The Sony MDR 7509HD Studio Monitor Headphones we review here. First, they worked very well for the year that we owned them. In that time, we played them with many CD players, TVs, iPods, and headphone amps. Found them a pretty fair audio device in many respects.
The Sony MDR 7509HD professional headphones look like the MDR-V500 and Sony 7506, units. We reviewed elsewhere in this blog. Visit the links below to read those posts.
These phones are larger in size and weight than the other Sonys’. They have a more bassy sound, and cost a bit more. But they are more comfortable with a fuller, more real sound.
The MDR-7509HDs, as the higher model number implies, are a couple of steps up from the MDR-7506 and MDR-V5 units. So, they seem to do just about everything a little better. They repeat high frequencies with crystal clarity, though they favor the low bass more than the smaller headsets. We’ve used them with portable CD players on several train trips. Yet despite their bigger size, we found them comfortable enough to sleep in. Indeed their sound comes close to that of the Sennheiser HD-600 earphones, but these are much cheaper.
There was little to gripe about in this product. It looks like Sony beefed up the ear cushions over their earlier headsets. They last longer and make less of a flaky mess. The pair we bought were used. Yet the cushions showed no signs of wear. Still though, you can order replacement ear cushions if needed.
The 7509HD, like the smaller 7506 version, sport foamy, soft earcushions. They have a thin, resilient black film coating that gives them a soft, leathery feel.
The pads have oval, egg-shaped openings that allow them to work well as an ear-surrounding design. Now everything about Sony MDR 7509HD professional headphones is much larger compared to the MDR-7506 units. So the ear openings here are much bigger and a bit deeper as well. They fit completely over my ears with room to spare. Therefore, the inner edges of the cushion rims never touch the ears with proper adjustment. These are thus, more of an around-the-ear design, as opposed to the on-ear design.
The rear wall inside the cups (the front of the driver speaker) touched our ears. But not as heavily as did the smaller MDR-7506 phones. The overall softness of these cushions and the cloth that covers the driver, made for long yet comfy listening.
The Sony MDR 7509HD professional headphones have fold-able speaker cans. These retract up inside the headband. This shrinks the size of the overall unit a lot, making it easy to store.
They’re are a bit heavier than we were used to. Indeed, they’re about an ounce heavier than the Sennheiser HD-650 (our all-time favorite headphones to date). These Sonys’ are light enough still, for great comfort. They offer a wide range of headband and phone angle settiings. So they do not press too hard against eyeglasses. Thus we never need to take off the specs while wearing them. Plus, we never need to straighten out our eyeglasses when done. We find this product light for its size and sound.
The headband includes malleable stuffing as well that raises overall comfy ness. Sony coated the wide and flexible headband with a black, shiny material that closely approximates the sheen of the cushions. Like all the headphones in the Sony line that I’ve tried, these indeed feel as comfortable as they sound good.
They are black with silver trim, and sport a blue and gold “Professional” sticker on the back of each phone. This gives them a lustrous and modern hi-tech fascia.
Their 50mm speaker drivers can play quite loud without distortion, with the wide dynamic range over most of the audio frequency band. This suits them particularly for widely varying musical volume levels, such as found in classical music recordings.
While you cannot detach the connecting audio cable from the unit, you can replace it using a screwdriver, cutters, soldering iron, and a bit of tech know-how.
Thus, I could wear them for hours per listening session without discomfort. The music you’re listening to will bug you before these headphones themselves will.
New cables and cushions can easily be found from numerous Internet vendors.
You can wear the Sony MDR 7509HD professional headphones with equal comfort either way. E.g. Left earphone on left ear, or left earphone on right ear.
They reduce surrounding noise pretty well for somewhat noisy areas. This is a useful feature of their closed-air design. A metal back plate boxes in the driver speaker in each earpiece. This also helps keep the music inside. Thus, there’s little audio spill, which makes these a good choice to avoid disturbing people close by.
These phones are quite tolerant of ill-treatment for a high fidelity headset. I’ve often dropped them on hard tables and floors with no bad effects.
Strong neodymium magnets for high efficiency and full sound.
Plus, the drivers (speakers) are very large (50 millimeters). This yields a truly enveloping sound stage, with very full bass yet crystal clear treble.
The cables are not as easy to replace as they would have been if made detachable.
As mentioned, the Sony MDR 7509HD professional headphones seem to favor the low bass frequencies somewhat. This can make the eardrums hurt a little after long listening sessions. So you may need to cut back the bass with an equalizer. While they sound pleasant with “flat” music sources, they tend to thump and boom a bit.
After wearing them a bit, my ears became warm, but not terribly so.
The Sony MDR 7509HD professional headphones were a good value for the money. Why? Because they lack none of the key features found in high quality pro audio gear. Yes, perhaps some of these could stand some improvement in minor ways. Yet we would again buy the MDR-7509HD. So, we would rate their overall quality at 95 out of 100. So if $150 to $250 is in your price range for a decent headset, then we highly recommend this one. Indeed you get a bassy sound, but a clear high end too.
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