Good build quality, smart design

Harsh mids and upper midds, not very comfortable if you wear glasses

Before I get into some negative aspects, let me say that I believe that this is a good product for the money - solidly built and quite light.
Right off the box, the headphones sounded extremely harsh, with no bass and treble to speak of. I almost returned them. After 10 hours or so, the sound improved considerably. My main criticism is that mids and upper mids still sound harsh, even after 50 hours or so - that's probably the way they are going to sound from now on. These headphones don't deal well with complex sounds with lots of mids and upper mids, such as trumpet orchestras. Both male and female voices can sound harsh. Turning the volume up clearly worsens this harshnes. My "big" system consists of 4 JBL HLS 610s for front and surrounds, an HLS center, a 10" Mission powered sub, Yamaha 5140 receiver, Pioneer 525 DVD player etc. The Sony's come close enough to the sound of this system, except for bass extension and so-so mids.
Compared to the Porta Pros, the Sony sounds more detailed but harsher (I know, I've said harsh a thousand times, but that's the way it sounds). Don't even think about listening to MP3s or other mid-fi sources through the 7506, it will reveal the frequency range limitations immediately. The bass sounds initially lighter than the Porta Pro's, but on good material the Sonys clearly have lower extension and cleaner bass. Because of this, I found the Sonys to be quite good with DVD movies, better than with music. Materials and build quality are head and shoulders above the Porta Pros. Definitely heavier and less comfortable than the Porta Pros though. Is it worth double the price versus the Porta Pros? Well, the sound is clearly not twice as good (although it's very hard to define "twice the sound quality"), actually is just marginally better. But if you take the build quality into account I would say that yes, they are worth twice as much as the Porta Pros.
For those of you using the Sennheiser DSP headphone processors - I found that when listening to music you should bypass the processor, and turn the volume ON THE SENNHEISER all the way up (or close to maximum, if it starts distorting). Due to some design flaw, the Sennheiser will NOT reproduce the full frequency range unless turned all the way up. You should use an inline volume adjuster between the Sennheiser and the headphones to turn the volume down to normal levels - I am using one from a cheap Panasonic walkman. Many audiophiles recommend the MDR 7509, they should be less than $190 at bhphotovideo.com. If anybody gets them, please right a review.

Similar Products Used:

Koss Porta Pro

Bass, build quality

coiled cord

On the advice of a friend several years ago and after deciding that all PC speakers suck, I decided to spend some money on a quality pair of headphones for gaming on my computer and listening to music. I was extremely impressed the first time I tried them on, and my roommate and his friend went out the next day and bought a pair. I had normally listened to rap, and electronica prior to purchasing these, and now my music selection has increased 100 fold because everything sounded so much better. They have lasted through 4 years of college, parties, 2 story drops, you name it.

Others complain about poor isolation, but they were more than sufficient for large LAN parties where ambient noise is fairly high. I have also missed countless phone calls with them on.

I love seeing them on TV shows, howard sterns guests on E! wear them, and thinking hey, i own those! They do distort quite noticibly at high volume levels on my computer, but I attribute this to the sound card. I am in the process of building an extremely high bandwidth / output current opamp based headphone amp so I will put less stress on my soundcard and hopefully improve performance at higher volumes. I haven't tried listening to them on any of my hifi equipment since nothing has headphone jacks. The amp I am building will allow me to do this.

Only gripe is the coiled cord. It can get annoying when sitting in a position that requires constant pressure on it. But for what I bought them for they have been well worth my 90 bucks.

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other cheaper sony's

They kick the crap outta the 600's

none that i've noticed yet, but then again I'm a short-timer

I had a pair of the Sony MDRV600 for three years. They were the first pair of headphones I bought when I first got my own air-shift. Call it a radio right of passage if you will. A lot of people dis the 600 series because of a fake sound in the audio and whatnot, but you have to understand what we're dealing with here. Two small speakers with a wire that sends signals to them, they aren't going to whisper sweet nothings into your ears nor will they give you the broad spectrum of a movie theatre. I just think they got a bad wrap. Well, my 600's died so I had to use my boss' 7506 series. Needless to say I didn't miss the other one's. Granted, the bass can be a little much and there could be a little more emphasis on the mids and not so much the highs. If you bring the mids up just a hair and leave everything else, it'll all balance out. I loved the way they fit to my head and ears, very at homish. After using the 600 for so long, I was used to having this huge cantalope covering the entire right and left hand side of my head, so the loss of the ear enclosure took a little adjusting, but I managed. I cranked those bad boys up in the studio and danced around (stop laughing...I'm a scientist) to see if a lot of disturbance to the cord would cause a short. Sure enough, halfway through a mosh session between myself and the studio walls while Disturbed pierced the airwaves, I lost audio for a couple minutes. Ok, I'm done typin now...I like 'em...a lot and I need a pair for work like yesterday. If you or someone you know wants to get rid of a pair (moderately nice...i don't wanna find lice in the ear piece)
Who should buy this product...not casual music fans, this is strictly professional equipment not meant for daily abuse. If ya wanna be cool with a big set o' cans get the V700's and just show up to a rave...they'll think you're the DJ!

Similar Products Used:

the 600's

Bass, Comfort, Transparency

Slightly Bright Treble, Slight Lack Of Warmth

This is the professionally marketed incarnation of the classic MDR-V6. The V6 is a standard in studio production and radio. Their inherent slight brightness allows recording engineers and producers to hear even the most quiet of audio information. For music I find that they have a slight lack of warmth and equally slight exageration of the treble. For a hundred bucks or less, though, I know of no better headphone. I sent my 7506's back today after 2 weeks of listening. If you would like to purchase them, I'd recommend getting the now vintage V6 through www.djmart.com.

Similar Products Used:

Sony MDR-V600, JVC HA-D727, Denon 950, Etymotic ER4S

Great Sound - what the pros use!

Earpads tear/wear easily.

This is what most professional studios use. 'nuff said! Many of your CDs where recorded/mastered using these very headphones! They provide good isolation for monitoring in noisy environments. The Grado SR60s sounds a slight bit better in my opinion, but those don't have any isolation at all so are not as useful..These Sony's area great!

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Grado SR60

Awesome sound for the prize, Strong deep bass

NONE

Very nice headphones for the prize, good quility sound
def for gamers and dj's, nice headphones :D i'm very happy of this purchase.

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Sennheizer HD580 and the HD600

Great sound, indestructible (and I've tried), comfortable.

As mentioned, everyone wants to borrow 'em. ;)

I've had my MDR7506s since 1995. I've logged thousands of hours with them and they still work flawlessly (though my cord has come all untangled and is now about a hundred feet long). The best $150CDN I've spent in the audio direction ever. Comfortable, insanely durable (ie wow they still work), capable of way more output than your ears should ever be exposed to, and great for hours on end. I've used them for soundchecks on stage, mixing in the studio, and most recently studying for 12 hours a day with a Nomad Jukebox. Sorry if I sound giddy, but after 6 years with the things, I have no complaints at all. Gotta love 'em.

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lots before I got these, none since (if I can help it)

Having purchased the Grado 80's based on reviews on this website and www.headwize.com, I thought it was time to make my review and make a comparison with my Sony 7506. I have had them for just under a week and have broken them in for about 3-4 days with continuous music playing 24/7 at relatively high (for headphones) volumes before doing any serious comparisons with my other headphones, the Sony 7506 professional monitors. Now I compared on them using my CD-rom headphone output on my computer at work and also at home using either a CAL Lab's DX-1 feeding a NAD 314 Integrated amp with headphone out (bedroom) or a Pioneer -525 DVD player feeding an MSB LINK DAC with the output from the LINK DAC feeding a Harman Kardon AVR-30 Receiver, where I used the headphone output. Now the HK AVR-30 was the former top of the line HK Pro Logic receiver many years ago and have yet to replace it, as it is currently being used as a preamp-processor to a Citation 7.1 power amp (4 channels) feeding B&W P4's (a small floorstander) for the stereo part of my HT setup.

The Grados are a very good set of headphones which I purchased 3-4 years ago after comparison with a number of other headphones used in the Pro market, including Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro's, AKG's, Sennheisers (don't remember the model number, all I remember is that they had green earpads). I went with the Sony's because they had very good bass extension and the sound out of a Rane headphone amplifier was simply liquid and smooth. Liquid is the best adjective I can think of but the sound was just heavenly. I could have bought the Beyer's for the same price which were on closeout for, $99 (list was well over $200) but decided that I liked the Sony sound better. After buying the Sony's, I noticed that they have become ubiquitous, as they are good sounding, durable, comfortable and relatively inexpensive. If you watch Frazier, it looks like those are the phones he uses. Also NFL coaches wear them to get plays from the booth. But enough about the Sony's, what about the Grado's?

Now the Grado's I bought without trying them, which I regret only from the standpoint of knowing I would wonder how they stack up against the Sennheiser 535's and the 580's or the Grado 125's. I chose Grado due to their flexibility, as they are relatively easy to drive and can be used with portable Cd players, etc without using a dedicated headphone amp. Plus, I read a lot of reviews noting problems with the Sennheiser's cords, where the connection become intermittent. The large number of refurbished units available for Sennheiser (including through their website and ubid) also turned me off as there could be questions of product reliability. I absolutely hate having to bother with warranty work even if the shipping were free. The Grado's build quality is disappointing in comparison with the Sony's. First, the earpads are distinctly not as comfortable and soft as the Sony's, e.g. the material on the pads feels like the difference between silk and polyester. Second, the headband does take time to break in, I bent the band open and let the pads rest on the sides on either side my speakers to stretch out the band. When wearing the Grado's, I suggest letting the top of the headband contact the top of your head, it greatly reduces the potential movement of the pads and that is big help, I've discovered. The Sony's simply exude a more substantial feeling of being able to take the punishment (they should as they are made for the professional market where a lot of abuse is possible), I don't hesitate letting my 1 year old baby play with them, they can take the punishment. I don't have similar confidence with the Grado's.

Now comparing the sound, I find that the Grado's do sound very good but there is a distinct difference between the presentations between the two. I believe part of the difference in sound is due to the open air design of the Grado's versus the closed design of the Sony's. The Grado's due to sound more natural in terms of soundstaging. I get less of that imaging in your head that is characteristic of headphone listening. The sony's win on bass extension and impact. They sound like they are full range, i.e they can reach about 20 Hz. The Grados are more like small floorstanders with limited extension. For example, listening to Spanish Harlem (Rebecca Pidgeon), all the notes of the acoustic bass are of equal volume and weight on the Sony's. On the Grados, the notes of the bass progression are progressively louder at the higher notes, the extension is there in terms of being able to hear each note, but they do not have the same weight and impact. In terms of treble, the Sony's are noticeable more subdued on cymbals, whereas the Grados are much more pronounced. It is my belief that the Sony's sound more neutral with the cymbals. At first, I thought that the cymbals sound more natural withe Sony's but the more I listen to the Grados, the more I appreciate the extra treble adding excitement to rock/pop music. How about classical music? I listened to Robert Silverman playing Liszt (Stereophile's recording) and noticed a completely different sound to the piano when using the Grados. The Sony's made the Steinway piano sound mellow with a warm tonality. The Grados had a more pronounced treble and had more upper midrange emphasis to the piano. The two pianos did not sound the same at all. I used to play piano growing up and I can tell you that the two headphones made them sound like two different pianos. I believe that the Sony's were probably the more accurate sounding. I can understand now why some people consider the Grados better suited for rock and roll than classical rather than say Sennheiser's because any colorations with acoustic instruments are going to be distracting if you value absolute neutrality. Now are the Grados musical? Yes, without a question. I love listening to the Grados. There is a wonderful clarity and coherence to the sound that is just appealing to me. It's addictive, I tell you. Even though I listed a bunch of differences in the two headphones above, I have spent the majority of my time listening to music the last week using the Grados. While I realize that they may be colored in some ways, it doesn't bother me at all because the sound is engaging and the majority of the time I can get immersed in the music without disturbing my wife, who by the way, was always asking me to turn down the volume when listening to speakers. How's a music lover supposed to handle that? These Grados were a great investment for me. They sound better or as good as my amp-speaker setup which is not all that inexpensive. The citation is a $2800 power amp, sometimes I used my Classe CAP-150 ($2000 integrated amp) as the preamp, and listen in stereo with the B&W P4 ($1200 speakers). So for just stereo listening, I still think the Grados sound as good or better with the same source as ($5800 of amp-speakers not including the surround speakers). Of course, if you used the Classe as an integrated amp with the same speakers (which sounds almost as good as the Classe-Citation combination), it's still a $3200 combination. So for so few $$$, you can get great sound with the Grados if you're source is up to it and still get good sound with something inexpensive like my computer's CD-rom drive's headphone output.

I think I forgot how pure, clear and coherent headphone listening can be because even though I've had the Sony's for years, I've been using them only at work and you are only as good as your source. It makes a lot of sense how a good dynamic headphone can accurately reproduce the music. After all, a dynamic headphone is a transducer that uses a vibrating diaphragm to reproduce sound and a microphone is a transducer that uses a vibrating diaphragm to record the sound. If you use the same type of device as your input and use it to reproduce the output, your odds of canceling out the colorations are improved over say using cone speakers. Most people don't know this, but you can use plug your headphones into a microphone jack and use them as a microphone. I've never tried and you probably don't want to do this unless the impedances match, but it is possible. My next step in headphone listening is to build a dedicated headphone amp (the one designed by chu moy at http://headwize.com/projects/cmoy2_prj.htm that can be built for as little as $30). After that I may try his acoustic simulator design. While I can definitely afford to buy a headphone amp (the Music Fidelity X-cans II sounds appealing), the DIYer in me wants to give it a try building my own. I am an engineer and also a music lover. I've also played acoustic and electric guitar for 5 years in my church band, as well as piano and oboe growing up. Currently, I'm retired from playing in the band and am running the mixing board. We use the Sony's for headphone monitoring and they sure sound great through our new $25,000 Allen and Heath Mixing board. After all, the Allen and Heath better have a top class headphone amp as it meant for top notch live and recording situations. I'll bring in my Grados and give them a comparison and add any follow ups later. Please forgive the excessive length of this review, I haven't been this excited about a product for a long time (I've never written this lengthy a review). When a product is this inexpensive and so satisfying sonically (at least to me), I just wanted to share my findings with you all. The caveats I mentioned above are that the Grados do depart from absolute neutrality but that doesn't bother me in the least for just listening to the music. So in conclusion, the Sony's sound more neutral and have better build and comfort and durability but I just can't put my Grados down, at least right now. We shall see if my feelings change.
Grados build 3 stars.
Grados comfort 3 stars.
Grados sound 5 stars.
Grados value 5 stars (if the British are willing to spend 95 pounds (about $150 US) on these and still consider them at the top of their class, you know they are a great value in the U.S.
Sony's build 5 stars
Sony's comfort 5 stars.
Sony's sound 5 stars.
Sony's value 5 stars.
The regret factor *None* for either headphone. I use each in different applications.
WAF factor 5 stars for either headphone.

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Grado SR-80

Accurate reproduction of the recording. Excellent at a fair price.

None really for $100...

I have never been a Sony fan, I'm still not, but they got it right this time. I broke the headphones in for about 5 hours. I'm listening to Buena Vista Social Club at work on my PC, they've never sounded better. EVERYTHING is coming through. What is recorded is what you get. Frequency response is very even, just right (accurate).

I listened to the Panasonic and the Sony v600 before, the Panasonic 355 were only $30 and better than the v600. I've read all the post on the Grado SR80 and these Sony MDR7506. I almost bought the Grado but I needed closed cans.

I think I have an ear for music and I'm generaly able to tell what speakers sound good or what they do well and don't. I've sold home audio equipment in the past for 5 years, electronic stores and Best Buy. These sound good, much better than my home setup and car. Pick them up, no need to look further... and I don't own anything Sony for a reason. Did Sony really make these?!

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic 355 $30 , Sony MDRV600 $100

Clarity, tonal balance, comfort, price

Earpads disintegrate over time, cord is not detachable

There has been a lot of speculation about these 3 Sony units, and over the past month I've been able to hear all of them firsthand. I've owned my MDR-V6s for about FIFTEEN YEARS, and only now are the drivers beginning to buzz under heavy bass. They were tossed around and treated roughly, and still lasted that long - amazing. I guess that's why they're the pro's favorite.

First thing's first: If you were thinking about plunking down twice the $$$ ($189) for the 7509s, FORGET IT! They sound TERRIBLE! Sure, they've got deeper bass because of the 50mm drivers, but they botched everything else. They're no better than the V600s. I fiddled with an EQ for a long while, but could never get them to sound right. They squeeze your head more, but worse than this, they're heavy - I got tired after only 30 minutes. The Denons sound only slightly better, are more attractive and rugged, and cost a lot less.

I bought my V6s because of their unrivalled clarity. They are a bit bright, and that hasn't changed over time, but clarity is more important, so I either put up with it or EQ'd it out in some cases.

Some say that the V6s and 7506s are the same unit, and only the marketing has changed - I DISAGREE! I've done a direct A/B comparison of these two, and from the first moment I put on the 7506s heard a distinct difference in tonal balance. The high end harshness was gone and the bass and midbass were strengthened but still accurate, not over pronounced or boomy or muddy. These are the only sonic improvements I could ask for in the V6s, and the 7506s have them! There was a reviewer who did a spectral analysis of these two units that show the difference, and it's at http://music.multimedian.com/reviews/7506.html. At first he thought the difference might be attributed to variations in production, but my experience lends evidence to the contrary. There's a reason why DJMart sells both of these units with a $32 price differential - they are NOT the same unit!

The V6s/7506s are the most comfortable units you could ever hope for. They are so lightweight you can literally listen for hours without fatigue. The type of padding used provides just the right amount of "crush". Also, these units seem to be halfway between circum-aural and supra-aural. They don't encircle the ear and press against your head, nor do they rest against the entire surface of your ear. I think it's this halfway design that balances the pressure between your head and outer ear that makes these things so comfortable.

As for the earpad flaking problem, someone else recommended buying the Beyer 250 velour pads as a replacement. I think this is a very good idea - I bought replacement pads from Sony for my V6s once, and they wore out faster than the first set. Put brand new Beyer pads on your brand new 'phones, and you'll never have a problem.

On future models, I'd like to see a detachable cord, so you could choose your length and type (coiled or straight), and replaced damaged ones more easily. It should be designed not to pull loose easily, though.

I've listened to a lot of headphones over the years, even when I wasn't in the market for a new pair, and I truly believe these are the best sounding units that can be bought, and at $100 or so they are a STEAL! You can spend a lot more, but you won't get better sound.

Similar Products Used:

Sony MDR-7509, MDR-V6, Denon AHD-950