$9 Headphone Review: Sony MDR-ZX110

[TulseLuper]

what are the best eq options out there when using a streaming service on a mac?

...I'm thinking the headphone market can be revolutionised by a dac or dac-amp which offers a build in convenient eq solution.
even better with eq preset settings for different known headphones or a Database.
it really needs to be created.

Agreed. Would love to see more dac/amps with EQ options and easily switchable presets. That database will come from these reviews - EQ'ing without supremely legible graphs like these is really hard.

Roon EQ rules and I use it and I know there are other software options, but Amir's reviews and his rightfully strong statements about how important EQ is for headphones make it seem like there should be more hardware options.

 

[_thelaughingman]

Color me fancy, do these deliver the bang for buck performance at $9 that a $5k headphone can’t. “Numbers and graphs don’t lie”

 

[SmackDaddies]

The pad kind of feels luxurious if you lower your standard somewhat:

money quote

 

[samwell7]

Great review!!
I've liked all but one set (MDR-V6) of the Sony headphones I've tried, the scale of their business plus the tech they put into their upper tier of models seems to positively benefit the mass-market offerings, which is exactly what we want as consumers.

Will have to try them.

 

[SmackDaddies]

I use and appreciate equalizers (Peace forever). But I also only run speakers and headphones that are under $500. If you need equalization for something that costs thousands of dollars, it should only get a headless panther, even if you can correct it

 

[Dmitri]

Thank you for this review. It makes me happy. ; ) ...Nuff said.

 

[RayDunzl]

Was this $9 headphone tested with the $9 dongle?

 

[sweetchaos]

Thanks for the review.

Well that was fast...you found the equivalent product of the $9 Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter (review)(purchase)!

 

[Merkurio]

what are the best eq options out there when using a streaming service on a mac?

...I'm thinking the headphone market can be revolutionised by a dac or dac-amp which offers a build in convenient eq solution.
even better with eq preset settings for different known headphones or a Database.
it really needs to be created.

SoundSource 5 by Rogue Amoeba.

It costs $39, but you can have PEQ system-wide with it (using the integrated AUNBandEQ audio unit or even VST plugins).

 

[Zensō]

Ha! Awesome review. Now I have to decide between this one and the Abyss...

 

[BillG]

If you are not into headphones but want to know what the fuss is about for no money, buy this $9 headphone and put in my EQ. If you don't fall off your chair with excitement and get your pants wet with drool, I will come over and cancel out your audiophile credentials myself!

As I've recently discovered myself, EQ can be an absolute lifesaver in personal audio.

I purchased KZ's newest, all balanced armature, flagship IEM not long ago, the ASX. It's a 10 driver per channel beast with quite nice styling.

If one looks up the professional reviews of it one will quickly see that the company did an awful job of tuning it: the bass is overemphasized, the mids are very recessed, and treble is overly attenuated to the point of being virtually nonexistent. (I don't who at the company tuned them, but they really should be retrained or fired since they failed here.) However, after a few moments of keying in the EQ profiles for it that are provided by the AutoEQ github, I queued up some my favorite tunes and was amazed at the transformation.

They've now become my favorite IEM - I've owned a good number over the last couple of years - and I literally can't stop listening to music with them.

 

[_thelaughingman]

SoundSource 5 by Rogue Amoeba.

It costs $39, but you can have PEQ system-wide with it (using the integrated AUNBandEQ audio unit or even VST plugins).

FYI I found a novel way to make a peq profile and use it as a headphone profile within Sound source without having to use integrated AUNbandEq.

 

[_thelaughingman]

The benefits of a good EQ makes any decent set of cans sound precise and full. I can attest to it after setting up a PEQ for my Grado’ and listening to details that I had missed before on a 10 band Eq.

 

[Merkurio]

FYI I found a novel way to make a peq profile and use it as a headphone profile within Sound source without having to use integrated AUNbandEq.

That sounds great, could you share it with us?

 

[Zensō]

what are the best eq options out there when using a streaming service on a mac?

...I'm thinking the headphone market can be revolutionised by a dac or dac-amp which offers a build in convenient eq solution.
even better with eq preset settings for different known headphones or a Database.
it really needs to be created.

The RME ADI-2 DAC FS comes close to what you’re describing. The addition of factory presets would be awesome, though I’ve found adding Oratory’s curves to be pretty straightforward.

Roon comes with built-in EQ presets from Audeze. Hopefully they’ll expand to other brands in the future. I have a number of Oratory’s curves setup in Roon for various headphones and the improvements are dramatic.

 

[_thelaughingman]

That sounds great, could you share it with us?

Absolutely my pleasure.

I sourced my PEQ parameters from Jakko Pasanen' AutoEQ GitHub dump (Link below). Create a .txt file and copy paste the PEQ parameters for your set of headphones if they are listed on AutoEQ. Save that .txt file with whatever name you would like and then in sound source select Add Other Profile under Headphone EQ. This will allow you to bring in the PEQ file as a profile and applied to output for your listening. Hope this was helpful.

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq

 

[Merkurio]

Absolutely my pleasure.

I sourced my PEQ parameters from Jakko Pasanen' AutoEQ GitHub dump (Link below). Create a .txt file and copy paste the PEQ parameters for your set of headphones if they are listed on AutoEQ. Save that .txt file with whatever name you would like and then in sound source select Add Other Profile under Headphone EQ. This will allow you to bring in the PEQ file as a profile and applied to output for your listening. Hope this was helpful.

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq

Fantastic!

The only problem is that I can't find the "Add Other Profile" option under Headphone EQ...

 

[_thelaughingman]

@Merkurio Back out to the drop down menu for the headphone profile section and you should see something similar to my screenshot.

 

[Merkurio]

@Merkurio Back out to the drop down menu for the headphone profile section and you should see something similar to my screenshot. View attachment 107016

Really strange, I don't have that option...

I don't know if it's a limitation of the trial version (I haven't bought it yet), but I'll keep digging.

Anyway, thank you so much for the advice!

 

[_thelaughingman]

@Merkurio I think it might be a limitation of the trail version. Its definitely worth investing the money into this software, I have been using it for a month or so and their software support is excellent. I was sent a beta version of an update to rule out crackling noise I was hearing in Safari during video playback.