound.com/collections/custom-fit/products/eartune-fidelity-custom-fit-eartips

One can even DIY custom eartips for less money - I might actually give this a try myself; like many people, one of my ear canals is smaller than the other. I can get around that currently by using different sized tips for each ear, but custom would probably feel much nicer:

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/a8n369

Yes! Very good point. I haven't tried this solution myself because of the bulkiness you end up with, but maybe I should have - I could have saved a lot of money. It looks to me like a very reasonable compromise and I bet the sound is great.

 

[xykreinov]

I've had these headphones for several years - just some thoughts for other users who are thinking about using them for workouts. If anything goes first, its going to be the pleather earpads - especially if you workout and sweat on them. The pleather will crack and chip away. Also when working out, I found the cord to be a bit short. Hope this helps other users

Ya, that'd be my guess. Yet, a whole new pair of ZX110s is cheaper than pads for many headphones that aren't much more expensive.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

My 16yo liked my AKG-702s so much, we bought him a pair. Seemed ridiculous but he was wanting to do music production and they were on the list for approved studio monitoring headphones. Since then, I have made him three replacement cables (thank goodness for the mini-xlr). The cat (Julio) likes to chew on expensive headphone cables. It's good to keep a 100M roll of Canare 2 core shielded for making up custom replacements...

My partner has AKG-601s I bought her, but wanted something "light". These little cheap Sony's may do the trick. As for my collection, it's not remotely as large as some of the headphone guys on this forum for sure.

My 16 year old son glued my Senn 598's to his head 6 years ago. Wears them backwards. Claims more comfortable. He is on second set. I offered 599 last month. Offer was declined. They are comfortable.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

We have 2 cats. Wife and son adopt, I feed and let out. And cats still only sleep with the cat lovers.

 

[Haint]

I swore off spending any kind of real money on portables after I discovered the Sony MH755 and the Sony MH1C. These things are marvels... cheap, disposable and I can listen to them all day and just get lost in the music (this is even without EQ). The transparency of the midrange is actually a reference to me when evaluating speakers. Before this, I was a hardcore Etymotic guy and I had wasted many hundreds of dollars replacing lost and broken earphones which will inevitably happen with a daily driver.

Glad to see Sony can work the same magic with an on-ear.

I spent a good amount of time AB'ing Oratory's profiles on the MH750 and ER2XR (which are themselves pretty cheap, the ER2 line sometimes goes on sale for $50-$60). With EQ the Ety's have a noticeably more natural tone on many vocals and instruments. Could be unit variance, the deep canal insertion of the Ety's, or the high frequency differences, but the ER2's are definitely higher preference to my ears.

 

[bobbooo]

I spent a good amount of time AB'ing Oratory's profiles on the MH750 and ER2XR (which are themselves pretty cheap, the ER2 line sometimes goes on sale for $50-$60). With EQ the Ety's have a noticeably more natural tone on many vocals and instruments. Could be unit variance, the deep canal insertion of the Ety's, or the high frequency differences, but the ER2's are definitely higher preference to my ears.

Note Oratory's EQ settings use a slightly different target for those two IEMs - Harman's 2017 target for the ER2XR, and their latest 2019 target for the MH750. This could explain the difference you're hearing.

 

[nerone]

Has anyone tried with EQ of Usb Audio Player Pro?

 

[thewas]

Actually, you don't even to measure it, you can hear the degradation when you switch in a 70s or 80s EQ. The noise level is the big give away. You cannot cascade 10-31 opamps without a serious noise penalty.

I don't hear any noticable more noise when I don't bypass my 80s Technics EQ, not that I still use it in times of PC digital EQ/DRC, but nevertheless.
Also its nominal values of 5 HZ-100 KHZ frequency response, 102 dB SNR and 0.003% THD don't show any intense problems.

 

[bobbooo]

As if every other third-party eartip - custom molded or not - isn't going to have an effect on frequency response? They do, and that's just the nature of the beast. But, guess what? We've EQ to compensate for it...

The comments about looks? It's in my ear, I don't care, and this isn't a fashion show.

Weight distribution? Now you're speculating about a gram or two of material at most. If I put a diamond stud in one of my earlobes, but not the other, I'm going to wind up with a sore neck at the end of the day? Really?

Sure, any tip change could change frequency response, but a huge change in bore length and geometry like that will likely have an unpredictably larger effect than a normal 3rd party tip. If you can send your IEMs with these custom tips to get measured on industry standard gear you might be able to correct for this with EQ, but you might not, due to changes in bore geometry possibly introducing acoustic reflections and cancellations and so non-minimum phase behaviour that cannot be effectively EQed out. CIEM tuning is very difficult to get right due to these issues, so you can't expect an IEM to necessarily sound fine or even be easily correctable with EQ if you just slap it onto an ear mold.

I'm not talking about the extra weight of the ear mold, I'm talking about the weight distribution shifting to outside the ear canal entrance from the weight of the IEM (which is often not insignificant, sometimes made of metal) protruding out of the ear that I'd imagine would cause pressure points in the canal from the mold and so affect comfort, which is one of the major reasons to get custom-molded IEMs in the first place. I doubt they would just disappear into the ear and be almost unnoticeable like purpose-built CIEMs do. Of course, all these reservations could be confirmed or denied if you get some of these custom-fit eartips, try them out and report back

 

[Stefano_Milano]

Today I tried Sony headphones connected to the topping dx3 pro v2. On the PC I set apo with eq indicated. The result, however, is not exciting. Does it depend on the impedance of the topping? Is its power too low? Bass is missing and treble is out of focus

 

[Feelas]

I've had all sorts of EQs, ranging from analogue traditional, parametrics to digital DSP based standalones and don't like any of them. They all degrade the signal.

It would be nice if you presented how the wave is degraded after digital processing...

Actually, the whole EQ affair is to show how much one can improve <2-digit$ gear with a bit of processing...