Customer Reviews

Sony MDR-V6 Monitor Series Headphones with CCAW Voice Coil

5 star:		(467)
4 star:		(80)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I bought these headphones in 1992, and unlike most of the rest of the stuff I squandered my money on back then, these were and continue to be the real deal.

My earpads have flaked off their coating like everyone else. But no need to buy new phones, you can order the earpads from sony.com or some specialty audio stores:

MDR-V6/MDR-7506 Ear Pad
PART: X-2113-124-1
PRICE: $6.00 (US)

I can't recall how long I've owned my MDR-V6 phones, but it's easily been ten years. The sound is excellent, virtually uncolored, and unlike other top of the line headphones like Sennheiser's (which are VERY nice and well over $150.00) these sound as good used with a portable CD player as with a well powered home system.

It was time to replace them since the cord is finally shorting too much to ignore any longer and my ears are always covered with black stuff and foam from the disintergrating earcups. I asked around and a colleague who is the audio technician on a popular TV show told me without hesitation, these are the ones to buy. It's what he uses on the set and at home. I'm glad Sony still makes 'em. Maybe I should buy another pair for ten years down the road...

I read and read and read the reviews on these and paid close attention to the comments on the tightness of the headphones. Nearly everyone says that the sound quality is so fantastic that it makes up for the uncomfortableness. I decided to go ahead and purchase them. Got them about 10 hours ago. While the sound is truly fantastic and getting better with every hour played (That break-in time suggested is definitely true.) the tightness on my ears is not making me happy. I'm a woman and do not have a big head or ears, in my opinion, and these phones are almost as uncomfortable as my previous pair of [...] Sony V150s. I'm trying to ignore it and hoping it gets more tolerable, but so far no. Even within a few minutes my ears start itching from the tightness.

I am boycotting Bose for their ridiculously inflated prices, but my mom has a pair of the Bose QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones, and I LOVE them! [...] though. Yikes! I'm contemplating the Bose Triports I've been testing every time I go to Target. They are light as a feather and the sound seemed good from the demos. However, all reviews complain of the quality of the build on the headband. I don't want to pay [...] just to have the phones fall apart in a few months.

So, in my continuing quest I found some reviews on the V6 that mention replacing the pads with a velour pad from Beyerdynamic. The reviews on the difference in comfort are quite convincing. I'm buying these immediately and will report back my findings. [...]

All in all, I just wanted to write my review for anyone else that may be waffling on the comfort issue. Many say the sound is so good that it's worth the discomfort. Not for me. Comfort is a huge part of enjoying my time listening to music. I'm not an audiophile either though, so maybe it is worth it for those that can tell the difference in every type of sound. The sound in these is pretty awesome though. A couple of raw recorded songs that I was listening to with talking at the end actually caused me to jump because I thought someone was right behind me. I hope the replacement pads work because the sound quality is excellent, especially at this price.

2/8/08 - The pads help some but they still pinch my ears a bit. I found that taking out the middle foam section actually helps give my ear more room to hang out in there, but...... I actually went out and bought the Bose Triports, and while the comfort level was much better, the sound quality compared to the Sony's doesn't even compare, especially if you enjoy bass. I tried to like the Bose enough to justify the [...] I paid for them, but after several days of comparing they have been packaged up and will be returned to Target. The Sony's blow them out of the water. I am going to keep trying to get used to the pinch. That's how much I love these things, just like everyone else writes about. I've been hooked. I'm listening with them right now, and I'm in my own world. The kids could be screaming and I couldn't hear a thing. Probably not the best thing to do to my husband. LOL
UPDATE 5/14/08 - still loving these things, but I'm still getting the itchy ear when listening for any length of time. The velour pad replacement has made it 50% better though. The coil cord is also heavy. I can't leave it hang down. I have to pick it up and lay it on my lap so the pull isn't there. (I plug into my hard drive which is on the floor.) All in all though, I'm still very happy with my purchase. One more thing I would suggest, however, is to be careful when you pull the cord out of the jack. Be sure to pull from the metal and not anywhere on the plastic. I can see how these might get broken after a while if you always pull from the plastic. Happy listening!
8/25/08 - When you come back to edit your review this many times, you must be passionate about the product. And I am. Still love these phones. I'm used to the tightness now. One of my best purchases for the money.
12/30/09 - Well, it's been over a year since my last review. Since then my husband died of cancer in September, and my house burned down 20 days ago. Rough year, to say the least. Anyway, I came back to my review only because since my Sony's burned with my house, I'm buying another pair. I still love them. Someone asked a year ago about the Beyerdynmaic ear pads I bought. I forgot where I got them, but you can just Google beyerdynamic ear pads and places come up. [...] looks like a good buy. About $20.00. Happy New Year. I'm done with 2009, truly.

The Sony MDR-V6s were the first really good headphones I owned. After about 15 years of use, the foam padding was a bit run down. After doing the exhaustive search for the best headphones, I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD580s (I also own Etymotic ER-4Ps). Comparing the HD580 to my MDR-V6s, I would say that the MDR-V6s are better for two reasons. 1. The MDR-V6s are more comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and 2. The MDR-V6s have a telephone-like cord, which is easier to deal with than the straight HD580 cord. The sound quality was very good on both headphones, and about equal. I ended up buying new foam pads for my 15-year-old MDR-V6s, which made them feel like brand new headphones. I also bought a second pair of MDR-V6s, and shelved the HD580s for now.

Do not buy the MDR-600s by mistake. I have never used them, but I have read numerous reviews that state that the MDR-600s are inferior to the MDR-V6s. You can still buy the MDR-V6s, but they are harder to find. I bought mine at millionbuy because Amazon did not have them in stock. For some reason, the MDR-V6 product name at Amazon magically changed to MDR-600, even though it is an entirely different product. I am not sure why this happened.

The audioreview Web site has a great collection of headphone reviews.

My pair is 20+ years old. I've tried others, including some that are very expensive, and I keep coming back to the V6s. They are not the equal of a couple others I have, but the others are much more expensive. The V6's just might be one piece of A/V equipment that's been in production the longest. There is a very good reason for that: how they sound. It's no accident that they're used as studio monitors.

Three things to keep in mind:

1. One thing that makes them very good for iPods is that they don't require much power. So, unlike many other good headphones, these can be driven by an iPod without needing a headphone-amp.

2. Three other features that makes them especially good for iPods: (a) they come with a mini-plug, not the big phono plug that many headphones have, (b) they fold up and become small (for headphones, not for earbuds), and (c) they are CHEAP (so you don't feel it's too risky to carry them all over creation).

3. The ear pads fall apart after a few years, but that's really a blessing because you can then spend about $25 and get replacement cushions for the Beyer DT250 or DT280 that are much better. They have a velour surface rather than Sony's plastic. If I'd known this back then, I would have gotten replacement cushions before the original ones fell apart.

NOTE: These headphones are in every way the same as the MDR-7506's, well-loved headphones for studio work. Even the replacement part #'s are exactly the same. So this review is for either one (I bought both).

Anyone who has been listening to music on normal street headphones will be blown away by these. The first thing you notice is how soft and comfortable they are to wear - the earcups surround your ears, leaving no pressure on the ears themselves. Then, when the music starts, you notice:
1) background noise is blocked out
2) bass is full and punchy, not muddy, boomy, or distorted
3) every detail shines through
4) the music is LOUD for the given volume setting

Here are my comments on these four aspects:
1) background noise is blocked out
Because these headphones surround your ears and are "closed back," they really do diminish outside noise. It's nothing like the Bose active noise-cancelling headphones, though - these ones just turn down the volume on outside noise rather than pulling the plug on it. This is on purpose - many headphone designers feel that active noise cancellation discolors the sound too much.

2) bass is full and punchy, not muddy, boomy, or distorted
The drivers are big on these, and the CCAW coils let them draw power when they need it without getting muddy. If you do hear distortion, it's probably that your player can't dish up enough power, so try switching to a good amp. My portable CD players works fine though, and I hear ipods do too.

3) every detail shines through
These headphones are really detailed, meaning they reproduce high mids and trebles well. You will probably hear things you've never heard before like breaths, guitar fretboard noises, and string instruments. However, this makes you feel like you're right in the middle of everything, and it can get tiring after an hour or two.

4) the music is LOUD for the given volume setting
The impedance on these is lower than most headphones, which means that for a given voltage these will draw more current and hence sound louder. However, power is power, and your battery only has so much of it. So these don't necessarily extend battery life, they just give you more options for how quickly to use it.

For comparison, I also own the Sennheiser HD 201, 280Pro, and 595. All are more soothing (less bright) while retaining the detail. The 201's don't match the bass or noise dampening of the V6's. The 280Pro's don't have quite the same bass (still great!), are much less comfortable, but block noise better and sound sweeter. The 595's are superior to the V6's in every way (bass accuracy, sweetness, comfort) except that they intentionally don't block out noise at all and require a good amp to sound their best. (Plus they cost almost twice as much as the V6's.)

In summary, you'd be hard pressed to find a better price/performance/comfort balance than the V6's. Try the HD 201's first for classical or instrumental music (they only cost $20, so trust me, try them!), but if you want noise dampening and/or punchy bass, don't hesitate to grab a pair of these.

I have been a headphone fanatic for thirty years and have owned and used a variety of headphones over those years, to include Stax SR-5, Sennheiser HD-424 and HD-580. The Sony MDRV6 excells as the best value of any headphone that I've ever owned. They are especially good at producing natural-sounding deep bass, and the overall octave-to-octave balance is excellent. The sound quality is all in all comparable to other headphones that cost considerably more.

The MDRV6 is especially well-suited for travel due to the collapsible design, and for noisy environments or for quiet environments such as a library where the sound emitted by open-back headphones would distract others.

The MDRV6 is not quite as comfortable as some other headphones, but the comfort can be improved enormously by replacing the pads with the velour pads from BeyerDynamic. The pads that come on the MDRV6 have a non-breathable cover, and significant additional discomfort is caused by the way that the thin foam cover is glued to the pad around the inner circumference of the pad, which prevents the top and back of your ear from slipping into the space between the pad and the face of the headphone. This forces the pad to rest on the back of the ear, which compresses the ear and eventually becomes uncomfortable. I read on a web forum where several people had replaced the pads (which eventually come apart) with a velour pad made by BeyerDynamic, and after I did this replacement on my one pair that had a damaged pad, the increase in comfort was so great that I immediately did the other pair. The thin cover can be glued down to the headphone face if needed to hold it in place, which then allows the top and rear of your ear to naturally slide under the inner circumference of the pad, which is considerably more comfortable. I can recommend this trivial modification without reservation to anyone who owns these headphones. Even if you don't replace the pads with the BeyerDynamic velour pads, I suggest removing the pads anyway, then carefully separating the thin cover from the pad, and glueing the cover directly to the headphone surface.

The whole purpose of any quality audio reproduction system is to accurately reproduce sound - speakers or headphones should sound like music, not like hardware. They should not color the sound, or over / under emphasize or de-emphasize any part of the audio spectrum that human beings can hear.

And when it comes to headphones, not only should they not color the sound, but they should be comfortable, so you can wear them for hours without developing sweaty ears or a headache. They should correctly fit your head, and the best headphones are "cirumaural" design like this which surround your ears and mask most external, ambient noise without so much pressure that it feels like your head is in a vise.

There are more brands and models of headphones out there than I can count but.. I've owned a pair of Sony MDR-V6 headphones for probably twenty years. After buying and not being happy with various models of headphones made by Sennheiser, Stanton, Superex, Koss, and others.. someone turned me on to the Sony MDR-V6 I bought a pair at an audio store for about eighty bucks in the early 1980s.. Since then, I've never looked back..

Not only are they the best sounding cans I've ever heard for triple the price, but since I've owned them I've never heard any better headphones, any brand, any model. Perhaps someday I'll hit the lottery and blow $4000.00 on a pair of Sony's MDR-R10 (fat chance).. Do NOT confuse the MDR-V6 with the slightly newer, slightly more expensive MDR-V600 headphones which sound highly inferior and cost more.

Now think about it - can you name another model of anything that Sony has made continuously, basically unchanged, for over twenty years? There must be a reason. I've worn out two or three sets of the "pleather" ear pads on my V6s and happily, Sony's parts and accessories Web site still stocks them so if you need a pair of genuine replacement Sony ear pads for them, they are part number X-2113-124-1, about five bucks each, and you'll find them on Sony's DPAC site where they sell parts and accessories.

These are simply the most bang for the buck I've ever spent on headphones and believe me, I've owned (and auditioned).. many brands, many models, and nothing I've ever owned or heard reproduced sound with such accuracy, transparency, crystalline sweet highs, beautiful mid-range, and prodigious bass as these. I've used them with my laptop, HiFi rig, portable players, you name it. On my laptop I plug them into an SRS WoW Thing box (no longer available from SRS Labs), crank up the box's "TruBass" knob and it's like listening to $10,000 speakers. (SRS WoW thing is implemented in quite a few software-based music players as a plug-in, such as WMP and WinAmp.. why they decided to stop making the WoW Thing box, I can't fathom, but it's a stupendous accessory if you can find one.. grab it!..)..

But even without the spatial and bass enhancement the WoW Thing implements, I've lost count of how many friends I've had over on whose heads I've slapped the MDR-V6 headphones, played some wide-dynamic music for them and watched their jaws hit the floor. The first reaction is usually "Holy ____!" and then they ask, what are these, how much do they cost, where can I get them?

I decided since mine were twenty years old, it might be a good idea to grab a new pair, as a back-up, since Sony still makes them, just in case they ever dropped them from their product line, so (true story).. last year, an eBay seller, you know, one of those liquidator types who has a bajillion auctions running at once, put up an auction for three pairs of MDR-V6s and mis-priced them at $14.95 a pair. I sat there staring at the screen thinking "this can't be right, NO ONE sells these $100 cans that cheaply. Are they used? Refurbs? Defective?" I checked his feedback, which was very positive, and said well, no guts no glory.. by the time I smacked the "Buy it Now" button to buy all three pairs, someone else had already snatched one, so I snagged two of them and sure enough, I got the right headphones - brand new, sealed in their Gold and red satin lined boxes, the same packaging my original pair came in twenty years ago. The seller told me he had a bunch of high school kids entering auctions for him and someone had mis-priced them, and entered $14.95 instead of $74.95 but he would honor the much lower, wrong price.

So if my original twenty year old pair ever fail, I have brand new ones on hand.

Audiophiles get religious about headphones. They'll argue all day about which sound the best, which are the most comfy, which produce colored sound or accurate sound, which ones you can wear for hours, which ones hurt your head.. I've read hundreds of headphone reviews over the years and sure, some guys don't like the MDR-V6s for one reason or another, but I think that's usually a case of "Well, I spent $xxx.xx for my Grados / AKGs / Sennheisers.. $100 Sonys can't possibly sound as good.." and they're just trying to justify having spent that kind of money..

You don't have to trust me, but if you're shopping for the best sounding headphones under $300.00, the Sony MDR-V6 are the headphones you want. Even at Amazon's price, even at their full retail of $100.00 in my opinion you simply will not find better sounding headphones of any kind. I run out of superlatives describing them. And for you guys who own an old pair and nead new ear pads, as I said above, you can get them off Sony's DPAC site for about five bucks each plus shipping.

Once you slap these cans on your head and immerse yourself in their magnificent sound, you'll understand :) ..

Pax et Lux

The MDR-V6 has had a long production run and I have owned three pairs over 15 years. The first was stolen after I only owned it for a year, around 1989, and I immediately replaced it. This second pair has been durable and I continue to use them now (2004). I bought the last pair recently as a backup but I now use it at my office.

What strikes me about these headphones is that they are easily the most useful audio accessory I own. I have used it with my stereo (vinyl/tape/CD), with many computers (CD/DVD/MP3), on the airplane, and with other devices such as a DV camera and of course, the iPod. While other full-sized headphones I have tried have certainly sounded good--even better in some ways--none have the versatility of the folding design coupled with great audio quality. My music taste varies widely and I have found these headphones to reproduce orchestral or jazz acoustic instruments and still be happy listening to the bass drive of overproduced techno or rock.

The pads wear out by splitting, cracking, and flattening over time, making the headphones uncomfortable. Worn out pads reduce bass response, perhaps due to a poor seal, as I was able to tell from a head-to-head comparison between my old and new pairs. Today, I just replaced the old pads with a new set from Sony (under $20 incl. tax + ship) and now both pairs sound virtually identical. I figure five years on a pair is a good life. Other minor wear from over a dozen years of use: the compression from the headband needs refreshing with a squeeze, and the vinyl (NOT leather) case is slightly scratched. All other parts have aged incredibly well despite daily use and travel.

I find little to fault, but here are my objections: the sealed headphones make my ears warm after an hour or two. The UniMatch plug is easy to lose; the case has no special place for it. The plug is straight, instead of a more durable L-shaped design; I have been careful to not bend it. In one office environment, the headphones would transmit electrostatic shocks when I rolled my chair on the floor. The cord length is perfect for the desk but a little long when I'm listening to a device and walking. The headphones are portable, but too big to be the pair of headphones I carry everywhere, so I keep a tiny pair of in-ear headphones for that. Lastly, (but least importantly) they say nothing about today's headphone fashion.

Few electronics products are perfect, including this one. But every once in a while a gem like this comes along, a nearly perfect compromise of value, sound quality, portability, and durability (or at least serviceability).

I purchased my Sony MDR-V6 headphones in my very early teens (if not earlier) after reading a review in Stereo Review (I believe). Since then, they've gotten tons of use and I've seen them everywhere. I've gone through 3 or 4 cords over the years and they're finally falling apart. I wanted another pair but settled (ha!) on MDRV600's, which are very muddy - all mids. They're going back today to Best Buy and I'm getting a new set of V6's from here -- I can't believe Sony has kept this model alive so long. These are incredible 'phones. Trust me.