The one thing I haven't seen anyone mention is that they're not fully closed back phones. They have small vents on the back sides of the ear cups that allow a fair amount of your sound to bleed out into the room. They still keep room noise out quite well. These may not be the best option for tracking/overdubbing or if you need to mix silently so as to not bother others near you. Also, if you're taking these as general listeners on a trip, you may bother other passengers around you.
They're not truly open back phones either - sort of a hybrid.
Again, they sound fantastic, but this detail shouldn't be overlooked.
At normal listening levels for me, I don't find this to be the case. I turned these up a bit louder than I would normally listen to and gently pushed the cups together (just enough to create a seal) and could barely hear anything leaking, even within a foot of the headphones.
At loud levels (louder than I can stand to listen to) you can definitely hear some sound leaking out though, and it's very possible that my "normal" is another person's "too quiet". I have rather sensitive hearing.
It's good to hear impressions from a few new users though, especially the comparison with the H6, P7, and Momentums.
Surprised about this. One of the things I can't get used to with the 7520 is how "in your head" it is. It's so detailed and defined but its so pact in. It reminds me of Etymotic iems, really, except with quantity of bass. I kind of get fatigued listening to the 7520 because of how demanding it can be. I think it would be great as a studio monitor when someone is trying to analyze. But for just listening, I like something less demanding. Sure, less demanding can be less awe-inspiring, but sometimes having less detail in a bigger space is better. just my opinion.
Are you used to open headphones? Because for closed headphones, the 7520 seem to have a respectable sound stage. Maybe not the widest, but they don't seem too "closed in" to me.
If you use a PC for playback, there are VST plugins which can really open up the headphones.
The problem is that when you are listening with a sealed/isolated headphone, there is no crossfeed between the left and right channels. A sound sent to the left channel is
only heard in the left ear.
If you are listening to speakers or, to a lesser extent, open headphones, you get sound in your left ear and then after a short delay, it also hits your right ear.
I find
Redline Monitor to be the best solution for this - unlike a lot of plugins which try to simulate speakers in a room, it can be configured to still sound like headphones, restoring the crossfeed in a natural way. This makes any headphone sound more "open" and improves positioning without sounding artificial, because all it's doing is restoring the auditory cues that are lost when listening to closed/sealed headphones, rather than being a fake "sound expander" effect. I use it with all my headphones - not just the MDR-7520.
If you want a hardware solution, there is the
SPL Phonitor, though I don't have experience with it. The original model was not really suited to low impedance headphones, but I think the Phonitor 2 is. Their crossfeed is not as advanced as digital signal processing is capable of though.
And they're definitely a keeper. Comfortable and great SQ.
