DesBen
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2001
- Posts
- 236
- Likes
- 11
Well, you won't believe this. At work, I use a MG Head tube amp and it's a great conversation piece around the office. So a co-worker who just joined the group brought me the headphones he just got last week: MDR-CD780. Now, I hadn't read Head-Fi in weeks, so I didn't know anything about the ecost deal. I was under the impression these retailed for $200.
So, I unplugged my Beyer 770Pro and plugged these Sony in my MG Head for a listen. I spent about five hours with them today, listening to various things, including:
* Jesse Cook - Free Fall. Acoustic guitar with various percussions
* Elastica - The Radio One Sessions. Rock with wild geetar sounds.
* Murray Perahia - Chopin Études (op. 10, 25). Classical music solo piano.
* Wynton Marsalis Septet - Selections from the Village Vanguard. Up-beat jazz with trumpet, piano, drums, clarinet and others.
* Steve Lawler - BBC Radio One Essential Mix (July 16 2000). FM Radio to 192kbps MP3 to CD
Progressive house mix ("dance music").
Conclusion: these are great headphones. After finding out I can get them for $40 tonight, I bought a set: they should arrive in two weeks. But let me give you my impressions from today.
---------
The first thing you notice is how comfortable these things are. It blew me away. It literally feels like a good duvet pillow. Unbelievable. Maybe we should send a pair to Grado. The headband is wide and auto-adjustable. They are a bit heavy, but you quickly forget about them. You can wear them for hours. They aren't very tight; so don't expect to go jogging with them.
Then, the sound. Not bad at all. Really good in fact. Maybe the word comfortable applies here too? Again, you could listen for hours. It is relaxed, smooth and free of distortion. They put the emphasis on the mid and treble (apparent listening to elastica). Bass, though not extended very deep, is tight and well defined. It's superb for acoustic music.
The Marsalis CD sounded amazing. It's recorded at the Vanguard and the ambiance was reproduced very well. The sound from the crowd came from far behind and it sounded spacious. By comparison, the closed Beyer made it sound as though the crowd was standing all on the same line. The instruments had a really nice tone: piano was round and full, the trumpet brassy but never hard. I really got into the music. The bass, though a touch light, was easy to pick up. If these phones were speakers, they would be large monitors, instead of large floorstanders: they are extended enough to sound big, but not enough to be visceral. Think nicely integrated musical bass instead of boomy (says who, a 770 owner?!?)
For Chopin Études, I preferred the Beyer. The left-hand had more weight and it gave the music a more powerful feeling. But it was a close call. Some folks would prefer the smoother approach of the Sony, I'm sure.
Another place where the Beyer won in my heart was with Steve Lawler. Progressive house always feels better with a deep powerful bass line, something the 770 are King at. However, let it be known that the Sony did a better job reproducing the harmonics and tones of the various synthesizers. And despite the "average" quality of the recording, it was still very listenable.
Elastica. Superb midrange with the Sony. The guitars were, hmmm, incisive (as they should). Vocals easy to hear. Great rhythm. Coherent. Spacious. With the Beyer? Things sounded closed in, as if the studio was halved and the walls made of cement instead of wood. The music also sounded more powerful, more macho. Which was more rock? I really don't know. I think both cans made this album shine. It is a very nice album. Go buy it.
Conclusions, take 2
I seem to have repeated the same thing in each of those album comparisons: the Sony have a nice relaxed sound, great midrange, good imaging. Detailed, yet never hard, strident or fatiguing. Great presentation of harmonics and instrument tones. The bass is not world class (rolls off at 35Hz or so I'd say, even if I must contradict Sony who claim extension to 5Hz), but it's tight, musical, well integrated. The most comfortable I have tried (and I tried a lot of comfy models, including the HD600, K501, Stax and my Beyer: they are nowhere close). At $200 list, a little pricey. At $120, I think they are excellent value, easily competing with models from Sennheiser, AKG, Beyer, etc.
But, you can buy them new for $75 on ebay. That's an amazing deal. $32 on ecost, it's unbelievable. Seriously. They are great headphones: leagues better than my Grado SR60 or Sony V6.
If you can live with open headphones (they leak sound): buy them. They are such a good value at their current closeout price.
So, I unplugged my Beyer 770Pro and plugged these Sony in my MG Head for a listen. I spent about five hours with them today, listening to various things, including:
* Jesse Cook - Free Fall. Acoustic guitar with various percussions
* Elastica - The Radio One Sessions. Rock with wild geetar sounds.
* Murray Perahia - Chopin Études (op. 10, 25). Classical music solo piano.
* Wynton Marsalis Septet - Selections from the Village Vanguard. Up-beat jazz with trumpet, piano, drums, clarinet and others.
* Steve Lawler - BBC Radio One Essential Mix (July 16 2000). FM Radio to 192kbps MP3 to CD
Conclusion: these are great headphones. After finding out I can get them for $40 tonight, I bought a set: they should arrive in two weeks. But let me give you my impressions from today.
---------
The first thing you notice is how comfortable these things are. It blew me away. It literally feels like a good duvet pillow. Unbelievable. Maybe we should send a pair to Grado. The headband is wide and auto-adjustable. They are a bit heavy, but you quickly forget about them. You can wear them for hours. They aren't very tight; so don't expect to go jogging with them.
Then, the sound. Not bad at all. Really good in fact. Maybe the word comfortable applies here too? Again, you could listen for hours. It is relaxed, smooth and free of distortion. They put the emphasis on the mid and treble (apparent listening to elastica). Bass, though not extended very deep, is tight and well defined. It's superb for acoustic music.
The Marsalis CD sounded amazing. It's recorded at the Vanguard and the ambiance was reproduced very well. The sound from the crowd came from far behind and it sounded spacious. By comparison, the closed Beyer made it sound as though the crowd was standing all on the same line. The instruments had a really nice tone: piano was round and full, the trumpet brassy but never hard. I really got into the music. The bass, though a touch light, was easy to pick up. If these phones were speakers, they would be large monitors, instead of large floorstanders: they are extended enough to sound big, but not enough to be visceral. Think nicely integrated musical bass instead of boomy (says who, a 770 owner?!?)
For Chopin Études, I preferred the Beyer. The left-hand had more weight and it gave the music a more powerful feeling. But it was a close call. Some folks would prefer the smoother approach of the Sony, I'm sure.
Another place where the Beyer won in my heart was with Steve Lawler. Progressive house always feels better with a deep powerful bass line, something the 770 are King at. However, let it be known that the Sony did a better job reproducing the harmonics and tones of the various synthesizers. And despite the "average" quality of the recording, it was still very listenable.
Elastica. Superb midrange with the Sony. The guitars were, hmmm, incisive (as they should). Vocals easy to hear. Great rhythm. Coherent. Spacious. With the Beyer? Things sounded closed in, as if the studio was halved and the walls made of cement instead of wood. The music also sounded more powerful, more macho. Which was more rock? I really don't know. I think both cans made this album shine. It is a very nice album. Go buy it.
Conclusions, take 2
I seem to have repeated the same thing in each of those album comparisons: the Sony have a nice relaxed sound, great midrange, good imaging. Detailed, yet never hard, strident or fatiguing. Great presentation of harmonics and instrument tones. The bass is not world class (rolls off at 35Hz or so I'd say, even if I must contradict Sony who claim extension to 5Hz), but it's tight, musical, well integrated. The most comfortable I have tried (and I tried a lot of comfy models, including the HD600, K501, Stax and my Beyer: they are nowhere close). At $200 list, a little pricey. At $120, I think they are excellent value, easily competing with models from Sennheiser, AKG, Beyer, etc.
But, you can buy them new for $75 on ebay. That's an amazing deal. $32 on ecost, it's unbelievable. Seriously. They are great headphones: leagues better than my Grado SR60 or Sony V6.
If you can live with open headphones (they leak sound): buy them. They are such a good value at their current closeout price.
