Hi! Welcome to another episode of 'Lachlan Likes a Thing', a show where I take a thing
and see whether or not I like it. Now, today, we're going to be looking at another pair
of headphones, this time the Sony MDR-1Rs.
Now, just like last week's Sennheiser Momentums, the Sony MDR-1Rs are Sony's entry into the
lifestyle headphone category. So, these are headphones that are designed to be portable,
comfortable, and stylish as well as delivering, you know, decent sound quality.
Now, you can see, here, I've got the silver and brown colour. The silver and brown colour
is not available in all countries, as far as I can tell, but luckily, Australia does
get the silver and brown colour, and I thought the silver and brown looks quite gentlemanly,
so that's why I chose it.
The black and red version also looks very cool, but I have enough black headphones,
so a silver was a- was a nice little change.
Now, the MDR-1Rs. The headphone- the design, first off let me say, it's a really classic-looking
design. It's both got elements of the modern, as well as this kind of retro feel to it,
so it looks a little more cutting-edge, say, than the Sennheiser Momentums which have that
kind of really retro look.
The MDR-1Rs share designs feature similar to, you know, other headphones in Sony's past,
like the MDR-F1, the SA5000, and particularly in the headph- sorry, the head band design,
and the ear-cups, and that kind of thing, it really also resembles the Z1000, which
is what the MDR-1R is a direct successor to.
Now, just like the Z1000, it employs a liquid crystal polymer driver, which you can actually
see. I don't know if you can see this in the video, but you can actually the whole driver
exposed, so it's pretty cool, though, of course, it's probably quite delicate as well. So that's
nice. It employs the same kind of driver technology, though, unlike the Z1000, the MDR-1 is built
out of plastic, and not magnesium as the Z1000 is.
Understand with the Z1000 is a lot more of an expensive headphone, though, with the MDR-1R,
it's still built quite well, you get quite a nice you know, sturdy build. It's not quite
up there with something like the Sennheiser Momentum, or even the Logitech UE6000, which
feels incredibly solid, but the MDR-1R still is a well-built headphone.
One thing is, you get this nice supple detachable cable, which has ridges along the sides of
it, which is supposedly to stop the cable from tangling. I don't know if that's really
effective or not, the ridges I mean, overall, the cable, I've found in the weeks that I've
used it, doesn't really tangle very often, which is very good.
You get an iPhone remote, and you also get a cable without the remote in the box. Now
one thing that has cropped up on the forums, that people have noticed is that on the...
on the detachable headphone jack, the- on some units of the headphone the- the cable
actually swivel or rotates slightly in the jack, and it makes a noise in movement.
This is a bit unfortunate, most other manufacturers, when they make a headphone with detachable
cables, a lot of them will put a locking mechanism in, which will prevent the cable from being
pulled out, but will also mean a more secure fit so that you wouldn't get this kind of
rotation. Unfortunately, this is not present on the MDR-1Rs, and it is a slight annoyance
whenever the cable is pulled.
Now, suggested solutions on the forum have been things like putting blu-tac or those
kind of things, but really, this shouldn't have been a problem in the first place. Apart
from that, it's a nice design. It also folds up for compact storage, unlike the Sennheiser
Momentum, so they're actually more portable and more easily taken around, and the ear-cups
are quite large, with really supple ear-pads, so they're very comfortable on the head. I'd
say they're about as comfortable as the Sennheiser Momentums.
Now, because it's synthetic leather - it's very supple, but it's still synthetic leather
- it doesn't breathe quite as well as the Sennheiser Momentums, but because of the larger
ear-cups, there's less of your skin actually in contact with the ear-pads, so it's much
of a muchness at that point.
Now, in terms of sound, I think it's worthwhile to compare to the Sennheiser Momemtums, because
I think that they're roughly equal in terms of sound quality.
The differences are that the MDR-1R has quite a thick sound, it's definitely not as neutral
as the MDR-1- I'm sorry it's definitely not as neutral as the Momentums. The MDR-1R has
a distinct emphasis on the lower mids, so a kind of a chesty sound... it's got quite
a chesty sound, its- it's also got this nice kind of musical emphasis on the lower treble
as well, which makes particularly female vocals sound really quite sweet on this headphone.
In terms of bass performance, the MDR-1R still is not as strong as the Sennheiser Momentums.
In terms of the tightness or the- the physicality of the bass, but it's definitely a huge improvement
in terms of sound over the Z1000, which despite being made of much more expensive materials,
compared to the Sony MDR-1R, it sounds a bit more hazy, a bit more grainy.
That said, the MDR-1R still does have a kind of slightly cong- slight congestion to the
sound compared to the Sennheiser Momentums. This may not sound like it' s as good as the
Momentums, but there's one big difference between the Momentum and the MDR-1Rs, and
it's the soundstage. Now for the MDR-1Rs, and I don't know if it's because of the larger
ear-cup volume, or because the ear-cups are actually angled, you get actually a much more
wide, and a much more natural and relaxing soundstage. So you get a more of a sense of
being inside the music as opposed to having two speakers on either side of your head.
Now, the Momentum still has the last word in definition, in that soundstage, so you
still get a better sense of where the instruments are in the soundstage compared to the MDR-1R
where it sounds wide but a little more diffuse, the instruments are a little harder to place.
That said though, the key word here is, you know, relaxing. The MDR-1R has a natural,
quite a beautiful overall balance. It's not as neutral as the Momentums.
But if you wanted something that was like the Momentums, without so, you know, if you
wanted something with a similar sound quality to the Momentums, but, you know, a different
kind of signature, here you have something that's not quite as dark, I guess, as the
Momentums in terms of the emphasos- sorry, emphasis on bass, and it's also got a sweeter
treble and vocal section compared to the Momentums, which can sound very precise but also at some
times thin, whereas this will sound a bit more forgiving. And I think that the MDR-1R
is probably better for... more forgiving of a larger genre of music than the Momentums,
though they are both very forgiving and very relaxing headphones.
Now the MDR-1R's recommended retail price is about 299 US dollars compared to, I think
about 350 or 399 US dollars for the Sennheiser Momentum. Now, honestly, I think that the
Sennheiser Momentum's build, and their still slight edge in technical performance over
the Momen- the MDR-1R justifies the price difference. I'd have liked to see these come
in maybe a bit cheaper, maybe about 250 US dollar.
Recently we've seen sales during Christmas, where this headphone's street price has dropped
well below even 250 dollars, so I think that price is about right. I would've also liked
to see another version of the MDR-1Rs, with, you know, the kind of premium build quality
that we've come to expect from some of the higher-end models from Sony, like the Z1000.
That said, I use the MDR-1Rs just as much as I use the Momentums, they're both great
headphones, I really like these as well.
So, if you get a chance, have a listen, see how you like them, and thanks for watching
this video!