So after a long time of searching, I've come to the conclusion that the Sony MDR-V6 and it's family simply don't have an appreciation thread. Lots of headphones and headphones families (or series, such as the Grado's) have appreciation threads, but it seems that many people like, love and think the V6 family (and themselves) deserve an appreciation thread, and as a VERY proud owner of the V6, I believe I could make one. I decided to make a very uniform appreciation thread, so that it sticks out from the normal ones that just say "____ appreciation thread" and only have a few paragraphs and sentences regarding why they like the headphone. I have no problem with that, I just personally think the V6 deserve better (and some other headphones deserve better too 
but thats for another day.)
Now, I know there are some people on the forum who do not like them, or any of the ones in the V6 family, and to that, I say; that's just fine, but please dont come into an appreciation thread saying that a certain headphone sucks, as the matter of the fact is, it's your opinion. What I hear in my ears IS different from what you hear in your ears. I like what I ear in my ears, so I say that "x" headphone sounds good to me, do I say it's the end all headphone? No. So I would expect everyone on head-fi.org to be mature and respect that some people really do like the V6, like me, and to not come in here bashing them, or their family. They're not perfect headphones, but for the price, you can't go wrong, atleast that's my opinion and the opinion of many other people. It's subjective. Fact. Deal with it.
Anyway, now that I'm over the whole part of the thread that deals with flamerbait, trolls, close-minded people, and the whole negative group, I should go ahead and get on with appreciating the MDR-V6 family!
The Sony MDR-V6 are a closed, circumaural (for most people) pair of headphones that have been around for years, since the 1980s, they have been regarded as "the studio standard for headphones" many times, and, while some people can agree and disagree, they are known for their fairly neutral and flat response (for the cash you doll out), and have been regarded and loved as some of the most durable headphones ever. There are stories of people having these headphones for 25 years! I personally have experience with the sheer durability and ruggedness of these phones as I have tossed them about, chucked them at walls, dropped them accidentally (and unaccidentally), and they still come back to me looking like they were made to be beaten (meaning they looked perfectly fine. Tank-quality build)... the thing is; they were!
Very very, VERY big selling points of the V6 (that everyone seems to have a consensus on) are it's atomic-war-proof durability, much better than average comfort (not the best, but damn good.), very clean, utilitaristic and minimalistic styling, it's very versatile and usable coiled chord, and it's ability to be driven VERY easily by most portables, sound cards, and just about every source, with very good returns.
Some points that I personally love about these headphones that others may dispute on, is that the plug is heavy-duty and simply looks like it means bussiness, mostly because it does. I also love the sound signature to death! It suits me perfectly and I will be looking forward to upgrading to something else in the V6 family soon (but keeping the V6s of course), and I love the packaging they come in! A red velvet-like cloth bed for these simplistic and rugged headphones, in a golden-shaded box and simple yet intriguing designs. They also fold amazingly well, and are very portable!
I've listened to many many other headphones, and I have to say, no, they are not the absolute best sound quality in general, but the sound signature just plain fits me. No other word for it. The V6 family is my family, and for 60$ (US, I got them in Canada shipped, by Amazon.ca for 117$) headphones, the sound quality is DAMNED good!
Here are some technical specs of the Sony MDR-V6 if you seem to fancy specs.
-
Driver Units: Dynamic 40mm
Impedance: 63 ohms at 1 KHz
Sensitivity: 106 dB/mW
Watts: 0.5 W
Power handling capacity: 1 W
Frequency Response: 5 Hz - 30kHz
-
Overall, not a bad spread even just for headphones in the 60$ range.
Headphones that are in the MDR-V6 family are; The Sony MDR-V6 (Obviously...), The Sony MDR-V600, The Sony MDR-V7506, the Sony MDR-V7509HD, and finally the Sony MDR-CD900ST.
The general consensus on the sound signature is that they are: analytical, bright, very detailed, have a nice tight bass, a little bit recessed in the low-mid, and a little bit accentuated on the high-mids and treble in general, but overall maintain a good recipe for monitoring.
For music, lots of people say it's a little bit of a "different" experience than most music aimed towards listening to music, and I personally like this "different" experience! For gaming, I can personally say that they have VERY good spatial cues as to where something is, how fast it's moving, etc, and for movies, I'd say they're adequate. Nothing mind-blowing when it comes to movies on the V6s, but heck! They're quite good! And, of course, for making music and monitoring, that is EXACTLY where the V6 is slotted towards! You cannot go wrong with these!
Here are the frequency response charts for what of the family you can find on Headroom. This excludes the CD900ST and the V600.
As you can see, the V6s and 7506s (commonly called the same headphones or extremely similar ones), have a very visible good quality bass, not overbearing in quantity, but delivering in quality, as well as the detail of high frequencies! A visible part of the sound signature is the recession of the lower-mids, and it seems the V6s accentuate the most exciting parts of songs, games, or recordings as climaxes usually take part in the bass frequencies or higher frequences (including high-mid, which, the V6s has quite nice quality of them).
For these circum-aural headphones, comfort is very high. While it may not be able to be as comfortable as the XB300/500/700 or other very comfortable headphones, I can easily wear these all day long and not suffer discomfort or excessive weight from the headphones or chord (which is coiled). The comfort can also be increased by buying velour pads or modifying the stock pads if you somehow find the V6s uncomfortable, which I have not heard of, nor seen anyone sick of their comfort.
As for portability, these are also quite far up there, while in terms of actual size, these are in the mid-range of size; not as small as PX90s, but not as big as K250s, but they fold amazingly well, can stand LOTS of beating around in a bag (as said several times), can be put into the included leather carrying pouch, and really, can be used quite effectively as "life" headphones for use from morning till midnight and beyond again, as thats what I use these headphones for. They're quite portable overall.
As for accesories, there isnt a whole lot given to you, but you are given a 1/4" adapter plug and leather carrying pouch. I personally dont use the other adapter but the leather carrying pouch is quite nice to the feel, feels durable, and is minimalistic in design; just plain matte black with a little white "SONY" logo in the bottom left.
Overall, I've said it many times before, but I love these Sonys. Own them and love them too? Leave a reply saying so and why you love em, and throw out some conversation pieces. Dont like em? Thats cool too, if you want to maturely bring it up with a reply, go ahead and do that. Dont like em and are immature? Please dont reply. Have questions about the headphones? Feel free to ask!
Here are a few pictures of my MDR-V6 so that we can all have a little bit of an image
The V6's in all their glory, propped up.
The V6's with a nice sneak-peek of their earpads, which are actually quite soft and comfortable. If the leatherette doesnt suit you, pearstone and beyer makes velour pads for your liking. The isolation on these phones are really quite good, it wont block out too much as to put you in a dangerous situation, but it'll EASILY block out loud annoying noises in the background (such as walking through a highschool at home time where lots of voices mesh together. I hear nothing but music with these on).
A nice shot of the V6 plug, which is very heavy-duty looking and made of metal. Also a good look at the coiled chord.
The V6 hanging on it's resting spot. Yes the headband is stitched and very comfortable. But this picture shows on of the two complaints of the V6. If you look closely, you can see that the bottom earpad has a bit of a tear in the seam where it was sewn. Now I did say the pads are durable, and they are, but it seems their achiless heel is that seam. Do these little tears on the seam affect the comfortableness of the pads? NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST! They still feel JUST as comfortable as before! Is there padding flying out of the seam that I need to constantly stuff back in? NOPE! The pad seems to be all meshed together in one single comfy piece! Also, I'm just gonna get right down to see if I can sew it back together, hopefully it'll work. I'm gonna get that sewn together. Also, my other complaint which I hope to see if I can somehow modify out of them, is the static shock they give their owners from time to time. These headphones love us so much they give us a little love shock :')
A nice picture of the headband, clearly showing the "STUDIO MONITOR" moniker placed on the band to show it's pride as a olden-day standard and new-day backup as monitor headphones. Also, it adds a bit of flare and styling points to the headphones, not letting it have an awkward empty space.
And I could'nt resist. U MAD BEATS OWNERS?
Thanks for letting me go out on a rave about my V6s! I love these things and after the mods I do to em, they'll probably be staying in my family FOR A VERY LONG TIME, that, or I'll move up in the family, but this sound signature suits me perfectly!
Also, I decided that maybe I'll compile a bit of a list of V6 owners, now i know theres tons of em, but I'm just gonna throw out a list of them, along with their family!
List of MDR-V6/MDR-V7506 Owners:
- elemein (MDR-V6)
List of MDR-V600 Owners:
List of MDR-7509HD Owners:
List of CD-900ST Owners:
Own any of these? Throw a PM, reply, or anything to get thrown on the list!
Bye!!
but thats for another day.)Now, I know there are some people on the forum who do not like them, or any of the ones in the V6 family, and to that, I say; that's just fine, but please dont come into an appreciation thread saying that a certain headphone sucks, as the matter of the fact is, it's your opinion. What I hear in my ears IS different from what you hear in your ears. I like what I ear in my ears, so I say that "x" headphone sounds good to me, do I say it's the end all headphone? No. So I would expect everyone on head-fi.org to be mature and respect that some people really do like the V6, like me, and to not come in here bashing them, or their family. They're not perfect headphones, but for the price, you can't go wrong, atleast that's my opinion and the opinion of many other people. It's subjective. Fact. Deal with it.
Anyway, now that I'm over the whole part of the thread that deals with flamerbait, trolls, close-minded people, and the whole negative group, I should go ahead and get on with appreciating the MDR-V6 family!
The Sony MDR-V6 are a closed, circumaural (for most people) pair of headphones that have been around for years, since the 1980s, they have been regarded as "the studio standard for headphones" many times, and, while some people can agree and disagree, they are known for their fairly neutral and flat response (for the cash you doll out), and have been regarded and loved as some of the most durable headphones ever. There are stories of people having these headphones for 25 years! I personally have experience with the sheer durability and ruggedness of these phones as I have tossed them about, chucked them at walls, dropped them accidentally (and unaccidentally), and they still come back to me looking like they were made to be beaten (meaning they looked perfectly fine. Tank-quality build)... the thing is; they were!
Very very, VERY big selling points of the V6 (that everyone seems to have a consensus on) are it's atomic-war-proof durability, much better than average comfort (not the best, but damn good.), very clean, utilitaristic and minimalistic styling, it's very versatile and usable coiled chord, and it's ability to be driven VERY easily by most portables, sound cards, and just about every source, with very good returns.
Some points that I personally love about these headphones that others may dispute on, is that the plug is heavy-duty and simply looks like it means bussiness, mostly because it does. I also love the sound signature to death! It suits me perfectly and I will be looking forward to upgrading to something else in the V6 family soon (but keeping the V6s of course), and I love the packaging they come in! A red velvet-like cloth bed for these simplistic and rugged headphones, in a golden-shaded box and simple yet intriguing designs. They also fold amazingly well, and are very portable!
I've listened to many many other headphones, and I have to say, no, they are not the absolute best sound quality in general, but the sound signature just plain fits me. No other word for it. The V6 family is my family, and for 60$ (US, I got them in Canada shipped, by Amazon.ca for 117$) headphones, the sound quality is DAMNED good!
Here are some technical specs of the Sony MDR-V6 if you seem to fancy specs.
-
Driver Units: Dynamic 40mm
Impedance: 63 ohms at 1 KHz
Sensitivity: 106 dB/mW
Watts: 0.5 W
Power handling capacity: 1 W
Frequency Response: 5 Hz - 30kHz
-
Overall, not a bad spread even just for headphones in the 60$ range.
Headphones that are in the MDR-V6 family are; The Sony MDR-V6 (Obviously...), The Sony MDR-V600, The Sony MDR-V7506, the Sony MDR-V7509HD, and finally the Sony MDR-CD900ST.
The general consensus on the sound signature is that they are: analytical, bright, very detailed, have a nice tight bass, a little bit recessed in the low-mid, and a little bit accentuated on the high-mids and treble in general, but overall maintain a good recipe for monitoring.
For music, lots of people say it's a little bit of a "different" experience than most music aimed towards listening to music, and I personally like this "different" experience! For gaming, I can personally say that they have VERY good spatial cues as to where something is, how fast it's moving, etc, and for movies, I'd say they're adequate. Nothing mind-blowing when it comes to movies on the V6s, but heck! They're quite good! And, of course, for making music and monitoring, that is EXACTLY where the V6 is slotted towards! You cannot go wrong with these!
Here are the frequency response charts for what of the family you can find on Headroom. This excludes the CD900ST and the V600.
As you can see, the V6s and 7506s (commonly called the same headphones or extremely similar ones), have a very visible good quality bass, not overbearing in quantity, but delivering in quality, as well as the detail of high frequencies! A visible part of the sound signature is the recession of the lower-mids, and it seems the V6s accentuate the most exciting parts of songs, games, or recordings as climaxes usually take part in the bass frequencies or higher frequences (including high-mid, which, the V6s has quite nice quality of them).
For these circum-aural headphones, comfort is very high. While it may not be able to be as comfortable as the XB300/500/700 or other very comfortable headphones, I can easily wear these all day long and not suffer discomfort or excessive weight from the headphones or chord (which is coiled). The comfort can also be increased by buying velour pads or modifying the stock pads if you somehow find the V6s uncomfortable, which I have not heard of, nor seen anyone sick of their comfort.
As for portability, these are also quite far up there, while in terms of actual size, these are in the mid-range of size; not as small as PX90s, but not as big as K250s, but they fold amazingly well, can stand LOTS of beating around in a bag (as said several times), can be put into the included leather carrying pouch, and really, can be used quite effectively as "life" headphones for use from morning till midnight and beyond again, as thats what I use these headphones for. They're quite portable overall.
As for accesories, there isnt a whole lot given to you, but you are given a 1/4" adapter plug and leather carrying pouch. I personally dont use the other adapter but the leather carrying pouch is quite nice to the feel, feels durable, and is minimalistic in design; just plain matte black with a little white "SONY" logo in the bottom left.
Overall, I've said it many times before, but I love these Sonys. Own them and love them too? Leave a reply saying so and why you love em, and throw out some conversation pieces. Dont like em? Thats cool too, if you want to maturely bring it up with a reply, go ahead and do that. Dont like em and are immature? Please dont reply. Have questions about the headphones? Feel free to ask!
Here are a few pictures of my MDR-V6 so that we can all have a little bit of an image
The V6's in all their glory, propped up.
The V6's with a nice sneak-peek of their earpads, which are actually quite soft and comfortable. If the leatherette doesnt suit you, pearstone and beyer makes velour pads for your liking. The isolation on these phones are really quite good, it wont block out too much as to put you in a dangerous situation, but it'll EASILY block out loud annoying noises in the background (such as walking through a highschool at home time where lots of voices mesh together. I hear nothing but music with these on).
A nice shot of the V6 plug, which is very heavy-duty looking and made of metal. Also a good look at the coiled chord.
The V6 hanging on it's resting spot. Yes the headband is stitched and very comfortable. But this picture shows on of the two complaints of the V6. If you look closely, you can see that the bottom earpad has a bit of a tear in the seam where it was sewn. Now I did say the pads are durable, and they are, but it seems their achiless heel is that seam. Do these little tears on the seam affect the comfortableness of the pads? NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST! They still feel JUST as comfortable as before! Is there padding flying out of the seam that I need to constantly stuff back in? NOPE! The pad seems to be all meshed together in one single comfy piece! Also, I'm just gonna get right down to see if I can sew it back together, hopefully it'll work. I'm gonna get that sewn together. Also, my other complaint which I hope to see if I can somehow modify out of them, is the static shock they give their owners from time to time. These headphones love us so much they give us a little love shock :')
A nice picture of the headband, clearly showing the "STUDIO MONITOR" moniker placed on the band to show it's pride as a olden-day standard and new-day backup as monitor headphones. Also, it adds a bit of flare and styling points to the headphones, not letting it have an awkward empty space.
And I could'nt resist. U MAD BEATS OWNERS?
Thanks for letting me go out on a rave about my V6s! I love these things and after the mods I do to em, they'll probably be staying in my family FOR A VERY LONG TIME, that, or I'll move up in the family, but this sound signature suits me perfectly!
Also, I decided that maybe I'll compile a bit of a list of V6 owners, now i know theres tons of em, but I'm just gonna throw out a list of them, along with their family!
List of MDR-V6/MDR-V7506 Owners:
- elemein (MDR-V6)
List of MDR-V600 Owners:
List of MDR-7509HD Owners:
List of CD-900ST Owners:
Own any of these? Throw a PM, reply, or anything to get thrown on the list!
Bye!!
