cinemafia's Full Review: Sony MDR-V150 Professional Headphones
So my wife and I are going on a trip to Miami on Christmas day...and I needed some headphones. I got one of those dual-headphone adapters from Radio Shack that let you plug two sets of headphones into one audio jack. In my case, I'd be plugging the two headphones into my PowerBook G4 so my wife and I could watch DVD's on the plane ride. Problem is, I only had one pair of a headphones, some JVC HA-D15's that I'd gotten off eBay for the increadibly cheap price of $9.
A few days before I planned to get another set of cans, I broke my JVC HA-D15's; they were plugged into my laptop and my leg snagged the cord a bit and ended up snapping the 1/8" plug. So, now I needed TWO pairs of headphones! My wife and I found ourselves at Borders getting Christmas presents for my parents and we decided to check out the headphones there. They had nothing but Sony and Koss, and of the two the Sony MDR-V150's seemed the best choice because they were closed-ear yet still very compact, unlike the Koss UR-15C's they had, which were way too bulky to bring on a plane.
So, we bought two sets of MDR-V150's. Spending $40 on the two just to watch movies on a plane trip was a little much, but luckily they'll end up being very useful at home. Probably the best use will be watching movies while our daughter is sleeping! Anyway, about the headphones. The first thing you notice about them is how tight the headband is. It's not the most uncomfortable I've tried, but it's definitely tighter than my JVC HA-D15's were and there's really no way to alleviate it by adjusting the band.
The second thing you notice is that the earcups don't cover your ears as comfortably as you'd like them too. My JVC HA-D15's covered the ear completely and were very, very comfortable to wear for long periods of time. These Sony's aren't quite so...they're not that bad, but I guess I'll just have to see what I think when my wife and I actually wear them for six hours straight on the plane. As for sound quality...unfortunately they're not as good as my JVC HA-D15's were.
However, that doesn't mean they're bad cans. The sound is very clear and crisp, highs are clean and distinct. The JVC's felt much warmer, with rich mids and deep lows. The JVC's had a wider frequency range than these Sony's, 8hz-23kHz versus 16hz-22kHz, so that's most likely the reason they sounded better. I have to admit, though, the Sony MDR-V150's look and feel better than the JVC HA-D15's, which had a cheap, flimsiness about them (remember how easily they broke?) even though the sound quality and comfort was superior.
So, what's my final remark? I dunno...the Sony MDR-V150's are hard to place. They're not quite comfortable enough to be used exclusively as portables, although they do look good, and the sound quality isn't good enough to warrant them being used exclusively at home. I guess they're sort of a jack-of-all-trades headphones, able to do a lot but not neccessarily that good at any one thing. I certainly wouldn't reccomend using these as "Studio Monitors" like they're labelled in any capacity, I'd save my money for a pair of Grados instead.
I felt I had to update this review because BOTH of the MDR-V150's now have broken left earcup hinges after normal use. Now, I didn't baby these things, but I didn't take them out of the house other than on the trip six months ago nor have I beat on them or let my 3-year-old play with them. Yet, somehow, both headphones are now broken.
I used superglue to fix the broken earcup hinge in place, but this makes the headphones almost useless because the whole point of the earcup hinge is that it flexes to fit different sized/shaped heads. If I were smart, I would kept the originally packaging and receipt so I could return them to Sony for a refund.
I have two coworkers who both have MDR-150's, and both of theirs have fallen apart in exactly the same way both of mine did. I do still use mine (held together with superglue) at work since I could care less if somebody steals them!
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