Review: Sony ZX300

I only signed up out of boredom, and then I actually got invited.

I’d almost forgotten about it, glanced at my phone and remembered, so I hopped on my bike and went.

All photos below were taken with a Sony XZ Premium, so you can see for yourselves the shit-tier autofocus and smearing.

When I got there it was actually pretty crowded. The venue was a café, and the attendees were either fat otaku or skinny monkeys.

Let me run through what was there. First up, Sony’s latest Bluetooth product, the 1000X noise-cancelling earbuds—the ones that supposedly crush the AirPods.

Since everyone there was an audiophile, nobody touched the thing. I got curious and gave it a listen. Pairing was easy, but only one earbud produced sound; the other kept cutting in and out.

The answer I got was signal interference. What the fuck, am I interfering with you with my head?

Then I paired it several more times, and one earbud would still occasionally go silent. I gave up. Also, the thing is bulky, not waterproof, and I don’t recommend buying it. Most importantly, it’s more expensive than the AirPods and doesn’t support aptX—why would you buy it?

Next was the A40 series, which was equally ignored. You can see it’s almost identical to the A30. I took a look—aside from a few extra sound options in the menu, there’s really no fucking difference…

Pass. Pass. I came here for the ZX300!

I’d actually already pre-ordered the ZX300 on the official website, but I was still curious to check it out—mainly to see the build quality, and also to see if the sound had regressed…

Yeah, I’m not asking for improvement, just don’t regress. And if it could bring back that sweet ZX1 tuning, even better.

But after a quick listen, I found the sound was still in the A30 series style—just with more power, better control, and balanced output as standard.

I don’t own balanced earbuds. There was only one unknown Sony balanced cable there, so I gave it a try…

And I couldn’t hear a fucking thing. Sure, I was listening to a live DSD recording, but the place was too noisy and the ear tips were a terrible fit.

So, briefly: the ZX300 supports aptX, balanced output, and USB DAC—basically everything you can think of. The sound is the same as before. There’s no WM1A (Black Brick) here to compare, but maybe the Black Brick sounds similar. Build quality is fine, more than twice as good as the A30.

There were also a few Sony full-size headphones. I gave them a listen and they all sounded the same… none were as exciting as the Grado I’ve been listening to a lot. The one on the right is the same Bluetooth model Kirito uses to make a phone call in SAO.

The organizers also set out a box of earphones for audition. I was interested in the K3003, the Shure 846, and the Shure 215.

And the results were jaw-dropping. The K3003’s sound is way too upper-mid/treble-focused—almost unsuitable for pop, only good for live recordings and strings. I have no idea what those people who inexplicably bought it to listen to Jay Chou are thinking. The Shure 846 is muffled as hell, while the SE 215, which gets the most shit online, actually sounds decent. I think the 215 is actually very suitable for pop—unless the store mislabeled the model.

Final overall impression

The ZX300 still has that new-generation plain, flat sound, but it has more features. With high gain the sound is much better—it doesn’t have that lifeless feeling of the A30 series. There’s no Black Brick here, but I’d guess the Black Brick sounds like this. A return to Sony’s old MSG-flavored, distorted sweet vocals is probably not happening. Fortunately the build is good and it feels nice in the hand. I’ll wait for my pre-order to arrive on National Day.

Also, my JVC FX1200 sounds really good. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to it after half a year? Or maybe I just personally prefer dynamic drivers.

For the audition tracks I used my own card and got to hear “Clover hearts” in balanced,

Nanjou-san in balanced,

and “Yume Goto” in balanced.

Maybe I’m just too lazy to listen to highbrow stuff and am better off as a moe pig listening to pop. Also, I really couldn’t hear any difference with balanced—including the live concert tracks used for testing—but that’s also because the café was too noisy. I’ll mod mine to balanced after it arrives and feel it out then.

I left early because I didn’t want to stay in that atmosphere of dead fat otaku. Later the organizers even called to ask where I was—maybe I won a raffle…