Review: Sony MDR-7509HD Headphones

Unlike the original MDR-V6 and its popular replacement, the MDR-7506, whose speakers sit on top of your ears, the 7509HDs are circumaural—the ear cushions completely surround your ears instead of mashing against them. That allows the sound to bounce around the folds of your outer ear before it reaches your eardrums, which sounded more spacious and natural to me. It also helps block outside sound, which is why my main headphones for the last five years have been a pair of circumaural Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros.

After you've folded your 7509HDs into a tidy package, you can carry them in the included leatherette pouch (not shown).

Although the 7509HDs can fold up like the older models (see photo at left), they also have a nifty new feature: Each earpiece can rotate 180°, which is handy for one-ear, DJ-style listening.

The cord is a whopping three meters long. Although it's coiled to help tame the length, that's another clue these phones are designed for studio use, not wandering around with an iPod. Nonetheless, my first test was to plug them into a portable MP3 player. Reaction: "Whoa! This sounds terrible." The high-definition headphones were revealing the MP3 file's poor quality.

Moving on to better source material, I auditioned some 24-bit WAV files, including Cycling '74's Momentary Incursions, some orchestral demos from EastWest's Quantum Leap series, and this acoustic guitar recording. I also sampled the EBU's Sound Quality Assessment Material, Kevin Donohue's threshold of hearing tests, and some frequency sweeps and fixed-frequency sine waves I made with Katsura AudioTest.

Of course, no one listens to test tones for fun, so I spent the bulk of my two months with the 7509HDs listening to music for pleasure, not analysis. Also, my current audio interface tops out at 24kHz—i.e., half the 48kHz sampling rate—and my ears top out well before that, so this isn't a lab-coat review.

That said, one of the most revealing tests was when I used the 7509HDs to mix the premiere Digital Media Insider podcast. (It was too late at night to run my normal speakers.) The next morning when I checked the mix on the speakers, I noticed it was bass-heavy. That indicates that the 7509HDs were weak in the low end, which had led me to crank up the bass to compensate. I heard the same problem on other speakers.

Comparing the 7509HDs with my Beyerdynamic DT770s, I confirmed the difference. With low-frequency sine waves, the Sonys delivered a soft, flapping sound, whereas the Beyerdynamics produced a full tone. (Surprisingly, my ancient MDR-V6s had more oomph than the new 7509HDs.) It's difficult to compare different headphones directly, because volume has such a huge impact on perceived sound quality, but no matter where I set the mixer's output level, I couldn't get the 7509HDs to match the DT770s' solid bass.

In a possibly related vein, Sony touts the 7509HDs' ability to handle up to three watts of power (which they euphemistically state as 3,000 milliwatts), but an audiophile composer to whom I lent the headphones heard occasional distortion on peaks. He praised the 7509HDs' comfort, though. The generously sized ear cups and perfect spring tension really cradle the ear.

Head(phones) over Heels

Sony's new 7509HD headphones are comfortable, light for their size, well built, and spacious sounding. I was disappointed by the bass, but heard only good things in the midrange and treble. The folding/flip-out ear cups are a nice touch, and given how long my last Sonys have been in service, the $199 street price isn't unreasonable. I've never regretted buying quality, but have often regretted cheaping out.

That said, you can get similar functionality for $100 less, and in several situations, such as traveling or live use, you probably wouldn't want such expensive cans. Unless you're listening to binaural recordings (or video games mixed for headphones), I feel big headphones like these work best as "microscopes," helping you check original recordings for glitches or simply get another perspective. For that, having a number of quality headphones on hand is invaluable, and the Sony MDR-7509HDs certainly do their job in style.