Sony MDR-V150 Monitor Series Headphones with Reversible Earcups

I've owned this pair of headphones for about 8 years now, and they still don't disappoint, especially now that they have had just the smallest bit of modification, which brought out that wonderful upper treble. They are as follows:
 
1.) A small circle of SilverStone 4mm acoustic foam in each cup.
2.) Small 1mm perforations in the felt spaced .25cm apart.
 
Just these two small modifications brought out thunderous bass and forgiving voicing in the midrange, making these headphones great for a wide variety of music and recordings. With the 4mm foam, the driver has just the right amount of clearance. The thick stock felt can either be replaced with a thinner felt or perforated to allow a little more HF to make its way out of the driver.
 
Durability-wise, everything is very rugged, save for the nickel-plated 3.5mm jack, which seems to lose its coating after a while, causing intermittent connections. A polishing wheel and a little solder was a cheap fix for me. The ear cups are a little hollow-sounding stock, but hey, they're cheap.
 
These are a must-have, especially for the price, ease of modding, and fairly decent audio quality to begin with. For 15-16 extra bucks, you can have a great set of dynamic headphones with punchy bass, a smooth midrange and laid-back treble.

I have a quite mixed feeling about these. I own the white versions which are just the same. But I have to say, these headphones are okay for casual listening and portability. Even though they're portable, I still use my massive Philips SHP2000 wherever I go.
 
Build Quality
 
The build quality is cheap. What would you expect from a £10 pair of studio monitors? It's going to be mainly made of plastic. The headband is plastic and has the Sony logo and "Studio Monitor" written on the top. on the sides, it consists of plastic with the Sony logo on the driver housing. There is 2 metal screws near the hinges that hold the headband and the driver housing hinge together. The extension is plastic and it has numbers! I like it when companies add numbers on their extensions. The breaking point of these are near the headband. They're held in by a pathetic plastic nib that fits only one way inside a slot and that broke after 3 weeks. Now that part like to pull a hair strand every time I take them off. Just a bit of tape can fix it. The cable is thick and rubbery, and I prefer that over my SHP2000's very slippery cable. And the cable length is at 1.8m which means it is just 0.6m longer than average portable headphones. On the end of the cable, it has a 3.5 mm jack which is prone to fail after a year, and mine has. It can be easily fixed with another 3.5 mm jack from eBay and some basic soldering skills. There is a lot of creaking with every hinge and these rattle a lot.
 
Comfort
 
Talking about comfort, these are not comfortable for extended hours. The ear pads are made of this really crappy thin plastic with sponge inside. I know this is supposed to be very cheap headphones but I've seen better. They don't feel nice when they touch your ear. Your ears start to sweat after a few minutes and it's not pleasant. The headband is okay however, as it doesn't put too much pressure on my head because it is really light. The ear cups do swivel left, right, up and down, which does make the headphones just a bit more comfortable. There's nothing much to say about the comfort. You get what you give (sometimes).
 
Sound Quality
 
What do £10 pair of Sony studio monitors sound like, you say? Let me tell you something. They sound nothing like Sony. Sony's sound signature mainly is about the Bass and Treble with recessed Mids, but these are an exception. The sub bass is quiet, making EDM "not fun" to listen to but the punchy bass is still present. The Mids are somewhat overpowering as it makes the Treble washed out. I can barely hear claps and hihats on most of the tracks I listen to. This makes the music boring to listen to (Depending on what Genre you listen to). Vocals stand out more then the track, and if you do like vocals, this might be good with Vocal tracks. The sound signature is way off Sony's standard which is supposed to be more of a "V" shape.
 
Conclusion
 
In conclusion, the Sony MDR-V150 is a mixed bad of good and bad aspects of cheap low end headphones. I don't recommend them for Studio Monitoring because they don't give you the "True to the recording" sound which studio monitors are supposed to do. If you don't care about the best sound quality if your outdoors and you just need something that can be powered from a mobile phone, there a better options. The Sennheiser HD 201 are £18 and they sound more neutral but with barely any punchy bass. The Philips SHL3000 are at £20 and they sound better with deep, punchy bass and crisper treble while retaining most of the Mids, but it's your choice. I personally don't like these a lot but it's still staying in my possession because I used to master my music with these until I switched to my Philips SHP2000.

These were the very first headphones I bought when I was in primary school.
I remember saving up a few weeks to get this pair but unfortunately the cable broke after a few years of use.
Fast forward +15 years, I now have a job and starting to get into the headphone world...........so addictive.

I just received a pair from ebay not long ago. Be sure to look for a reputable reseller as there could be fakes going around.
I can't say whether mine are fake or not. The box, papers and headphones all match up saying that it was all done Thailand.
The details on the headphones also match up well with photos I've seen online. I guess the only way to tell for sure is to open them up (which I won't be doing for now).

When I first plugged these into my Samsung Note 10.1 and listened to a bit of FLAC, I thought the sound quality was quite horrible so I stopped listening for a while.
I would say that the sound stage was very closed and SQ muddled. That's as far as I can describe it due to my limited experience in expressing what it sounds to me.

Next I connected it up to my Schiit Modi / Magni stack and the first few minutes it sounded the same as my Samsung Note.
However after 10 minutes of listening, I started to get use to the sound signature and dare I say....started to like it again.
Call it nostalgia, it brought me back to my childhood when these were my favourite and only cans.
 
I found that these work quite well with female vocals and acoustic, I like the flat response and neutral sounds it gives.
Though these cans are relatively bass light, I think they do well for what they're worth.
I don't find that these work well with fast paced music or anything that has a lot of things going on.
To me the SQ just falls apart when challenged and becomes muddled and incoherent.

With regards to portability, they're great to throw around in the bag and not feel bad about treating them without care.
But they do confuse with a 2m long cable which is a lot of cable to stuff in your pockets.

For me, I will be using these in the office as they provide some isolation but allows me to hear chatter and phone calls.
They are quite comfortable and light, so they can be worn for a long time in an air conditioned room such that the pleather won't steam up your ears.

Lets face it, for $30 AUD budget there will be some pros and cons.
I wouldn't spend anything more that, and there are better contenders around that price range - like for instance the AKG K420 which I have are my current budget favs.

I would only recommend these to anyone who are looking for a pair of cans that can be thrown away after a beating.
Or anyone that wants to have a nostalgic experience if they once owned these.
Overall I'm happy with this little toy, hopefully I can keep it in good condition

H.M

 

What should I say. 3 years of use now and still playing lovely with several scotch stitches.I was listening to them on home stereo's on the max volume.They handle well without noticeable sound losses.The last year intensively with Nano 6th + Fiio E6. The bass is sweet.Can not imagine better bass from a portable headphones.Or at least not too better. Best for the price. A bit tight headphones though. I got used to it. The same as the studio Dre's on the sound but falls behind in materials and comfort.

Sony's MDR-V150s aren't fancy. No gold plugs, no completely isolated 4 wire cable, no expensive materials in build or no special-looking drivers but they're sleeper headphones for that price. Yes, they're not Grados, they're not providing a theater like stereo stage with mindblowing sound coloring. Bear in mind these are affordable monitors. They're built to sound raw, blunt, flat, uncolored but detailed. Combined with a Xonar D2X, a digital amplifier like Sony's CMT-HX3 or an old AKAI AM-2500 with good sources, you'll be blown away with the detail & balance. Yes they'll be uncomfortable for your ears after some time since they're designed to sound raw, not to please (you can add an EQ to the path if you wish).
 
I'm both a musician (bass guitar & double bass player in a symphony) and a computer engineer. I listen to music addictively since I'm self-concious and I was fortunate to listen from good sets with analog / transistor amplifiers and big, spacious high-end speakers of their era during my lifetime. Also at some point I got my hands on a Lenco high end, dual drive monitor headphones (which are my Dad's). While MDR-150V is not as powerful and punchy when driven as Lencos, Sony's diaphgram travel is more than good to prevent a big punch without distorting with is smaller 30mm drivers. If you want to listen to details of your music without coloring these headphones are an affordable way to do so but, if you are craving for colored, smooth and pleasing sound for relaxing; these headphones may not give the sound you want.
 
I'm chipping of half of a star for the build only, but this formulation creates the perfect monitor for this price point.

All things considered, these are alright. I got them for 15 bucks and used them as my only pair of headphones for 2 years. I was like 11 years old and listened to only classical on the bus and honestly did not think much of sound quality for the main reason that at the time I only listened to music on the bus where there was a lot of other sound anyways. All in all, if you do not listen to music more than 30 minutes a day get these and if you like bass music but do not want to spend money on headphones get these and bass boost them under settings. That is what my friend does and he enjoys it. The highs are not clear but they are a pair of cheap headphones so don't expect some athm50s sound.

I bought these headphones because I needed a cheap pair of supra-aurals to listen to on the bus (I have stretched ears and can't fit my over-ear AKGs over my earlobes with my plugs in. . .not that I would really want to bring them on a bus anyway). In short, these headphones are okay. The sound could be better, obviously, and the plastic headband gets extremely uncomfortable (painful) after as little as 30 minutes, but for $30, it's hard to complain. Another downside is the cable. It's very, very long. So long that when I used the headphones with my iPhone in my pocket, I had to do a loop thing with my belt loop, because it looked pretty silly hanging all the way down to my shin. There isn't that much clarity in the sound, but it was still fairly balanced. Nothing to write home about. These served me well for a couple of months before my girlfriend accidentally stepped on them (snap!). I just went to a Zeller's and replaced them with a pair of similar headphones, the Sony MDR-ZX100. These new ones are actually a bit better, and can be found for the same price. There is more low-end, they look a bit nicer (especially in white), the cable isn't super long, but the headband still hurts after a while. I guess you get what you pay for! Honestly, if you need a cheap (under $50) pair of not-earbuds, either the MDR-V150s or the MDR-ZX100s should get the job done, though I would have to recommend the latter.

These are pretty decent inexpensive headphones. They have some pretty alright bass, but not too much to overpower the treble or clearness. The design seem pretty simple and they are comfortable enough to listen for a long time. It may get uncomfortable after a few hours. My sisters have broken theirs over and over again, but I still have mine in good condition.
 
Overall, these are great for an inexpensive headphone for every day use.

I bought these headphones back in 2007 for lightweight portable use. These have been the most reliable and longest lasting of any new pair of headphones I've bought to date. The sound quality is decent for the price. The high frequency response is not the greatest but overall not bad. I'd recommend these headphones to anyone on a tight budget, but wants good quality sound.

I bought these headphones a while back and I enjoy them somewhat. They have good sound if you need a set of studio monitors on the cheap. I don't think I would recommend them to anyone. 

I am dumb, first I bought skullcandy and when those broke I decided to give sony a try and pay for these, I regret it

Basic but cheap cans that give reasonable sound, but they aren't that comfortable.

Dark. Many many other budget headphones have a more inviting sound.