Review on Sony IER M7 In Ear Monitor Headphones by Dan Bobbert

I recently bought a Sony IER-M7 and they are now my favorite IEMs. For reference I also have MEE Pinnacle PX, Etymotic ER3SE, HD58x and Focal Elegia. This is my first review and I'm by no means a music lover so take everything with a grain of salt. My last purchase was Elegia lenses but I found them too bright and unnatural in tone. I wanted something I could listen to for a long time and decided IEMs are the best investment since I listen to music on the go and have noisy roommates at home. This was my first exposure to high-end headphones. I really wanted to try multi-BA driver tuning and the level of research and development that Sony has put into their new BA drivers really piqued my interest. The M7 meets my needs by being dark and neutral and making it easy for me to relax. The frequency response smooths out a lot of the harshness in the music and I never tire of the high frequencies. They have the largest base of any pair of headphones I've bought, they're even capable of decent rumble while still being tight and not clogging the mids. Bass resonates with a dynamic driver quality that doesn't feel as flat/one dimensional as most balanced armatures. I would describe the headphones as neutral with basic amplification. The mids are pushed forward and show a good amount of detail. Everything seems light, the vocals are natural and forward. The only exception would be female/high-pitched vocals over distorted heavy rock or other dense genres where the vocals tend to fade into the background. The highs add shimmer and detail, but sometimes you wish a little more brightness from er3se. However, this isn't noticeable 99% of the time, and it's refreshing not to have to turn off the music due to fatigue. What impresses me most about the M7 is its natural tone. I have never tried headphones that reproduce vocals and instruments so realistically. The juicy mids really produce a rich tone that's easy to enjoy. The soundstage of these headphones is above average and resembles a small ball around your head. They offer excellent visualization with easy instrument separation in narrow aisles. On rare occasions the separation seems too strong when the instruments sound like they're coming from a specific location, but this is only occasionally noticeable in very simple passages. The technical characteristics of these headphones make them, in my opinion, good value for money at the current price of $500. All in all these are great headphones for whatever you need to give them. They reproduce music naturally and offer excellent technical performance. I look forward to spending more time with them and plan to put my headphone search on hold for the foreseeable future.