Sony 7520 vs cd900st?
Oct 6, 2013 at 6:22 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 10

tseliottt

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I prize resolution, and love studio accurate headphones ala the etymotic er4. I've also noticed that Sony makes some of the most underrated headphones on the market. I was looking at these two models for my fullsized headphone, but there's hardly any info on them. Certainly not enough to get a good comparison.
 
Can anybody give me more info on the SQ of either? Preferably, can anyone compare them directly?
 
Oct 7, 2013 at 7:10 PM Post #6 of 10
I'm still very happy with my MDR-7520 purchase. Most headphones I have bought, I've ended up selling after a few months due to comfort, build quality, or sound quality problems.
 
After about a year of ownership, I'm not having any problems using the MDR-7520 all day long. With other headphones I'd eventually find them fatiguing due to bloated bass or piercing treble, or uncomfortable to wear due to pressure spots on the headband or earpads, but no such issues here - even when wearing glasses.
 
 
If I'm being really picky about them:
  • I wish Sony sold a locking cable which had an iPod remote on it. The standard coiled cord is great in a home/studio environment, and stretches far more than you would expect, but it's not really suited to portable use. The Z1000 came with a short straight cable, but I have not found any for sale individually to use with my 7520. You can swap it out with any 3.5mm cable though, it just won't have the locking mechanism - but I don't know that any other headphones using 3.5mm removable cables use locking connectors at all, so I guess that's fine. Studio demands are different from personal use.
  • I would have preferred it to use leather padding rather than artificial leather. I think you can use any of the 7xxx studio pads with them, so I might order a pair of these. The included pads are fine though; I've used them for a year without complaints. That's just personal preference, not an issue with comfort.
  • The hardcase for them is only sold in the US, and I haven't seen them show up anywhere else. (ebay, amazon etc.)
 
Take it for what you will, but I liked them enough to buy a second pair when it was thought they might be going out of production. (seems they just stopped being offered in Europe)
But Sony really knows what they're doing when building a rugged pair of studio 'phones, so there may not have been any need for me to do that. I don't have any of the build quality concerns I had with other headphones I've had in the past.
 
Oct 7, 2013 at 9:38 PM Post #8 of 10
  I'm still very happy with my MDR-7520 purchase. Most headphones I have bought, I've ended up selling after a few months due to comfort, build quality, or sound quality problems.
 
After about a year of ownership, I'm not having any problems using the MDR-7520 all day long. With other headphones I'd eventually find them fatiguing due to bloated bass or piercing treble, or uncomfortable to wear due to pressure spots on the headband or earpads, but no such issues here - even when wearing glasses.
 
 
If I'm being really picky about them:
  • I wish Sony sold a locking cable which had an iPod remote on it. The standard coiled cord is great in a home/studio environment, and stretches far more than you would expect, but it's not really suited to portable use. The Z1000 came with a short straight cable, but I have not found any for sale individually to use with my 7520. You can swap it out with any 3.5mm cable though, it just won't have the locking mechanism - but I don't know that any other headphones using 3.5mm removable cables use locking connectors at all, so I guess that's fine. Studio demands are different from personal use.
  • I would have preferred it to use leather padding rather than artificial leather. I think you can use any of the 7xxx studio pads with them, so I might order a pair of these. The included pads are fine though; I've used them for a year without complaints. That's just personal preference, not an issue with comfort.
  • The hardcase for them is only sold in the US, and I haven't seen them show up anywhere else. (ebay, amazon etc.)
 
Take it for what you will, but I liked them enough to buy a second pair when it was thought they might be going out of production. (seems they just stopped being offered in Europe)
But Sony really knows what they're doing when building a rugged pair of studio 'phones, so there may not have been any need for me to do that. I don't have any of the build quality concerns I had with other headphones I've had in the past.

 
Nice.
I definitely would like to try them one of these days... (maybe when I get rid of some of my current gear).
 
   
They have fair clarity. Just not good when compared to SRH940. Out of the sony line(MA900, XB1000, 7520), I thought they had the best clarity.

 
Another option you guys could try: Yamaha HPH-MT220  :wink:
 
Oct 8, 2013 at 1:34 AM Post #9 of 10
   
Nice.
I definitely would like to try them one of these days... (maybe when I get rid of some of my current gear).
 
 
Another option you guys could try: Yamaha HPH-MT220  :wink:

 
Those look very interesting as well. I wish head-fi would stop doing the same Senn, AKG, HiFiman, FOTM routine over and over and look at some of the more obscure and underrated options on the market. In my experience, those have actually been better than the established favorites. The IEM forums have been very good at this, but for some reason the full-size forum seems stuck in a loop.
 
Any more opinions on the 7520? Any one up to write a mini review? Every impression I've read has been pretty brief.
 
Jan 14, 2015 at 2:49 PM Post #10 of 10
First guys, first post here.  I have been reading up on these forums whenever I had questions and learn about any products before I bought them.
 
Anyways on topic, does anyone have any comparison details between these headphones.  I own a set of Sony MDR-cd900st and have tried the 7520s once in-store.  For me the bass response on the 7520 was stronger and the treble was flat.  As some of you may know the mdr-cd900st has a treble roll off, so I bumped up the frequencies where I saw dips in frequency charts.  Based off memory after eq modifications the mdr-cd900st sounded close to the 7520, except with different bass.  I'm sure there were other differences that I did not remember.
 

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