Sony MDR-1A Prestige Overhead Headphones - Black

Product Information

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What Hi-Fi?, founded in 1976, is the world's leading independent guide to buying and owning hi-fi and home entertainment products. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies. Everything is tested by our dedicated team of in-house reviewers in our custom-built test rooms in London, Reading and Bath. Our coveted five-star rating and Awards are recognised all over the world as the ultimate seal of approval, so you can buy with absolute confidence. Note: These headphones have an impedance of just 24 Ohms making these very easy to drive from a variety of sources like your smartphone, laptop, and whatever whoosie-whatsie you plug these into. While amps and dacs generally aren’t necessary for pleasant listening with these headphones, they certainly benefit from high quality sources and audio. Also note that using a source with an output impedance of higher than ~3 Ohms may impact sound signature and quality. Looks like the headband is all plastic this time https://www.phileweb.com/news/photo/d-av/430/43011/P3.jpgYou know it when you hear it -- the MDR-1A just sounds right. The balance of bass, midrange and treble is as smooth as can be, the stereo soundstage is spacious, and dynamic range is, well, dynamic. No surprise really, given the 40mm drivers are said to be capable of delivering a 3-100,000Hz frequency response, which is way outside of human hearing capability at both the low- and high-end. Psychoacoustics and all, but we need no mental evaluation to beam about how great these headphones sound.

The pads are the softest material I have ever felt, and because the headphones are so light I forget they’re even on my head. No pressure points to speak of. The only headphone I can wear for an entire day non-stop. This is a massive achievement by Sony; I know I’m not the only one to compliment the comfort on these. However, if you don’t care too much the Sony style or the super-soft fit, the Audio-Technica ATH-50X still trump them in some respects for less money. They are also age-agnostic. Style headphones often skew towards a younger crowd, but the Sony MDR-1A are low-key enough to avoid such associations, especially in their silver and brown version, which we’re looking at here. While it is nice that these headphones are easy to drive and highly compatible wit a myriad of portable devices, these headphones themselves are not particularly portable. The earcups can also rotate sideways thanks to an enfolding design that makes transport easier in that carry case. The more subtle angles of this hinge-based rotation are used to best effect when worn: everything sits at the right angle to fully encompass your ear lobes.From the moment you plug them in and pop them over your ears, everything sounds exceptional whatever your musical genre of choice. Bass response is top drawer, punchy without being over the top, while mid-level and higher frequencies are crisp and clear. The separation of sound gives an all-encompassing stereo listen that's really engaging - more so if you have high-resolution audio files - and although it's not a neutral listen, the Sony MDR-1A add the exact kind of pomp we like our audio to have. The Sony MDR-1ABT look, no surprise, an awful lot like the MDR-1A headphones we reviewed earlier this year. Sony’s headphones have a distinct style, and it’s a sound one that offers a hint of urban flavour while being a lot more neutral than a pair of Beats headphones. The Sony MDR-1ABT use a kind of digital processing called DSEE HX that claims to upscale non Hi-Res audio to a quality comparable to the good stuff. I've heard a sound demo of it through Youtube (Thanks, Zeos!), and it sounded quite soft. Go see it for yourself with different headphones, I'll have the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Ls4kawqus This kind of bass emphasis is of course the norm among style headphones, but is a sign that the ‘Hi-Res’ tag is there for the most part because these are supposedly ‘high-end’ headphones and that Hi-Res Audio is the current buzzword in hi-fi. The Audio-Technica ATH-M50x offer greater bass control and a ‘higher-resolution’ sound for slightly less money, for example.

Overall the 1A has a 'V' shaped sound with elevated bass and slightly elevated highs. It could be considered as a warm sounding headphone. It would be foolish to say that the Sony MDR-1A provides a flawless listening experience. Because from almost every standpoint it certainly does not. But what I can say is that after every listening session with these perched on my ears I have a massive grin on another part of my face.There’s almost nothing to say for how comfortable these are, for they simply disappear on your head. I can imagine people with massive ears or a particularly large head may find the cups and headband a little restricting, but for me it does absolute wonders. The soft finish of the earcups is immediately comfortable for long periods of wear, and we've gone for many hours at a time with the MDR-1A temporarily glued to our head. Not literally, mind, that wouldn't be comfortable to get them off.