Headphones as good as the Sony MDR 7506

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What other headphones are comparable to the Sony MDR 7506? I own a pair and I love them, but I want to get something else along that range.

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ATH-M50x

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I bought recently after long hesitation a pair of Beyerdynamic DT-990 pro and I am absolutely blown away by them...
I was a long time Sennheiser fan, but these Beyerdynamics make me smile :-)

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Sony MDR 7510 :hihi:

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If you love them and they are not falling apart, why get new ones?

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Not long ago I read a 'Sound on Sound' review on an application that will modify the response characteristics of a list of headphone models...and the MDR-7506 phones are on there and used for the phones tested in the review.
Those phones, and I used to own the MDR-7505 and I agree, are one of the worst phones for reference. But this application they said, made them sound as good or nearly as good as some very expensive phones.

At this moment I can't remember the name...maybe you can find out or maybe I'll remember later.
If I were you, I would definitely consider that application.
I could also recommend the two sets of phones I use now, but after you have owned and been listening through the MDR-7506 for a long time, other phones are never going to sound right until you realize how terrible the Sony's are as reference phones and decide to let a much better phone into your life and no other.
EDIT - I think this was the article I read. It uses the 7506 phones.
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/so ... eference-3
Thanks Budweiser.
Last edited by annode on Sun Aug 13, 2017 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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it's a Sonarworks thing. And i agree the 7506 are amongt the worst headphones one can have for mixing a track. DT 770 are way better, in the same price range (imo, of course).

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After determining that all my current headphones suck for mixing, I did a bunch of research on new headphones.

This site is really a fantastic resource: http://www.innerfidelity.com

It has objective measurements for hundreds of headphones along with subjective reviews. It also has several awesome articles on how to interpret the measurements, including information on the ideal frequency response based on research (which for headphones is *not* flat) and square waves.

So for example, the site did not have the Sony MDR 7506, but did have the 7505 measurements ...

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SonyMDR7505.pdf

These measure pretty poorly, particularly in the bass to low mid region. The highs look pretty good though. But the bigger point is, if you like these, then you should be able to find similar sounding headphones by comparing the measurements.

Just for comparison purposes, these are the measurements for the NAD VISO HP50. These track almost exactly to the ideal frequency response. Also note the super low distortion across the frequency spectrum including the bass range. The 30Hz square wave is nearly perfect which indicates that bass is tight and articulate.

http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/NADVISOHP50.pdf

I bought a set of these on ebay for $125 (they are about $250 new) and they are on the way. Hopefully they will solve my headphone woes. We shall see.

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sfxsound3 wrote:ATH-M50x
+1

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budweiser wrote:And i agree the 7506 are amongt the worst headphones one can have for mixing a track.
Tell that to Andrew Scheps :)
Winner of 15th HOFA Xmas Mix Contest - 2024
2nd place winner of Boz Digital Labs Intl. Mix Contest - 2016

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Hey. It depends on task you need, but yeah, quite hard to reach nice quality with that price. I am using DT PRO 880 for more than 5 years and its absolutely brilliant. But its out of your price range. So, I would probably recommend you its cheaper model, DT 990. I dont have experience with them, but heard a lot of nice reviews about it. Well, you know, everything is related.

Hope that helps :)
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MDR-V6 :lol:

No, but for real, I prefer the V6s just a little more than I do the 7506s. Judging by the freq response, there's less of a spike in the high end, and the low end doesn't drop off as soon. Overall, they just sound a bit more neutral to my ears.
Nobody, Ever wrote:I have enough plugins.

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ev1lchris wrote:What other headphones are comparable to the Sony MDR 7506? I own a pair and I love them, but I want to get something else along that range.
Good Question. But as always, the second question is:
What do you want to pay?

In my experience the best sounding headphone in the
range below 500 Euros / Dollar is the Sennheiser HD-600
or HD-650. In many Studios in and around here (Hamburg
Germany) this one became the standard.

But if your budget is much smaller I would try the
younger sister, the Sennheiser HD-280 (ca. 100 Euro).
The chances are high that this one in its new version
sounds similar transparent.
:phones:
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enroe wrote:
ev1lchris wrote:What other headphones are comparable to the Sony MDR 7506? I own a pair and I love them, but I want to get something else along that range.
Good Question. But as always, the second question is:
What do you want to pay?

In my experience the best sounding headphone in the
range below 500 Euros / Dollar is the Sennheiser HD-600
or HD-650. In many Studios in and around here (Hamburg
Germany) this one became the standard.

But if your budget is much smaller I would try the
younger sister, the Sennheiser HD-280 (ca. 100 Euro).
The chances are high that this one in its new version
sounds similar transparent.
:phones:
This may be down to personal preference, but I've had the chance to A/B compare the 280s with my Sonys, and I actually found the Sonys to have a more neutral sound. The 280s had a much more pronounced high end, with a lot of the bass dropping off.
Nobody, Ever wrote:I have enough plugins.

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Sorry for the zombie thread, but I was just checking out headphone measurements due to recently reading about Harman's headphone "Target EQ" presentations.

In defense of the MDR-7506: yes, they're bright (mostly I do audio repair, where it can actually help a bit), but I've never found them terribly so. They're inexpensive, easy to drive, isolate well, sound fine, and are comfy (especially with the Beyer velour pads).

WRT innerfidelity frequency graphs, I think folks are also looking at the wrong example. The 7505 was not as similar to the 7506 as the V6 consumer model was. In fact, though I currently have no V6's, I did at one point, and IIRC when I compared them to the 7506 in informal testing couldn't tell them apart. Looking at just the FR graph at https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/SonyMDRV6.pdf
the response looks pretty respectable, and better than some of Sony's higher line stuff.

Anyway, I'm not advocating for them as great mixing cans or anything; I just think they get a bad rap, and I haven't heard a sealed $100 headphone I prefer (though I admit I've only tried a few).

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