Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony MDR-V6 Monitor Series Headphones with CCAW Voice Coil

I bought these headphones in 1992, and unlike most of the rest of the stuff I squandered my money on back then, these were and continue to be the real deal.

My earpads have flaked off their coating like everyone else. But no need to buy new phones, you can order the earpads from sony.com or some specialty audio stores:

MDR-V6/MDR-7506 Ear Pad
PART: X-2113-124-1
PRICE: $6.00 (US)

I can't recall how long I've owned my MDR-V6 phones, but it's easily been ten years. The sound is excellent, virtually uncolored, and unlike other top of the line headphones like Sennheiser's (which are VERY nice and well over $150.00) these sound as good used with a portable CD player as with a well powered home system.

It was time to replace them since the cord is finally shorting too much to ignore any longer and my ears are always covered with black stuff and foam from the disintergrating earcups. I asked around and a colleague who is the audio technician on a popular TV show told me without hesitation, these are the ones to buy. It's what he uses on the set and at home. I'm glad Sony still makes 'em. Maybe I should buy another pair for ten years down the road...

I read and read and read the reviews on these and paid close attention to the comments on the tightness of the headphones. Nearly everyone says that the sound quality is so fantastic that it makes up for the uncomfortableness. I decided to go ahead and purchase them. Got them about 10 hours ago. While the sound is truly fantastic and getting better with every hour played (That break-in time suggested is definitely true.) the tightness on my ears is not making me happy. I'm a woman and do not have a big head or ears, in my opinion, and these phones are almost as uncomfortable as my previous pair of [...] Sony V150s. I'm trying to ignore it and hoping it gets more tolerable, but so far no. Even within a few minutes my ears start itching from the tightness.

I am boycotting Bose for their ridiculously inflated prices, but my mom has a pair of the Bose QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones, and I LOVE them! [...] though. Yikes! I'm contemplating the Bose Triports I've been testing every time I go to Target. They are light as a feather and the sound seemed good from the demos. However, all reviews complain of the quality of the build on the headband. I don't want to pay [...] just to have the phones fall apart in a few months.

So, in my continuing quest I found some reviews on the V6 that mention replacing the pads with a velour pad from Beyerdynamic. The reviews on the difference in comfort are quite convincing. I'm buying these immediately and will report back my findings. [...]

All in all, I just wanted to write my review for anyone else that may be waffling on the comfort issue. Many say the sound is so good that it's worth the discomfort. Not for me. Comfort is a huge part of enjoying my time listening to music. I'm not an audiophile either though, so maybe it is worth it for those that can tell the difference in every type of sound. The sound in these is pretty awesome though. A couple of raw recorded songs that I was listening to with talking at the end actually caused me to jump because I thought someone was right behind me. I hope the replacement pads work because the sound quality is excellent, especially at this price.

Thanks for reading. BTW, I should have given them 4 stars but can't change it.

2/8/08 - The pads help some but they still pinch my ears a bit. I found that taking out the middle foam section actually helps give my ear more room to hang out in there, but...... I actually went out and bought the Bose Triports, and while the comfort level was much better, the sound quality compared to the Sony's doesn't even compare, especially if you enjoy bass. I tried to like the Bose enough to justify the [...] I paid for them, but after several days of comparing they have been packaged up and will be returned to Target. The Sony's blow them out of the water. I am going to keep trying to get used to the pinch. That's how much I love these things, just like everyone else writes about. I've been hooked. I'm listening with them right now, and I'm in my own world. The kids could be screaming and I couldn't hear a thing. Probably not the best thing to do to my husband. LOL
UPDATE 5/14/08 - still loving these things, but I'm still getting the itchy ear when listening for any length of time. The velour pad replacement has made it 50% better though. The coil cord is also heavy. I can't leave it hang down. I have to pick it up and lay it on my lap so the pull isn't there. (I plug into my hard drive which is on the floor.) All in all though, I'm still very happy with my purchase. One more thing I would suggest, however, is to be careful when you pull the cord out of the jack. Be sure to pull from the metal and not anywhere on the plastic. I can see how these might get broken after a while if you always pull from the plastic. Happy listening!
8/25/08 - When you come back to edit your review this many times, you must be passionate about the product. And I am. Still love these phones. I'm used to the tightness now. One of my best purchases for the money.

The Sony MDR-V6s were the first really good headphones I owned. After about 15 years of use, the foam padding was a bit run down. After doing the exhaustive search for the best headphones, I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD580s (I also own Etymotic ER-4Ps). Comparing the HD580 to my MDR-V6s, I would say that the MDR-V6s are better for two reasons. 1. The MDR-V6s are more comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and 2. The MDR-V6s have a telephone-like cord, which is easier to deal with than the straight HD580 cord. The sound quality was very good on both headphones, and about equal. I ended up buying new foam pads for my 15-year-old MDR-V6s, which made them feel like brand new headphones. I also bought a second pair of MDR-V6s, and shelved the HD580s for now.

Do not buy the MDR-600s by mistake. I have never used them, but I have read numerous reviews that state that the MDR-600s are inferior to the MDR-V6s. You can still buy the MDR-V6s, but they are harder to find. I bought mine at millionbuy because Amazon did not have them in stock. For some reason, the MDR-V6 product name at Amazon magically changed to MDR-600, even though it is an entirely different product. I am not sure why this happened.

The audioreview Web site has a great collection of headphone reviews.

I have been a headphone fanatic for thirty years and have owned and used a variety of headphones over those years, to include Stax SR-5, Sennheiser HD-424 and HD-580. The Sony MDRV6 excells as the best value of any headphone that I've ever owned. They are especially good at producing natural-sounding deep bass, and the overall octave-to-octave balance is excellent. The sound quality is all in all comparable to other headphones that cost considerably more.

The MDRV6 is especially well-suited for travel due to the collapsible design, and for noisy environments or for quiet environments such as a library where the sound emitted by open-back headphones would distract others.

The MDRV6 is not quite as comfortable as some other headphones, but the comfort can be improved enormously by replacing the pads with the velour pads from BeyerDynamic. The pads that come on the MDRV6 have a non-breathable cover, and significant additional discomfort is caused by the way that the thin foam cover is glued to the pad around the inner circumference of the pad, which prevents the top and back of your ear from slipping into the space between the pad and the face of the headphone. This forces the pad to rest on the back of the ear, which compresses the ear and eventually becomes uncomfortable. I read on a web forum where several people had replaced the pads (which eventually come apart) with a velour pad made by BeyerDynamic, and after I did this replacement on my one pair that had a damaged pad, the increase in comfort was so great that I immediately did the other pair. The thin cover can be glued down to the headphone face if needed to hold it in place, which then allows the top and rear of your ear to naturally slide under the inner circumference of the pad, which is considerably more comfortable. I can recommend this trivial modification without reservation to anyone who owns these headphones. Even if you don't replace the pads with the BeyerDynamic velour pads, I suggest removing the pads anyway, then carefully separating the thin cover from the pad, and glueing the cover directly to the headphone surface.