Sony MDR-1A Prestige Overhead Headphones - Black

Product Information

It’s been over three years since Sony introduced their MDR which was headed by the MDR-1R which were described as being able to produce “prestige” sound. Even though they were pricey, the MDR-1R was an impressive pair of over-ears and delivered in both performance and build quality.

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. Compared to my Momentum 1.0s, 2.0s, and my Adidas Monster Originals (a surprisingly competent headphone, BTW), these things are so much better. In a single word - they are balanced. No matter what you throw at them, they never stop being balanced and neutral. Which is a very hard thing for any headphone to do. Design-wise, there is nothing spectacular about the MDR-1A. They look exactly as you would expect from a Sony-branded headphone at this price point. The metallic exterior and large ear cups manage to give it an attractive and chiseled appearance. These aren’t clear-sounding headphones, and as mentioned previously the elevated bass bleeds into the mids and kills dynamic range. You aren’t going to hear the hiss of the singer’s mic, or even the distant footsteps in your favourite first-person shooter. 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.I just bought this headphone this week. In the stores, I tested the headphone selections using Samsung Galaxy S7 Exynos version and Spotify's Extreme Quality. The Sony MDR-1A are not the most portable set in their class, though. While the ear cups swivel by 90 degrees to make the headphones ‘flat’, the cups do not fold inward (into the headband) to save space. There’s also no case supplied. And with ears fully shrouded the listen is equally full. Indeed, the Sony MDR-1A over-ear headphones sound good. Astoundingly good.

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. A V-shaped headphone is an apt way to describe the Sony MDR-1A. But in this case it doesn’t mean they have non-existent mids.Possible driver downgrade... going from 48 in 1A to only 16 ohms in M2 bothers me, as low impedence drivers are known to be not as resolving... The Sony MDR-1A is a newer, updated version of the 1R which is lighter, smaller and more affordable. While they don’t have the “prestige” tag associated with them like the 1R, the MDR-1A is more than capable of delivering high-res audio no matter what you are listening to.

The MDR-1A and both of it’s color options offer a lot of modern appeal with the use of clean, rounded shapes, soft and supple (fuax?) leather with “invisible” seams, while also providing some old-fashioned, tried-and-true headphone design techniques, such as how the enclosed speakers appear as distinct circles as opposed to a unibody design that blends into the earpads. There’s almost nothing to say for how comfortable these are, for they simply disappear on your head. I can imagine people with massive ears or a particularly large head may find the cups and headband a little restricting, but for me it does absolute wonders.

Major HiFi Newsletter

Carroll is a headphone junkie residing in Brooklyn. He's a huge fan of Grado, UK hip hop, and the English Language in general. When not testing audio equipment or writing, you'll find him taking photographs or fiddling with circuit boards. While it is nice that these headphones are easy to drive and highly compatible wit a myriad of portable devices, these headphones themselves are not particularly portable. Treble: Slightly rolled-off, but not nearly as rolled-off as with the MDR-1R. Very smooth sounding but still with decent levels of detail, much like the mids. In fact, simply refer to my description of the mids in that regard to understand how the treble sounds with regards to detail vs smoothness. The highs do also have a surpringly good amount of upper-end sparkle, extended well into the lower parts of the top octave, too! They're able to give a pretty nicely shimmery effect to things like cymbals. The sparkle is a nice surprise along with the powerful bass, giving them a somewhat v-shaped signature from the mid-bass up to around 11k or 12k (at least). I've heard a sound demo of it through Youtube (Thanks, Zeos!), and it sounded quite soft. Go see it for yourself with different headphones, I'll have the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Ls4kawqus For our large noggin the MDR-1A fit is fine, but those with smaller heads might struggle to get the same experience. That's something to keep in mind, as you might not get the same five-star experience, but from our week's worth of listening sessions, and given the sensible price point, we have to say the Sony MDR-1A is a top class choice.