[DavidA]

  I don't know, the MDR-1A and HD700 are both very different headphones, but except for that slight metallic sensation I get with the MDR-1A, as well as the below-average noise isolation, they're great headphones. Oh, and spare pads are bloody expensive: $35 AUD for one only.

Ouch, $35 per pad?  I though the Senn and Audeze pads were expensive but at least they are quite a bit larger than the sony.

 

[dazzerfong]

 
Ouch, $35 per pad?  I though the Senn and Audeze pads were expensive but at least they are quite a bit larger than the sony.

$70 for a pair, yeah, at least in Australia (so around $50 USD?). Also in Australia, my HD700 pads would set me back $118 a pair.

 

[Kabonfaiba]

These headphones like the HD700 and TH600 (both fantastic headphones) are beyond the budget sensible though.
 
To address the elephant in the room; is the difference in sound really worth that much, when you could have bought some great studio monitors for that cost, and quickly succeeded the qualities of nearly all headphones in one fell swoop?
 
At least it's not as ludicrous as summit-fi where you really are bending over backwards for isolation. - Whatever obstacle is blocking the use of speakers must be worth it's weight in gold lol.
 
With closed back headphones, you can listen to music louder than you normally could on speakers without disturbing anybody, yes! but you can do that for modestly cheap and price goes with quality, to an extent. <- This is fine.
 
But the open back headphones; used for music listening at supposedly (what I would consider) relaxed volumes in quiet rooms, as to not disturb others but doesn't isolate at all? <- This is a massive investment blunder to me.

 

[dazzerfong]

  These headphones like the HD700 and TH600 (both fantastic headphones) are beyond the budget sensible though.
 
To address the elephant in the room; is the difference in sound really worth that much, when you could have bought some great studio monitors for that cost, and quickly succeeded the qualities of nearly all headphones in one fell swoop?
 
At least it's not as ludicrous as summit-fi where you really are bending over backwards for isolation. - Whatever obstacle is blocking the use of speakers must be worth it's weight in gold lol.
 
With closed back headphones, you can listen to music louder than you normally could on speakers without disturbing anybody, yes! but you can do that for modestly cheap and price goes with quality, to an extent. <- This is fine.
 
But the open back headphones; used for music listening at supposedly (what I would consider) relaxed volumes in quiet rooms, as to not disturb others but doesn't isolate at all? <- This is a massive investment blunder to me.

Speak for yourself: it's worth it for me, especially for the bargain price I picked up for my HD700. Other people that aren't into audio will say you're silly for buying the MDR-1A which, for ~$200+, is 'beyond the budget sensible' for them. Consider this: is the jump from the MDR-7506 to the MDR-1A, given the 2x price increase, superior by 2x? Not really............
 
And, no: studio monitors that cost a grand or so (actually under now, considering the TH600/HD700) will be alright, but won't provide the clarify achievable by headphones. It does not leak sound that badly, and while I'll concede your point about the lack of isolation, isn't that the same with speakers? The only thing speakers will always be better than headphones in is soundstage, and that's provided you have a decent speaker room with proper acoustic treatment in your house. Everything else, speakers are still playing catchup.
 
The main problem with closed headphones in comparison with open is soundstage and that in-your-head feeling. No, the difference isn't huge, but it's certainly noticeable. That being said, closed headphones does have its charms:noise isolation, for one, is an important factor to consider when out and about.
 
There is no elephant in the room except for the one you created yourself.

 

[DavidA]

  These headphones like the HD700 and TH600 (both fantastic headphones) are beyond the budget sensible though.
 
To address the elephant in the room; is the difference in sound really worth that much, when you could have bought some great studio monitors for that cost, and quickly succeeded the qualities of nearly all headphones in one fell swoop?
 
At least it's not as ludicrous as summit-fi where you really are bending over backwards for isolation. - Whatever obstacle is blocking the use of speakers must be worth it's weight in gold lol.
 
With closed back headphones, you can listen to music louder than you normally could on speakers without disturbing anybody, yes! but you can do that for modestly cheap and price goes with quality, to an extent. <- This is fine.
 
But the open back headphones; used for music listening at supposedly (what I would consider) relaxed volumes in quiet rooms, as to not disturb others but doesn't isolate at all? <- This is a massive investment blunder to me.

"beyond the budget sensible"?
I currently have the following stereo equipment (Linn Sondek, Denon and Micro Seiki turn tables, Nakamichi ZX-7 cassette, Sony Mini-Disk, Nakamichi CA-7 and SAE-P102 preamps, Citation XX, SAE-X10A, and Mark Levinson ML-20's amps, KEF 103.3 Ref, Magnepan 1.6 and Rauna TYR speakers) and unless I can set them up in a room with semi good acoustical properties they are not going to sound as good as the HD-700 or TH-600.  This old stereo equipment is still worth a lot more than the cost of the HD-700, TH-600, Lyr2 + tubes, UD-301 DAC and computer so I consider headphones on the cheaper side to great sound.  Just my 2 cents and like they say, "to each his own"

 

[Jupit3r]

Looks cool, want to try it when i have the chance.

 

[avir87]

Hi everyone, I am currently deciding between the V-Moda M-100 vs the Sony MDR-1A. I currently have borrowed the M100 from a friend of mine and I really enjoy the headphones. I enjoy the "fun" sound signature of it, but find that I have to run it at high volumes to truly enjoy, but at lower volumes it sounds congested. I also found the bass to be somewhat monotonous at times and not very well defined, but boomy. Also I think the right channel is beginning to fail on the M-100. This is with a Meridian Explorer DAC/AMP.
 
I however, REALLY like the bass quantity of the M-100 (I guess you could call me a basshead) and mainly listen to Pop/Top40/EDM. The bass that I enjoy tends to be sub-bass. I am not an audiophile by any means. My first pair of headphones was the Sennheiser 598s which were promptly returned due to neutrality.
 
My concern is that the bass on the MDR-1A will not impress. Can anyone who has owned/demoed or has insight into this matter please let me know how you think the bass compares between these two headphones? I've read through posts which say they have similar bass, but other posts say they are quite different.

Thanks in advance!

 

[money4me247]

  Hi everyone, I am currently deciding between the V-Moda M-100 vs the Sony MDR-1A. I currently have borrowed the M100 from a friend of mine and I really enjoy the headphones. I enjoy the "fun" sound signature of it, but find that I have to run it at high volumes to truly enjoy, but at lower volumes it sounds congested. I also found the bass to be somewhat monotonous at times and not very well defined, but boomy. Also I think the right channel is beginning to fail on the M-100. This is with a Meridian Explorer DAC/AMP.
 
I however, REALLY like the bass quantity of the M-100 (I guess you could call me a basshead) and mainly listen to Pop/Top40/EDM. The bass that I enjoy tends to be sub-bass. I am not an audiophile by any means. My first pair of headphones was the Sennheiser 598s which were promptly returned due to neutrality.
 
My concern is that the bass on the MDR-1A will not impress. Can anyone who has owned/demoed or has insight into this matter please let me know how you think the bass compares between these two headphones? I've read through posts which say they have similar bass, but other posts say they are quite different.

Thanks in advance!

 
@avir87,
 
No direct comparisons (though I have the chance to direct compare the old mdr-1r to the m100). they have different sound signatures that would probably impact your enjoyment a lot more than simply talking about bass quality/quantity. from my experiences (though note it's been some time), the m100 has a strong v-shaped sound sig with prominent recession at the mid with like a 5dB-7db or more bass boost. its bass emphasis is really as strong as possible without totally going completely overboard (imo). the vmoda does have some bleeding into the upper mids and quite a bit of bloat. It's bass boost is not as clean as the alternative orthodynamic options, but does keep a fun sense of reverb. the mdr-1r was mid-centric with more prominent midrange and a warm uppermid bass boost. Very punchy bass. Bass a bit tighter on the mdr-1r as the m100 had more sub-bass. the sonys also have a bit of bloating sensation and bleed into the midrange, but relatively less.
 
I would say the m100 had the relatively less clean sound from its v-shaped tuning, but is probably among the cleanest v-shaped dynamic headphones out there. both those headphones maintain a relatively clean sound for their colored sound signature tuning. The mdr-1a I thought offered further refinements to the mdr-1r's sound signature, but still is trying for that similar warm mid-centric sound sig with a punchy bass.
 
there are better "bass quality" headphones with tighter bass notes, more speed, and less midrange bleed, but not as strong overall bass emphasis. if you enjoy a strong bass emphasis (aka just bass quantity), I think the m100's strong bass boost is really as far as I would personally be comfortable with. Any further bass boost is way too much coloration for my tastes as you start losing the rest of frequency response as vocals already sound distant on the m100s. there are some options that are even further bass boosted than the m100... I think maybe the extreme bass headphones from sony from my experience. 
 
I would pick based on sound sigs rather than just bass. I do believe the M100 has more bass quantity if that is what you are looking for. but also has quite a bit more bass bleed. the mdr-1a is a bit cleaner with its bass boost, but to a lesser overall bass boost. really more along the lines of a punchy midbass-focused boost, while the m100 offers more rumbling bass boost throughout. lower frequency bass is much more emphasized on the m100 than the sonys.
 
hope this was helpful. do note its been a while since i've directly compared these headphones, so ymmv i've owned both the m100 & mdr-1r (old version), only extensively demoed the mdr-1a. cheers
 
edit: note you are in the mdr-1a thread, so people will be more positive of the 1a over the m100 I think. try posting your query in the m100 thread as well for both sides of the coin

 

[DavidA]

  Hi everyone, I am currently deciding between the V-Moda M-100 vs the Sony MDR-1A. I currently have borrowed the M100 from a friend of mine and I really enjoy the headphones. I enjoy the "fun" sound signature of it, but find that I have to run it at high volumes to truly enjoy, but at lower volumes it sounds congested. I also found the bass to be somewhat monotonous at times and not very well defined, but boomy. Also I think the right channel is beginning to fail on the M-100. This is with a Meridian Explorer DAC/AMP.
 
I however, REALLY like the bass quantity of the M-100 (I guess you could call me a basshead) and mainly listen to Pop/Top40/EDM. The bass that I enjoy tends to be sub-bass. I am not an audiophile by any means. My first pair of headphones was the Sennheiser 598s which were promptly returned due to neutrality.
 
My concern is that the bass on the MDR-1A will not impress. Can anyone who has owned/demoed or has insight into this matter please let me know how you think the bass compares between these two headphones? I've read through posts which say they have similar bass, but other posts say they are quite different.

Thanks in advance!

I don't have any experience with the Meridian Explorer so I can't comment on that aspect.
 
I had a M-100 up until a few months ago, sold it after I got the XS.  I felt that the M-100 had more bass but the MDR-1A bass is much tighter and goes lower IMO.  This is based on using a Fiio X3ii or X1.  If using both on my main rig (UD-301/Ember or Lyr2) the MDR-1A sounds much better.  Note that I've modified my MDR-1A with some dynamat in the ear cup and closed off some of the top port.

 

[avir87]

@money4me247 and @DavidA
 
Thank you both for the detailed responses.
 
money4me247, thank you for explaining the difference between the sound signatures. I agree the signature is probably more important to enjoyment of the headphone than the actual amount of bass. I will likely get the M-100 in the end as the signature is likely what I will prefer more.
 
DavidA, thanks for your suggestions, I may head over to the local store to demo the MDR1A before I fully decide. The only way to know for sure is to demo the different cans with my gear.

 

[DavidA]

  @money4me247 and @DavidA
 
Thank you both for the detailed responses.
 
money4me247, thank you for explaining the difference between the sound signatures. I agree the signature is probably more important to enjoyment of the headphone than the actual amount of bass. I will likely get the M-100 in the end as the signature is likely what I will prefer more.
 
DavidA, thanks for your suggestions, I may head over to the local store to demo the MDR1A before I fully decide. The only way to know for sure is to demo the different cans with my gear.

You're very lucky if you can demo headphones on your gear, best way IMO, for me out in Hawaii, not much places to demo any headphone other than Beats/Bose and there is only one store that has a few headphone amps.

 

[avir87]

 
You're very lucky if you can demo headphones on your gear, best way IMO, for me out in Hawaii, not much places to demo any headphone other than Beats/Bose and there is only one store that has a few headphone amps.

Yeah, it's a bit hard finding places to demo headphones here in Canada too. Even in a big city like Toronto there are only 2 stores that I have found to have a decent selection of headphones: Headphoneshop and Bay Bloor Radio. I think Bay Bloor carries the MDR1A, and I will take my friend's M-100 to compare.

Thanks Again!

 

[DavidA]

  Yeah, it's a bit hard finding places to demo headphones here in Canada too. Even in a big city like Toronto there are only 2 stores that I have found to have a decent selection of headphones: Headphoneshop and Bay Bloor Radio. I think Bay Bloor carries the MDR1A, and I will take my friend's M-100 to compare.

Thanks Again!

I really like the MDR-1A when I'm on the go but almost never use it at home due to the other headphones that I have.  All except the TH-600 (not fully closed) are open so it takes me a few minutes to get used to the MDR-1A when I take it with me.  The one thing that I miss on the M-100 is the small size that it will fold up into and its really well constructed where you don't have to baby it, unlike the MDR-1A where I don't really think it can take the same abuse.

 

[Sonic Defender]

My one caution with the MDR 1A is that as it approaches higher volumes which I typically use it at, it does start to sound like it is being pushed a little. I find a slight raspy edge creeps in, it is slight, but in my mind there. Keep in mind that I typically listen quite loud by most people's standards, but I would say to test it at the highest volume you might ever use just to be sure.

 

[Wilderness]

  In response to registradus:
 
I am also hearing a bit of distortion with my Sony MDR-1A headphones.  I have only heard it on two songs out of several dozen that I have played.  It is a bit of a dzzzzzz dzzzz sound that lasts maybe two seconds.
 
I isolated this to the headphones by repeating the problem with both the Sony ZX2 and my iPad Air 2.  It does not happen when playing the same songs on my desktop speakers, and so the problem is not with the songs.
 
Someone on this thead suggested checking to see whether there is a hair inside.  How do I check for that?
 
If the problem is with the headphones, I am wondering whether I should return them and get a diferent pair.  Any suggestions on similar headphones?  I want something that sounds good with a wide range of resolutions, from high res 24-192 to CD to Apple AAC 256.  So, headphones that will bring out the high resolution benefits but not sound bad with lower resolution.  That is what the MDR-1As were pegged as -- good all around headphones.

I am now thinking that the distortion I heard on two songs may be the result of scratchiness in the singer's voice (one song is Kashmir on Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's No Quarter album at 1411 CD quality; Plant had lost a lot of smoothness to his voice at that point around 1994).  I haven't heard any other distortion with these headphones (and again, the distortion on two songs I noticed earlier may have been there in the actual performance, and so the headphones are probably just relaying what was recorded).  I am listening to them now, and they sound great!  I listen at about two thirds volume with Sony's ZX2, and that is plenty loud.  Playing them any louder would be unnecessary for me.  I just rocked out with Led Zeppelin's How the West Was Won in CD 1411 and Jackson Browne's Running on Empty in high res.
 
This pairing -- the Sony MDR-1A and the ZX2 -- sounds pleasing to me.  The level of detail is there, and nearly everything, from 256 to CD to high res, is distortion free.  Both are sounding better now as burn in progresses.  I am guessing that I have around 30 hours burn in on the headphones and twice that on the ZX2 (I listen to the ZX2 plugged in to my car stereo, too). 
 
I think that CNET's review is correct in describing these headphones as striking a good balance between being revealing, especially for high res, while also forgiving of 256 and mp3s. They are extremely comfortable, too.  For $299, they are a bargain.  I am keeping them.