Sony IER-Z1R IRL Review-the IER-Z1R is Sony’s flagship in earphone. Sitting alongside its full size headphone brother, the MDR-Z1R, it is part of Sony’s Signature Series premium audiophile offering. Its an amazingly well received headphone and I love it. Here’s my IRL review. The IER-Z1R has been out for some time now since 2018. It…
Category: Reviews
IRL Review- MDR-Z1R
IRL Review– Sony’s Signature Series- MDR-Z1R- probably one of my favorite headphones of all time- this is my in real life review of Sony’s flagship over the ear headphone. The MDR-Z1R was Sony’s first venture back into extreme cost headphones- prior to this, Sony had largely left the price segment behind when it stopped production…
Sony 16-80mm f3.5-4.5 Carl Zeiss lens IRL Review
The Sony 16-80 CZ lens is a DT SAL lens- quite dated at this point, and definitely end of life but one of my favorite lenses to work with. Originally part of the Sony alpha mount series, it was the first serious crop lens to come from Sony, and really just one of a few-…
IRL Review Sony a77 II SLT camera
The a77ii is a prosumer “sports” oriented APSC camera that was released in the waning lights of Sony a-mount cameras. It was meant to provide an action oriented body to track action. I hesitate to say sports because sports has traditionally been tied to the Canon 1DX and Nikon D series bodies; and now the…
IRL Sony RX10 Cybershot review
Mark 1 RX10; this camera is so old I doubt anyone cares about it; its so old that one inch sensors while a hit before, are now largely taken out by computational photography. It was a camera that really got me excited at its announcement; large sensor, magnesium body, constant f2.8 24-200mm Zeiss zoom; of…
IRL review DSC-F717 and DSC-F707
Annnnnd I’m back doing IRL reviews; its been a while. Life got busy and I focused on other things than writing, but reflecting on vintage electronics still very much is my jam. The DSC-F717 and DSC-F707 were sort of legendary items in my mind; I knew about them and saw them in marketing but never…
Sony XB80BS IRL review
Sony XB80BS wireless sport earphone IRL review; After my Sony AS700BT fizzled out, I was out of ideas of what to use for headphones for workouts. The AS700BT had big shoes to fill. It was reliable in connection, had great features like a stable connection vs. audiophile mode, great design, stable in the ears even in…
IRL Review: Sony MDR-SA5000 headphones
The Sony MDR-SA5000 headphone was their flagship headphone for a number of years, and fought for that title with several headphones that overlapped its release including the MDR-CD3000 (biocellulose diaphragms like the MDR-R10 legend), and the Qualia 010 (which honestly appears quite similar in design, but with some material changes, and tuning changes). It was…
IRL Review- Sony VAIO F1 Desktop Replacement Laptop
IRL Review- Sony VAIO F1 Desktop Replacement Laptop- The F1 is probably one of the most exciting laptops I have ever reviewed. Just kidding- its kind of forgettable. It falls along the long lineage of the F series, dating back to my early years in undergrad when the FS series came out and stole my…
IRL Review Bowers and Wilkins P5 Series 1 Premium Headphone Review
IRL Review Bowers and Wilkins P5 Series 1 Premium Headphone Review- the P5 series 1 was a headphone I wanted dreadfully for a really long time. When I started getting more serious into headphones, I was enamored by their build quality when I tried them out at the Apple store. They were instantly luxurious in…
IRL Review Sony VAIO AW Desktop Replacement Laptop
IRL Review Sony VAIO AW Desktop Replacement Laptop- The VAIO AW is a model I lusted after for some time- certainly I had always had a fascination for ultraportables far more than mainstream and desktop replacement laptops. This most likely stemmed from me absolutely hating heavy laptops – in undergrad, I spent many hours walking between…
IRL Review Sony VAIO X Ultraportable Laptop (ULTRAULTRAULTRAPORTABLE)
IRL Review VAIO X Ultraportable Laptop- Years ago while perusing Notebookreview.com and reading Laptop Mag’s advertisements from Sony, I ran across the VAIO X505. The X505 was an absolute mind blower of a machine- in a time when everything was Pentium 4 (with hyperthreading!) with HUGE heatsinks, and barely anything portable was with a dinky…
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