brill's Full Review: Sony MDR-XD200 Consumer Headphones
I purchased the Sony MDR-XD200 headphones approximately 6 months ago from a local store. I feel its important for you to understand just what I was purchasing these headphones for. These were to be nothing more than a secondary set of headphones in which my only stipulation was that they needed to be of closed-back design. I needed a set of headphones that kept outside-world noise out, and music noise in.
Noise canceling doesn't really help in my circumstance because 'outside-world' noise consists of my wife angrily practicing piano and banging away on the keys. I needed refuge. My other set of nice headphones are of the open back design which unfortunately does absolutely nothing for my wife's temper.
I liked the look of these headphones in the store. I really liked that they had a cord attached to the left-ear only. They appeared to be both comfortable and surely their excessive size must have been able to yield reasonable sound quality. So I purchased these headphones to become my backup, closed back set.
I write this review now because I have finally decided that this is one set of headphones that I will likely be throwing away very soon. Quite simply, I feel my life is more enriched by not owning these headphones. Let me tell you why.
Construction
These headphones are predominantly constructed out of plastic. This wasn't of much concern to me as most headphones seem to follow that method this day in age. However, here is my biggest gripe about these headphones. Creaks! I'm not sure how Sony let this one get past quality control but I am here to tell you that these headphones are the noisiest pair of headphones I've ever owned -- and that's all before you plug them in.
If I turn my head to the left or right, look up or down, sniffle, raise my eyebrows, smile, frown, or shake my foot -- I am guaranteed to hear yet another 'creak' or 'crack' coming from the body of these headphones. The sound travels right through their light plastic body and directly into your ears and interrupts the music more than my wife's piano playing ever could.
Another rather large problem is that these headphones don't stay on my head. This is extremely abnormal for me because I am a person who has a rather large head. Things usually fit quite tightly on my head and these headphones can barely hold on for dear life. The only way to counter-act the fact that the headphones literally fly off my head, is to tighten the headband around my head. The only good this seems to do is to make the headphones tug on my earlobes as they become too tight. Even with all adjustments made, these headphones are still loose and will fall of easily. How am I supposed to 'get jiggy' with my tunes if I can't move my head quickly?
Part of the problem is that the headphones themselves are absolutely massive. They are bulky to say the least which also makes them difficult to store.
The one positive I will mention about the over all design and construction is that Sony did a good service to humanity when putting in only one cord (hangs from left headphone) on their product. This is a feature I have enjoyed on headphones that have since passed from functionality. I will probably list this as the only 'pro' for this set. I should also mention here that the cord is super long -- good thing -- except Sony provides no way to deal with the excessive length of the cord so heaven forbid your iPod is on your belt on in your pocket, you'll likely have an extra six feet of cord to deal with. Other headphones I've owned have come with some form of cord device and it seems to me it should be standard when dealing with a cord this long.
Sound Quality
As another user notated, these headphones do sound alright IF, and only if, you have access to some form of equalizer. Unadjusted, the sound quality on these headphones is nothing that any ear bud style headphone couldn't do. The highs tend to be tinny and piercing while the lows have a tendency to be under pronounced. I wouldn't find this strange in the least if the headphones were half the size that they are... The truth is though, these headphones are bulky and huge and their design alludes to being capable of more when in fact, they're just bulky headphones.
There is also a switch between "Movie" and "Music" mode found on each headphone. I have made many attempts to understand the differences between these two modes and have decided that an equalizer is all around better. In fact, I would go so far as to say that these switches only contribute to the 'creaking' noises that I mentioned in the construction portion of this review.
So, do they at least block out my wife's piano?
Short answer: Not really. They do as good as any closed-back headphone would in terms of blocking out the sound. This means that if I'm in the same room as the piano, I can still hear the piano through loud music. If I am in another room, however, I can generally hear more music than piano so this does give them a slight advantage over my other open-back headphones. The trouble is, this advantage is quickly squandered by the creaking noises.
What are these headphones good for?
In my opinion: Nothing. Each time I use them I get more agitated at the many flaws and find that they simply aren't worth my while. I realize that they are by no means a 'high end' headphone but this is about the bottom of the barrel for low-end headphones and for the money you could likely get another set which will outperform the MDR-XD200's.
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