Topic: Sony MDR-MA900 - Hidden Gem (Read 10296 times)

Marvey · « **on:** August 17, 2014, 05:14:57 AM »

First of all, I would like to thank Maxvla for this loaner.

VERDICT: Pretty darn good.

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.

MEASUREMENTS
On the way.

zerodeefex · « **Reply #1 on:** August 17, 2014, 05:41:21 AM »

Did you ever get the AD2000? Curious as the AD2k and the HD600 both surprised me out of the 2A3. Sounds like another one I might want to pick up, especially since I'm one of the Sony fanboys on here.

Marvey · « **Reply #2 on:** August 17, 2014, 05:46:35 AM »

Yes, doing another "back to the future" review of AD2000. MA900 > AD2000 on the EC amps mainly because the AD2000 has some warts in FR. But close technically. AD2000 never seemed resolving enough - that is couldn't scale to keep me happy - on the EC amps. MA900 I feel is better in this regard. But I need more time for them to battle.

Hands · « **Reply #3 on:** August 17, 2014, 05:50:12 AM »

Have been interested in these for a while but ultimately decided against purchasing them due to lack of quality reviews, or, at least, reviews I trust, and measurements. What measurements I could find made me think they probably weren't for me. Thanks for the impressions, and I'm looking forward to your measurements.

Marvey · « **Reply #4 on:** August 17, 2014, 05:57:31 AM »

Exactly. No reviews I trust and one too many unboxing videos.

Hands · « **Reply #5 on:** August 17, 2014, 05:59:58 AM »

I will never understand unboxing videos. Might make an exception for the PM-1.

M3NTAL · « **Reply #6 on:** August 17, 2014, 06:01:52 AM »

Very cool - I've been on the hunt for a pair of these as well. Do your ears touch the driver at all?

Marvey · « **Reply #7 on:** August 17, 2014, 06:02:56 AM »

Unboxing for PM-1 makes sense somewhat. Anyways, MA900 measurements here:

Marvey · « **Reply #8 on:** August 17, 2014, 06:05:11 AM »

Quote from: M3NTAL on August 17, 2014, 06:01:52 AM

Very cool - I've been on the hunt for a pair of these as well. Do your ears touch the driver at all?

Not at all. My ears do touch on AD2000, but not on MA900, which makes me happy. The angle slant is significant, and combined with that gap, there is a good deal of space for outer ear parts. Even for this guy:

ultrabike · « **Reply #9 on:** August 17, 2014, 06:14:37 AM »

Quote from: purr1n on August 17, 2014, 06:02:56 AM

Unboxing for PM-1 makes sense somewhat.

Indeed!

The MA900 look uber comfy and cool. It's interesting that the 70mm driver delivers detail, but lacks bass extension. I always thought that the larger the driver the bassier things could get at the expense of treble and upper mids. Perhaps the openness of the cups is a strong contributing factor + the size of the cups which might make these behave dipolish.

Seem like quite unique great set of cans!

Author Topic: Sony MDR-MA900 - Hidden Gem (Read 10296 times)

Marvey

Sony MDR-MA900 - Hidden Gem

zerodeefex

Re: Sony MDR-MA900

Marvey

Re: Sony MDR-MA900

Hands

Re: Sony MDR-MA900

Marvey

Re: Sony MDR-MA900

Hands

Re: Sony MDR-MA900

M3NTAL

Re: Sony MDR-MA900

Marvey

Re: Sony MDR-MA900 - Hidden Gem

Marvey

Re: Sony MDR-MA900 - Hidden Gem

ultrabike

Re: Sony MDR-MA900 - Hidden Gem

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Author Topic: Sony MDR-MA900 - Hidden Gem (Read 10296 times)