Headphones Reviews

the size of the plastic thing that goes around the back of your head is really big enough to fit a kid... in retrospect, I think the flashing lights idea is meant to attract little kids mostly and that is probably who they targeted

but they will fit everyone (not perfectly)
and they have a good sound

TEENS THIS IS FOR U! I'M 15 AND JUST RECEIVED THESE, THEY ARE SOOO COOL! THE SWEET LIGHTS TO THE "IN" STYLE OF HEADPHONES IT TRUELY IS THE BEST YOU COULD GET FOR THIS AMOUNT! ONLY 2 FLAWS
1. LIGHTS DON'T STAY ON MORE THAN 40SEC.
2. KINDA WOBLY @ FIRST!
OVERALL THEY ARE THE TOTAL GENERATION OF HIP HOP AND RAP! BUY TODAY TEENS!

This is a great prouduct it has grat sound. It also has lights that will keep your friends asking where did you buy those. A drawback is that the lights stop after 40 sec. so if you want them to stay on you have to keep switching them back on.

If you like music, get these pair. If your serious about sound and quality of the music, go for a full sized. These headphones I bought because they looked so cool. They were well priced, and the quality was crisp but not full. It didn't have full bass and treble to the sounds, but had very crisp music. The only bad thing about this was I got a headache after listening to these for more than half an hour. It could be all earbuds becuase they are right in your ear, or it could be just these ones because they don't have the bass to balance out the treble. ....

Granted, earbuds aren't the best way in the world to listen to music, but they *are* extremely portable and discreet. These headphones fit snugly into your ears (no more feeling that they'll fall out at any moment!) and don't feel unnecessarily clunky/heavy. I can wear these for several hours without feeling like I need to take them out.

As with all buds, they do leak sound, don't give you superb sound for low bass/high treble, etc. But the sound quality isn't bad fod buds, and they certainly are more comfortable than any other buds I've tried.

These are great earbud headphones. I bought these along with the Aiwa HP-V600 ($20) so I can qualify for free shipping. These earbuds have a much larger sound stage than the Aiwa. This is especially apparent when listening to classical symphonies. While Aiwa had much more Bass and was more efficient to drive (more sound/volume setting), the soundstage was small and muddled. It sounded like the entire orchestra was crammed in your bathroom. This was worsen because the Aiwa also picked up tiny details (the Panasonic also did too but to a lesser extent). This additional detail combined with a small sound stage gave an impression of excessive noise.

One thing about the Aiwa was that it fit better in your ears. It also shielded out background noise better.

One complaint about these headphones is that they are BLACK, not the GOLD color as pictured. The black color looks so Ordinary.

The bottom line is: If you want loudness and lots of Bass and you don't listen to classical or acoustic stuff, get the Aiwa. For classical music, especially if your player has a bass boost, get the Panasonic.

The reception is too lousy, period. Some stations have pretty good signals, but this walkman cannot receive them well at all.

I bought this after reading the above Amazon reviews. It is indeed a fine unit; all the above is true. However, the FIRST time it fell from my neck onto a solid floor a speaker busted off and now hangs by wires.

Upon examination, I see that each headphone is secured only by a thin, flexible plastic joint. I'm going to try to stuff wires back in and superglue it back together, but I'd have prefered a much sturdier design!

After purchasing about 5 similar items over the years, all of which had shortcomings, I read the reviews on this item and decided to try it. This item beats many of Sony's similar, and more expensive, Walkmans. Lack of earphones and cords is a plus. I can even pick up AM radio in my office, which lighted by fluorescent tubes. My desk radio can't do that. I purchased this primarily to take to baseball games. I also take it when I walk my pooch and workout.

I give this product 5 stars. I have had my current pair for over two years, and am looking to replace them because of a small tear in one of the silicone bubbles that surrounds the earbuds. I've been using them day in, day out, and many other brands I've tried before have not lasted nearly as long as this pair has. After my first pair wore out, I bought one each for myself, my mom, my brother, my girlfriend, her mom, her dad,.. the list goes on. Everyone raved about the comfort, convenience, and superb sound quality. It's really a shame they are being discontinued. I would really love to get another pair or two. I'll be visiting the computer electronics store later this week to look at the new headphone selection. I only hope I'll be able to find a decent pair of new headphones.

I agree with fernando_f . Please E-mail (BigMusicLuver@excite.com) me if you ever come back to read your review. I have a pair of these and for a year now I have been trying desperately to find the same exact pair. The comfort is unbelievable because it fits snugly into your ear. The material that is made on these earphones are soft and really comfortable. As fernando_f pointed out, the sound quality is the best I have ever heard. It DOES NOT LEAK. A couple of times when the music is blasting loud I would ask my friends if they can hear the noise. They say "NO!" The sound is so in tact into your ears that one would never want to take off these amazing earphones. If I can say one bad thing is that the silicone that surrounds the earbuds tear easily. This is my own fault because I did not take good care of this delicate product. This should be a hint to AIWA that they should make more of this because they tear easily.

I've tried out many ear phones. Purchased expensive ones and inexpensive ones. But nothing has come close to this specific product. Again, I can't stress enough why these ear phones are the best. The sound and comfort says it all.

I am so sad and disappointed that they discontinued this product. I've already placed a pre-order on Amazon and I will continue trying to find these earphones...or at least until find SOMETHING that will top this product!

The frequency of this headphones is 6 to 25,000 Hz. They are just amazing. I want to buy more, and they are being discontinued.... I don't understand why. Don't take my word. Go to the store, and try the big headphones. The wider the frequency, the more expensive they are. Why? Because is a better quality. Try those 20 to 16,000, and then try a 5 to 30,000. Now imagine that in portable headphones with a comfortable silicone to seal the sound and give you comfort.

I bought these because of the folding feature they offer. They are about the samller over ear headphones available because they fold, but beyond that they have almost nothing to offer over similarly priced headphones. They're very uncomfortable; they fit on your ear instead of over them which becomes extraordinarily uncomfortable after only a half hour with them on. In addition, they make my ears sweat whereas other closed ear headphones do not. All of this would be tolerable if they produced decent sound, but they do not. Get the Koss PortaPro instead and you won't be sorry.

I've used these headphones for about 6 months now and I like them very much. They are easy to carry around, as they fold into a neat package. The earpieces swivel in two planes, so it is easy to find a comfortable position for them on my head. The padding is soft - extended wearing does not hurt my ears. The 4 foot long cord is short, so it does not catch on arms or furniture! I have another pair of headphones with a 6' cord, and it is a nuisance on most occasions. The only negative that I can think of is that the seal that the earpieces make with my head does not allow any air to circulate around the ears - they get quite hot after a while.

After all that, what about the sound? I think that it is excellent. I listen mainly to mp3 music files and watch mainly movie and music DVDs - a range in quality. To my ears, the sound from these headphones is bright and clear, with good bass and treble responses. They are not as good as my Sennheiser PX200s, but the Jensens are considerably cheaper. I have not regretted buying them for a minute!

I wanted headphones to take with my laptop to replace my behind the neck style Labtec Curve 460. I browsed around at many models. I wanted to stay under $50. I found this set at Media Play for $25 including a LONG extension cable (over 7 feet) and a 1/4 gold converter. I took a chance on them and am very pleased. The sound quality is the nicest I've heard from headphones. The headband is adjustable in height, and the arms swivel in two directions to put the phones at whatever angle you need for your ears. The padding is very soft. The band has a firm fit and it can get warm over time but I prefer to have them close fitting for better bass and reduced outside noise. They fold into a nice size of about 6x4x3 inches.

For $..., I suppose these JVC HAV560 are pretty darn good. They offer good frequency range with well defined high's, decent mid range and solid bass delivery. The 40mm drivers seem to need a little more juice to fully hammer your eardrums, but should be fine for most sound sources. They are light and comfortable although I think I'd prefer a tighter fit and perhaps more rugged wires asn these are just a little thin. As usual I am partial to the in line volume control which these headphones have. All in all I think they are a bargain.

I bought these headphones for mainly home use and have been impressed with them. For the price range, the sound quality is great, and the bass in strong (a rarity in inexpensive headphones). They are quite comfortable, and are great for music or movies. The 9' cord may be a bit long for portables, but it's nice for movies/TV because you don't need to sit so close, or worry about yanking out the cord from your TV/receiver. The only reason they don't get 5 stars from me is because the power delivered to portables is not quite as high, but is acceptable. All in all, a great set of headphones for the buck!

Two Thumbs Up! When I tried this headset with some of classical music CDs ( DDD, ADD, AAD ) and OGG ( 500Kbps Max_Value ) files made by them ( I tested them! :-) ), it is very different from other general headsets. It expresses music and sound with more deep and sharp with very sophisticated voices; therefore, each of instruments in orchestra expresses its discrete sounds very cleary. :-) I think that it has huge value with the price. Low price with high quality sounds. :-) I'm also satisfied with the volume control in the headset, especially for the volume level. When I listen to a classical music, i turned on the volume level with 55/100%. It is too loud for me to listen a music over 60/100%. I really recommend this headset when you are especially a classical music listener. It will be excellent choice for you.

THESE HEADPHONES SOUND VERY CLEAR BUT THEY DON'T GET HARDLY ANY BASS SOUND OUT OF THEM. THEY ARE VERY COMFORTABLY

These are good. I like the sound. I can't stand distortion and this give none as long as you dont crank the bass like a maniac. I.E. When worn in ear for a while it does tend to cause a little bit of pain.

My girlfriend owned a pair of these which I borrowed from her. They were by far the most comfortable I have ever worn, and in the search for these I wore many, many pairs. Unlike other ear phones these are adjustable in several different ways. They look nice and I really liked them. Unfortunately I couldn't find them anywhere in the stores, and I searched everywhere. Amazon.com was the only place I could find them so I proceeded to buy several pairs. I'm not a professional but I think the sound is good, they're comfortable, adjustable, and above all else....cheap. I would recomend them to anyone, but that's just me.

The subway here in Milan (Italy) is very noisy, especially in the Summer when windows are opened. Before getting these headphones, I just could not listen to my Audible audiobooks even with my hands on my ears. They proved to be very effective in this environment.

Do not have the wrong expectations, this device does not "create" silence. It lowers the level of ambient noise, allowing the sounds you wish to listen to from your player to come out better. Some noise remains of course.

If it was not for the quality of the rubber (the two pieces actually entering your ears), I would have given this product 5 stars. After a year of daily use, my left earplug unglued itself from its support and was difficult to glue back. It would be great if the rubber pieces were available as spare parts.

Sony could also consider making the cable shorter, or allow you to customize its lenght by adding/removing a middle cable extension.

This is thus a good product, smaller physically than others on the market. The battery life (1 AAA) is excellent.

I compared these to the Panasonic over ear ones and although I like them, I like these "in ear" ones better. Because they fit in the ears like ear plugs, they blocked out a lot of noise without turning on the noise cancelling device. I tried turning on the device without plugging it into my iPod/airplane seat and with it turned on, even more sound was muffled. It doesn't make it so that you cannot hear the airplane noise, but it is so muffled and reduced that you really don't notice it and you do not have to have your volume blasting to hear it over the surrounding flight noise. I thought my 3yr old would prefer them to the overear Panasonic ones to watch his video, because I thought it would be less cumbersome, but he didn't like the "in ear" feeling. I think you need to adjust them yourself to get the right fit, it is difficult to get the fit/feel right for someone else e.g. child.

I originally bought these ear phones before a plane trip with the sole intent of *SNICKER* returning them when I returned home. However, they worked SO effectively I kept them. I thought anyone would be crazy to shell out [the price] for ear phones. But after using these little guys, I was blown away.

I used them on a plane and they did an incredible job of blocking out the droaning roar of the engines. That was before turning on the noise cancelling. The noise cancelling circuitry made a slight difference. It was noticeable enough for me to keep it on. But the majority of the noise cancelling came from the ear plug type design. Watching the inflight movies with these guys was an absolute pleasure. With the engine noise significantly cut down I could clearly hear the voices in the movie.

I didn't have the slightest problem with the ear buds slipping out of my ear. The default size fit me perfectly, I didn't need to even bother trying the smaller or larger size.

If the idea of ear plugs is foreign to you, you may or may not find some discomfort with these. However, I frequently use the soft, roll up type ear plugs to help me concentrate and as a comparison, the Sony's were much more comfortable.

I can't give an honest opinion about sound quality. I am not a audiophile and my main purpose in trying these out was to block out side noise. However, they sounded great to me and I had no complaints to sound quality what so ever.

Having listened to many of the best consumer headphones available, I cannot recommend the MDR-V900s to anybody. Yes, they are very comfortable and have outstanding build quality, but the sound quality is really bad, especially considering the price tag.
I would suggest to anybody interested in Sony headphones- take a look at the MDR-V6 or MDR-7506 models. These have sound that is literally at another level than the muddy, grainy V900. And they retail at about half the price.
The secret is, you can go even cheaper yet and get something that sounds light years beyond the V900. A pair of Grado SR-60s or Sennheiser HD497s will completely embarrass the Sony V900s- I'm talking about crystal clear highs, excellent tonal qualities and near transparent sound. Compared to a good pair of headphones, the V900s are quite muddy. For what they cost, the lack of excellent sound is totally inexcusable.

Because of the variety of music we listen to, from pop to classical, from small ensemble to full orchestra; and the variety of equipment, from tiny Walkman radios to CD players; and the quality range of headphones, I can't imagine listening, especially on headphones, without the help of an equalizer to bring it all together.

Currently I have 1986 Sony V6s, Grado 325s (2002), and Sony V-900s (2002). I chose the 325s after reading the reviews at www.goodcans.com (recommended reading), and the following quote is important:
"Some of you may have read notes from one headphone retailer on the Internet that say the Sennheiser HD600's are better than the Grado SR325's because the Grado's emphasize the treble too much. I assume what they are calling too much treble is what I am calling detail. To me, since I really do like the sound of the SR325's and listen to Grado's constantly, (mids are clearer to me also), the Sennheiser's sound seems muffled to me." This is true, and for full orchestral music I reduce both the bass and trebble with the equalizer when listening with the Grado 325s, but they work perfectly with my Sony Walkman FM for pop and jazz. I think that reviewer would say the V-900s sound, like the Sennheisers, is a "muffled" one.

So, based on my good experience with the Sony V6s, I got the Sony V-900s. Like the Grado325s they have more bass than is needed for full orchestra and, depending on the recording I slightly increase the trebble. Comparing the 325s and V-900s I find the 325 sound cooler (crisper, harder, more transparent--pick a term) than the V-900, whose warmer midrange and more subtle highs I prefer. A cymbal over the V-900s sounds like "pshhhhh;" on the 325s it sounds like "pisssss." Take your choice, but with an equalizer you can fine tune your sound. One other solution: get headphones that aren't so good! The Koss Portapro phones have received excellent reviews, and I am getting a set for "on the road" use. Now, back to the music.

When I started shopping for headphones, I had some very specific criteria in mind: first, they must have good noise reduction, as their primary use would be in my dorm room where I wanted to decrease background noise as much as possible when studying.

Second, the sound must be of high quality because I'm picky in general and also because I intend to use them to analyze and learn music (both classical and popular) by ear.

Thiry, they must be large and comfortable. I have slightly big ears, and I wear my headphones for long periods of time, so they have to be of the highest comfort rating.

Finally, and equally significantly, they must have a low impedance. This refers to the electrical resistance of the headphones (their Ohm rating, or the omega symbol). The higher the impedance, the more power you need to run them properly. As you ascend through the price range of headphones, you will find that the impedance increases as well. High-quality headphones have higher impedance because the manufacturer assumes you will be plugging them into a home stereo or studio amplifier, which are typically set up to power headphones of 150-300ohm.

However, if you're like me, you may want to use these headphones elsewhere. Most portable devices like CD players are best suited to run 32ohm headphones at the most, and if you tried to run a pair of 150-300ohm headphones on something with this power rating, it would sound like a dying cow. More importantly to me, however, was the fact that my computer's sound card was rated at 32ohm. Since I do not have a home stereo in my dorm room, and most of my headphone use occurs on the computer, I had to pass up many great sets of headphones because of their high impedance ratings.

Every pair of headphones I looked at or listened to fell short in one of these areas - every pair except the Sony MDR-V900. I listened to them on a whim in a local music store while looking at Sennheisers, and they really impressed me. I thought they sounded great, and they sealed out background noise exquisitely. I thought they would be great if only I had a stereo at school, but then I looked at the back of the box: 32 OHMS IMPEDANCE! WOOHOO!!!

The bottom line is, these headphones sound amazing, have good sealing, are amazingly comfortable, and you can run them from practically anything with no loss in quality. I have not experienced the tinny highs or excess bass that others complain of. They perform great with classical music (orchestra, solo, quartet, etc), jazz, folk/bluegrass, and rock. Bowed instruments and woodwinds sound sweet and warm, guitar is clean and clear, drums are crisp and defined, bass is smooth and well-articulated, brass is clear as a bell, piano resonates like you're in the room with it, and vocals will feel like they're being sung directly to you.

The sound-proofing is good enough that I can really rock out in my fairly quiet office with no noise leakage except when I take them off and they aren't sealed around my ears. It's not so thick that I can't hear my phone ring, but my co-workers have trouble getting my attention vocally.

On a typical day, I wear these headphones almost continuously for 4 hours before and 4 hours after lunch, and have never needed to take a break because of discomfort. They do not get heavy, and the cups are so large that even my big ears barely touch them. They also look pretty sharp. The MDR-V900's are the best piece of musical reproduction equipment I have ever owned, and I would recommend them to anyone.

P.S. If you're shopping for headphones and plan on listening to a few, burn a CD to take with you to the store. They won't mind if you pop it in when you're spending these kind of bucks. I suggest having the following tracks: "Helplessly Hoping" - Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young for vocals, "New World Symphony mvt 4" - Dvorak for strings and brass, "Wish You Were Here" - Pink Floyd for guitar, "Stratus" - Billy Cobham for drums/bass

These caught my eye at my local music store. They were cheep, and they were a name brand. Yippee. I'm one of those people who runs through headphones fast (you know the type) and I wasn't about to pay a lot for something I knew I would destroy by the year end. As it turned out, the sound was bad. I have a lot of headphones lying around that have only one working ear (see, one of those people!) so I compared the sound. Equally crummy and cheep headphones of all styles (studio, ear-bud, sport) sounded much better. If the music I was hearing was delicate and I turned up the volume, distortion was distractingly high. That was fine for some Sonic Youth or Velvet Underground tracks, but not so good for most music. I wasn't expecting crisp sound from low-priced headphones, but still.

Well, I didn't brood on it too much. I got what a paid for, or a little worse. I would cope. However, when I put the headphones in my bag and left on a trip, Sony struck again. I pulled them from my bag, and wrapped them around my head. One of the ears dangled freely, refusing to get within an inch of my ear. I then noticed that the thin band of plastic connected to the earpiece snapped. I wasn't particularly rough on them, and nothing else in the bag was broken. After fiddling with them, I found I could bend them back and wear them like sport or jogging earphones. It would seem like I was a Martian to any onlooker, but whatever. At least they work. A week latter, a different pack, a different trip, and bam! Another strap breaks, this one causing an ear to turn at a 45-degree angle.

Moral of the story, this product should not be used if you:
a) Are looking for good sound quality
b) Don't want to buy some special steal case to keep them from snapping in thirty directions

I am a DJ and recording engineer and I have been using these headphones for about 3 months now. I'm very happy with the high volume that can be attained before distortion occurs, but the lack of bass and somewhat overbearing high end is disturbing. I wouldn't recommend for DJs, but engineers will find them useful during mixdown.

These headphones sound good but the earpads broke down in a matter of months. You end up with little flakes of black plastic all over the place. If you could find replacements I'd give these low end headphones a five foe durability and sound.