The Real Professionals Wouldn't Like This

Most of you know that if you play long hours of long music you run the risk of poor hearing in later years, and I am guessing a lot of you knew that the same could cause headphones to falter.. well I didn't. Or at least, I wasn't concerned about it. After my Samsung ear bud headphones became overrun by crackling, and after I smashed them in frustration, I was forced to head to the mall to pick up another pair. I entered The Sony Store and began to look at the assortment of products that stood in front of me. Ear bud headphones tended to leave my ear feeling sore after extended use, so this time around I was opting for 'DJ type' headphones. Only after I few moments did the Sony MDR-V300's silver design catch my eye. Not soon after picking them off the rack did I buy them. Long story short, I ended up blowing them with some Nirvana and within a week I needed a new pair. I returned to The Sony Store and traded my broken pair in for the Sony MDR-7502s. And so the review begins.. sorry about the intro. ;)

Aesthetics

To look at, the MDR-7502s aren't too much to look at. When extending the headpiece outward to accommodate a bigger head, the black plastic pulls apart to reveal a less than appealing metal. The contrast between the smooth black plastic and the seemingly cheap silver-colored metal doesn't look the greatest compared to other types of headphones, but there are worse things Sony could have done. They are as generic in appearance as these types of headphones come. But when you buy something for how it sounds, not how it looks.. it doesn't really matter much how they look.

Design

Despite not being much to look at, the MDR-7502s are really comfortable. In fact I am wearing them right now as I write the review and I am not bothered by them at all, even after several hours. It may also be important to note that I am currently wearing my reading glasses and the sides of my head are not irritated by the pressure. The headphones are also fairly easy to manipulate to fit comfort levels. What I mean by this is that if I only want one ear to be covered for whatever reason, these headphones will allow me to do that task easily with even one hand. The speaker part of the headphones allow for maybe 20 to 30 degrees of rotation either way, but do not allow for complete 180 degree turnaround. Being a 'professional' headphone the cord attached is approximately 2 meters long, which may seem like excess but keep in mind a DJ has to do quite a bit of moving while he is doing his or her thing. The extra slack does not bother me though as I can either stuff it into my pocket or wrap it around my wrist as my mp3 player is small enough to hold in my hand comfortably.

Sound

The most important part of this review is probably the part in which I was most disappointed. That isn't to say that the sound quality with these headphones was bad, but it just wasn't worth the amount that I paid (which was about $75.00 CDN, before taxes). The other model of headphone, the V3000 offered a much better sound and the price of the unit was $15 to $20 cheaper than the model I am reviewing. The main complaint I had with the sound was that it did not seem to be 'rich' enough. It did not come off as a high-caliber sound to me, especially for one that is deemed 'professional' and that is marked at such a high price. I also notice that during the quiet phases of different songs that one will hear static from the headphones. This detail is not very significant, but the need to be mentioned I thought was there.

-r.p.