Are headphones the only thing Sony does right?

[Mozgus]

I'm just going to rant a bit about the audio solutions I've used over the years. I'm not sure what it is, but this seems to be the most obvious area of my consumer life where the majority of reviews are absolute bullshit. Audio is just too subjective to be reviewed, I guess.

Exhibit A:

These fucking things recently decided to garble all the bass in the left ear. I've had them maybe a year and took care of them. Sennheiser is supposedly the most respected audio brand out there, as countless people tell me, but its pretty fucking ridiculous how much this set has fought me over the year. Right from the start, the volume nob was causing lots of static, and the mic switch on it would flip on and off with the slightest shake. I eventually got fed up with this, so I chopped the whole section off and soldered the wires and shields back together myself. No quality loss I could detect. They were never a great set to begin with though. The mic would just barely pick up my voice at 100% + max boost and it still sounded like shit. And the speakers were on par with my original $20 Sonys from ages ago.

So I am fuckin done with Sennheiser, because I had also had a set of earbuds from them that were the most uncomfortable and weak pieces of shit ever. So I go and get one of the most highly rated gaming headsets out there. I give you....

Exhibit B: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6826249016

Ok I admit, they are stylish, well built, and comfortable, but the speakers are FUCKING AWFUL! Absolutely no depth or bass to anything. Even in FPS games, which this set claims to be SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR, they sound god damned terrible. The guns all sound like pea shooters, and explosions are nothing but deafening hiss and crackle noises. Thank god for Microcenter's no-question refunds. I love that store.

So what has been my current solution? Well my trusty Sony MDR-XD200's have been serving me for like 3 years now. They are cheap as hell, comfortable, fairly stylish and sound 4x better than they should at this price. So then I take a logitech deskmic, and literally breadtie the fucking thing to the headphones.

IMG_0159.JPG (79.95 KiB) Viewed 1750 times

No joke, the mic is picking up my voice even better than the SteelSeries' did and the breadties are holding that bitch on there surprisingly tight. I just electrical taped both wires together every 6 inches all the way. Not bad for the time being.

Later this week, the MDR-XB700's will be arriving, and I can't wait to test these babies out. I don't care if they look a little pillow-ey. They're supposed to sound fucking amazing for a sub $100 set, and at this point, Sony's track record has been flawless in my book.

I'm also ordering the MDR-EX300's for work to replace my MDR-EX51's, which I've used heavily for two years.

Even before all of these, I've primarily used I think two other Sony headsets that never failed me, whereas countless others have, all the way back to when I got my first CD player when I was about 12. Hell, I recall using one set on my Genesis model 1's headphone port, while blasting various games' soundtests because they just sounded way better than the TV speakers.

[Breetai]

I've got a set of Sony MDS-XD300s. Absolutely brilliant headphones for about $40-50.

[nickfil]

that is one ghetto rig man.


Apparently when apple built my tower, the microphone jack is set deeper either then it should be, or because apple wants me to buy it's microphones.

However, i picked up a logitech clearchat pro and it works like a charm. No complaints yet.
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/webca ... 2&cl=us,en

[Reverend]

I love pillowy headphones.

(yeah not much help to the conversation, but I don't really have much to add beyond that)

[enderfall]

About 13 years ago, I bought the Grado SR-80 Headphones, and they have served me well. The only defect they ever had was that the removable ear pads started to fall apart, but you can easily buy replacement ones online. If Grado still makes headphones, you should check them out...they were far superior to all the Shitheiser's I tried out, even ones priced 2.5x than what the SR-80's cost.

[Ramatut4001]

I have those extra bass Sonys you ordered and they are sweet. I bought them at a Sony factory store cheap.

[gradualmeltdown]

Sennheiser is crap until you hit their high end. For some reason their build quality sucks until you pay more than $250 dollars. The Sennheiser 580-800 lines are just amazing no question about it.

If you want to spend between $100-200 the Grado's and AKG are good choices. Not sure what models are the best bang for the buck these days. Check this website, they really have the best reviews in the industry on whats best for you.

http://www.headphone.com/

[Mode_7]

I find sennheiser hd-555's have great sound for games and movies. It is an open design and has a great sound stage. Really works well for FPS games.

[hiphophead34]

I like Sony's MDR-7506's. They're used alot in professional recording studios. But I like the flat sound they provide without over doing the bass. Great for mixing as well as listening. Plus they're workhorses. Thats why studios use them I guess.

[Niode]

Seriously fuck Sony. I've NEVER seen those consumer grade MDRs in ANY studio I've EVER worked in. No studio would ever go any where near Sony without a 20 foot barge pole. I would probably refuse to work in any studio with Sony equipment it really is that poor and unreliable. I know that's a bit extreme but the quality of a studios monitoring equipment is directly related to the quality of the studio. If they are using a pair of consumer grade headphones then chances are they've skimped costs in other areas too.

Sennheiser is a small step up from Sony, but not that much. Every pair of Sennheisers I've ever heard (I've heard a lot, since I have to monitor students work often and most of them bring their own headphones in instead of using our superior Beyerdynamic DT100) have had either no bass, too much bass, no mids, no treble, or too much treble. Even the £100 HD595s one student had were god awful and the build quality was still crap. I don't understand why people instantly think Sennheiser when talking about good quality headphones. Even Sennheiser's mics are shit these days, the latest 421-II is unbelievably crap compared to the old classic md421, hence the price of the old ones going up second hand (at least £50 more than the 421-II which are around £225).

I've had a pair of Beyerdynamic DT250s for years and they're brilliant. Almost completely flat frequency response, there's a 0.25db peak at around 17k and there's a roll off at 18Hz, they reproduce everything from 20hz to 20khz without a problem. Which considering the average hearing range of humans is 20hz to 20khz and the vast majority of adults over 20 can hardly hear frequencies above 18-19khz anyway. They're a little too good for mixing with, which is a bit of a problem, since I then have to mix to some shitty speakers just so that I have a finished product that will work on the vast majority of consumer grade chaff. I only ever mix with headphones when I'm on the move though so it's not much of an issue.

Audio is very subjective though, so what sounds good to you sounds good to you, if you're happy paying for what you want then so be it. The main thing to bear in mind is ALWAYS try before you buy, just like buying a TV or a hi-fi system.

One thing to remember is try and buy headphones with as flat a frequency response as possible. You can always EQ the signal before it gets to the headphones, whereas you can never get rid of the muddy sound of headphones if they have less than stellar performance around the mids. Any manufacturer worth thinking about will have a verified frequency response chart and a professional review from somewhere like Sound on Sound. If not then you should just avoid the headphones, i'm 99.99% sure they suck.