$9 Headphone Review: Sony MDR-ZX110

[JohnBooty]

Hard to beat KSC75, PortaPro, or KPH30i for good sound at a great price

I bought a pair from Drop a while back and they had the most bizarre sound I've heard in my entire life. Maybe my pair was broken.
They were less "headphones" and more of a "severe hearing damage simulator."

Bass was honestly kind of stunning for cheap, over-ear headphones -- at least in terms of how much of it there was -- but that's where the party ended. They were boomy on the low end, tizzy on the high end, and weird inbetween.

Measurements for the PortaPros seen actually look reasonably quite nice up to about 2khz at which things go haywire. Theoretically, that would also apply to the giant BIC speakers I measured a while back. The difference being that the BICs are pretty enjoyable in practice, perhaps due to reflected sound canceling out some of the weirdness.

 

[Maki]

They make a pink version, now I have to buy one. Anyone interested in a comparison with the SR009?

 

[infinitesymphony]

The review mentions that the headphones have some isolation for the wearer. How much sound leakage is there outside of the headphones?

Wondering if I could recommend them as an ultra-budget set of closed-back tracking cans for people who don't want to spend $50+ on ATH-M20x+ or who dislike in-ears.

 

[Labjr]

Hard to beat KSC75, PortaPro, or KPH30i for good sound at a great price. I ultimately prefer the sound of the PortaPro, but the overall form factor and ease of use of the KPH30i means I use them constantly--at my desk, washing dishes, playing guitar (through an older Line6 pod), playing PS4 (through the Dualshock jack), and for zoom calls (they have a mic and one button remote and sound perfectly adequate). Can't go wrong for the price, and they're often discounted to $20.

EDIT: sorry to derail. These sony's also seem fine if you have the ability to EQ, but I suspect you'd need something external like a Qudelix 5k... and then what's the point of having a $9 headphone?

Thanks. I'll check them out. I think it's good to have a discussion comparing other budget headphones. Not for necessarily for subjective audiophile opinions but for practical use. I'm thinking the reviewed headphones aren't going to work well with my digital piano since it doesn't have enough output.

 

[ishouldbeking]

I bought a pair from Drop a while back and they had the most bizarre sound I've heard in my entire life. Maybe my pair was broken.
They were less "headphones" and more of a "severe hearing damage simulator."

Bass was honestly kind of stunning for cheap, over-ear headphones -- at least in terms of how much of it there was -- but that's where the party ended. They were boomy on the low end, tizzy on the high end, and weird inbetween.

Measurements for the PortaPros seen actually look reasonably quite nice up to about 2khz at which things go haywire. Theoretically, that would also apply to the giant BIC speakers I measured a while back. The difference being that the BICs are pretty enjoyable in practice, perhaps due to reflected sound canceling out some of the weirdness.

Sounds like you had a broken pair? Some find them too bass heavy or dark, but what you describe doesn't sound normal at all. They have a lifetime warranty, though, so you could always swap em for a new pair.

Porta Pros and their siblings do measure pretty well and the tuning is just extremely straightforward and forgiving, kind of like a bassier, less-refined HD650. You get some of the best upper bass performance from an on-ear openback imaginable, warm / pleasant midrange, mostly subdued highs with slight treble spike (I forget where, maybe 4.5k). They've been in production since 1984, and have always been a popular budget recommendation on the audio forums.

 

[julian_hughes]

... it is the single most powerful audio "component" in the chain once everything else is at least at a basic "okay" level of performance. ...

Yes, it can be useful. But really that is in a fixed chain of components and where the headphone does not have any serious flaws but might benefit from some minor adjustment.

Extremely common scenarios where it fails:

You try to use the same EQ on devices with very different output characteristics.

Unless your EQ is essentially subtracting not adding then you will *very often, even usually* introduce distortion unless you set a precut. But there are almost no portable devices with sufficient power to cope with a precut of more than a dB or 2. This matters! Many can't even drive a headphone very well to start with!

Most headphones don't fit *your* head or *your* ears the same as they fit a measuring device! So these forensically precise corrections are a fiction anyway.

Most headphone measurements over 10 kHz are nonsense. Those really massive dips and peaks are not there in the real world, or not in any comparable state, as they arise from limitations of the measurement hardware and resonances which are not experienced when the same 'phones are used by a human being to listen to music. So those fabulously clever collections of parametric EQ values available online are all flawed! You'd often be better off using simple fixed band EQ settings and only at low & mid frequencies.

Lots of devices, from full size domestic hifi down to pocketable portable players, don't offer parametric EQ.

I sometimes use PEQ to make minor adjustments but it's really to compensate for the way the headphone interacts with a high output impedance device, not because there is something needing correcting in the headphone. If your headphone needs +4dB here and -6dB there and +0.3dB and -2dB elsewhere then I'm sorry but you spent your money on the wrong headphone!

 

[amirm]

Porta pro has been kindly donated so look for that test soon...

 

[ishouldbeking]

Thanks. I'll check them out. I think it's good to have a discussion comparing other budget headphones. Not for necessarily for subjective audiophile opinions but for practical use. I'm thinking the reviewed headphones aren't going to work well with my digital piano since it doesn't have enough output.

You might be surprised. Some nicer headphones can be driven from just about anything. For example, an AKG K371, Sennheiser HD599, or even a Sennheiser 58x (needs slightly more juice but does fine from my iphone and PS4 jack, sounds very close to the rest of the HD 6xx/650/600 line). I'm not in love with the stock tuning, but my (much pricier) Denon D5200 are incredibly easy to drive.

 

[ishouldbeking]

Unless your EQ is essentially subtracting not adding then you will *very often, even usually* introduce distortion unless you set a precut. But there are almost no portable devices with sufficient power to cope with a precut of more than a dB or 2. This matters! Many can't even drive a headphone very well to start with!

To be fair, even though a lot of us are only just now jumping on the EQ bandwagon (myself included), a lot of folks in the headphone community have been doing it for years, which is why you see insanely detailed indexes of EQ profiles from Oratory1990 and the AutoEQ archive with hundreds upon hundreds of measurements and profiles. All of those EQ profiles include pre gain settings, often up to -10dB. I take your point that you may not be able to use it effectively from an underpowered Android device (and iOS doesn't even have any viable PEQ options), but most folks getting to the PEQ stage for headphones probably have at least a decent budget headphone amplifier connected to a PC.

 

[samwell7]

Try the MH750 instead - similar to the MH755 but actually with a usefully-lengthed cable (plus a handy remote/mic). I got mine from this eBay seller. Looks like they've doubled in price since I bought mine, but still at around $10 they're incredible value (they also used to come free with Xperia smartphones, think they might still do now Sony have brought back the headphone jack on their latest models, thank fudge).

Frequency response of the MH750 is quite close to the Harman target as measured by Oratory:

View attachment 107074

With his EQ settings to take out the touch of bass thickness they're brilliant, with very low distortion to boot (at 94dBSPL @500Hz as measured by Speakerphone/ClarityFidelity, complying with IEC/ITU standards):

Far lower than the simply awful bass/mids distortion of the MDR-ZX110 reviewed here, the distortion products of which could also creep into the treble. And that's not even considering their mediocre, bumpy stock frequency response and poor treble channel matching which makes effective EQing more difficult.

The MH755 has even cleaner mids/treble distortion than the MH750, some of the lowest I've seen (both likely entirely inaudible though):

Quite incredible, approaching the 0.01% @1kHz distortion of the $60,000 Sennheiser HE-1. Not bad for a $5 earphone!

These bargain Sony in-ears put 'high-end' IEM companies like Campfire Audio and their $1,000 'TOTL' Andromeda model's very wonky tonality to shame, and even supposedly better value offerings from Chinese Hi-Fi IEM companies like Moondrop and their multi-hundred dollar models.

Thanks for that! I'd seen the MH750 mentioned in some headfi threads when I was searching for the MH755, I'm in Aus so I'm not sure if that seller will be able to post to me, but I'll have a look and see if I can find any for sale closer to me.

There seems to be a different model available at the supermarkets/office stores here, the MDREX15AP, I'll need to look it up to see how it performs as it's around $35AU ($30AU without the microphone)

 

[ishouldbeking]

Thanks for that! I'd seen the MH750 mentioned in some headfi threads when I was searching for the MH755, I'm in Aus so I'm not sure if that seller will be able to post to me, but I'll have a look and see if I can find any for sale closer to me.

There seems to be a different model available at the supermarkets/office stores here, the MDREX15AP, I'll need to look it up to see how it performs as it's around $35AU ($30AU without the microphone)

I'm not a huge IEM guy but can confirm the MH750 sounds pretty incredible overall, and at that price it's just insanity. You can typically find them on ebay and aliexpress, but be wary of counterfeits as there are a ton floating around. Have to do some homework to hunt down a viable seller. Ebay seller Kanoya was the go-to source for a while, but he may have run out.

 

[MZKM]

Porta pro has been kindly donated so look for that test soon...

KSC75 too?

From what I find online, the KSC75 is their best measuring pair. I bought a pair (and the Yaxxi pads, didn’t need to though, comfort was fine before), and they are indeed very good if you don’t need hard hitting bass.

 

[MkgandKembaFan]

Porta pro has been kindly donated so look for that test soon...

Are the KPH30i's or Sundara in the mix?

Looking for a good EQ for the Sundara. Not getting the sound I want from AutoEQ (which would be close to what you EQ'd the 650's to be which has ended up being the most fun I've ever had listening to music, so thanks for that!)

 

[ishouldbeking]

Are the KPH30i's or Sundara in the mix?

Looking for a good EQ for the Sundara. Not getting the sound I want from AutoEQ (which would be close to what you EQ'd the 650's to be which has ended up being the most fun I've ever had listening to music, so thanks for that!)

Maybe try some of Oratory's presets? He's got a few listed for the Sundara.
https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets

 

[julian_hughes]

To be fair, even though a lot of us are only just now jumping on the EQ bandwagon (myself included), a lot of folks in the headphone community have been doing it for years, which is why you see insanely detailed indexes of EQ profiles from Oratory1990 and the AutoEQ archive with hundreds upon hundreds of measurements and profiles. All of those EQ profiles include pre gain settings, often up to -10dB. I take your point that you may not be able to use it effectively from an underpowered Android device (and iOS doesn't even have any viable PEQ options), but most folks getting to the PEQ stage for headphones probably have at least a decent budget headphone amplifier connected to a PC.

If you have headphones which require a lot of power then even a desktop amplifier may be at its limits. I have a HiFiMan HE4xx and a JDS Labs Atom amp. If I use those any of 10 band presets from autoeq it involves (from memory) 7 or 8 dB precut. This is ok on the typically loud recordings of amplified music but is is a fail with acoustic/choral even orchestral music with a wide dynamic range. It's actually much better to ignore all the hours of testing and work people put into this stuff & just add a 4dB low shelf at 120 or 160 Hz

I think your phrase "insanely detailed" is just right! These are insane measurements because much of the high frequency measurement data is simply nonsense! Garbage in, garbage out. It's pure audiophilia!

 

[ishouldbeking]

If you have headphones which require a lot of power then even a desktop amplifier may be at its limits. I have a HiFiMan HE4xx and a JDS Labs Atom amp. If I use those any of 10 band presets from autoeq it involves (from memory) 7 or 8 dB precut. This is ok on the typically loud recordings of amplified music but is is a fail with acoustic/choral even orchestral music with a wide dynamic range. It's actually much better to ignore all the hours of testing and work people put into this stuff & just add a 4dB low shelf at 120 or 160 Hz

I think your phrase "insanely detailed" is just right! These are insane measurements because much of the high frequency measurement data is simply nonsense! Garbage in, garbage out. It's pure audiophilia!

Ha, yeah, I'm noticing that with the surgical attempts at EQing the treble range too. So far I've had better luck fixing the bigger issues with a somewhat broader brush, rather than trying to carve out every single spike that pops up on someone else's measurements. There's definitely an art to applying EQ well.

My main experience is using a JDS Atom with a 6xx (which does need some juice to run sufficiently loud). With 2v feeding the Atom, I can run a -10db precut and run as loud as I need to without having to tap the high gain channel, so there's more than enough power for me, but of course preferences, music, and source gear vary, so YMMV.

 

[MkgandKembaFan]

Maybe try some of Oratory's presets? He's got a few listed for the Sundara.
https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets

They haven't been to my liking, unfortunately. Are there any other options available?

 

[julian_hughes]

I don't have a Sennheiser 6** series but from all the reviews & measurements I've seen it does seem slightly less power hungry than the HiFiMan planars. With no eq I can run the hifimans on the low gain setting on the Atom, but with a big precut they run out of headroom on the high gain setting with some recordings. Still very listenable and enjoyable, but the dial can hit the stop.

Imo it's quality stuff like the Sennheiser HD6** & HiFiMan HE**** series which can truly benefit from parametric EQ because they are already very good. What I find ridiculous, actually laughable, is this idea becoming prevalent that you can take stuff with poor FR, poor distortion, lousy square wave results, horrible resonances, rattles, reversed polarity etc and turn it into hifi gold by dealing with only the FR. It's making a the ASR headphone/IEM recommendations a bit of a joke. I really think reviews have to be about the product the customer actually receives. All the EQ stuff is interesting, sometimes useful, often as laughable as magic audiophile pebbles, but belongs in some totally separate area than a technical product review.

 

[julian_hughes]

They haven't been to my liking, unfortunately. Are there any other options available?

I'd look at and even try all the various results at https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results which includes oratory's, but simply ignore all the parametric eq stuff as it is building complex filters based on high frequency results which are known to be completely unreliable. Go with the fixed band eq results and ignore everything over 8000 Hz.

 

[MkgandKembaFan]

I'd look at and even try all the various results at https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results which includes oratory's, but simply ignore all the parametric eq stuff as it is building complex filters based on high frequency results which are known to be completely unreliable. Go with the fixed band eq results and ignore everything over 8000 Hz.

Thank you! Is there a way to import the fixed band eq into Peace?