Sony MDR7506 Close Ear Headphone (Black)

Sony MDR7506 Professional Large Diaphragm Headphone

These are basically ubiquitous in the recording industry. They are “relatively” inexpensive studio recording headphones. You can do your own search and will easily find them as one of the top recommended headphone cans for monitoring while recording.

1. Very good seal and low leakage — so your click track doesnt bleed out and into your mics. This is true. I think they are pretty good at sealing around your ear. Better than velour ear pads or other foam pads such as AudioTechnica AT50’s (which are also pretty popular inexpensive cans for the same use case).

2. I would not call these super “neutral” or “flat” headphones but they really have an exciting sound. The bass is really tight and present but not excessive. Mids and highs are pretty exciting to hear and thats right where i like it for recording vocals and guitars. I dont find it fatiguing to hear. I find that i dont need to “break them in” to make them sound good. They sound great right out of the box. They seriously are my favorite recording headphones.

3. You dont really need a headphone amp … theyre driven pretty easy and can be used for even your phone. But I actually use a mackie HM4 headphone amp/distributor in my humble studio and these can make some serious noise.

4. The headphone comfort… Love the THICK band at the top. The headsize adjustment clicks into play and thats definitive — doesnt move. There is a fairly strong clamping feel around your head but thats actually necessary for studio recording — when you bob your head up and down, it just prevents falling. Some may find that the clamping is a bit much and might get uncomfortable over time. I do think the clamping strength is part of the reason why the noise is isolated well.

5. The ear pads are really a weakpoint…. its this really thin vinyl-feel wrinkly material. Goes around your wear OK and makes a good seal. But this material looks really ugly and easy to wear-out within a year of heavy use —> there are reviews that complain that they wear down with sweat and make a black mark around your ear. I believe it.

6. The “cupping” space around your ear and be an issue for some. Since these clamp tight around your head, i do find the inside volume around the cans to be somewhat shallow. AT M50, Beyerdynamics DT990, and even Bose QC35’s have more “space” between inside of cans so your ears dont feel like theyre being “squished” . Though for me, the sony’s dont have this issue for me, i can see that for some, it might be a bit uncomfortable (people with pop-out ears).

7. Not a huge fan of integrated (not replaceable) coil cables…. theyre heavy and if it breaks , then thats it. I wish they were straight and replaceable . But, at least the coil is very long so great for studio reach. Ironically the headphone itself is REALLY light weight — the only thing dragging it to make them feel heavy is the coil cable (left side as usual)

8. As with any closed back headphones, they feel much more closed in sound stage than any open can such as a beyerdynamics DT880-990 or grado’s. These are no exception. Make no mistake, the sound stage is fine for closed can headphones — but theyre no match for anything with open back.

To conclude, If youre on a budget and recording at home basement like i am, these are really great. You can have them for around 150 on amazon storefront. I recommend these over Audiotechnica M50’s easily (which is often recommended for budget setups too). OF course, just for music listening, theyre actually amazing too and easily outshine all those “beats” or other consumer products. Theyre tried and true and basically industry standard. — i just wish over all these years, sony wouldve improved them (replaceable cables, straight cables, better ear foam material).

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update 2023 march 10
Bought a second copy. Love these for recording. Seals very nicely and doesnt leak into recordings. When I “master” my recordings with these, the balance of bass/treble on other stereos sounds great. Just thought i’d mention this update .

Bonitos, buenos con empaque práctico

I am a professional sound recordist in India and I have been using Sony MDR 7506 for the past 12 years with out any problems. No wonder it’s the Industry standard !