"Not a good choice for on-the-go listening" | 2010-09-01 |
| - Reviewed By JW |
These were touted in several reviews as an "industry standard" and having excellent noise reproduction, but in the two weeks I've had them, they've been disappointing to me.
My last pair were Bose® QC2's ($299) which I destroyed with two years of severe and constant use. Beyond the glowing reviews for this Sony product, I wanted to see if I could get a comparable product for less than $100. The answer, I'm afraid, is a resounding and distortion-free NO!
I haven't had these long enough to comment on durability.
Comfort level is average. Wearing them with eyeglasses adds no significant discomfort.
Noise isolation was very disappointing. For around-ear design, I expected much less invasive external frequencies. Conversation level frequencies almost seem to reverberate, which is, to say the least, aggravating when, while listening in the same room with my girlfriend's TV, Andrea Bocelli has to compete with Chloe Kardashian.
Sound quality I would rate on par with most products in the $30-$50 range. These do sound pretty decent with my Yamaha receiver (as do my $20 Koss® phones), but for listeners like me wanting on-the-go (I-pod, laptop, etc.) performance, nothing can touch a really decent active noise-cancelling, battery-powered headset like Bose® produces. My apologies for what I know sounds like a paid endorsement, but I can't go spending hundreds of dollars on everybody's flagship products, just to give you an unbiased review. |
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"Excellent!" | 2010-08-25 |
| - Reviewed By Anthony Tirone |
| Shipping was extremely fast arriving on the first day of the estimation. The headphones work amazing! |
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"Good sound quality but with design flaws" | 2010-08-24 |
| - Reviewed By twillpants |
I use these headphones to DJ electronic music. They can be cranked to high volume without sound distortion, and of course they sound great at normal volumes. I have no complaints about sound quality, but about the headphone's design.
First, they fit a little snug against the head (and my head is even fairly skinny). They are, however, better than Technics' line of DJ headphones. Those really squeezed my noggin!
Also, as several people have noted, your ears get a little sweaty after wearing these for awhile. Not a big deal, but it's a little uncomfortable. And some theorize that sweat causes the earcups to break down prematurely.
My biggest complaint about the 7506's design is that one of the foam ear cups came off less than a month after purchase. The cup can be put back on, but not without some hassle. It stays on for several days/weeks but then will come off again (seemingly at the most inconvenient time!).
I highly recommend these headphones for their sound quality. But expect problems with the earcups. There's a chance they will either shred over time or come off entirely. No wonder replacement ear cups are so readily advertised on Amazon! |
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"I'm no sound engineer, just a regular consumer" | 2010-08-14 |
| - Reviewed By David J. Thornburg |
| My benchmark testing sound for bass is "I put on" by Young Jeezy at 320 kb/s quality. After that I listened to several film scores, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Howard Shore, etc. Everything from a 300 piece orchestra to mainstream songs written by computers sound great. I'll be using these on an indie film set for audio monitoring. |
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"Sony MDR7506 Professional Headphones" | 2010-08-08 |
| - Reviewed By Alan Wright from Fairview, OR USA |
I found that the Sony MDR7506 Headphones to be very durable. They are also light weight and most comfortable when you are wearing them. After hours of wearing the headphones
there is no problem of being uncomfortable from sweating on the ears. The sound quality is good and I like the long cord makes it easier to be about eight feet from the source.
I have had other headphones and they were to heavy which made them very uncomfortable these are 100% better in every way.
I would highly recommend them to anyone. |
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"A great set of headphones" | 2010-07-30 |
| - Reviewed By Timothy |
-Background-
This is my third headset for use in the workplace. I'm in the IT field. I spend about half my day talking to people, and the other half with my head down working. The trouble is, the people around me are in the same situation, and our quiet parts of the day are seldom aligned, plus we are all loud talkers, so my office is usually really noisy.
The first two headsets I tried were earbud headsets. One set (Shure e2c) accomplished sound-isolation via earbuds composed of foam earplugs. Another set (from Phillips) used active noise cancellation. Both worked pretty well, the Shure being the standout for sound quality, but earbuds have a few fundamental problems.
I found earbuds were a real pain to take in and out of the ear to accommodate 'drive-by' conversations. The Phillips would sometimes fall out of the ear. With the Shure headphones, I could stand to have them in my ears for about a half-day before the skin in my ears became irritated and wearing them became painful. The noise cancellation feature was great for external low frequency sounds, but did not isolate the real noise problem of background noise from other people talking.
After some painstaking Googling and reading up on reviews here at Amazon ('Amazoning?'), I landed on these headphones.
-Sound Quality-
This was my first set of high quality over ear headphones, so I cannot size these headphones up against their competitors. That said, I was floored by the sound quality of these headphones. Previously, my favorite place for enjoying music was in the car, where I can play it as loud as I like without the concern of disturbing others (my own little environmentally-controlled acoustic bubble). They blew away any consumer-accessible home theater setup, car stereo, headphone or earbud I had ever heard previously, and instantly sold me on high-quality headphones as the ideal music enjoyment experience.
These headphones are very well balanced. The lows are perfect: Strong but not overpowering or uncomfortable, present, and clear. Well managed bass is typically difficult to find in headphones, where it is either overdone or underpowered. Highs are are perfect: Clear, and not overpowering or "over bright." I have never heard high 'clipping' or distortion unless it was in the recording. With well-balanced highs and lows, the oft-neglected mid tones are in perfect balance with the rest of the sound. I feel like the sound is perfect, an even, level balance, even after several years of heavy use. I hear things in music that I never noticed before (even with other headphones), like sniffs and coughs from the audience during a winter-time recording of Horowitz.
-Sound Isolation-
The headphones have a sealed back. They do a great job of filtering out background noise. I sometimes wear them alone (no music) just to muddle down the noise in the office and on airplanes. They work just well enough - better than nothing but not as isolating as foam earplugs (and certainly more comfortable).
Good sound isolation sets the stage for good sound reproduction. I barely have to turn my iPod up to enjoy music at a comfortable level. The lowest volume settings easily drown out my coworkers and works well on crowded airplanes, also.
They also do a great job of not letting sound *out.* I often listen to really good jams pretty loud at the office. When I press the ear cups together, I can barely tell they are on while holding them in my hands. Great for not disturbing people around you or for not disturbing one's partner when playing video games late into the night.
-Usability-
You don't need a powerful setup to enjoy these headphones. I use them primarily with an iPod, but I have also used them for gaming.
They are easy to take off and put on for quick conversations.
While the sound quality is excellent, and a sealed back design is good for sound isolation, they may not be so good as a DJ headset, since the ear cups do not rotate 180 degrees.
-Comfort-
I have a large cranium (I wear a XXL motorcycle helmet) and large-ish ears. These headphones fit great and feel great. Usually they are all the way out to the second or third from last 'click' on the headband adjuster. With the ear cups on, the headband rests on the top of my head, but has never tossed my hair.
I routinely wear these for a full 8-12 hours. There is no pressure on or around my ears or on my head. Sometimes they get a little warm, but never uncomfortably so.
On airplanes, I usually put them on as soon as I sit down to filter out the conversations around me, and leave them on for the whole flight, including sleeping with them on.
-Durability-
These headphones don't get out much. They mostly sit in a drawer at my office when not in use. I have taken them on a few trips (DC to Salt Lake City and to Greece) where they have had to endure air travel in a laptop bag and a few trips through security. They have held up very well, with no signs of wear.
-The Bottom Line-
These headphones changed the way I listen to music, and they inspired me to seek out a headset for gaming. I would buy them again without a second thought.
I know Sony has made a successor to these headphones, and from what I've read, the sound quality on the newer headphones is not as well balanced. I hope Sony continues to manufacture these, as they are a very nice, high quality product. Why mess with perfection?
I often seriously consider buying another set for home or as a backup to my set at the office.
Highly recommended. |
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