Teska
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2013
- Posts
- 66
- Likes
- 19
Have been listening to these for hours and I am stunned about their sound. I seemed to remember that they sounded good, but what did I know, I was 10y old back then.
Specs: Can't find anything on these online.
Build Quality:
So they're bought in 1980, and I myself have been using them for years back then. I don't really now when they slid into oblivion, but they had some real long closet time. 33 years later nothing has broken, everything still works great. Sliding system to adjust the headband does what it's supposed to, headband itself is still fine, seams didn't come loose. The spiral cord hasn't broke eather and it has the original plug. But what amazes me the most is the fact those volume and tone controls had minor disruptions when I turned them. After two turns everything was fine again. The earpads are completely flat but I don't know how they were new anymore. They are glued but I think they could be replaced if needed.
Comfort:
Allthough the earpads are this flat, these are still quite comfortable. My ears rest against the inner plastic grille but it doesn't hurt. Adjustment works okay and when you take your time you will find a good fit. The broad headband feels good too. One thing that bothers me is the spiral cord, it pulls these headphones off your head when you try to to go further than 4 ft away from your source. All my other phones got straight 8 or 10 ft cords and that's definitly the better choice.
Butt all together it is a nice, comfortable pair of headphones ! The neutral sound also makes it phones I can listen too for hours without fatigue.
Sound:
Since it only has a 6,3 mm jack I plugged it straight into my Yamaha Dolby receiver, which has a nice output, much better than my Macbook. I don't know what these HP need but plugged into this receiver sound is more than decent. I the did it old school and played CD's ! For comparisment I plugged in my filtered HD681-B and on the receiver that one suddenly sounded overly bright again. First thing that I noticed was how neutral these Sony's DR-S5's sound. I think I really hear the pure mix on these.
I never use EQ when listening to music. Because I recorded in several - very good till very bad - studio's, throughout my musician years, I discovered that mixers allways strive to create the best possible flat mix. So using EQ accually changes the sound and position of instruments and is not advised to hear the music as is supposed to be listened to.
Bass: These have firm, puncy bass. Even with the flat earpads. So I have been asking myself how they'd sound with thick, soft pads. But I can 't do an experiment cause I promised my brother I wouldn't tear them apart.
Mids: I don't know how to say this: mids are there and they are all they need to be. Not recessed at all, not pronounced, simply as I need them to be.
Highs: Allthought slightly recessed they are good, every cymbal sounds as they do when you're in the room with them. I know cause I did the latest recordings myself. So highs not too bright, maybe they should be a little brighter.
Soundstage:
It is a bit narrow. The stereo image is like I think it should be. Vocals, bassguitar, kickdrums and snaredrums are all nicely sitting in the middle of my head, where they should be. Panned instruments like guitars, backing vocals, tom toms, cymbals, horns and keyboards are outside of the head but never far away. Nice for being closed though.
Compared to filtered Superlux HD681-B:
These Superlux' come over as 'screamy' next to these Sony's. The Superlux' are much brighter but that's okay. Bass on the Sony's is much better every way. More solid, deeper, firmer and punchy. The biggest difference is in the mids though. Compared with the Sony's the Superlux seems to scream out the mids. Soundstage is wider with the Superlux, guess them being semi-open has everything to do with this. So I would choose the Sony over the Superlux any day.
Tone controls on the cups:
These have to be passive cause there's no batteries involved. So when I turn them to 'low' all that happens is highs get dampened. When I turn them slightly back to 'high' highs come back to life and noting notable happens anymore untill max position. So these controls only take highs down when needed.
Songs:
Meshuggah - Break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.
Meshuggah is an extreme progressive metalband. They play heavily downtuned music in difficult patterns. Guitars playes in low A or even H and are not easy to reproduce to their full potential. These DR-S5 have no trouble with that at all ! These HP almost seem to lift off my ears from this bands percussive way of playing. Every crack in the rough vocals sound so clear and upfront. Seriously good stuff here.
Tori Amos - Little Eathquakes
In the beginning Tori recorded her songs real organic, only her and voice her piano. The album doesn't have a million Dollar production but that's just what I like. This pureness is audible and these DR-S5 allow me to hear exacly that. The ambient decay of the piano, her breating between phrases, strings ringing in her piano. Again fantastic what these old cans feed me.
Jamiroquai - Deeper Underground
I covered this song once and thus had to study the fantastic bassguitar parts. It's bassguitar parts are heavily distorted with effects (synth bass) and drives the song. Productions is of huge quality with little ambient sounds being added while the song progesses. I heard new details with these 33y old HP. Fell in love with the song again.
Nelly Furtado - Say it right
This is a Timbaland production. This guy loves to put the beat just slightly off so the song sounds as organic possible, even for being electronicly created. The main beat here is very deep but not extremely focused. Then there's Nelly angelic voice which flows over it... these cans are able to provide all frequenties needed. Bass is thumping deep and stays puncy, undistorted and firm. Again I can't believe that even in 1980 there were haedphones being build that are capeable to produce this kind of SQ.
Shades of Grey - Fear my god
This a song from my bands former full album. I love this song and I was present at the complete production process. My bassguitar playes a leading role in this song and that exacly what I hear in these Sony's. The one thing that always strike me is the neutrality of the sound. I was there when this song was mixed and these headphones put me back into the controll room hearing the mix on the studio monitors. I even hear reverbs effects I didn't realize they were there. And I hear the guitars are EQ'd a bit too much, making them sound a bit artificial.
Pain of Salvation - Ashes
This is my fav song of this Swedes. Production of this album is poor in the low regions. These headphones make me hear the truth. Very recessed kickdrum and bassguitar. Vocals and guitars are perfect though. And again I can hear the slightest variation in the reverbs of delay effects being used. The fantastic vocals are nicely forewarded, like intended cause it's a fantastic singer. Being my fav song I've listened to it on all sorts of reproduction systems and these Sony's seem to be giving me the most acurate sonal image untill now.
Skrillex - First of the year (Equinox)
Extreme electronic music with the deepest possible bass frequenties. In this song I can clearly hear the bass on these doesn 't extend as deep as my Somic. Bass is good and never recessed, but it lacks some subbass. Finally found one minor "flaw" on these ! Even so, the song sounds spectacular and all the typical dubstep effects do not annoy like they do on 'screamy' phones like the Superlux.
The National - Blood Buzz Ohio
I love this song ! It's easy listening kinda music with baritone vocals. The singers voice simply lifts this song up to a high level and everything happening around those vocals seem to serve it. On some headphones this song sounds thin. On a basshead phones the vocals are too upfront. On phones with recessed bass (K271 studio) the mix seems off. With these Sony's all is fine. Song sound completely in balans.
Conclusion:
I said it too much before but for me it's the truth: these are beyond my expectations and I am looking for them myself now cause my brother doesn't want to part from them. Too bad cause with him they were simply doing closet time. At this moment I have these headphones in the house: AKG K271 Studio, Superlux HD681-B, Sony MDR CD570 and Somic MH489. So for most I only have cheap pairs. Well to me with €150 retail price the AKG are expensive headphones. These old Sony DR-S5 outshines them all in accuracy. They are the most neutral I've heard and strike as being perfect to do final mixdown on recordings cause what I hear is what is there. No coloration. But that me talking. Maybe your opinion will vary more or less. Anyway very good vintage headphones !
Specs: Can't find anything on these online.
Build Quality:
So they're bought in 1980, and I myself have been using them for years back then. I don't really now when they slid into oblivion, but they had some real long closet time. 33 years later nothing has broken, everything still works great. Sliding system to adjust the headband does what it's supposed to, headband itself is still fine, seams didn't come loose. The spiral cord hasn't broke eather and it has the original plug. But what amazes me the most is the fact those volume and tone controls had minor disruptions when I turned them. After two turns everything was fine again. The earpads are completely flat but I don't know how they were new anymore. They are glued but I think they could be replaced if needed.
Comfort:
Allthough the earpads are this flat, these are still quite comfortable. My ears rest against the inner plastic grille but it doesn't hurt. Adjustment works okay and when you take your time you will find a good fit. The broad headband feels good too. One thing that bothers me is the spiral cord, it pulls these headphones off your head when you try to to go further than 4 ft away from your source. All my other phones got straight 8 or 10 ft cords and that's definitly the better choice.
Butt all together it is a nice, comfortable pair of headphones ! The neutral sound also makes it phones I can listen too for hours without fatigue.
Sound:
Since it only has a 6,3 mm jack I plugged it straight into my Yamaha Dolby receiver, which has a nice output, much better than my Macbook. I don't know what these HP need but plugged into this receiver sound is more than decent. I the did it old school and played CD's ! For comparisment I plugged in my filtered HD681-B and on the receiver that one suddenly sounded overly bright again. First thing that I noticed was how neutral these Sony's DR-S5's sound. I think I really hear the pure mix on these.
I never use EQ when listening to music. Because I recorded in several - very good till very bad - studio's, throughout my musician years, I discovered that mixers allways strive to create the best possible flat mix. So using EQ accually changes the sound and position of instruments and is not advised to hear the music as is supposed to be listened to.
Bass: These have firm, puncy bass. Even with the flat earpads. So I have been asking myself how they'd sound with thick, soft pads. But I can 't do an experiment cause I promised my brother I wouldn't tear them apart.
Mids: I don't know how to say this: mids are there and they are all they need to be. Not recessed at all, not pronounced, simply as I need them to be.
Highs: Allthought slightly recessed they are good, every cymbal sounds as they do when you're in the room with them. I know cause I did the latest recordings myself. So highs not too bright, maybe they should be a little brighter.
Soundstage:
It is a bit narrow. The stereo image is like I think it should be. Vocals, bassguitar, kickdrums and snaredrums are all nicely sitting in the middle of my head, where they should be. Panned instruments like guitars, backing vocals, tom toms, cymbals, horns and keyboards are outside of the head but never far away. Nice for being closed though.
Compared to filtered Superlux HD681-B:
These Superlux' come over as 'screamy' next to these Sony's. The Superlux' are much brighter but that's okay. Bass on the Sony's is much better every way. More solid, deeper, firmer and punchy. The biggest difference is in the mids though. Compared with the Sony's the Superlux seems to scream out the mids. Soundstage is wider with the Superlux, guess them being semi-open has everything to do with this. So I would choose the Sony over the Superlux any day.
Tone controls on the cups:
These have to be passive cause there's no batteries involved. So when I turn them to 'low' all that happens is highs get dampened. When I turn them slightly back to 'high' highs come back to life and noting notable happens anymore untill max position. So these controls only take highs down when needed.
Songs:
Meshuggah - Break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.
Meshuggah is an extreme progressive metalband. They play heavily downtuned music in difficult patterns. Guitars playes in low A or even H and are not easy to reproduce to their full potential. These DR-S5 have no trouble with that at all ! These HP almost seem to lift off my ears from this bands percussive way of playing. Every crack in the rough vocals sound so clear and upfront. Seriously good stuff here.
Tori Amos - Little Eathquakes
In the beginning Tori recorded her songs real organic, only her and voice her piano. The album doesn't have a million Dollar production but that's just what I like. This pureness is audible and these DR-S5 allow me to hear exacly that. The ambient decay of the piano, her breating between phrases, strings ringing in her piano. Again fantastic what these old cans feed me.
Jamiroquai - Deeper Underground
I covered this song once and thus had to study the fantastic bassguitar parts. It's bassguitar parts are heavily distorted with effects (synth bass) and drives the song. Productions is of huge quality with little ambient sounds being added while the song progesses. I heard new details with these 33y old HP. Fell in love with the song again.
Nelly Furtado - Say it right
This is a Timbaland production. This guy loves to put the beat just slightly off so the song sounds as organic possible, even for being electronicly created. The main beat here is very deep but not extremely focused. Then there's Nelly angelic voice which flows over it... these cans are able to provide all frequenties needed. Bass is thumping deep and stays puncy, undistorted and firm. Again I can't believe that even in 1980 there were haedphones being build that are capeable to produce this kind of SQ.
Shades of Grey - Fear my god
This a song from my bands former full album. I love this song and I was present at the complete production process. My bassguitar playes a leading role in this song and that exacly what I hear in these Sony's. The one thing that always strike me is the neutrality of the sound. I was there when this song was mixed and these headphones put me back into the controll room hearing the mix on the studio monitors. I even hear reverbs effects I didn't realize they were there. And I hear the guitars are EQ'd a bit too much, making them sound a bit artificial.
Pain of Salvation - Ashes
This is my fav song of this Swedes. Production of this album is poor in the low regions. These headphones make me hear the truth. Very recessed kickdrum and bassguitar. Vocals and guitars are perfect though. And again I can hear the slightest variation in the reverbs of delay effects being used. The fantastic vocals are nicely forewarded, like intended cause it's a fantastic singer. Being my fav song I've listened to it on all sorts of reproduction systems and these Sony's seem to be giving me the most acurate sonal image untill now.
Skrillex - First of the year (Equinox)
Extreme electronic music with the deepest possible bass frequenties. In this song I can clearly hear the bass on these doesn 't extend as deep as my Somic. Bass is good and never recessed, but it lacks some subbass. Finally found one minor "flaw" on these ! Even so, the song sounds spectacular and all the typical dubstep effects do not annoy like they do on 'screamy' phones like the Superlux.
The National - Blood Buzz Ohio
I love this song ! It's easy listening kinda music with baritone vocals. The singers voice simply lifts this song up to a high level and everything happening around those vocals seem to serve it. On some headphones this song sounds thin. On a basshead phones the vocals are too upfront. On phones with recessed bass (K271 studio) the mix seems off. With these Sony's all is fine. Song sound completely in balans.
Conclusion:
I said it too much before but for me it's the truth: these are beyond my expectations and I am looking for them myself now cause my brother doesn't want to part from them. Too bad cause with him they were simply doing closet time. At this moment I have these headphones in the house: AKG K271 Studio, Superlux HD681-B, Sony MDR CD570 and Somic MH489. So for most I only have cheap pairs. Well to me with €150 retail price the AKG are expensive headphones. These old Sony DR-S5 outshines them all in accuracy. They are the most neutral I've heard and strike as being perfect to do final mixdown on recordings cause what I hear is what is there. No coloration. But that me talking. Maybe your opinion will vary more or less. Anyway very good vintage headphones !
