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Comment by jsmthrowaway | Hacker News Reader

Sony's MDR7506 is, or at least used to be a few years ago, the reliable radio workhorse. When you spend all day with your headphones, especially in the field, super expensive cans most people like for music are a liability. I love the 7506s: flat, cheap, and comfortable all day. <$100. NOT the consumer version (-V6 or something). Real, purebred, MDR7506. NegativeK is right, too; the $100 AKG range is also popular in working radio, as well as some Sennheiser HD280s.

On the production side of things where quality super matters, you'll see the more expensive headphones for sure. But every single person in the last newsroom I saw rocked the 7506, and though I've moved on to more expensive headphones for programming and my music collection, I still miss my 7506s on occasion.

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I have owned multiple pairs, and still use one for my main work. The bass and treble roll-off isn't great for mixing and mastering, but it's a truly great value for the money for most monitoring uses in performance. It's better on the production vs. consumption end - where people like all their colored sound.

It's like the NS-10's of the headphone world. Well-understood and consistent, while offering a great average, flat experience that translates well over the air.

Yep! Headphone nerd Marco Arment hates them for some reason, but you see tons of actual professional musicians using the MDR-7506 in the recording studio. Not just radio/broadcast people.

I don't think there's anything that comes close for ~$100 in terms of sound quality and comfort; you'd have to spend at least $300 for a real upgrade. And even then, there's an element of subjectivity.

They shoot for flat when they make them and they're indeed flat enough for sleeves-up radio work, but I have heard folks say (somewhat correctly) that they're a bit bright up high and don't have enough gas down low. I can understand Marco's opinion in the context of being an audio nerd, because they're flat, but potentially not flat enough for some kinds of listening.

But yeah, couldn't agree more. Price point.

And they last ten years, then you change the pads for $10 and they go another ten years...

I think they are good enough for the application they are designed for and somewhat of a bargain at the price point.

Having listened to most and owning/owned for both studio and personal listening use some of the headphones that Marco reviews I can’t help but wonder if there is some bias going on with the music he reviews with or whether he actually does have very skewed hearing. Having been used to fine equipment and rooms whilst working in mastering suites, recording studios and I have picked up a preference for probably a certain type of sound but when auditioning and getting used to audio equipment I often test with a wide variety of sources that includes some music I don’t personally like but know quite well (such as country and western) as a reference to understand capabilities across the board.

Whatever ones thoughts it highlights the importance of auditioning oneself and getting to know something well (goes for speakers, rooms and headphones). It’s possible to do produce a good result using MDR-7506 or NS10s if you are comfortable with them and have the skill to do so.

What is a can?

Sorry, "cans" is radio slang for headphones, from the can-and-string metaphor. I'll make that clearer.

Inside one of my Focusrite audio interfaces, the internal headphone-amp, and wiring to the headphone connector, is labeled "cans" ;-).

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