[westermac]

There is a slight bass hump, but the bass on the 7506 never seemed right to me either. However, it seems to be universally agreed that the bass on the 7520 is far superior to the 7506 - just remember that it tightens up a lot after a good burn in.

I find the treble on the 7506 is just nasty - exaggerated and not tonally accurate. Actually, this is one of the things that has made me realise that nothing can be deduced about how a headphone actually sounds from FR graphs. On paper the 7506 has a much better treble (and for that matter, bass) than the 7520, but in real life nothing could be further from the truth.

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SonyMDRV6.pdf

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SonyMDR7520.pdf

You are definitely right about the graph: The V6 graph almost looks comparable to my LCD-X, but in practice the signature could not sound more different (and unbalanced) than the X! A good reminder that graphs can be useful tools within the right context, but are certainly NOT a substitute for hearing for yourself. Thanks for the insight!

 

[Mike F]

You are definitely right about the graph: The V6 graph almost looks comparable to my LCD-X, but in practice the signature could not sound more different (and unbalanced) than the X! A good reminder that graphs can be useful tools within the right context, but are certainly NOT a substitute for hearing for yourself. Thanks for the insight!

I'm looking forward to your impressions and how they compare to the LCD-X. The X will be much better of course, but it will be a very interesting and informative comparison!

 

[westermac]

I'm looking forward to your impressions and how they compare to the LCD-X. The X will be much better of course, but it will be a very interesting and informative comparison!

Happy to oblige! I'll try to share some first impressions as well some more after I've spent some time with them. I certainly don't expect them to compete with the LCD-X but I hope they will complement them well when a closed can is needed. My ideal headphones in general tend to be on the more neutral end of the spectrum so they can be relied upon for reference, but not ruthlessly so to the point they are not enjoyable for casual listening. We'll see how these fit the bill!

 

[Mike F]

Happy to oblige! I'll try to share some first impressions as well some more after I've spent some time with them. I certainly don't expect them to compete with the LCD-X but I hope they will complement them well when a closed can is needed. My ideal headphones in general tend to be on the more neutral end of the spectrum so they can be relied upon for reference, but not ruthlessly so to the point they are not enjoyable for casual listening. We'll see how these fit the bill!

 

 

 

[canali]

loving my sony 7520 cans hooked from my laptop to dragonfly to earplus headphone amp tube and into the sony 7520s.
 
just ordered some xb90ex iems....can't afford (for now) the complimentary 7550 iems.
 
encore; still enjoying watching anna out on Rush's YYZ...(she brought out the 'basshead in me, to be frank)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X52hIPmyX_s&ab_channel=AnnaSentina
there is just something about seeing the bass get played along with hearing it...just adds that much more punch.

 

[kid vic]

OK guys, been looking for a mid-tier closed can to replace my HD600 and complement my LCD-X. Based on my positive experience of many years with the MDR-7506 as a monitoring phone I decided to give the 7520 a shot; it should be arriving Monday.

Now 48 pages into this thread — only 100 more to go!

*slams espresso, slaps face*

 
Hahaha your almost at the plot twist!

That's good to hear! I appreciate the detail retrieval of the 7506 but the treble has always been too aggressive for me to enjoy them for casual listening without pretty heavy EQ, so based on my reading so far I'm hoping for a more balanced presentation. (a bass bump doesn't concern me, as long as it's well controlled). Looking forward to hearing what everyone seems to be loving!

 
Detail, imaging, tone, neutrality and speed all sound different from the 7506. It is in fact a better headphone but they definitely don't sound the same.

Happy to oblige! I'll try to share some first impressions as well some more after I've spent some time with them. I certainly don't expect them to compete with the LCD-X but I hope they will complement them well when a closed can is needed. My ideal headphones in general tend to be on the more neutral end of the spectrum so they can be relied upon for reference, but not ruthlessly so to the point they are not enjoyable for casual listening. We'll see how these fit the bill!

These are tied for first place as the most neutral headphones I've owned!

 

[westermac]

Originally Posted by kid vic /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Detail, imaging, tone, neutrality and speed all sound different from the 7506. It is in fact a better headphone but they definitely don't sound the same.

 
That's good to hear; I definitely wasn't looking for an "upgraded" 7506. While it's a great monitoring tool, casual listening on them without EQ might just make my ears bleed 

 

 
These are tied for first place as the most neutral headphones I've owned!

 
Great! If the 7520's interpretation of a neutral frequency response is anywhere in the ballpark of the X's I'll be a happy camper 

 

[westermac]

I promised I'd share my initial impressions after spending a bit of time with the 7520, so here is the progression of my experience:
 
Monday: My 7520 arrived at my work at 4:30pm giving me barely a half hour with them! Frantically I unravelled the most convoluted product packaging ever conceived and plugged them in. Build quality was first-rate, I really liked the look of them and they were light as a feather compared to my LCD-X. The sound, however? BAD. Bloated, out of control mid bass, no lower mids, harsh upper mids and hyped treble. Miffed, I swapped out the pads for some Beyer DT250 velours I had on hand from my MDR-7506, and while I noted an improvement in comfort the sound was largely the same. By this time it was time to go home, so I plugged them up to let them run overnight. My ears were fatigued for the remainder of the evening...
 
Tuesday: Family emergency, continued break in.
 
Wednesday: Too busy at work, didn't get much time with them. The sound signature still made me wince, though perhaps a bit less, and the bass was starting to seem a bit more controlled and less obnoxious. Tried some EQing on my computer with little success, nothing I did seemed to improve anything.
 
Thursday: Now to the good part. At this point I was pretty much set on returning them, so I replaced the stock pads and gave them another listen for the heck of it. All of a sudden everything made sense! The signature balanced out. Lower mids appeared, upper mids didn't shred my ears, treble still present but smoother... still more upper mid/treble than I'm generally comfortable with, but it wasn't painful; in fact on certain recordings it was... great. 
 
Friday: At this point I think my ears are finally getting used to the sound signature; namely, I'm beginning to listen to the music and not the headphones. There are still points in certain recordings where the upper mids can get a bit edgy, but for the most part I'm really beginning to enjoy them! They boast some spot-on imaging, and not a bad soundstage at all for a closed phone. Isolation is good, and adequate for me to be able to turn the music up without bothering my coworkers. They are still a bit bright for my taste, but their strengths are beginning to win me over, and what begin as a certain return is suddenly looking like a promising addition to my LCD-X.
 
Switching back and forth between the two was very disorienting at first, making the X sound dull and flat and the 7520 sounding at once like a tiny speaker and a subwoofer, but now that I'm beginning to adjust I'm able to appreciate the differences without them detracting from one another.
 
We'll see what the next week with the 7520 brings, but at this rate they appear set to win over another unsuspecting head-fier... 
 
EDIT: Now one of the yokes attached to the left ear cup has started creaking... 

 

 

[canali]

still enjoying these cans....the pleather gets a bit hot, however...so
might swap out to the beyerdynamic velour models.
 
some senn hd650 on their way to me, too.

 

[Mike F]

  I promised I'd share my initial impressions after spending a bit of time with the 7520, so here is the progression of my experience:
 
Monday: My 7520 arrived at my work at 4:30pm giving me barely a half hour with them! Frantically I unravelled the most convoluted product packaging ever conceived and plugged them in. Build quality was first-rate, I really liked the look of them and they were light as a feather compared to my LCD-X. The sound, however? BAD. Bloated, out of control mid bass, no lower mids, harsh upper mids and hyped treble. Miffed, I swapped out the pads for some Beyer DT250 velours I had on hand from my MDR-7506, and while I noted an improvement in comfort the sound was largely the same. By this time it was time to go home, so I plugged them up to let them run overnight. My ears were fatigued for the remainder of the evening...
 
Tuesday: Family emergency, continued break in.
 
Wednesday: Too busy at work, didn't get much time with them. The sound signature still made me wince, though perhaps a bit less, and the bass was starting to seem a bit more controlled and less obnoxious. Tried some EQing on my computer with little success, nothing I did seemed to improve anything.
 
Thursday: Now to the good part. At this point I was pretty much set on returning them, so I replaced the stock pads and gave them another listen for the heck of it. All of a sudden everything made sense! The signature balanced out. Lower mids appeared, upper mids didn't shred my ears, treble still present but smoother... still more upper mid/treble than I'm generally comfortable with, but it wasn't painful; in fact on certain recordings it was... great. 
 
Friday: At this point I think my ears are finally getting used to the sound signature; namely, I'm beginning to listen to the music and not the headphones. There are still points in certain recordings where the upper mids can get a bit edgy, but for the most part I'm really beginning to enjoy them! They boast some spot-on imaging, and not a bad soundstage at all for a closed phone. Isolation is good, and adequate for me to be able to turn the music up without bothering my coworkers. They are still a bit bright for my taste, but their strengths are beginning to win me over, and what begin as a certain return is suddenly looking like a promising addition to my LCD-X.
 
Switching back and forth between the two was very disorienting at first, making the X sound dull and flat and the 7520 sounding at once like a tiny speaker and a subwoofer, but now that I'm beginning to adjust I'm able to appreciate the differences without them detracting from one another.
 
We'll see what the next week with the 7520 brings, but at this rate they appear set to win over another unsuspecting head-fier... 
 
EDIT: Now one of the yokes attached to the left ear cup has started creaking... 

 

Sorry to hear that the left ear cup is creaking! Search this thread for the solution to that! I've had mine for several years and haven't had that problem. Not on my second pair either, although admittedly they don't get used much. 
 
Your initial listening impressions are exactly the same as mine were! I actually think that they need a good 200 hours to really settle down. Keep up us to date!

 

[westermac]

Sorry to hear that the left ear cup is creaking! Search this thread for the solution to that! I've had mine for several years and haven't had that problem. Not on my second pair either, although admittedly they don't get used much. 

Your initial listening impressions are exactly the same as mine were! I actually think that they need a good 200 hours to really settle down. Keep up us to date!

Creaking fixed! Got some synthetic grease and dabbed it in the cracks of the internal gimbals, much better...

Glad to hear I'm not alone in my admittedly poor first impression, a little breaking in may be all that I need at this point. Week 2, coming right up

 

[Mike F]

Just for everyones interest, I recently came across this article:- https://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/cat/audio/latest/Frank-Filipetti_CaseStudy.pdf
 
If you haven't heard of Frank Filipetti, do a quick search! Of course, it's very nice to have someone like him endorse a product which you like, but I don't normally take too much notice of these things; it's presumably quite easy for a company like Sony to take a picture of someone using their product and have that person say a few nice words in exchange for some healthy compensation. However, in this case I was struck by a couple of things. 
 
Here's a copy and paste of the article:-
 
Having worked with a diverse range of artists and in just about every genre, Frank Filipetti knows about getting the right sound.And Sony’s new MDR-7520 studio headphones have expanded his way of working in the studio.
 
“Normally, I use headphones to let artists listen to a session while we’re tracking or for a mixing spot check now and again,” he said.
The reason he would not mix on headphones is that most he’s tried lacked the lowest octave on the bottom end and just didn’t have that sweet extension on the top that a great pair of speakers can provide.
“Frequency-wise and punch-wise, I never felt I got a real sense of what was going on,” Filipetti said.“I’ve pretty much been a 100%-mix-with-speakers man.That is, until I got these [7520s].”
 

Since acquiring the Sony 7520s earlier this year, Filipetti has used them during studio sessions for rock, pop, and even a Broadway soundtrack.
“I use them now to not only check my mixes, but to equalize and finalize them as well,” he said. “They have a very wide frequency response without being hyped at any frequency. I can get an accurate sense of what’s happening across the frequency spectrum, especially in the deep bass region where I’ve never totally trusted a headphone before. I have headphones that are pleasing to listen to, but never had the accuracy I’ve found with the 7520s.”
 


In his experience, the mark of a high- performance headphone is the ability to use it with any genre.
“Some headphones sound good on rock and hip hop, but not on classical or Broadway,” he said. “That’s the nature of a headphone with a tailored frequency response. What I love about these headphones is that they will sound really good with anything (as long as that anything sounds good to begin with). They won’t hype the low end, but they provide a deep accurate low end. So I can use these to mix any of the artists I work with and be confident that I will get great results.”
 
Filipetti said that mixing with speakers traditionally provides a more accurate sound, far more than most headphones would allow.
“There is usually something about the closeness of the headphone to the ear canal that makes it very difficult for me to get an accurate impression of the sound,” Filipetti said.“You can have a mix that sounds great on speakers, but not so good on headphones. Or conversely, a mix can sound mediocre on speakers, but great on headphones. So I never bothered with them for a mix. For me it was always about the way the mix excites a room. But the moment I put these on, I said, wow, these sound like great speakers. Closer and more isolated than my speakers, but the way they handle the frequency and balance elements sounds remarkably close to my room, which, in my humble opinion, is tuned extremely well.”
 

The Sony 7520 headphones have also allowed him more flexibility in the studio.
“Sometimes you’ll be working on a track wearing headphones,” he said.“You will listen for a while and then put your speakers on again and you can’t get a handle on the sound because the headphones are brighter or softer or harder, and it takes a while to get used to your speakers again. With these, I can go back and forth easily between the headphones and my speakers and not have to re-adjust much, if at all. They don’t alter the balance or timbre of things, even though the listening environment is radically different.”
In the end it comes down to getting the right sound and Filipetti states clearly,“I’ve never mixed on headphones, never thought I would, but these are the first headphones that I would be comfortable and confident mixing on.” 
 
First, the sheer number and detail of his comments indicates that he really has used the 7520's in real life and formed an accurate impression of their sound and;
 
Second, many of his impressions exactly mirror my own(!). This is what I said in post 2220.
 

  I've been listening to a recording which I know extremely well (Jan Garbarek Visible World) on my 7520's this evening from my iPhone. I'm not going to say that they are more than they are - there are certainly much better hp's out there (at a higher cost) and indeed I own several myself. But, I have to say that their overall sonic presentation is VERY close to what I experience from my ATC100SL studio monitors which are in a large purpose built listening room. Yes, of course the HD800's are 'better', but they sound less like good speakers in a good room than the 7520's do! Any audio reproduction is only an illusion, and although the HD800's would provide a better illusion of the real thing, such as a large scale orchestral work, I think that the 7520's provide a better illusion of extremely good speakers in a good room. That, IMO, is what makes them such a good studio headphone and why mixes done on them translate so well.
 
 

 
 
Thanks, Frank, for the confirmation!

 

[jackson1]

 

[Mike F]

 

 
Well spotted!

 

[LaCuffia]

How is clamping force and overall comfort on the 7520? The 7506 were a bit too snug for me and wanted to know if they are the same. I also assume that the 1R-A is more comfortable - I tried them at Best Buy and can't imagine the 7520 being better but would be nice if they were close.