Sony MDR-MA900 Impressions and Measurements

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by Hands, Feb 6, 2016.

  1. mtoc

    mtoc SBAF's Resident Shit-Stirrer

    Banned
    Joined:
    Oct 22, 2015
    Likes Received:
    85
    Trophy Points:
    28
    You guys should try the SHP9500, best cans with $60 (first-handed).
     
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2015
    Likes Received:
    89,778
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Padre Island CC TX
    1. Using the above logic, we may as well say every headphone measured and talked about on this site is shit and not worth hearing except for maybe three or four. Actually, if I were to use that logic, all headphones suck and are not worth hearing except for one or two. Now that I think harder about it, all headphones suck and we simply should not bother. Only speakers should be considered.
    2. $350-$400 for an HD600/650 and another $300 for a GOV2 or Schiit stack is still a good amount of money for most normal people. While a huge focus on this site it toward higher end gear, I don't think we should ignore people just entering the hobby or are more cautious with how they want to spend money. Agreed that audiophiles past level 18 should not bother, except...
    3. Even if you are an audiophile level 18+, the MA900 does come in handy on a second headphone setup (work, gaming, etc.) especially if you are too cheap to spend a lot of money on a second headphone setup or would prefer to funnel funds to a primary headphone or speaker setup. I'd rather put the extra few hundred dollars into turntable or cable tweaks on my speaker setup than a secondary headphone setup on top of a primary headphone setup. I find the MA900/Vali2 acceptably "compatible" with my HD650/ZD setup given that I'm not the kind of person who likes wildly different sounding setups.
    4. I sold my K7XX in favor of keeping the MA900 on my PC. Really, they are just different. They are good at different things and they suck at different things. The MA900 is easier to drive though.
    5. Against all odds, we're hoping Sony reads this and is inspired to make an uber headphone again. Not mediocre shit like the Z7, which really isn't any better than the MA900.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2016
  3. bonehead

    bonehead New

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    3
    What's the bump at 1k like - is it prominent in listening?
     
  4. munch

    munch Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2015
    Likes Received:
    38
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Location:
    N EU
    to me no, but you can hear vocals as a little little bit uneven depending on the range.
    nothing major, imo!
     
  5. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    12,285
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Colorado
    Home Page:
    Nope. With the slight mid-bass hump and accentuated treble, the 1KHz spot is nothing to worry about at all.
     
  6. M3NTAL

    M3NTAL Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    1,697
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Arizona
    I agree with Purrin. Sometimes you need to step back and look at the big picture. I've heard way too many over-priced headphones. The MA900 is excellent at its price - just like the K7XX. Neither one of them are my personal favorite, but if I was new to the hobby and couldn't afford a HD6X0, the MA900 or K7XX would be a great phone to live with.
     
  7. shotgunshane

    shotgunshane Floridian Falcon

    Staff Member Pyrate Flathead IEMW
    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2015
    Likes Received:
    6,304
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Clear, clear water
    These seem like what I'm looking or in a budget set up with the vali2, until I can get an HD800s on down the road. Amazon sellers from Japan seem to be the cheapest at around 200~220.
     
  8. shipsupt

    shipsupt Admin

    Staff Member Pyrate
    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2015
    Likes Received:
    1,119
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Bay Area CA
    1. That's stretching the context of what I said a bit, especially since you know I don't feel that way in general. I'm not saying it's shit, but I was surprised to see such glowing remarks when there were a lot of negatives offered. I totally dig offering up economical options, AND I often used them for grabbing work cans, cans for kids, but blowing up mediocre headphones seems to be a national past time on the interwebs nowadays.

    2. Couldn't agree more. I'm not endorsing spend more to get more, I never have. Of course if I buy 3 of the latest shit hot $200 performers and don't like any of them, I've spent a good portion of just setting up that HD6X0/GOV2/Schiiter set up anyway...

    3. It's been so long since I was a lowly level 18 that it's hard for me to relate... :) Besides, who's got money for a secondary headphone set up? Having a primary is hard enough to afford!

    I've sort of moved to a camp of "why am I not listening to one of my better headphones right now". If I'm at my computer I can still listen to some good cans, I don't have to give up much. Perhaps that's got me biased towards not accumulating low-mid-fi redundant headphones.

    I shouldn't push my current personal preference of smart spending on less (sometimes SLIGHTLY more expensive) instead of splurge spending on a bunch of stuff. In my journey, I "wasted" a lot of money messing around with everything. If I had saved and spent wisely I'd probably have some good gear instead of the crap I listen to now. The piles have headphones have long since gone away and I stick with the stuff that I like. And yeah, it all has a pretty similar sound, I'll leave sampling for meets, audio shows, and hanging with super best audio friends.


    4. My K7XX sits in a box... I think I was supposed to send it to Questhate or someone because I wanted to give it away. As a K1000 fan the parallels you guys were drawing had me interested. I'll often grab a cheap set of cans like this for fun, but the particular of the negatives offered is saving me a few bucks this time.

    5.
    Now that would be progress!!

     
  9. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 25, 2015
    Likes Received:
    8,960
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Irvine CA
    I'm an HD600 dude. And I'm happy with it. However, I try not to impose that much what I like to other folks.

    What I'm looking for is not necessarily what other folks are looking for. So, I help them the best I can. Some folks like the Grado sound for example. But maybe they want something like a Grado but with more sub-bass, or better mids, or sealing... Then the HD600 is not going to do for them.

    Eventually they may move on. But it's an individual's decision to make. All I feel I can do, and others, is provide some good info for them to make an informed decision.

    Bottom line, yes. If one goes directly to an HD600 with maybe a GOV2 or Magni2 or O2 or any other reasonable amp which ends with a 2 ... then that maybe it and IMO money would be well spent. But not everyone is looking for this.
     
  10. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    12,285
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Colorado
    Home Page:
    It's really the staging and imaging aspect that makes it worth picking up now and again. The HD650 is the better all rounder, but sometimes they're a little too left-right, in your head, and closed-in sounding. Seems difficult to find a headphone that does staging and imaging decently without having a screwed up response or have overall lesser capabilities (the MA900 is surprisingly competent with technicalities).

    I'm not trying to pass the MA900 off as something magical, just that it has some nice strengths that make it worth a listen despite some shortcomings.
     
  11. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,812
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Dijon / Burgundy / France / EU
    I always forget you US people need to spend a lot of money for a HD600. Here in France a used HD600 in good shape is (sometimes far) less than 150€. and I paid my MA900 140€ hence the fact I compared them.

    With such a little affordable dac/amp as the GOV2 or little Schitt Stack or even a used odac/O2 for those who appreciate it, IMO a Used HD600 kills the entire mid-fi market. and for sure the MA900 is good mid-fi but still IMO "only" mid-fi while HD6X0 are the best value Hifi.

    Sincerely I'm no even so convinced the MA900 with his very low impedance is fairly usable on every HO. IMO it needs a good amp to really shine. One more time MA900 + Decent amp vs HD600 + decent amp... my choice goes clearly to the HD600.

    No offense guys. I'm not a HD600 fan , I love Stats and I still love my facetweeter so i'm not a typical friend uhuhuhuh.

    That said I like my MA900 cuz it sounds "good" ,it's light as a feather and looks like a headset for conf call so it's perfect for work.
     
  12. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2015
    Likes Received:
    89,778
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Padre Island CC TX
    I don't think we are saying anything different. My MA900 is relegated to computer desk duties. At least it's not ~ $1500 of low-fi.
     
  13. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2015
    Likes Received:
    89,778
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Padre Island CC TX
    Sony MDR-MA900 Measurements and Impressions

    Sony MDR-MA900 Over the Head Style Headphones - cut and pasted from Changstar.com. Long story short: Maxvla lent them to me almost two years ago. I bought a pair for $150 and left them in the box for the longest time. They are now a mainstay at my computer / secondary headphone setup.

    VERDICT: Pretty darn good.

    DSCF1768d7e2.jpg

    INTRO
    I had wanted to get my hands on this headphone a while back, but sort of forgot about it. Unfortunately, I believe that the MA900 is now discontinued. There were no quality reviews of it back then - I only seem to remember a post with a bunch of unboxing photos. But I kind had a good feeling about this headphone anyways.

    CONSTRUCTION
    First of all, the MA900 feels extremely cheap. The headphone lacks heft and uses thin pieces of plastic. Closer inspection however reveals that there is actually some good engineering behind it - with the use of durable high strength plastic and appropriate adjust-ability and flexibility to minimize stress at critical points. That's not say these will survive me stepping on them; but at least they won't snap and explode into several pieces like HiFiMan's last generation assemblies, e.g. HE-500, HE-400. BTW, this headphone is extremely comfortable.

    The physical arrangement of the MA900 is rather interesting. I never noticed this before, but the drivers are angled, and there is actually a gap behind where the ear would be because of the angled drivers. (see funky gap in photo below.) So this headphone is very much a dipole (and also open back) design. See this: http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1724.msg45935/topicseen.html#new

    SOUND
    Slight mid-bass hump. Lacks low bass extension (not surprising because of how very open it is). Good bass texture. Smooth treble, although entire treble region sounds elevated with marginally bright recordings (SACD Spandeau Ballet True album). However we are not talking about pain or nasty spikes. Just a slight elevation, and for purposes of comparison, still less than the treble bump of a DT880-250.

    The one thing that maybe stands out is the middle-midrange, smack around 1kHz. Not too different from some of the Fostex speaker drivers OJ and I have been playing with. Even Abyss and HE-500 (depending upon pads) exhibit this behavior. The good thing is that this bump is easy to adjust to - it's not like an ever present 7kHz peak.

    Stage is very and wide spacious, but not as deep as I would have expected from the angled drivers. The center fill isn't consistent. There's a three blob effect. Still, in the overall scheme of things, I'm simply very happy I'm not boxed in.

    Surprisingly the MA900 do scale. Quite awesome from the EC 4-45. In other words, I feel the headphone is sufficiently capable to keep me happy with that amp. There are not many headphones I feel that about with the 4-45.

    COMPARISONS AND OTHER THOUGHTS
    I’ve been on the search for a cheap headphone for computer use and I think this is it. Momentums were an odd fit where I couldn't figure out whether it was a supra aural or over ear headphone. Either I was in physical pain or I couldn't get good sound out of it. The MDR-R1 - I’ve managed to tweak to get a good FR. Good staging, but the downside of the R1 was that it just fell apart at louder volumes – sounding nasty. With the MA900, I think I may have found my headphone for computer use. I'm probably going to pick one up.

    If Sony packaged this driver nicely, they could price it at $799 given what's out there. I know we have many Sony fanboys here, myself included. It's always sort of a love hate thing with them. Sony can make such great shit, but also can be so stupid.

    Sony MDR-MA900 Frequency Response and Distortions
    MA900Ld8e7.gif
    MA900R42d3.gif

    Sony MDR-MA900 CSDs
    MA900L CSD4668.png
    MA900R CSD596d.png
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2016
  14. EraserXIV

    EraserXIV Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 7, 2015
    Likes Received:
    178
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Location:
    Vegas
    Interesting, in the grand scheme of things, I thought the K7XX sacrificed much less than the MA900 did. I guess it comes down to what your priorities are and how those are specifically affected by the sacrifices.
     
  15. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    12,285
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Colorado
    Home Page:
    Based on memory, the K7XX had better, fuller, more extended bass, but the treble was overall brighter and much less smooth. The treble alone made me not crazy about them. That, and it's hard to beat the stage of angled, open baffle-ish drivers sitting somewhat in front of your ears. K7XX in comparison is more like the HD650, having the drivers sit directly to the left or right of your ears.
     
  16. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,812
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Dijon / Burgundy / France / EU
    Absolutely.

    I'm 100% in line with this ^
     
  17. Speakerphone

    Speakerphone New

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2015
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    3
    Location:
    Seoul
    Home Page:
  18. Priidik

    Priidik MOT: Estelon

    Pyrate BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,153
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Estonia
    So these are basically poor mans K1000-s.
    Do these have slam at high spl?
     
  19. sorrodje

    sorrodje Carla Bruni's other lover - Friend

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    2,812
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Dijon / Burgundy / France / EU
    Would anyone in EU be interested in a loaner? I can let mine travel a bit.
     
  20. Hands

    Hands Overzealous Auto Flusher - Measurbator

    Staff Member Pyrate MZR
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    12,285
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Colorado
    Home Page:
    Have not heard the K1000s but have heard that comparison made before from others.

    I would not say they slam...not as much extension as a Sennheiser, for example. However they do have some warmth and hit harder than you'd expect based on measurements, likely due to sheer size of drivers. In other words, they don't sound weak or thin, but you can hear the bass roll-off affect things.
     

Share This Page