[Donald North]

I ordered a set of Sony MRD-XB700s through Amazon and received them today. Paid $83 including shipping. Fit and finish look good. Boy, those earpads are the size of a large donut!

Right now I'm playing them with a 20Gb iPod to run them in. This weekend I'll put them through their paces with a Sonic Frontiers SFCD1 cd player and my tube headphone amp. I'm curious how they'll compare to the JVC DX1000s.

 

[kmhaynes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donald North /img/forum/go_quote.gif ... Sony MDR-XB700s ... Boy, those earpads are the size of a large donut!

I'd say more like a 17" Michelin tire!!

 

[Donald North]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmhaynes /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'd say more like a 17" Michelin tire!!

Now that I look at them more, they resemble tires on a mini RC monster truck

They sound pretty good so far - I'm enjoying them.

 

[Donald North]

Tonight I compared the Sony MDR-XB700 to the beyerdynamic DT931 and JVC HP-DX1000. I powered them from my forthcoming 6H30 tube headphone amp.

I used the 28 ohm output impedance setting for the XB700 and DX1000 while the DT931s were with the 120 ohm IEC setting.

Here's my take on them so far:
DT931s: best midrange and treble of the 3. Very detailed and clear with plenty of vocal presence. Bass lightweight.

DX1000s: More bass than the beyers, vocals recessed a bit, somewhat of a "cup" sound to the music, vocal S-es not too clean, less resolution than the beyers

XB700s: Heavy bass in the 50-100 Hz range, a bit thick sounding at times but also has good drive on bass drums with rock, vocals recessed further (I like more vocal presence), vocal S-es handled much cleaner than JVCs, no "cup" sound to the music, resolution around the same as the JVCs.

For around $80-90 delivered, the XB700s offer a hell of a lot of headphone for the money. I say, fun to try.

I'm getting some beyer DT770s and DT880s for Can Jam and look forward to adding them into the comparison.