Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony MDR-V700DJ DJ Style Monitor Series Headphones

You should know a couple things before you read this review. One, I'm not a DJ and most likely never will be. I'm just a 15-year-old kid who likes his hip-hop. I'm not sure what difference it makes, other than the single-sided-monitoring feature...after all, regular listeners like good sound, too...but I thought I'd add it, anyway. Also, I've never owned really high-quality headphones until now. Before, all I had was the $20 behing-the-neck kind. So I guess this review is mostly aimed at non-DJs who haven't had expensive headphones before.

So the obvious question is, is it worth this much money? I got these as a Christmas gift, but I knew the price. I know sound quality is the type of thing where you pay a lot for a little, but for an extra $130 I expected there to be some pretty noticeable enhancements. There were. You get a more full sound with these than with cheaper kinds. It's clearer and richer. The way the earphones cover your entire ear makes it so you can hear all the details, so it sounds complete. These aren't amazing changes, but they are definite improvements.

But the biggest change, of course, is the bass. You don't just hear the bass. You can feel it. It vibrates in your ear. If you take off the headphones and press the earcups together, you can feel them shake with the bass. It gives the music more of a vibe, a kick, an extra level of intensity, whatever you want to call it. I was afraid it would overpower the rest of the music, namely the vocals, but the treble instruments and vocals still come through clear.

There's not much of a bad side. My ears hurt from being bent into the headphones sometimes, but that was true with my old ones, and it never bothered me that much, anyway. A slight adjustment fixes it, and you usually can't feel it except when you take the headphones on or off. The only really annoying thing so far is that in some songs the snare drums come out really sharp, so I have to turn the volume down. It seems to have a pretty strong design, so you'll probably be fine if you don't put them under too much stress. Not much of a price to pay.

But $150 is a pretty big price to pay. Listening to music on these isn't a spectacular, life-altering experience. It's a noticeable enhancement. But if you take into account that it extends to every single CD in your collection, it's probably worth it.

The 700s are absolutely perfect for hardcore DJ use and in my opinion only second to Pioneer's HDJ-1000s. And please do note that this is not a trivial fact. Everything in them is designed to suit this purpose, and no other. The bass is such a prominent force in them because that's exactly what you need when cueing songs. I've tested them in indoor and outdoor parties and they are invincible. Beatmatching is a pleasure because you can identify the bassy elements of a song with immense accuracy and definition.

I personally don't think they are for listening, say, with a portable device or at home with a Hi-Fi. They are way to bassy in their overall delivery of sound. But please don't get me wrong: they are not meant to be used to 5 hours of John Coltrane or Debussy, but they are beautiful to any bass oriented genre and the on-off-on-off environment of DJing. For home/portable use, I strongly recommend the Sony 7506s. They are lightweight, extremely comfortable and have a perfect balance of bass, mids and highs EQ-wise. Every situation has its best headphones. DJing: 700s - Audiophilia: 7506s

Two years ago, I would have given these earphones 5 stars. I am not an audiophile and I have never tried on super-expensive headphones. I am sure there are better earphones out there. But these sounded great two years ago and still sounds perfect. People rave about these headphones and their praises are all true. BUT..these seemingly great quality earphones are actually not well built. They are made of plastic, so the first place that falls apart is the swivel joint that connects to the cups. Both left and right joints are cracking after two years of use. Luckily, it is still functional even with the cracks. The problem is that it is now a bit looser so it falls off from my head even more frequently. And we all know that these earphones (including the v600) are notorious when it comes to the deterioration of the padding on the ear cups. I just wish that it would last just a bit longer. I have been looking to replace these and I found the new pioneer hdj-1000 to be a possibility. It sounds just as good, it is definitely lighter and stays on the head steadier; and even though the construction is similar in that it is plastic, the swivel joints are built differenly from the V700DJs which makes me think they knew about this SONY's problem and they have found a way to prevent the joints from cracking.

They're not just for DJ's anymore.

Exceeds my expections for finding a pair of headphones at a decent price that are flexible in their use and extraordinary in their fidelity. Great for listening to music on the PC or my portable minidisc player without bugging my housemate in the same room.

They're built for hard working dj's and therefore are very comfortable to wear for long periods. I've gone for as long as a few hours without feeling like my ears were going to burn off. The sound is fantastic, the bass is deep and rich without sounding muffled. Vocals sound great. I'd had problems with previous headphones where it seemed like vocals would get buried in the bass, not with these.

And last but not least and actually it was the reason I decided on these, they're very cool looking. So many of the headphones I was considering had that same old "two hockey pucks between a headband" bulked out style.

Amazon.com's price is very competitive. I actually paid [$$$] for mine at a local electronics store and wished I'd have been patient enough for shipping time. When I listened to them at my electronics store, I couldn't leave without them. Neither should you!

I bought these headphones because I heard that they were of a great quality and I expected them to last a long time. I have had them for only one year, and the cable has broken. Granted, I use these headphones every day, but I always folded them up neatly and put them in their storage bag. Well, it turns out that folding them up neatly puts some stress on those super swivel joints everyone's talking about; one joint cracked and subsequently the cable connecting the left headphone to the right headphone broke and I am left with a mono monitoring system. Believe me, I take care of my gear, and I am deeply disappointed that these headphones broke in such a short amount of time.