The MDR-M1 are yet one more pair of studio headphones from Sony. A few of you would possibly keep in mind the MDR-MV1 Studio headphones that we reviewed virtually precisely a 12 months in the past. Properly, this pair would not have something to do with these. As a substitute, the M1 is the successor to the extremely widespread MDR-7506.
The 7506, and its numerous variants, have been round for over three many years at this level, and have grow to be a cult basic. You most likely do not even have to know a lot about headphones to have the ability to acknowledge them, as it’s essential to have seen them at the very least as soon as in your lifetime perched atop the pinnacle or dangling by the neck of a celeb singer, musician, or podcaster.
As such, the M1 have some fairly large sneakers to fill. The $400 MV1 had been fancy, flagship studio headphones whereas the M1 are supposed to be extra mainstream. Nonetheless, at $250, the M1 are 2.5x the present value of the 7506. Do they justify the worth bump? Extra importantly, will we lastly have a worthy successor to the venerable 7506? Let’s discover out.
Design
The MDR-M1 are a pair of closed-back circumaural headphones. The design greater than bears a passing resemblance to the 7506 however with trendy Sony design sensibilities.
You get a really related earcup, yoke, and headband design as on the 7506. Each function the distinctive blue ‘Skilled’ sticker on the aspect with color-coded Left and Proper labels. The scarf additionally retains the seen stitching sample across the edges. The cable is single-sided and mounted on the left.
The brand new mannequin does function some notable enhancements over the 7506. The M1 earpads are considerably higher by way of materials; gone is the rubbish bag plastic of the 7506 and changed with a mushy, leather-like materials with thicker padding and better depth. I measured about 22mm on the deepest level and 15mm on the shallowest level.
The redesigned headband options thicker cushioning within the center whereas the 7506 basically had none. The brand new headband design additionally hides wiring for the precise speaker as there isn’t any uncovered cable dangling on the aspect anymore. The brand new joint design additionally makes the earcups swivel 90 levels ahead to allow them to lie flat.
Sadly, a draw back of the brand new yoke design is that the earcups now not fold inward. Whereas the 7506 earcups had restricted swivel and might be made to lie flat, the flexibility to fold them inwards made them collapse right into a a lot smaller measurement that was straightforward to hold. In truth, it appears Sony would not need you to journey with the M1 in any respect, as in addition they do not include a carry pouch the way in which the 7506 do.
Happily, the M1 return to being the commonly superior headphones by way of design. You now get a removable cable, which could be hooked up with an ordinary 3.5mm jack and a screw-in mechanism that locks it in place. You get two cables with the M1, a 1.2m cable and a 2.5m cable, each with a 3.5mm jack at each ends however a 6.3mm converter is offered within the field and comes hooked up to the two.5m cable by default.
In that sense, the M1 are additionally higher than the MV1, which include a single lengthy and hulking cable that terminates in a 6.3mm plug, and you need to join the bundled adapter cable for 3.5mm connectivity. Having two cables of various lengths and a small converter as a substitute of an adapter cable is unquestionably a greater resolution. You aren’t getting a coiled cable like with the 7506 but it surely appears the business as an entire has moved on from coiled cables.
General, the M1 are a well-built pair of headphones. Certain, they’re virtually fully made out of plastic, but when the 7506 are any indication, it is a tried and examined materials that may stand up to the trials of on a regular basis use for years to come back. I additionally favored the texture of issues such because the knurling on the metallic connectors for the cables and the satisfying clicks of the scarf adjustment slider. The slider options markings so you may match them on both aspect and if a number of persons are utilizing the identical headphones, they’ll keep in mind their settings and swap to them rapidly with out trial and error.
Consolation
Consolation is a tough topic as totally different head and ear shapes could make the identical pair of headphones appear comfy or uncomfortable. For its half, Sony has made the earpads on the M1 bigger, thicker, and softer than these on the 7506. The 7506 earpads, regardless of their circumaural design, actually weren’t that large and they also largely ended up sitting on the person’s ears reasonably than round them.
In my expertise, the M1 earpads aren’t as large of an enchancment as I’d have favored. I’ve pretty small ears and regardless of that I wasn’t in a position to totally clear the opening inside the M1 earpads. This meant the whole rim of my ears was always touching the within of the earpads and, at occasions, additionally escaping their inside confines. The earpads additionally aren’t particularly deep, so I may really feel the material overlaying the drivers inside on a regular basis.
The mixed impact of all this was that the M1 merely weren’t comfy for me. In truth, I’d say they had been really fairly uncomfortable at occasions. It was not possible for me to put on them for various minutes with out always having to take away and readjust them in order that they may press on and damage a unique a part of my ears. The one time I may put on them for over an hour was whereas gaming and that is solely as a result of the ache from the headphones was laborious to note over the ache of taking part in Overwatch 2 ranked.
The headphones are pretty gentle and the clamping drive is not a lot. It is actually simply the earpads that made these troublesome to dwell with for me. The 7506 has amassed a big assortment of third-party earpads through the years and for good causes. The identical must occur with the M1 because the inventory pads merely will not be for everybody, and even most individuals, for that matter.
Audio high quality
The M1 function bespoke 40mm dynamic drivers with a wideband 5-80,000Hz frequency vary. The drivers are angled barely inside the earcups to level them extra successfully towards the within of your ears.
The frequency response of the M1 is similar to what we now have come to anticipate from Sony. It is the identical type of home sound we discover on different Sony headphones with boosted mid-bass, suppressed low treble and vibrant excessive treble.
Beginning with the low finish, the M1 includes a pretty modest bump within the mid-bass and upper-bass vary. This ends in a hotter, boomier high quality to the bass, however not fairly to the identical extent that we discover on a few of the extra consumer-oriented fashions from the corporate. Then again, the low-bass is missing, and the drivers cannot fairly hit the decrease registers with adequate impression, inflicting the bass to be a bit one word within the center. Regardless of being an open-back, the MV1 had significantly better low-bass as compared.
Shifting into the mid-range, there ‘s some residual power seeping in from the high-bass, which taints the lower-mid frequencies and brings some undesirable heft to sure string devices and voices. Higher mid-range is sort of alright although, which leads to most male voices nonetheless retaining their timbre and pure sounding high quality.
Going into the treble, the M1 disappoints with a barely uninteresting low-treble area within the 2000-5000Hz area. This causes different string devices like guitars to lose a few of their readability and likewise impacts the breathiness of some feminine vocals, leading to a barely stuffy sound.
Issues flip round as we get into the higher registers, nevertheless, as all of a sudden the treble response catches a second wind in areas above 6000Hz and particularly round 7-8000Hz area, the place issues can get a bit spicy. Cymbals and hi-hats in addition to some digital music sounds get an extra burst of undesirable sparkle, which causes them to sound a bit shrill and sibilant.
The general tonality teeters getting ready to being barely v-shaped, with boosted mid-bass and high-treble and dips within the higher mid-range and low-treble areas. The sound is heat, maybe a bit an excessive amount of at occasions, and there is not sufficient usable treble power to steadiness it out, leading to a barely darkish presentation general. I’d hesitate to name it muddy but it surely’s additionally not as clear or scientific sounding as I’d have favored a pair of monitoring headphones to be.
This was additionally a little bit of a problem with the MV1, the place it appears Sony can not help itself from coloring the sound of its headphones with the everyday Sony home sound, even when the meant goal of the product is monitoring audio. You may’t monitor one thing if the factor you’re listening by way of is coloring the sound alongside the way in which. Then once more, the 7506 aren’t precisely impartial sounding both and other people appear to have gotten together with them high-quality. The M1 are much less coloured as compared, and higher suited to monitoring than the 7506.
Outdoors {of professional} use circumstances, the M1 are fairly good headphones for house use. For somebody simply listening to music, watching motion pictures or taking part in video games, the M1 are moderately well-tuned and versatile. I personally would have favored a bit extra decrease treble presence but it surely’s nothing you may’t repair with EQ. Even with out an EQ, I wasn’t itching to repair the sound of those headphones and many of the music I listened to was pleasurable out of the field.
The M1 haven’t got an particularly broad or partaking sound stage, in no small half as a result of closed-back nature of the headphones. The sound is firmly located round your head reasonably than away from it and the imaging efficiency is barely so-so. These features may also enhance to a level with a barely extra fleshed-out treble response. Having mentioned that, I did not have too many points with audio placement when utilizing the headphones for gaming and the M1 are completely usable for informal gaming.
The M1 have actually good passive noise isolation as an upside to the closed-back design. The headphones can simply tune out most minor background sounds corresponding to air conditioners and followers, which could be good for individuals who would possibly discover themselves working in noisier environments with out having to resort to utilizing wi-fi noise-cancelling headphones.
The M1 are additionally very straightforward to drive headphones. Not solely are you able to simply energy them from a laptop computer’s headphone jack, you too can energy them fairly nicely with a smartphone; I used a passive analog dongle with a Nothing Cellphone (2) and the telephone’s inside DAC/amp had greater than sufficient juice for these headphones. Coupled with the brief cable, this was really not a foul setup for listening to music.
On the subject of cables, I wish to say the inventory cables do exhibit a small however notable quantity of microphonics, the place the motion of the cable round your garments transmits the sounds to the earcups. Other than that, the cables are fairly nice.
Conclusion
The MDR-M1 are an enchancment in almost each conceivable manner over their predecessors, the MDR-7506. They’re bit extra comfy, have higher construct high quality, extra balanced sound, and higher connectivity. The one draw back as compared is the dearth of foldability and journey pouch, which makes the brand new M1 a lot much less appropriate for journey.
Outdoors of the comparability with the 7506, the M1 come throughout as moderately well-designed and well-built headphones with good tuning for house customers with a flexible use case in thoughts. Nevertheless, the sound is perhaps a bit coloured for the initially meant use case of monitoring. In addition they weren’t comfy in any respect for my ears, which additionally is not one thing you need for professionals who can be anticipated to put on them for hours.
At $250, the M1 are barely costly for what you get, particularly contemplating the 7506 are going for simply $99 and are not 2.5x worse. The M1 can be value selecting up for house use in the event that they drop right down to round $150 and you may spend the financial savings on a pair of high quality aftermarket pads. However if you’re searching for monitoring functions, there are extra analytical sounding choices on the market.
