Tuesday 25 February 2014

Sony MDR ZX-100 – Earphones/Headphones


Hello everyone! :)
Today I am going to review a wonderful pair of Sony’s on ear headphones, Sony MDR ZX-100. These black coloured beautiful headphones are loaded with bass and are light weight & comfortable.



Sony


Sony Corporation, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified business is primarily focused on the electronics, game, entertainment and financial services sectors. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony is ranked 87th on the 2012 list of Fortune Global 500.



Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its four operating segments – Electronics (including video games, network services and medical business), Motion pictures, Music, Children's videos and Financial Services. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Mobile Communications (formerly Sony Ericsson), Sony Wonder, and Sony Financial. Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders and third-largest television manufacturer in the world, after Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.

The Sony Group is a Japan-based corporate group primarily focused on the Electronics (such as AV/IT products and components), Game (such as PlayStation), Entertainment (such as motion pictures and music), and Financial Services (such as insurance and banking) sectors. The group consists of Sony Corporation (holding and electronics), Sony Computer Entertainment (games), Sony Pictures Entertainment (motion pictures), Sony Music Entertainment (music), Sony/ATV Music Publishing (music publishing), Sony Financial Holdings (financial services) and others.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.sony.net/
SONY USA: http://www.sony.com/
SONY INDIA: www.sony.co.in
SONY AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND: http://www.sony.com.au/
SONY CANADA: http://www.sony.ca/
SONY IRELAND: http://www.sony.ie/
SONY UK: http://www.sony.co.uk/
SONY ASIA/PACIFIC: http://www.sony-asia.com/
SONY MALAYSIA: http://www.sony.com.my/
SONY SINGAPORE: http://www.sony.com.sg/
SONY PHILIPPINES: http://www.sony.com.ph/

TOLL FREE CUSTOMER CARE NUMBER (INDIA): 1800-103-7799
CONTACT US (INDIA): https://www.sony.co.in/section/contactus

On Ear Headphones


Sony MDR ZX-100 is on-ear headphone (also called Supra-aural earphones).
These ear pads on the ear models are designed to perch on the ears rather than to go completely around them. Supra-aural earphones are made with an adjustable band that can be worn over the head to secure the device. There is a pad between the speaker and the wearer’s ears that consists of foam. An example of these types of earphones would be the 1980s Walkman earphones. Many people still use this type of earphone. These earphones may have a closed design but they still sit atop the ear rather than encircling it completely which do have drawbacks.

A nice article about different kinds of earphones can be found here: http://www.ebay.com/gds/What-Are-the-Different-Types-of-Earphones-/10000000177629687/g.html



Attractive things about Sony MDR ZX-100


  • 30mm driver unit for clear sound: Simply awesome when it comes to clarity, you don’t have to read the specifications when we are talking about Sony!
  • Slim, folding design for easy portability: Wanna showcase these to some friends? These are so light-weight and portable that you won’t resist yourself for any reason!
  • Resists high power input up to 1,000mW: What does that mean? BASS! Awesome, amazing, heart-throbbing, bass that will surely give you an eargasm!
  • Gold-plated L-shaped stereo mini plug: For being more easy to connect you got your 3.5mm plug in L-shape with gold plating to increase conductivity, which implies better connectivity!
  • Closed, dynamic (supra-aural): That means on-ear headphone. I already told you this thing in detail above.
  • Y-type Cord: This helps in making the headphone comfortable
  • 1.2 m long cord for easy going and untangled music experience!



Technical Specifications

Official Page of this product: http://www.sony.co.in/product/mdr-zx100

Type Closed, dynamic (supra-aural)
Driver Unit 30mm, dome type (CCAW Voice Coil)
Sensitivity 100dB/mW
Power Handling Capacity 1,000mW (IEC)
Impedance 24ohms at 1kHz
Frequency Response 12-22,000 Hz
Cord Y-type
Cord Length 1.2m
Plug Gold-plated L-shaped stereo mini plug
Weight(without cord) Approx. 120g
Supplied Accessories Operating Instructions



Packaging


Not packed inside a box, which could have made it easy to gift-pack, but still the packaging is good enough to guard your headphones while in shipment to your house :)

The headphone is packed inside a transparent plastic package giving a lightly tough casing for your headphone.

The packaging is good enough and was easy to open.

What’s inside the package?


  • Leaflet
  • Sony MDR ZX-100

Leaflet




The leaflet is just a single paper, two-sided piece of information. It has Features, Specifications, and a small how-to-use guide printed on it which helps you understand your product better and get a closer look at it.





Look & Feel


As you can see in the pics, this pair of headphones looks just too stylish and cool. Moreover, these are available in 3 colours: Red, Black, and Blue. I own a black one, and they look awesome! Though I saw white ones on amazon, but well Sony doesn’t claim any white unit of this piece.

Now that was about the colours. Apart from that, they look simply awesome. The ear pads are not too big, neither too small, thus they look quite nice and sleek because they are perfectly sized.

The foam padding on each ear pad makes it very comfortable to wear these.

The headband is adjustable and for better fitting, the part which should be on the right is marked red and has a letter inscribed “R” on it.

These don’t fall off like most on-ear headphones do, so the wearing experience is overall not only stylish/comfortable, but easygoing and lovable!

Portable & Lightweight


Lightweight, movable earpads along a vertical axis, and a long wire, all this makes this headphone very portable. I have shared the pic here to show you how can one rotate the earpads around a semi-circular region so that you fit them easily in your bag and carry them easily. Apart from that the long wire makes it easy to wear and carry along. The weight is so less that you don’t have to think about carrying it with you anywhere.





Sound Quality


The 30mm driver unit and the gold plated plug make the sound clear, clearer, clearest! When you talk about Sony you don’t have to worry about sound quality/clarity. Sony headphones are defined by these two things. Seriously, in this price range you won’t find a better headphone (unless you find some super-awesome jaw-dropping deal giving away Sennheiser HD headphones at this price!).

Bass


Really, you gonna have an eargasm wearing this headphone. I had an awesome experience with games like Call of Duty, and Need for Speed; Movies; Songs, both country and rock. I heard the song “Don’t you worry Child, by Swedish House Mafia” to test the bass, and I’d say I heard that song 5 times in a row, repeatedly because I enjoyed this headphone so much!

Bass is something you really need when you buy a headphone. Unless you pay a nice price, you’ll have to worry about bass. But Sony MDR ZX-100 leaves you thunderstruck with a bass awesomely amazing when we consider its price range!



Wire


Y-shaped, 1.2 m long wire makes you untangled and move around freely :) Y-shaped cord makes it easy to wear these headphones, and a long wire makes you roam around in style :D

The wire looks thick and promises durability. The place where the wire goes inside the earpad, the connection is tightly held in place by a rubberised tubing/casing making it more durable and tough.

Warranty


This amazing headphone comes with a 6 month warranty. Sony has got many service centres around so you won’t have to roam around for long searching for one. Moreover, since these headphones look quite promising on the durability part, I don’t think you’d have to go for availing your warranty. Mine is already out of the warranty period.

Price & Buying links


I bought these by applying some limited time coupon and got them for an unbelievable price of 580 INR. But if you can get it at anything in the range of 625-675 INR, you are paying a correct price. For a good deal you might need a coupon or something like that. Else since the MRP is 790 INR, I think the pricing I suggested 625-675 INR is good enough to resist.

Sony Store: http://store.sony.com/zx-series-stereo-headphones-zid27-MDRZX100//cat-27-catid-All-Over-Head-Headphones

Verdict: 4.5/5




The pricing is great, and so also the looks. So I’d given it a 4.5/5 stars. Why did I took back half-a-star? Well, how can I give something 100%? There is always something that is missing. As a human being, I always something more! Haha! Like? Umm, yea, microphone :P

The MDR-ZX100 is a perfect choice where it has a slim and folding design for easy portability, suitable for users who seek lightweight headphones to enjoy their music. Comes with 30mm driver units and a high power input of up to 1,000mW for unsurpassed sound quality, this pair is certainly a pocket friendly piece you must own!


26 comments:

  1. Sound: You can hear every note clearly (just like in my older Philips :-) ), but this one lacks a bit (just a bit) in base. That is not a problem but sometimes when you encounter a deep base you feel some kind of hollowness for a moment. Not the case with the Philips. The sound in Philips gives a sense of sitting in a cinema hall. But overall both are nearly the same in sound quality.

    Build quality: The plastic looks like the same in both. But the build quality of the Philips is much better. It is still going strong even after five years, which I don't think for my new Sony headsets.

    Cord: This is very important feature in my view. The cord of this Sony headset is soft and I feel will get damaged very soon. Let's wait and watch. Apart from it, the length of 1.2 m vs 3 m of Philips is a major disappointment. With Philips I could even move around in room within a decent distance. Note: After opening the product, I got to know that Sony has marked this product to be used with Walkman or a mobile phone only.

    Comfort: These headsets are comfortable. Some of my friends find the Philips ones too bulky, but for me Philips is more comfortable. For me both are okay.

    Other features: One thing I don't like about this Sony is that these headsets are clunky. When you pick up the headphone, all the different parts collide with each other and all we have is a 'clunky' product. Not expected particularly from a audio device.

    Conclusion: I would love to buy this product again (or some other from Sony) because of sound but only if the overall design was a bit better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whoa! full review on my review! haha! THANKS!

      Delete
  2. These headphones sit reasonably but are on ear not around ear. That means poor sound isolation; good for hearing people around you, bad for listening to the actual playback. On ear also cause ear fatigure. Wear these for over an hour and your ears will hurt. I dont have an abnormally large head but the band is too tight and increase the rate of ear fatigue.

    Conclusion
    reasonable for the price but not worth writing home about. Good if youre moving from apple's horrible earbuds but if youve bought any reasonable headsets in the past you may be disappointed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don;t know. I think this is the best pair I have ever owned. Maybe my view would change when I'll buy Senheiser HD someday! :D

      Delete
  3. At this rate(i got it for 640) it's a good value for money. It produces an appreciably clear sound, you can hear every string pulled and every drum beat distinctly. However the bass, though clear, is not strong and so i don't recommend this pair of headphones to those who are looking for a rich base. The ear pads are really comfortable and the design is quite ergonomic, thus allowing for prolonged use without any discomfort. However, i must say that the not so loud bass has to play a role in this aspect. The plastic quality won't disappoint as well. To sum things up, this is a good headphone with a very decent base

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well that's what I was emphasising upon. In this range, you can't expect better

      Delete
  4. its sony so sound quality is super clean super nice. but its not very loud so listening to this on road is not going to be comfy. Inside a room or car with quite ambience the headphone perform like a joy. all little details minute and faintest sound come alive. sound quality is very crystal clear, but bass is not powerful. styling is quite a plus point here. wearing this around the neck, you do look cool. but since i am used to wearing bigger headphone it feel feeble to me. build quality is so so. you have to take care while using it or storing or carrying in your backpack. plastic all over but nice plastic not going to break easily. though the earpads will get spoilt very quickly since its made of very thin membrane, definitely not leather. Sony says the earpads are replaceable which is good, but you have to bring them to the service centres. which i guess will not be cheap. All in all its a good headphone, if you are looking to buy a cool good sounding pair of headphone under 1k then look no further. value for money i must say. NICE. Like them. though it might take me some time to get used to the on-ear design of it, but they are very comfortable to wear. very much indeed. can be worn for long durations without the slightest discomfort.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah! It's sony, and the sound quality bid ends there! :D

      Delete
  5. Worth for the money i paid for it, good sound quality and recomend this product who is searching for less cost and good sound quality

    ReplyDelete
  6. another nice review! these days they are priced 640. I htink I'll wait until I get a coupon and/or crack a deal below 600 :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With Rupee falling and falling? GOOD LUCK! :P

      Delete
  7. Awesome product for the price!

    i give four stars! this is a very gud oroduct for its rate! for rs 700+ its has a very gud sound clarity nd bass response! as i hav used sum of d best headphones in d past like beats by dr dre! i strongly recommend this product for a gud use!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 700+? Why won't you buy some Skullcandy then?

      Delete
  8. good product from sony

    I purchase these headphones for Rs. 621.
    They produce good music even at high volume. Bass is ok.
    I would give 4 stars to them. Worth headphones to buy for music lovers also for mp3 players.
    Prolonged listening do not cause too much pain on ears, only a little sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice blog, why don't you make some reviews about sony earbuds

    ReplyDelete
  10. peace out!!! calm and silent yes only we can hear music latestone.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. A good pair of in-ear headphones offer a great listening experience for you and, if designed right, will mean your fellow commuters can't hear your choice in music. Even if not, you won't be able to hear them complaining.If you're less than impressed with the earphones that were bundled with your Headphones fear not - there are plenty of great alternatives that ensure you won't be suffering in silence.

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
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  17. Hi, I read your review about sony MDR-ZX-100 headphones but still there are few features that are not offered by this brand. In case you are a music lover like me then I'd prefer you to look for some better options and I found best over ear headphones really helpful in this matter. Explore your options and find the best gadget.

    ReplyDelete

Hey! Thanks for your time here. I would love to hear from you!