Sony MDRV6 Headphone Review (with/without BRAINWAVZ Pad)

[solderdude]

CD's don't sound bright or tinny, recordings can and often do though but has nothing to do with the format.
If anything, the MDR V6 and 7506 are bright/sharp so that would make CD's even brighter.
The 'for digital audio' sticker/label was just a marketing thing.

There are bound to have been a few (silent) revisions during the 35 years they have been in production (1985-2020).
You also must have changed the pads a few times over the years and so may have changed the sound a little as well.

 

[AyeYoYoYO]

Similar to the pad switch done with the Sonys.

The old school studio tech, for “unlocking” many of the beloved “vocal tracking SONY” headphones, for other uses besides vocal booth tracking, is various pad switches:

MDR-V6 “piercing highs” get smoothed out via installing BeyerDynamic DT250 Velour pads. They do fairly well with Yaxi’s ST-Pad1-LR , but perform very poorly with the Yaxi StPad2-LR installed.

CD900ST’s have a very subdued, distant, frown-curve sound profile, with the extremely thin stock pads. And become more flat-esque (with some peaks and valleys) across the entire range with the YAXI StPad2-LR. The StPad1-LR doesn’t sound terrible on them either.

MDR-7506’s are the weakest link of all 3, but are somehow the best selling / most popular for a long time. Does not have the harman/IEF smooth upswing from 1k-3.5k like the V-6, but has their sharp treble. Beyer DT250 velour pads don’t improve these as much as they do the V-6, YAXI StPad2-LR also don’t improve the 7506 as much as they do to the CD900ST. The YAXI StPad1-LR, and stock pads, are the best bet with the 7506, depending on desired FR & comfort.

 

[AyeYoYoYO]

The 'for digital audio' sticker/label was just a marketing thing.

Absolutely, and a strange/wack one at that, IMHO.

I think the reason the V-6 didn’t win the sales/recognition battle, to the inferior 7506, was in large part, at least in the west, due to the 7506 sticker being respectable (“Professional” with a pleasing bright blue backdrop) and and V-6 sticker being laughable and strange (Engrish phrasing + word choice that became a quasi-negative-connotated word faster than anticipated).

V-6 is the superior, much flatter version of this archetype, especially with the Beyer Pads for a less bright, smoother FR, or YAXI St-Pad1-LR for maintaining most of its stock character, with superior comfort.

 

[aagstn]

The "for digital audio" was good marketing at the time. In the 80's many of us were sick of analog audio. Analog meant surface noise, tape hiss, and pops and clicks. Digital meant pure audio without all the problems and of course not really understanding how audio works, seeing "for digital audio" translated to these are great for CD players. Of course that wasn't true, but for someone looking for inexpensive headphones for our new CD players we bought these thinking they were a perfect match. I knew a ton of people in the late 80's and early 90's with V-6 headphones and I still have mine from that time.