Sony MDR-1A Prestige Overhead Headphones - Black

Product Information

As with any wireless or noise cancelling set of headphones, before buying the Sony MDR-1ABT, you need to make sure you need their spotlight feature. Because (stating the obvious) you do pay for it.

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. Note that these are overall a notably huge improvement in nearly every way (less rolled-off treble, more solid bass-texture, less bleed from bass to mids, less distortion, more clarity, a bit mroe soundstage) over the MDR-1R which they replaced in Sony's product-line. The Sony MDR-1A are the updated version of the MDR-1R we reviewed a couple of years ago. They’re over-ear, full-size headphones with more than a hint of sophisticated Sony design. OK so the lower frequencies absolutely steal the show with these Sonys. Bass is elevated by a significant margin, which makes some genres like rap, grime and hip hop come absolutely alive. It’s a perfect combo. Looks like the headband is all plastic this time https://www.phileweb.com/news/photo/d-av/430/43011/P3.jpgThere isn’t much else to say about the midrange though, because it’s nothing special. You can’t be expecting HD600 levels of mid-forwardness and intimacy in a V-shaped headphone. Sorry for not being very technical here, but the MDR-1A is just meh in the midrange so there’s no point delving any deeper here. Onto the treble. I have found that these respond really well to EQ. The bass impact and sub-bass depth is rather impressive to my ears when EQ'd or paired with amps that have a bass boosting feature. One other thing I am very pleased with is that because of the low impedance of these cans, they play well with just about any source. I use a sony NZW-A25 right now (I have an amps I use occasionally) and they sound pretty dang good straight through the source. These do benefit from having power applied (their max power input is 1500mW) via a good source or amp, but they sound pretty damn good on just about anything. The case it comes with is basically just a bag. No hard case. Not a fan of soft carry-cases since they don't actually protect headphones.

The Sony MDR-1A is an excellent pair of over-ears and sounds top-notch no matter what your choice of genre may be. Bass is punchy and both mid and high-level frequencies are clear and crisp. Although it is not very neutral, the pomp the headphone does add serves to enhance overall experience. Given its excellent sound quality and sensible price point, the Sony MDR-1A is an excellent buy. While we didn’t have the Sony MDR-1A for direct comparison, from memory it also seems that Sony may have toned down the bass a little this time. There is a bass emphasis here, but only a slight one. The impression they give off is of a balanced, and fairly natural-sounding headphone.From the specs, we can see a huge frequency range, a relatively low nominal impedance, and a decent sensitivity – in theory translating to more detail, the ability to play from portable devices, and a fairly standard level of volume, respectively. Sound test is based on the cable without the control button as the cable with button sounds awful. I will talk more about the button cable later. I will be mostly comparing the 1A to the Sony mdr-zx600. Throughout this review I may refer to the mdr1A as the '1A' and the mdr-zx600 as the '600'. MDR-1A was the best during my test in the store. The bass is just correct. Other headphones (MSR7, DT770, Custom One Pro, etc.) sound worse than MDR-1A. They have almost does not have any bass. Vocals don’t have as much presence as 600. Too smoothed off for my likings. As a result, less detail and clarity. This vocal recession is evident when looking at the frequency graph which shows a dip in mids with the lowest amplitude at the low-mids. 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.

And with ears fully shrouded the listen is equally full. Indeed, the Sony MDR-1A over-ear headphones sound good. Astoundingly good. There is some bass-bleed into the lower mids, however, in songs with heavy bass. That's definitely a flaw with the lower-mids on these. However, it isn't a huge amount of bleed like is heard from the vast majority of overpriced mass-consumer-oriented headphones out today.Mids: Quite prominent sounding, despite the boosted bass, due to the slightly rolled-off lower and mid treble. Very smooth and creamy sounding. It makes for a very pleasant, fun, and easy longterm listening experience, but I myself prefer greater levels of detail in exchange for some of that smoothness, as long as a headphone still sounds engaging and fun. Some detail is certainly sacrificed in achieving that smoothed-out sound, especially a good bit of micro-detail. But, for those who want something with very sweat and creamy mids (and treble, see below) which will always be completely non-fatiguing and make for very easy listening, these headphones are great. A bit less clarity and more muddled than mdr600. Especially with high hats and cymbals which sound unnatural and a bit splashy when compared to the 600. Snare drums also sound low quality like it has been downgraded from 320 to 128kbps. I suspect the 1A’s unnatural sound could be attributed to the massive peak at around 9khz and a big drop off from around 12khz onwards (thanks to rtings.com frequency graph). In our review set there was a tiny bit of creakiness when stretching and twisting the arms, but our pair had already been put through the wringer by a previous wearer. You don’t get the all-out luxury feel of, say, the Bowers & Wilkins P7 here, but it only becomes apparent when you get your hands involved — they are certainly eye-pleasers.