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$9 Headphone Review: Sony MDR-ZX110

Flow

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It's just... people have different shapes of heads and ears and ear canals. Paul Barton talked about this one, the shape of the ear canals bends differently in some people, affecting their hearing of treble. I don't know how a one-size-fits-all EQ standard is supposed to account for that.

I don't think there is a desire for a one size fits all approach. There is a desire to quantify what makes a headphone sound good. The Harman target isn't "all headphones must sound exactly like this target" but more "this is a tonal balance in a headphone based off good speakers that many listeners prefer the most".

Which comes back to your earlier point of sticking with the designed sound of a headphone. None of these designers will have measured my ears or know my preferred tonal balance so why would I stick with the designed sound?
 

stalepie2

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I don't think there is a desire for a one size fits all approach. There is a desire to quantify what makes a headphone sound good. The Harman target isn't "all headphones must sound exactly like this target" but more "this is a tonal balance in a headphone based off good speakers that many listeners prefer the most".

Which comes back to your earlier point of sticking with the designed sound of a headphone. None of these designers will have measured my ears or know my preferred tonal balance so why would I stick with the designed sound?
Well, you don't have to of course. Use whatever EQ you like. It seemed to me that EQ was just an artificial effect layered on top of the headphone's real sound. But then again, I tend to adjust color settings on a TV and turn off picture enhancements to try to reach a more natural picture, so perhaps I should do the same with headphones.

I get the sense some of them are designed physically around the intended sound of the product, whatever it is, like the pads chosen and other aspects of the design. It might all go together. The pads and foam and shape of the cups affect the sound, so that's taken into account by whoever made it that it's supposed to sound that way, and then an EQ change is not taking into account these things. But I mean you know it's up to the user to change things however he wants. It's his purchase, something he owns.

Maybe personally for me I get interested in what people hear, and what they write in reviews, so I want to see if what I hear matches up with what they say they hear. And if I'm dealing with a lot of people saying they've EQ'd their headphones to sound different, and then give a review after that, I feel frustrated because it's more like I'm reading a review of their EQ settings than the product that comes out of the box. Does that make sense? It adds to the confusion. And some of them have been around for so many years now, like HD 600, HD 25, DT 880, MDR-V6, Portapro, etc., and they kind of like become a cultural fixture in the hobby, but that changes if everyone just has their own EQ profiles. Then there's little meaning when I read that someone has this or that headphone because I realize they may have EQed it to sound like something entirely different.

But that's not important. I should probably backspace this. It's way off topic.
 

DeepFried

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... But then again, I tend to adjust color settings on a TV and turn off picture enhancements to try to reach a more natural picture, so perhaps I should do the same with headphones....

I've had a similar thought. I actually have a calibration device for my PC monitors, which creates a ICC profile to adjust the colours displayed toward the sRGB target. The main difference I suppose is that a colour profile is something you can create and implement then forget about for months, you don't need to constantly turn it on or off or switch it around, as you would need to with PEQ profiles for various headphones.

Plus I have no such calibration device for my headphones. With monitor ICC profiles you can't just take one that someone else has created for their monitor, even if its the exact same make and model, as every panel is unique and its properties drift over time, every monitor has to be individually calibrated. I have wondered if there is any parallel to that with headphones... probably not to anything like the same degree I suppose.
 

phoenixsong

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I've had a similar thought. I actually have a calibration device for my PC monitors, which creates a ICC profile to adjust the colours displayed toward the sRGB target. The main difference I suppose is that a colour profile is something you can create and implement then forget about for months, you don't need to constantly turn it on or off or switch it around, as you would need to with PEQ profiles for various headphones.

Plus I have no such calibration device for my headphones. With monitor ICC profiles you can't just take one that someone else has created for their monitor, even if its the exact same make and model, as every panel is unique and its properties drift over time, every monitor has to be individually calibrated. I have wondered if there is any parallel to that with headphones... probably not to anything like the same degree I suppose.
Like getting spectacles/glasses? :)
 

Flow

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Well, you don't have to of course. Use whatever EQ you like.
It was more of a question around how one can move towards audio truth so to speak rather than what they should do with their purchase. It feels like the alternative to investigating EQ is to just listen to a lot of headphones with a fixed playlist of songs. A reasonable option if you have a local retailer for some of these models.

This discussion actually reminded me about that picture of the dress that people saw as different colours. There are still plenty of unknown variables for sure but a good start has been made in figuring some of them out.

And if I'm dealing with a lot of people saying they've EQ'd their headphones to sound different, and then give a review after that, I feel frustrated because it's more like I'm reading a review of their EQ settings than the product that comes out of the box. Does that make sense?

I would say it is more a combo of the product and the EQ combined due it not being able to overcome all physical limitations. But I do get that if you are looking to use the headphones as is then it is not valuable information. But the measurements are still valuable provided you own something that has been measured as reference point.

But that's not important. I should probably backspace this. It's way off topic.
Might be off topic but I guess there was a bit of interest in this review about the ability to EQ so its always interesting to think about what it can do. DSP is in pretty much all of the most popular audio products but as a black box or presents limited adjustment.
 

DeepFried

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Well, I've setup PEQ and have the MDR-ZX110's. So far the jury is out on the EQ, the headphones sound pretty good stock, perhaps a little bass heavy but I don't hate that. I'm going to try and get used to the EQ'd sound before commenting on it.

In the meantime could someone kindly confirm I've setup the PEQ correctly?

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Flow

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Have been listening to these for a while now. The light weight of these seems to make most of the comfort issues I have with over-ears go away.
I didn't spend long with it out of the box as it had the distant muffled sound as described. I tried amir's EQ profile which made them quite listenable but I still felt it was lacking bass to my ears in the music I listen to.

Tried the generated EQ from @Maiky76 and I honestly really like how these sound now. I know there have been many caveats about the LF measurements and resulting compensations but this does sound good even if it might not be accurate so maybe my bass preference is higher than I thought.

Not going to pretend I have golden ears but I can't hear distortion in the bass as measured. However I think I listen at pretty low levels so that might explain it.

Main downside of these headphones seem to be all the noises I hear when I move my head. They aren't audible if you listen loud enough but I can hear crinkling sounds from the ear pads and clacking from free play in the headphone folding mechanism or maybe the band length adjustment.

Obviously fixing these build quality issues would up the cost but I might try taping the rattling bits together as I don't care about the portability and keep listening to them some more.
 

DeepFried

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...
I didn't spend long with it out of the box as it had the distant muffled sound as described. I tried amir's EQ profile which made them quite listenable but I still felt it was lacking bass to my ears in the music I listen to.
...

lacking bass? thats interesting, out of the box I found them very warm sounding, in a way that most here might describe as boomy, though I quite like that sound. For Me the main difference in Amir's EQ was pulling that bass down, the sub-bass adjustment did nothing at all. I guess being on-ears these are going to sound very different depending on ear shape and headphone positioning.

I agree that the headphones themselves have multiple quality and comfort issues, I don't know if anyone has mentioned but there is zero padding on the headband - its just hard plastic. Maybe thats not so bad given the light weight if you have hair, but my hair is cut very short so the headband just rests on my scalp.
 

Flow

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lacking bass? thats interesting, out of the box I found them very warm sounding, in a way that most here might describe as boomy, though I quite like that sound. For Me the main difference in Amir's EQ was pulling that bass down, the sub-bass adjustment did nothing at all. I guess being on-ears these are going to sound very different depending on ear shape and headphone positioning.

You are definitely right on the positioning which might have affected my opinion on the stock sound until I figured it out later.

How are people level matching with the same headphone? I try by ear which I guess is perceived volume. Can I achieve something better using smartphone or PC dB meters without going out and getting better measuring equipment? I realise that level matching different headphones this way is impossible especially IEMs.
 

quadrobust

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I've been listening to the ZX100 with various EQ setting for a day. I'm now a firm believer that a lot of perceived audio quality difference/deficiency that people buy different headphones to fix can be largely remedied by proper EQ, as long as the headphone is well engineered with decent distortion stats. Comparing Amir's adjustment with the Reference audio analyzer EQ from AutoEq results, I found the roll-off from the 6KHz peak in Amir's EQ more tasteful to me. The AutoEq adjustment between 60 and 300 Hz feels better to me though, with less boominess. I have AKG K501,Senn HD600 and Koss EXP/95X to compare with the Sony after EQ. It is not bad, not bad at all.
 

Anmol

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I've been listening to the ZX100 with various EQ setting for a day. I'm now a firm believer that a lot of perceived audio quality difference/deficiency that people buy different headphones to fix can be largely remedied by proper EQ, as long as the headphone is well engineered with decent distortion stats. Comparing Amir's adjustment with the Reference audio analyzer EQ from AutoEq results, I found the roll-off from the 6KHz peak in Amir's EQ more tasteful to me. The AutoEq adjustment between 60 and 300 Hz feels better to me though, with less boominess. I have AKG K501,Senn HD600 and Koss EXP/95X to compare with the Sony after EQ. It is not bad, not bad at all.
try this when it becomes available.
https://drop.com/buy/massdrop-x-koss-ksc75x-on-ear-headphones
best $20 headphone in the market. i have this and sony + other headphones like 800s and he6se etc- i am surprised how good this cheapo koss sounds. if you increase volume to very loud it will distort but thats too loud for my ears. i wear these when i am taking dog for a walk or going about outdoor things. loop is a bit fragile but holds the ear piece properly on ears. better sounding than this sony to my ears for sure even with eq. but sony is under $10. surely we can miss next big mac to spend another $10. -:)
 

quadrobust

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I have both the Koss KSC35 and KSC75. They sound pretty similar and to my untrained ears both are better than the unEQ’d Sony. I haven’t found any good EQ setting for the KSC35 probably because it is old and discontinued. My experience with EQ is only limited to slight adjustment of a given set of parameters so a good starting point is sorely needed.
try this when it becomes available.
https://drop.com/buy/massdrop-x-koss-ksc75x-on-ear-headphones
best $20 headphone in the market. i have this and sony + other headphones like 800s and he6se etc- i am surprised how good this cheapo koss sounds. if you increase volume to very loud it will distort but thats too loud for my ears. i wear these when i am taking dog for a walk or going about outdoor things. loop is a bit fragile but holds the ear piece properly on ears. better sounding than this sony to my ears for sure even with eq. but sony is under $10. surely we can miss next big mac to spend another $10. -:)
 

Anmol

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I have both the Koss KSC35 and KSC75. They sound pretty similar and to my untrained ears both are better than the unEQ’d Sony. I haven’t found any good EQ setting for the KSC35 probably because it is old and discontinued. My experience with EQ is only limited to slight adjustment of a given set of parameters so a good starting point is sorely needed.
you can start on following link
https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets
i find oratory's eq credible and this list includes koss ones too. you would need a parametric equalizer. A mate from Canada has created a nice little write up on eqs on this website.
 

Doodski

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Doodski

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xykreinov

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Along with those good references, there's AutoEQ's extensive results and PEQ settings: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results

Most of the time, I like the sound of AutoEQ and oratory1990's PEQ settings better than Amir's. However, it's not really a fair comparison, since Amir uses less bands for brevity's sake (which is still valid).
In the case of worn headphones and some with higher distortion or tricky cancelations in the fr, like old Beyerdynamics, I actually prefer Amir's simpler settings. They don't try to fix what's potentially unfixable.
 
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quadrobust

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For some reason I often find the female vocals too harsh with AutoEQ’s adjustment. This happened to both ZX100 and HD600. I usually experiment with some fine tuning in the 5-8 KHz range to fit my taste. As for KSC75 I am not able to experience the same level of transformation as the Sony after EQ…
Along with those good references, there's AutoEQ's extensive results and PEQ settings: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results

Most of the time, I like the sound of AutoEQ and oratory1990's PEQ settings better than Amir's. However, it's not really a fair comparison, since Amir uses less bands for brevity's sake (which is still valid).
In the case of worn headphones and some with higher distortion or tricky cancelations in the fr, like old Beyerdynamics, I actually prefer Amir's simpler settings. They don't try to fix what's potentially unfixable.
 

xykreinov

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For some reason I often find the female vocals too harsh with AutoEQ’s adjustment. This happened to both ZX100 and HD600. I usually experiment with some fine tuning in the 5-8 KHz range to fit my taste. As for KSC75 I am not able to experience the same level of transformation as the Sony after EQ…
Female vocals and other treble issues were among my problems with how uploaded AutoEQ filters made my Beyer DT770s sound as well. However, I think that's just cause they're old cans with missing tuning pads.
What do you use for fine tuning? Have you tried using AEQ to make your own filters instead of using the uploaded ones? Lots of handy adjustments like tilt settings. With finnicky cans, I like to have it have AEQ generate filters as a base for me to tweak, instead of going fully by ear from the start.
 
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