Sony’s first open‑backed headphones offer an intriguing alternative to the established classics in the field.
Although their products sometimes fly below the radar in the UK, Sony Professional have an enviable track record when it comes to making headphones. My own MDR‑7509s were the first good‑quality pair of cans I ever bought, nearly 25 years ago, and they’re still going strong today. However, whereas some manufacturers have a sonic signature that is common to all or most of their models, Sony designs tend to do their own thing. The two closed‑back models in the current catalogue are the MDR‑7506 and the MDR‑7510, and to my ears, they sound quite different from one another. As far as I know, moreover, Sony have never before made a pair of open‑backed headphones — so what should we expect from the new MDR‑MV1?
The MDR‑MV1s use a new, specially developed moving‑coil dynamic driver that is said to give them a frequency response of 5Hz to 80kHz.
The Master Plan
Sony’s promotional material claims an enormous frequency range, but as usual, no tolerances are given, so this information is of limited value. More intriguing are the suggested applications. Sony say of the MDR‑MV1 that: “Their open‑back design enables accurate reproduction of a wide sound field, making them a suitable option for mixing and mastering immersive spatial sound.”
Given that Sony’s 360 Reality is embroiled in a hard‑fought struggle for market supremacy against Dolby Atmos, it makes sense that they would want the tools for creating it to be as widely available as possible. One would imagine that any given pair of phones would be equally good or bad for both formats, of course, but the idea of headphones optimised for immersive mixing is an interesting one.
The removable TRRS cable locks into the base of the left earcup using a threaded barrel.The marketing blurb also places great emphasis on the MDR‑MV1s’ light weight and comfort. At just 223 grams (about 8 ounces) they’re certainly in the featherweight category; in fact, I don’t think I can ever recall testing a pair of headphones that sat so lightly on the head. Comfort is more subjective, but they ticked all the right boxes for me, thanks to the soft removable Alcantara earpads and generously padded headband. As on many modern headphones, the earcups are quite elongated, and should fully surround all but the largest ears. Hinged joints allow smooth and free rotation both fore and aft and up and down. The removable cable attaches to the left earcup using a TRRS mini‑jack with a screw‑on barrel. An adaptor is included to convert the quarter‑inch jack at the other end to a mini‑jack.
The flip side of the slimming diet is that nearly all the component parts of the MDR‑MV1s are made out lightweight materials. There’s no reason to think this should make them less durable, and Sony make a point of emphasising their “long‑lasting wear and reliability”, but in terms of look and feel, there’s little to separate them from headphones costing a third of the money. That perception is reinforced by the fact that Sony don’t include any sort of a case, or even a soft bag, in their commendably sustainable paper‑based packaging.
Like most of today’s headphones, the MDR‑MV1s are a low‑impedance design (nominally 24Ω, according to the specs), and they offer a generous 100dB/mW sensitivity. I had no trouble driving them loud from low‑power sources such as laptop headphone sockets.
Surrounded
Returning to Sony’s marketing literature once again, it’s notable that the emphasis is on accurate spatial presentation within a stereo and surround soundfield, rather than on presenting the most neutral frequency response. When mixing or consuming immersive audio on headphones, what we’re hearing is a downmix of the spatial mix that’s been processed through a binaural encoder. One complaint I’ve heard about this process is that the encoded mix can feel a bit hollowed‑out in the low midrange.
I’m not sure whether Sony’s engineers share that perception and have tried to correct for it, but the MDR‑MV1s sound as though that could be the case. With a definite lift somewhere around the 100Hz region and a prominent treble boost above 5kHz or so, their sound is perceptibly ‘scooped’. In fact, auditioned with stereo material, they were both brighter and bassier than any of the other open‑backed phones I had on hand for comparison. But perhaps that’s exactly what is needed for immersive mixing?
The extra high‑end detail made it easier to localise objects within the 360‑degree panorama, while the low‑mid boost helped to restore some weight in an otherwise thin sound.
To find out, I auditioned Sony’s own 360 Reality demo on multiple headphones. The binaural encoding sounded pretty ropey on all of them, with obvious phasey artefacts, but I did feel that the MDR‑MV1s’ ‘smile curve’ tonality improved matters somewhat. The extra high‑end detail made it easier to localise objects within the 360‑degree panorama, while the low‑mid boost helped to restore some weight in an otherwise thin sound. Personally, I don’t think that it’s desirable to mix immersive audio wholly or mainly on headphones, but if you have to do it, I can see why Sony feel the MDR‑MV1s are suited to the job.
For stereo work, I think the treble boost is something the ear will adapt to fairly easily, and many engineers value the detail that such an enhancement brings. I found it a little harder to get a handle on the low end, not so much because of its prominence as because it sometimes seemed rather woolly. One track I quite often use for auditioning headphones is ‘Wire’ from Jon Hopkins’ album Insides. Some cans can’t give the descending bass line the weight and power it needs, while others don’t resolve the musical information clearly. The Sony cans passed the first test with aplomb, but I was less convinced by their ability to discriminate pitch, and there was something of a ‘one note’ quality to the results.
All in all, the MDR‑MV1s present an interesting contrast to other open‑backed headphones. For a similar outlay, models like the Neumann NDH‑30 and Shure SRH1840 have a frequency balance that, to my ears, is about as subjectively flat as you’ll get from any monitoring system. Sony’s designers seem to have pursued a slightly different goal here. To turn the MDR‑MV1s into a completely neutral monitoring tool for analytical listening, I think you’d need to pair them with custom equalisation from a product like Sonarworks or RealPhones — but if you are one of the many engineers who likes a richer low end than most headphones deliver, these could be right up your street. And if you’re looking to get into immersive mixing and can’t justify a five‑figure speaker setup, they might just get you a touch closer than more conventional headphones.
Summary
With the MDR‑MV1s, Sony seem less focused on tonal neutrality and more on other qualities that will help engineers mixing immersive audio on headphones.
