Sony Professional MDR-7506 Headphones Review

THE BASICS

Price: £72, 95 (Amazon)
Suitable for: Digital pianos, Guitars, Stereo systems, TVs, laptops, iPhones, iPods, MP3 players,iPads, most phones/tablets. (Anything with 3.5mm jack or 6.35mm jack)
Cord Length: 3 metres (oxygen-free copper litz wire)
Sound Quality: (frequency response) 10Hz-20kHz (impedence) 63 Ohms
Rating: ★★★★

 

    These headphones were actually a Christmas present however I wanted to let them run their course a little bit before actually reviewing them. My original intentions were to use them for my digital piano (as unfortunately not everyone appreciates Mozart at 7am…) however for reviews sake and to get a real appreciation for the quality of these headphones I’ve listened to them on my iPhone and laptop including a range of music and YouTube videos. I have to say these headphones really BEAT others on the market at a fairly reasonable price, pun intended. I do own a pair of Dr. Dre Beats headphones however I have to say I was extremely disappointed to find that they actually weren’t worth the money AT ALL. Beats headphones are extremely overrated, they have a huge advertising and marketing campaign and are renowned for their ‘look’ – you can just tell when somebody is wearing a pair of Beats headphones. Although my Beats aren’t the top of the range they are still an expensive music accessory and I’m not as impressed as I hoped to be! Anyway enough about Beats because I am actually meant to be reviewing the Sony Professional MDR-7506.
  Before jumping straight in and splashing the cash I feel it is important to DO YOUR RESEARCH. This is the key in finding the perfect pair of headphones whether the Sony MDR-7506 are the headphones for you or something else is more ideal, research is key. As I had a specific use in mind I simply started with a google search: ‘best headphones for Yamaha digital pianos’. I found an extremely helpful blog post (link here) that reviewed various pairs of headphones and it was easy to see which were most suitable to your budget without over complicating things with too many specialist technology terms. Once you think you’ve found a suitable pair look for reviews online and then look at the reviews on the place you’re buying from and other suppliers to get a good range of reviews. There is a point however where the amount of reviews can get ridiculous, you can scroll for hours getting a repetitive strain injury and find that one terrible review on page 47 – we’ve all been there. Don’t let a couple of bad reviews dishearten you, obviously it is more of a problem if there is a recurring problem with the headphones you are looking to buy as this may be a design/manufacturing fault. At the end of the day reviews are generally down to what the person is comparing it to. If previously they’ve been the owner to £300 headphones that feel like duck feather pillows on your ears, that transport you to some magical place with the solid bass and the crisp soprano notes then anything less than that just won’t be satisfactory. On the other hand if the person is used to those cheap, crappy earphones you can pick up from the pound shop (that we’ve all fallen victim to when your reliable earphones seem to miraculously disappear) then they are going to feel as though they have been transported to a completely new universe trying a more expensive set of ear candy. When investing in the Sony headphones I honestly spent a ridiculous amount of time scrolling through amazon reviews and read nothing but praise! I’m not disappointed at all, I don’t feel like any of the reviews were untrue or exaggerated in the slightest.

   Sound quality. We all know we want something that sounds good but what actually is sound quality? Sound quality is (according to Wikipedia) typically an assessment of the accuracy, enjoyability or intelligibility of audio output from an electronic device. So in simple terms we want our headphones to sound as good as possible and play back to us an accurate, detailed and defined version of the song we wish to listen to. So when we listen we want to be able to pick out the drum beat, bass line, guitar riff, synths etc etc. Even to an untrained musical ear we want to hear the definite sound of each instrument so that we hear what the composer heard when they played back their song in the studio. Obviously a variety of genres will benefit differently from this feature. I have to say I think the sound quality of the Sony MDR-7506 is of really high quality for the price and has a really professional finish. The Sony MDR-7506 are a closed back pair of headphones. This means they are good at blocking out sound from your environment and transfer less sound to the people around you – the sound is more enclosed to just you – this is useful if you don’t want to be that really annoying person that blasts their music on the back of the bus for everyone to hear. This will really help you stay focused on your music and allow you to feel relaxed and you won’t be distracted or disturbed. When buying your headphones, especially if you are looking for a pair for your digital piano you may really want to consider whether open back or closed back are best for you. Something you’ll need to take into account is ‘soundstage’ which has to do with how close/far the music feels from you. You tend to get better soundstage on an open back pair of headphones but you can read more about that on the previously linked blog post above. Another thing you may see when looking to buy headphones is ‘frequency response’. This is referring to how the headphones pick up the different frequencies from bass notes to a higher register. The lower the starting number the more bass notes the headphones will pick up and obviously the higher the last number the more treble sound is picked up. Another thing linked to sound quality is ‘Impedance’ which is measured in Ohms. The higher the impedance usually the better the sound quality and the less chance there is of that annoying hiss/buzzing sound in the background; the Sony Pro MDR-7506 are 63 Ohms.
   These headphones come with a 3.5mm to 6.35mm jack adapter that screws on to end. This is

obviously very useful because you aren't limited to just using your headphones for your digital piano, amplifier/guitar or stereo because they have the classic 3.5mm jack that most phones, iPods, MP3s, iPhones, Macs, iPads and laptops have. This means great sound quality on all your devices – one size does fit all! The fact the jack screws onto the end could be seen as a negative or a positive. The negative side is if you lose it or break it, it’s probably going to be difficult to find a replacement that will fit exactly so your headphones will be limited to only 3.5mm devices. However the jack is probably better and is designed specifically for the headphones meaning the overall product quality is higher than the ones you find on eBay/Amazon for about £3 that only have good quality sound spanning 2 octaves from C to C. For the better quality this will hopefully be a more sturdy addition to the headphones unlike some cheap ones I have seen on amazon which have actually split into two pieces!
    It’s not all about the actual performance of the headphones, if they aren’t actually comfortable to wear it doesn't matter how good the sound quality is. This was one of my main reasons for investing in this new pair. My last pair of headphones that I used for my digital piano alone were SO uncomfortable to wear – they would give me headaches after wearing them for long periods of time! My Beats which I used for listening to music on my iPhone were also quite uncomfortable. They weren't the right size for my head and couldn't be made any smaller, they would move around and slip down all the time and just weren't right when you were trying to listen to music. My new Sony headphones though are the complete opposite the closed back and plenty of padding as well as leather padded overhead part are really comfortable. They are perfect for listening to for prolonged periods of time such as long haul flights, all night revision sessions or serious piano practice.

DIY: Music Lyrics Photo Frame

Things you will need for this DIY are: An old picture frame (size of your choice), An image for the inside (it should be smaller than your frame), Acrylic paint and paint brushes(optional), Plain paper A3/A4/A5 (depending on the size of your frame), glue, Pencil for marking out and a pen of your choice (marker pen, fine liner). The reason this DIY includes a lot of optional things or things where you can choose yourself is because it will allow you to be more free and create a photo frame that will suite your room and be in your style! This might even be a good present for a friend or maybe even a Valentines gift where the central picture is of you and your loved one? It is very much down to you! So here we go…

First you will want to mark out (in pencil) on your plain paper where your frame overlaps so that your writing won’t be hidden and roughly mark out where your image will be. 

The next step will be optional. Now if your frame is not of your desired colour you can paint it. As mine is pink which doesn’t match my bedroom I’m going to paint it white instead. You can paint it however you like: in block colour, stripes, or patterns and with whatever colour you want. This is the second step so that your frame can be drying whilst you continue with the rest of the process. For my version I decided to add black splatters of paint around the frame simply by using watered down paint and flicking the paint brush, I did the same on the corners of the paper inside so that it had a more continuous effect.
TIP: If you have a dark coloured frame think carefully about your colours. I chose white for a pink frame but it took me quite a lot of layers of thick paint to cover the original pink, this is something you might want to consider.

FURTHER TIP: PLEASE be careful with your paint you may want to put newspaper or an old magazine down so that firstly you don’t get paint everywhere (like I managed to>.<) and secondly to prevent your frame sticking to your desk/ surface whilst drying (like mine did >.<).

On your plain paper that has been marked out you should start to write in, with the pen of your choice, lyrics from your favourite song(s). Obviously here it is completely optional which lyrics you choose and how you write them out.This step is optional but it is easier if you can glue your image to the paper as it will prevent it from sliding around in your frame however if you don’t have glue to hand, don’t worry just line it up as well as you can. On the other hand if you happen to have some blue tack take a small amount place it on the back of your image. Place all the pieces of your frame together and you’re done!

Your picture is now ready to be hung on the wall or wrapped as a gift! Here is my finished result. 

Let me know what you think and if you give this a go I’d love to see yours! You can tweet me @Bishhyyy , comment down below or tag me on Instagram @jazbishy . I hope this was helpful.

Jaz Bishop xxx

A New Year

So this is a week late from 'New Year' as such but you get the idea. A New Year brings opportunities to start new things. Creating a blog has been a plan of mine for a while now but I was never really sure what kind of blog I wanted to create. When I first thought of the idea most of the blogs I'd seen were beauty blogs. Now don't get me wrong I like makeup and I love reading beauty  blogs but beauty itself isn't really a passion of mine so I felt creating a beauty blog would be wrong of me to dedicate myself to something that wasn't really... well, me. So when I thought about it for a longer time I decided on 'Music, Fashion & Art'. Please bear with me whilst I figure out how to use this and create a professional look with headers etc. (everybody has to start somewhere!) I'm still making decisions and I'm kind of in the 'design process' ...
   New things is what persuaded me to title this blogpost 'A New Year' because my aim for this year is to run this blog about the things I enjoy and share them with others. I'm off to a slightly slow start but once I've become more decisive(another resolution of mine) hopefully things will move a bit quicker.
   A couple of years ago I created a jar and put notes in everytime I achieved something or did something fun. When I looked back on them on New Years Eve it was a really nice experience to look at all the good things that had happened so this year I decided to do it again. (Sorry to say there is currently only one lonely little note, but it should fill up as the year goes on) 

'Start 2015 off with a jar and fill it with good things that happen. On New Years Eve read each note and relive the memories'

I'll probably do this post again once I've sorted this blog out and make it more presentable and not as rushed, Happy (late) New Year!

Jaz Bishop xxx