[Kevin Brown]

Quote:

Kevin, I got mine from Ebay.  In fact, I just found the seller, after looking up the transaction on my Paypal account.  He is still selling them today:
 
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-SONY-MDR-V6-PRO-STUDIO-MONITOR-OVER-EAR-HEADPHONES-/400206541228?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d2e2b31ac#ht_3276wt_1144
 
I might try them again, but buy a used pair that have been broken in.  Is there a way to tell which ones are fake, from photos of the headphones only?
 
 

 That looks legit: US seller, price isn't too cheap.  You could email him and ask if he's an authorized seller.  Really hard to tell from pictures, other than the things I mentioned above.  There are a few threads here about fake V6's and fake 7506's.  You could try a search with "fake" and the model in it.

 

[roma101]

Cool finding this thread. I just nabbed a pair of used V6's off of ebay for $30. It's been a headphone I've been wanting to try for a very long time since I tend to like a flatter/more neutral response. Can anyone tell me how they compare to the M50s or HD-25s? And do they isolate more with Beyer pads?

 

[mibutenma]

Quote:

 It's been a headphone I've been wanting to try for a very long time since I tend to like a flatter/more neutral response.

The MDR V6 is anything but flat/neutral it has a nasty spike in the 2k range that gives it a dry lifeless grating sound.
 

 

[roma101]

Quote:

The MDR V6 is anything but flat/neutral it has a nasty spike in the 2k range that gives it a dry lifeless grating sound.
 

 
Ah true, I read they can be a bit shrill up top (although I also read this gets better with burn-in). Maybe I should've used the word "balanced" instead. I figured at the price-point, they're not the most neutral, but close to it since they're used for monitoring. Anyway, I'd love to hear people's opinions on them. They seem to be a lot of polar opposite opinions.
 
Does anyone know how these compare to HD-25s or M50s?

 

[RJ Hythloday]

I can only compare them to my senn hd280s and the v6 us not fully broken in but I like then better, I will be getting the beyer velour pads today, the senns were a bit more comfy.

 

[Ouspensky]

Quote:

I can only compare them to my senn hd280s and the v6 us not fully broken in but I like then better, I will be getting the beyer velour pads today, the senns were a bit more comfy.

I think you will love them with velour pads.

 

[Reticuli2]

I thought I already posted to this thread.
 
They have different magnets.
 
I thought the 7506 had very flat midrange and the measurements back that up.  I haven't heard the V6 in a while, but it appears to spoof your ears into thinking it's more extended than the 7506.  That may or not be what you want.  Both can sound bright or hard with the wrong source or material, but are pretty darn nice except for the lack of real extension and the poor bass THD measurements compare to some others, most more expensive headphones.
 
The CAL! is probably the headphone to beat right now in that price range, but doesn't look built as well.  The HD280 is potentially a better headphone than ALL of these, but unfortunately has some weird resonances from a not-so-sturdy driver housing, as Rat Sound discovered.  A thicker plastic or, better yet, magnesium housing would probably put the HD280 in a higher class of headphone.

 

[Kevin Brown]

 
Quote:

They have different magnets.
 

Can you cite a source for this?  Because elsewhere it's been posted that they have the identical internal parts, just that they are wired differently.

 
 

 

[Reticuli2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_MDR-V6
 
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&partNumber=MDRV6#specifications
 
http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-MDR7506/
 
Samarium Cobalt is more heat & radiation resistant (long used by NASA and Russian space agency) and more even & uniform in its magnetic field, but Neodymium has a higher field strength and doesn't lose strength over time if it's not subjected to any extremes... hence the reason pro sound stores have told me "they sound out of the box exactly as they will in a few years".  More stable tone on the 7506.  This probably explains some of why people who have very old pairs of V6 claim they sound different from newer ones, as well.  Samarium Cobalt ages over time, and if you don't like the 7506 sound in comparison, you'll probably like your weakened magnet decade-plus V6 more than a newer V6.  A lot of e-commerce sites have the V6 incorrectly listed as Neodymium.  The new V6 and 7506 headphones also test distinctly differently in response from one another, as can be seen in Headroom's measurements.

 

[Kevin Brown]

So there's a more concrete difference than just the wiring that explains why they sound different.  But really, the graphs on headroom aren't all that different:
 

 
It's been commented on before that headphone measurements like these aren't necessarily that repeatible even from the same headphone, and like some have mentioned, there's also manufacturing variation too.
 
A lot of guitar pickups use samarian cobalt too.
 
 

 

[brooce]

The MDR-V6 is to headphones what the Yamaha NS10 is to speakers...
And both enjoy the same level of ubuiquity and legend.
 
They need to be photographed together so people can point and laugh.

 

[Ouspensky]

Quote:

The MDR-V6 is to headphones what the Yamaha NS10 is to speakers...
And both enjoy the same level of ubuiquity and legend.
 
They need to be photographed together so people can point and laugh.

LOL so true!!! thousands of reference recordings were made using these.
 

 

[Reticuli2]

3-6dB response difference in both the highs and the lows is pretty significant and unlikely to be just random variance considering the magnets aren't the same according to the official specs.  I would bet money that's repeatable.  It's certainly a bigger range than Tyll and my Fostexes that were just measured.  It also is competely consistent with what people have been saying about the two for all these years, not to mention users' love for older (and presumably weakened) V6.  Of course, measurements using multiple units would certainly increase our confidence in that.

 

[Kevin Brown]

 
Quote:

3-6dB response difference in both the highs and the lows is pretty significant and unlikely to be just random variance considering the magnets aren't the same according to the official specs.  I would bet money that's repeatable.  It's certainly a bigger range than Tyll and my Fostexes that were just measured.  It also is competely consistent with what people have been saying about the two for all these years, not to mention users' love for older (and presumably weakened) V6.  Of course, measurements using multiple units would certainly increase our confidence in that.

The biggest difference between the two is simply that the curves are offset, and that most certainly could be a measurement artifact.
 
And since neodymium indeed has a higher field strength than samarium cobalt, all things being equal, the 7506 should have a higher output then.  I know that this is true for higher strength magnets used for guitar pickups.  But that's not what the graph shows.
 
But obviously they do sound different.  They are not identical headphones. 
 

 

[Jtom94]

this is really interesting. I always assumed they were identical headphones but this thread is really interesting.