Read this reviews before You buy..."Muddled high-end for this price!? NO WAY!", Well, I embarked on finding a new set of travel headphones after my last long plane ride. The earbuds just weren't hacking it, even though the pair I have are quite good. The jet engine noise finally got to me.
I have an old pair of Sony MDR-M77 headphones which are quite good, but I wanted something new. So, I studied what was available and settled on the MDR-V500DJ headphones. After purchasing a pair, I regret my choice and I am returning them.
When I got these headphones, I immediately plugged them into my iPod and picked a favorite cut from XTC (Mayor of Simpleton). As I listened to the song, I kept wondering what was wrong, Then, it dawned on me, the treble was entirely muffled. I grabbed the MDR-M77 and did a A-B test with several tracks. Same result. The MDR-V500DJ has little or no high-end. Just as a sanity check, I grabbed my Sony MDR-V6 phones and did the same test. I consider the MDR-V6 one of the best headphones ever made by the way. Yeah, the bass was definitely richer than the MDR-M77, which seem bright in comparison, but both were much closer to what I expected than the MDR-V500DJ.
I thought it might be the iPod, so picked a coupled of CDs (MFSL Dark Side of the Moon & Bernstein in Berlin-Beethoven Symphony no.9) to try in my portable CD player. Same result. While the MDR-M77 was the brighest of the three, the lack of high end on the MDR-V500DJ made neither CD sound good. Once again, the MDR-V6 was the best and most balanced of the three.
Still seeking the perfect lightweight headphones, I went to a local Magnolia Hi-Fi to try a better comparison. I tried both noise cancelling models from Sony, several Sennheiser models, the MDR-V600, MDR-V500DJ, and MDR-V300. First of all, forget the noise cancelling models. None of them sounded as good as MDR-V500DJ. The MDR-V600 was the best of them all and reminded me of the MDR-V6 (which I understand they replaced). The MDR-V300 is definitely better than the MDR-500DJ by a long shot, and I would say the MDR-V300 is comparable to Sennheiser HD-212. I am going to try them side-by-side at home soon.
Although many of the Sennheiser phones sounded good, they seemed over-priced compared to the MDR-V600. The only one that was close in price and quality was the HD-280. By the way, the HD-280 was uncomfortable and put a lot of pressure on my head.
Unless you like listening to bass only, do not buy the MDR-V500DJ headphones.
"Too quiet for their intended use", Let me begin by saying that these headphones are advertised as "for DJs/for studio use." Given this, one would expect Sony to be targeting their DJ audience with these headphones.
Which they most certainly did not!
While the audio quality of these headphones is quite impressive for the price (surpassing the similarly priced v600s, if you ask me), the fact that these are designed for DJ use bothers me because they lack in volume. Even with both headphone & master volume maxed on my mixer (pre-amp), I find myself struggling to hear what's happening on the channel B while channel A is playing over the speakers.
Kick in the extra cash and get the v700s, which outperform these in every way possible and are much better suited for live performance use. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a set of headphones for home use, these are a reasonable consideration.
"They fill the need.", Good - Loud, Crisp Sound, Fairly Comfortable, Tough Bad - Big, Heavy, Large Heads Only
I bought these as a replacment to the flimsy plastic headphones that came with my Discman. They definintely serve as a good replacement set for desk listening. They are quite bulky and "DJ" feature of the ear pieces makes them awkward to carry around in a bag. They do a great job helping me tune out the world around me. The cushy ear pads fit comfortably around my ears to seal them off from most outside noise. The bass is almost two much for my little brain - caused heavy brain vibration. The heavy duty construction is a strong selling point for these babies. You can break them with normal use and occasional drops. The do fit fairly snug on my bald head. However, even with my fairly large melon, I have to keep them on one of the smaller settings. The above metioned construction makes them heavy and they tend to slip quick. To prevent this slipping you have to have the cross piece rest directly on your head. Those of you with an afro or fluffy hair may want to consider another set of headphones.
"Very quiet", I bought one of these and one of the 300 model to test and compare. Although these were the more expensive model, and sounded better, volume was very low. The 300 was able to reproduce sound much louder despite the settings on any volume controls.
However, if you're a moderate-level user, and you're looking for supurb sound quality, it's here.
"Pros and Cons -", There are some pros and cons to these headphones. Most importantly though, the sound quality is quite good. Strong Bass performance and clear, smooth sound. Bass is strong and defined without being overly agressive.
The headphones don't cup your ears quite as well as a lot of other headphones; for instance, I doubt you could listen to these too loudly on a plane or a train without others around you noticing. Although I found them generally comfortable to wear, they don't grip your head that well - if I lean forward, they fall off.
What I do like though, is the fact that these can be folded up so if you need to put them in your bag like I do, then they won't get crushed and they won't take up so much room.
All in all I feel positive about these, but they are a little on the expensive side.
