Sony XBA-Z5 Balanced Armature Hi-Res Audio Stereo Ear Receiver (Japan Import)

Just received the ear phone today and I was pleasantly surprised as to how good it sounds. The bass and sub bass (if that's what you want to call it ) is a bit overemphasized but it sounds good depending on the material you listen too. Try listen to Royals by Lourde, holy smokes, awesome! I do agree with the person above regarding voices sound somewhat distant or a loss of presence. I believe the bass frequency is kind of overpowering the voice frequency making it sound distant. If you EQ less of the bass frequency and add just a bit more to 125, 500, 1k, 2k. Don't go overboard with adding frequency, you may get something harsh depending on what was recorded. Your ears are your best judge. It's what you like not what others like for you.I felt like I am listening to a different recording as I can hear things I could not hear with other earphones. Geez, on one of the Piano Guys song, I think I can hear the Piano damper touching the strings, probably my imagination, not to mention the emphasis on bass frequencies may be bringing that out.LOL. It took me a while to figure how to put the earphones on. Just stick it in your ear and the cable goes around your ear from front to back. Once I got it on, it was really comfortable. My first session lasted 3 hours and I could not tell I had it on. The cable seem a little short though.I definitely would recommend this if cost is not an issue. It's a bit pricey for an earphone and I was going out on the limb buying this model never taking it for a spin first. It's really hard to find any store that will allow you to demo an earphone. Well, actually, where I live, no one carries this model anyway. Still pretty happy with the purchase. It sounds great, looks pretty good, and well built. Comes with a case with additional earplugs different sizes and an extra cable. I haven't looked at the cable yet but it looks like a balanced cable for the earphone. Similar to the mini XLR cables for high end headphones, except its not XLR but mini plugs for the right and left channel.

Best sound quality of all in-ear headphones I have ever bought, including the two manufacturers both start with the letter ”B” and another set that cost $899. My quest for the perfect earbuds stopped with my SONY XBA-Z5. The reason for 4 stars is the poor design: they stick out my ears way too much. In order to enjoy the wonderful sound from them while outside, I put on my Bose QuietComfort over them, but the pressure was too much to last long. So I swap the left from the right of the XBA-Z5 to make it bearable, due to the angle they stick out from the ear. Only those who own the unit would know what I am talking about. My next project is to find a bluetooth receiver unit to make the XBA-Z5 wireless.

The Z5's reproduce sound PERFECTLY because they have the skillful precision and power to deliver texture to each sound across the frequency spectrum whether it's treble, mids, bass etc. so that you can not only hear the music but also FEEL every sound, the same way you would in a live performance of a real life artist. You must understand that sound is a 3 dimensional force that you can FEEL as well as HEAR. There is a reason why you can FEEL the vibrations from a cello and FEEL the booming BASSLINE from the guitar. Sound is POWERFUL and it can be FELT as well as HEARD. The Z5 was designed with magnesium and metal which are strong materials so that they could displace air and reproduce sound PERFECTLY with AUTHORITY and with NO distortion. The Z5's drivers which include both balanced armatures and the dynamic driver were tuned to perfection so that they reproduce the SOUND from the source they are given PERFECTLY.These are the gold standard of SOUND REPRODUCTION.Use the upgrade cables and the balanced cable for an end game aka music finally brought to REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE. AMEN.

Best IEMs ever. Each day they sound better. They sound better than all the headphones I've owned. I recently got an MDR Z7, and these blow them out of the water no competition.

Probably the most expensive but highest quality sounding earbuds you can get and after using these for a while i am quite pleased with the performance on the bass and range of sounds!

Great earphoes

These hit above their price, and have since I bought them in 2015. The Sony BA's and their history with the 16mm driver is a marriage we all could dream of. If you want to just kick back, do whatever, and listen to music, this is it. I'd compare the joy to the musicality of an HD-650. (Said having the Sennheiser 650's, 700's, and 800s).There's quite a few new versions now, and yeah, when these hopefully never break I'll cross that road. But if these are still available, it's a no brainer and I'm buying these again.