sound, comfort

size

I read all of the reviews here at least ten times before my purchase. It was hard to believe that a dynamic headphone could sound so good. Well, you all were right, it is even better than words can describe. The high end gives these cans a happy sound while the bass slams your ears, but does it with grace and style. The mids for my taste are near perfect. If you can find these anywhere get them, this is an investment, not just a purchase. I have noticed that on the web they are no longer sold anywhere. Good Luck, but the hunt is worth the treasure that awaits you.

Similar Products Used:

mdr-v600, mdr-84 and various others

SOUND!, build quality, comfort

none

The reason for this short review is my Musical Fidelity X-Can V2 recently purchased (review see there).

I have lived with the SONY MDR-CD1700 for about two years now.

At the beginning I listened, using the usual headphone outputs delivered from the amp or the cd-player and was rather satisfied with that, far better than my previous AKGs and Beyers.
A change of the stereo system (from german Restek to danish Primare) made a seperate headphone amplifier mandatory.
I then chose the original MF X-Cans over the Brocksieper EARMAX because of its far lower price and I have been rather satisfied since then (I never tried an EARMAX because of limited availability).

But the X-CAN V2 really showed me, how superior both, the headphone and the amplifier are in fact. This last step from the X-CANS to X-CAN V2 delivered this additional amount, which has been necessery to make the step forward from sound to satisfaction.
The experience of this combination is the most natural, least fatiguing headphone listening experience I ever encountered, and there is no kind of information to be missed, whether in bass nor in treble.
I even can feel the music from the head down to my teeth sometimes, similar to when listening to my conventional speakers (Manger + Elac 4pi tweeter).

Maybe there is another combination out there, which may surpass this presentation (whatever the costs are),
but with this set of headphones and headphone amplifier, I am able to ENJOY MUSIC at an absolute high end level at a bargain price (U$ 500,- complete).

Similar Products Used:

AKG, Beyer, Koss, Sennheiser

These are by far the best sounding headphones I have ever used. Very Comfortable too!

They are a bit big but still very comfortable

Nothing I have ever heard even comes close. They have a very crisp but not overpowering highs and the bass is solid. You can actually feel the bass from these but yet its not distorted or boomy. There is few drawback with these headphones thought, you can never go back to another pair of headphones again becasuse they will just never sound good enough. Also You can hear any and all mistakes made in recordings. I use these to monitor my mixes in my studio late at night when I cant use studio monitors.

Similar Products Used:

Other Sony Headphones, Koss

warm midrange, seductive sound, comfort, looks, build, musicality

very large, could have better isolation, need a great source

i am currently shopping for a good headphone amp for these, so i've been listening out of the headphone jack on my dvdp.

these cans are very musical, and have a wonderful warm midrange. the words "flows like oil" or "pearls on velvet" come to mind in describing the sound. the beastie boy's "body movin" off the criterion dvd has great brain shaking bass with these, but not as forward as the v6, or boomy like the v600. tull's "songs from the wood" mfsl cd has very convincing sounding aucoutic instruments. classical is also nice, and female vocals have a stunning life-like quality.

on lower quality sources (like my reciever's headphone jack) the phones sound a little murky.

on good sources (the best i have now is my dvdp, cdp, and pcdp - the sony d777), they sound just amazing: the sound is addicting.

the treble range has a a flowing quality, but not even near bright or sparkling. the mids are gorgeous. the bass is not forward but is there, and with the right recordings you can actually FEEL it. the biocellulous drivers lend a wonderful analog quality to the sound. these are very musical phones.

i've read folks compare these with sony's flagship cans the r-10. the r-10 uses similar drivers, but is housed in wood and costs $4000. if you have a good solid state amp with low noise snap the cd1700 up if you get the chance.

on a scale of 1 to 10 i give them a 8.9 for sound (compared with live music), and a 9 for value at $150, what i paid.

Similar Products Used:

sony v6, akg 240m

BASS, Natural Sound, Comfort

Size (they're huge)

Basically just writing too reinforce the views of everyone else, (you can trust them, they ain't lying). The most impressive thing about these headphones is the bass, it blows HD600s out of the water and more importantly it gives the 1700s a sound that not only fills your head, it fills the room. This is no exaggeration, when you listen to any dance track you can feel the bass pounding in the soles of your feet. The only bit missing is the reverberation in your diaphragm. This makes the HD600s sound soooo small by comparison. The only weakness is that unless you're Carl Cox they just look too big (but you can modify them by cutting 2-3" off the two metal strips, then they look ok).
Apart from that they are about as perfect as you can get for £100, although getting hold of a pair isn't easy these days (discontinued).

Similar Products Used:

HD600