Sony MDR-V150 Monitor Series Headphones
by Sony
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Our Price: $29.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $17.99 (click here) Category: Speakers See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Sony MDR-V150 Monitor Series Headphones
Customer Review: Great Headphones for anyone
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had these headphones for approximately 8 months now and I couldn't be happier. Over that period of a time I have had but one or two small issues. With that in mind I would like to state the conditions I used these headphones under. I spent the first 4 months after purchasing these headphones on a wooden tall-ship sailing down the pacific coast. I slept with them every night, (to drown out the noise that is quite common when sharing a sleeping area with 40 other people) they have been tossed in and out of my bunk carelessly (either by myself, or by the swell) and they have been stepped on, squished, crushed, and bashed from general everyday sail handling. With all this in consideration it seems a miracle they still work great. I still sleep with them every night (Old habits die hard I suppose) and now that I am home the long cord is key for me. There are two reasons I personally need a long cord. I like to move around when I sleep so a long cord is essential so that I don't strangle myself, or am limited to one side of the bed. The second reason is that I record music. Ok so I am not a big shot (small band, and minor personal stuff) but I really like to use these when recording. The long cord allows me to plug into my computer and move around to set up microphones, amps, etc. The bonus feature here is the Mono/Stereo switch on the cord. Stereo is complete sound, producing the full stereo effect. At this point I would like to comment on the sound quality. It is incredible; I didn't notice just how good it is until I switched to another pair of headphones. The quality difference was huge, these headphones have great sound quality, crisp, clear, and capable of blowing you away. Now back to the stereo/mono switch. The mono effect is great for recording. It allows you to remove a layer of sound. This is particularly convenient when you want to playback a recording with only your vocals, or that one guitar riff. Its also great for those hard to hear lyrics, eliminate one guitar and now you can hear them a lot easier. I believe it is now the time for my 2 very small problems. Although I find these headphones extremely comfortable (heck I sleep with them on) I do have some slight pains in my ears (cartilage pain) after sleeping with them on for 10 hours. This, of course, is expected considering the pressure I am applying onto my ears. It only happens about once a month, and only when I wear them for an extra long sleep. The second problem is that after 8 months and stretching the cord to its maximum I have managed to frazzle the wires. To clarify, the wires are not exposed nor has the plastic covering the wires cracked or cut, however I do have a loss of sound in my right ear when the cord is in the wrong position. This is a minor problem, as the cord needs to be in a certain position for it not to work, a slight alteration and the sound is restored. These are high quality earphones. The earpieces can be reversed so that 2 people can listen when recording, or if only one ear is needed when recording it can easily be done. The comfort level is great, the adjustability is easy, convenient and highly variable. I give these headphones a 5 of 5Customer Review: A real whopper from Sony
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow! Sony really outdid themselves on this one. These cans are really nice for listening to MP3's or music on a home stereo. But be aware that this is the lowest model of Sony MDR Studio 'phones, so there may be another model that would be better for you, depending on what you plan to use these for. Now I will go into details about these wonderful 'phones.
Construction: These are quite sturdily built, being made out of some sort of plasticized rubber compound. These have been crushed between two seats in a car and did not show any sign whatsoever that there was any damage or cracking of any kind.
Sound Quality: These pack a good punch bass-wise, and after about 40-50 hours listening time, the mids and highs come out too.
Design: They are quite comfortable until you've worn them for about 2-3 hours straight. They have this "leatherette" stuff for the earpads, which is quite comfortable, but the supra-aural design is not quite as comfy as a circum-aural design. The cord is a little long at 6 feet for portable player use, but is a good length for watching TV or listening to your home stereo. The closed-back design lets out little sound and lets in a relatively small amount of sound for a supra-aural headphone.
Overall, these headphones are good for casual music listening, TV watching, or even gaming. Here are some similar products to look into: Sennheiser HD201 Headphones, Sennheiser HD 202 Headphones, JVC HA-S150-BN Flats Lightweight Headphones - Black.
If you want more studio-quality type cans for some more money, check these out: Sennheiser HD-280 Professional Headphones, Audio Technica ATHM40FS Precision Studio Headphones, Sony MDR-V600 Studio Monitor Series Headphones with Circum-Aural Earcup Design.
I love these V-150's, but will be passing them on to my younger brother and will purchase some more expensive ones. Hopefully I will have the same great experience with whatever new cans I get as I had with these.
--Update--
After nine months of steady use, these cans up and broke! I don't know what happened, I had them in a backpack for close to a month. I pulled them out the other day, set them on my desk, and the next day I picked them up, and the right earpiece fell off! I have heard of other people having this problem, but what can you expect from $13 headphones? These were still really good while they lasted, and I still reccommend them if you're looking for the best budget cans in the universe.
Customer Review: <3
Summary: 5 Stars
The following is an excerpt from a post on my old blog, which you can probably find by copying and pasting a selection of the following and dropping it into Google's search box with quotes around it.
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I remember when I first decided I wanted, needed V150's. I first took serious notice of them in early 2007. I was perusing Rock Records in The Loop, a music store whose longevity is nothing short of a miracle in the sky-high rent neighborhood of Chicago's business district. I already owned a pricey pair of Koss, but they were so quiet they were hard to hear sometimes, and so heavy that wearing them gave me headaches. Then there's the pair of RadioShack 1225's I had recently bought, a lucky find whose quality defied their relatively generic brand name and $25 price tag. The 1225's extra appeal was individual volume controls for each cup, which allows you to isolate pans. But they made me look like Princess Leia, and the cable was really short.
I normally scoff at Sony's inflated brand value, which I'm convinced is the reason for their ridiculously high prices on most technologies available cheaper from other manufacturers at comparable quality. But the MDR-V150's caught my eye and held it. They were smaller than the massive cans I was wearing at that moment, which looked like boxing gloves hanging around my neck when I slid them back off my ears. And the Sonys were only $20. But even that was an unjustifiable splurge in my undergraduate, big city poverty, and counting the earbuds that came with my iPod, I already had three other pair (which wasn't really a reason not to buy them; indeed, I needed the new pair to solve a problem created by the others. But non-understanders would argue this point).
I held off that day. But last summer, when my girlfriend and I were getting ready to leave for France, she bought a pair of MDR-V150's at retail from Best Buy. Jealous and eager to spite her by doing better, I found a new pair on Amazon for about $15 and bought them impulsively. I went to her to gloat, then returned to the computer and bought a used pair on eBay for $6.
I took the used pair to France, leaving the new ones at home as a back-up. (I like to have two of everything I like. Ever since I was little, I've been afraid of my finer stuff breaking and having to settle for an inferior replacement because the original is no longer available.) The used pair didn't make it all the way through the adventure, but I'll be damned if they didn't sound rich and heavy like dark chocolate cake, and they worked long after their first several breaks.
Audio experts and studio monkeys will tell you (and have told me) that the MDR-V150's are lacking in high-end response and that, consequently, they are too bass-heavy. I set my iPod's EQ to "treble boost" and was satisfied with the compromise.
I recommend them to you without reservation.
Customer Review: For This Price, it Probably Can't be Beaten
Summary: 5 Stars
I've owned two different pairs of these headphones, since twenty dollars is the most expensive thing I could afford.
I wanted to try something a little more expensive, something that had more thumping bass.
I remember when I first turned the music on, hoping for the best but, in some way, expecting the worst.
When I pressed 'play' on my Mp3 player, a smile slowly grew on my face as the rich, quality sound pumped into my ears.
You must realize, mind you, that I am writing within the context of a pair of twenty dollar headphones.
I considered giving them a four, just because they cannot POSSIBLY be the best sounding earphones, but I quickly opted for the five-star since they are the best twenty dollar earphones I have ever listened to.
Here are the pros:
1. Much better than stock earbuds that generally come prepackaged with an Mp3 player.
2. The bass can be 'felt,' and has a nice thump.
3. The overall sound is just more 'professional' sounding than anything cheaper.
4. Good price.
The bad, however, exists, albeit fewer:
1. Cranking up anything on the equalizer is a toss-up. If you keep the equalizer undisturbed, then everything sounds good. If you want some more bass or more treble, then you are probably just going to have to find something that can handle the power.
The bass gets pretty muddy if you want it more prominent. Everything else does fairly well, though. (Then again, the stronger the stereo system, the better these things sound)
2. It really does push tight to your head and, for some reason, seems to pinch the ears. It feels as if your ear has been folded at the edge and squeezed against your head. Not good.
3. The cord is too long for listening while moving about with an Mp3 player, for example: if you're jogging; but it is not long enough to give you a lot of ambling room if you have it attached to a stationary apparatus. (Such as a computer)
That's the gist of it. If it's your first twenty-dollar pair of stereo headphones, you might be impressed with the sound.
If you are already an audiophile, you might be less than impressed.
I've NEVER had a pair of earphones better than these, yet, but hopefully, my upgrade to a 50$ pair will prove better than these. (I'd hate to think that, excellency notwithstanding, these are as good as it gets)
- Atari
Customer Review: Great headphone. Great price.
Summary: 5 Stars
I like this headphone for the sound quality, comfort, and price. Before buying it I was a bit hesitant. Sony means quality, but the price got me a bit worried. How good can it be? For such a low price? And it's a Sony? It did not quite compute in my mind. I was wondering if I should skipped it and go shop right away for 'better' (read more costly, costing atleast twice as much) headphones. Hmmm, and I was going to use this just for the occasionaly watching a DVD on my laptop or portable DVDSony DVP-FX930 9-Inch Portable DVD Player, Black. I wasn't comfortable buying a high priced headphone, so I decided to try this one out. I was surprised with the quality. I'm sure those expensive headphones must be very very good, but this one is good enough for me. I'm very happy with it.
Perhaps an alternative as a kids headphone. Our 5 year old uses it quite a bit on the portabtle DVD. We bought him one of those kids headphones (for almost the same prices). Also from Sony Sony Mdr-222Kd/Blk Childrens Headphones (Black), but that did not turned out as good as this MDR V-150. This Sony MDR V150, costs about the same, it fits him better, and is much more comfortable. He doesn't fiddle with it as he would with the 'kids' headphone. But the Childrens Headphone does have a feature to prevent the sound to get too loud for childeren, which is a feature that the MDR-V150 does not have. For our son, I will always keep the volume on a low. Fortunately he likes it that way, and does not play with the volume, onece I've adjusted it for him. When he's using it, I will still check so now and then, just to be sure. So we don't find the volume a problem with the MDR-V150. Still that might be a feature you may want to have for your kids.