One driver reproduces
the mids one driver reproduces the bass
and then there’s one more driver which
reproduces subwoofer bass frequencies
now the supposed advantage of not using
a crossover is that you can avoid any of
the distortion or phase issues
introduced by that crossovers
electronics however there is one bigger
disadvantage to Sony’s approach
basically by wiring all four drivers in
parallel Sony has created a headphone
with a very low impedance of 8 ohms and
what that basically means is the sony
xba-4 and the sony xba-40 will sound
very different out of different sources
it will sound different out of headphone
amplifiers it will sound different out
of different phones it’ll sound
different out of different laptops
and the difference will be nothing to do
how much that laptop or that phone or
that output phone amplifier cost the
difference will come down to the very
basic figure of what is that sources
headphone jacks output impedance this is
a very technical distinction and what it
basically means is that out of some
players the sony xba-40 will sound Basya
and out of some other players the sony
xba-40 will sound less bassy
if you’re interested in a more technical
explanation of this issue have a look at
the review that i’ve linked in the
description of this video this is a
review I wrote on a head fie and it goes
through a more technical explanation of
what impedance and output impedance mean
for an earphone it also links to some of
the published information and graphs
about the sony xba-4 now though let’s
have a closer look at the sony xba-40 s
design the sony xba-4 and the sony
xba-40 basically share the same design
however I got the xba-40 in the golden
champagne color which is not available
with the sony xba-4 now with the xba-40
you get quite a large earphone earpiece
and this may not fit in every person’s
ear that said the actual nozzle itself
is fairly narrow and I actually haven’t
read many accounts of people on forums
with the xba-4 the xba-40 not fitting
into their ears that said it’s something
to look out for also with the design of
the earpiece because it’s so quite so
large you can’t really wear the earphone
up with the cable over your ear you have
to wear it in the traditional way with
the cable down however that’s not such a
bad thing
because the xba-40 is quite a light
earphone and the design of the cable
means that cable noise when it bumps
against objects isn’t so bad that said
it’s not completely silent with the
xba-4 you get a relatively well-built
earphone on the Left earpiece you’ll
find that there’s a little bump on the
back which lets you know in the dark but
this is the left earpiece now with the
cable you get a flat elliptical cable
which is quite interesting one
difference between the xba-4 and the
xba-40 is that the sony xba-40 has
slight
kind of serrations along the length of
the cable it’s very hard to see on this
video but it basically means it helps
that the earphone doesn’t tangle so much
on the other end we have the headphone
jack which is relatively sturdy
well-built and it’s quite a nice
headphone jack so the xba-4 and now the
sony xba-40 are the flagships in sony’s
line of balanced armature earphones so
how do they sound well with the xba-4
and the xba-40 let me just say that you
do not get a neutral or balanced
sounding earphone you will get a sound
that is tuned to be very thick and very
dark and very smooth and for some people
this sound will be actually too dark
it’ll sound congested if you’ve ever
heard the Isan –ax sm-3 you actually
find that this is the same kind of
earphone where the emphasis on the lows
and the mids will be immediately
polarizing to a lot of people they won’t
like the sound out of the box however if
you have a careful listen you actually
realize that through that kind of
thickness of sound there’s actually an
intensely detailed and articulate
earphone lurking underneath everything
is very tightly controlled and extremely
articulate now one difference between
the sony xba-4 and the sony xba-40 in
terms of sound is that the sony xba-4
have a particular kind of metallic
shimmer to the treble note which made it
sound quite unnatural and unpleasant for
a lot of people myself included with the
xba-40 they actually corrected this
issue so the xba-40 sounds much more
natural and also a bit more darker as a
result of the removal of that particular
emphasis in the high frequencies the
standout part of the sony xba-4 and the
sony xba-40 sound is the holographic
soundstage the way that they’re able to
place instruments will be in this space
so that it feels like you’re actually
inside the music and it’s very
enveloping and it’s quite intense
ah that said for some people this
actually might be a little
claustrophobic because it’s a very
intimate kind of soundstage and they may
prefer a presentation where the the
instruments are more in front of them
rather than being inside the music with
this sony xba-4 and the 40 I believe
that these earphones are actually the
perfect earphones for electronic music
and for synthesized instruments because
the way they put you into the music and
the way
tones and electronic bleeps and bloops
just pop out of nowhere is really
exciting with the xba-4 and the xba-40
however with more natural instruments
the xba-4 and the Forty can actually
sound quite off both because of the
unbalanced frequency response with the
emphasis on the lows and also because of
that soundstage being quite quite
intense and intimate now I love the
xba-40 s I love the way they sound with
electronic music if you’ve heard
Grimes’s visions album I think that this
is the earphone that was designed
practically just for that album I loved
the fact that they fixed most of the
metallic shimmering issues with the
xba-4 however I wouldn’t necessarily
recommend the xba-40 to everyone because
you may not be quite so into the thick
and warm and dark sound of the xba-40
the other issue is that they may not
sound the way you like with the source
player that you’re using so if you have
a chance try and listen to them on the
player that you’re going to be using to
make sure you actually enjoy the sound
in terms of value for money I think that
there are probably better options like
for instance the – 9 re-400 which is
about half the price of the xba-40 and
sounds very very good and works with a
wider variety of music however I still
haven’t come across any earphone that
does electronic music as well as the
xba-40 and I really do like electronic
and synth pop and that kind of music so
I really like the xba-40 for that reason
anyway thanks for watching this video
thanks to everyone who’s liked my videos
and subscribed to my channel and happy
listening.