Closed-Back Paradise

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Sony turns 70 this year, and celebrates that landmark with a range of Signature products: two portable music players, a desktop DAC and the MDR-Z1R headphones on test here. All the products carry premium four-figure price tags and are meant to showcase the company’s expertise.

In the case of the MDR-Z1R, £1700 buys a pair of large, understated closed-back headphones. As is Sony’s way, there’s little design exuberance. If you’re expecting overtly luxurious touches or extravagant styling for your money, these aren’t the cans for you.

What do you get is obsessive attention to detail. The MDR-Z1Rs use a relatively large and unusual dynamic driver. This unit has a two-piece 70mm diaphragm made up of a magnesium dome sitting in the middle of an aluminium-coated liquid-crystal polymer ring – try saying that after a few beers. The result is an impressive claimed frequency response that extends to 120kHz.

The size of the driver was chosen to provide the sonic authority only a larger driver can bring, and deliver the dispersion characteristics Sony wanted. Its motor system uses a Neodymium magnet, which has plenty of output and gives a useful sensitivity of 100dB/mW.

Science meets art