Eargasm Creator: Sony MDR-V6
One of my main sources of sanity when dealing with the daily grind is music. Music at home, in the car, and at work. Music listening at work (or while working at home) is usually performed through headphones. My headphones for the past couple years have been a moderate sounding pair of Sony earbuds. While sufficient, they always seemed rather lacking in terms of musical quality. And in a desire to regain some of my audiophile hay-day (pre bills & children), the search was on for a decent pair of headphones.
My search came down to two contenders. The Sennheiser HD280 Pro and the Sony MDR-V6. After reading endless online reviews of both headphones, I was able to aggregate the following Pros and Cons of each.
The Sennheiser HD280 Pros are said to have excellent and accurate sound quality. They excel at blocking outside sound without using noise canceling technology. I found three common complaints about the HD280 Pros. The first was that to achieve the excellent outside sound reduction, the headphones tend to press against your head tightly. Because of this, some people would report getting a headache after wearing them for an extended period of time. The second complaint was that they’re rather large. While this to completely subjective (some people love big bulky headphones) it was mostly expressed as a negative. The third was that the headphones need adequate power to perform properly. Portable devices such as mini-disc players (they still make these?) and iPods tend to be a bit underpowered for these headphones.
The Sony MDR-V6 benefits from being a tried and true studio headphone for the past 15 years or so. They have excellent sound reproduction and people say they tend to be a bit more bass heavy then the Sennheiser HD280 Pros. Which I prefer. They also have lower power requirements and work great with iPods. They’re also smaller and more portable. The only complaints I was able to find was that some people report of their ears getting too warm due to the ear pads. And that the ear pads seem to start falling apart after 7 or 8 years. Both complaints seem to be easily resolvable with these Beyerdynamic velour replacements.
It should be noted that while both had their common complaints, the amount of complaints of both of these were minimal. And the vast majority of reviewers praised their choice headphones. Although the Sony MDR-V6 seemed to get a bit more in the way of praise.
So I went with the Sony MDR-V6. For the added bass response people noted and the smaller form factor since I’ll be toting these to and from work. The main factor that turned me away from the HD280 Pros was the perception that they were a tight fit and the complaints of headaches from several reviewers. Being someone who is prone to headaches, this was something I wanted to avoid.
So far I’ve been extremely pleased with my purchase. The headphones sound crisp and clear and bring out a level of detail I haven’t heard in my music in quite some time. I find them very comfortable and haven’t experienced the “hot ears” that some people complain about. I’ve also read reports that they sound even better once they “burn in”, but I’m not sure if I buy into the whole “burn in” theory. Time will tell on that front.