Review on 🎧 Sony CD900ST Studio Monitor Headphones - Professional Stereo Headphones by Chef Buntiloy

This is actually 5 stars for me but the reason I am giving this 3 stars is because you really need to know their pros and cons and for some these headphones can prove to be very disappointing, if you don't know them I've heard of these banks before and I don't know what I'm getting myself into. Also, mine came with a screw missing and the seller couldn't just send me an extra screw so I had to buy it on ebay which was a bit annoying so my depressing moment plays into my rating too. First. out, these are monitoring headphones, not audiophile headphones. I say that primarily because a lot of people love these headphones and there's a tendency on forums like Head-Fi to praise them for being worth it. And I have to agree to a certain extent, particularly about the level of detail they can get, but these are probably the most boring pair of headphones I own and probably what I consider the slimmest or most neutral in my collection. In fact, I sold my Shure SHR840, Takstar Pro 82 and Tascam TH MX2 primarily because the CD900ST is still widely available in other countries, especially Japan, and it's a great way to get feedback on other products compared to the CD900 to obtain . basic sound shape. I do the same in the US but prefer to use the HD600/650 as a base as more people own these headphones or know the sound signature more than anything else. the most boring headphones imaginable and they are also very uncomfortable. COMFORT: I can barely wear them for 30 minutes before my earlobes start to hurt and I think the maximum I've worn in them is around 2 hours. However, the build quality is pretty solid. My MDR7506 has stray and clogged in many places and they are holding up well. It's pretty much the same except that the headband is slightly curved and doesn't fold like the 7506, but the build quality is identical and uses similar parts so I could easily swap parts in between if I wanted to, with the exception of the cups. The ear pads are thin and there really isn't much padding. However I have of course experimented with different pads including super cheap Chinese replacement pads on ebay and budget Brainwavs pads and I have even tried more premium pads from Dekoni and a few ZMF pads although they don't fit but with a bit of double sided Band , it was manageable. Comfort increases by orders of magnitude, but no matter what I switch it to, the sound has changed so drastically (for me) that I just don't have CD900 sound anymore. It's sad because I love these headphones, but to keep loving them I also have to endure discomfort. The driver literally has to be pressed against the ear to hold the sound and as soon as it moves away, even a few millimeters, the sound starts to change and with most of the non-original pads the sound became very muffled and at die Times sounded booming. . For me, it's not worth sacrificing comfort to sacrifice sound modification. PICTURE AND SOUND STAGE: I don't know if that's good or bad. In a way, the picture is pristine and you can tell exactly where the sound is coming from. But compared to some other headphones, the position of each sound is turned off. Let's see if I can explain it better. When I listen to an orchestra play, I hear each instrument very clearly and recognize the sound so well that I can tell how many people are playing which instrument depending on the recording. However, since the sound sounds very clear, it is difficult to pinpoint the actual location of its source. Depth and soundstage get a bit weird, which is why I said at the outset that these are good monitoring headphones. When listening to some really good audiophile headphones like the HD800(s) or one of my current favorites, the Sonoma One, I can tell that the violins are in front, behind, the flutes are in the middle and behind I hear clarinets playing, and next to the clarinets are trombones. On the CD900 it's more like the violin on the left, the flutes in the middle, the clarinet sounds like it's floating above the flutes, and the trombone slightly to the right in unison with the flutes. But compared to the HD650 for example, despite the fact that the 650 has a more accurate arrangement of the instruments, on the 900 I can say there are 4-5 people playing the flute, and on the 650 it just sounds like a group. from people. If you want better optics (not quite a soundstage) and a bit more colorful sound, but still have the same specs as the CD900 where it shines, I recommend the Phonon SMB-2 as a powerful alternative, although even that is still worth it I'm uncomfortable as hell FREQUENCY RESPONSE: I think one of the areas where these headphones really shine is in the mids, vocals to be specific. Today, most headphone manufacturers tend to boost the bass and treble, which causes the mids to sound a bit more deep, creating what Innerfidelity's Till likes to call an emoji graphic. These headphones seem to be more neutral or flat again to me (btw I've never seen the frequency response graph for the CD900 so I can't say exactly how flat it is, but compared to the rest of my collection I feel that way). it sounds like the vocals come to life a lot more. May I say it's almost as detailed as Focal Utopia? May be. definitely not as lush as the Utopia but for a fraction of the price of many audiophile headphones I find the mids and vocals sound great. They don't really have much sub-bass extension, if any, though, and I do feel things drop off above 4-8kHz, but it's still more than enough to hear the percussion detail. It still amazes me. that these headphones have been around for a very long time, almost as old as me and are still made IN JAPAN and widely used for the extremely detailed sound they offer. So if any of the readers have read this far, hopefully you'll have a better idea of what these headphones should be used for. I hope the 3 star rating catches someone's attention as I think it's the only 3 stars at the moment. If you ever see an Asian guy listening to DAPs, amps, and DACs at places like CanJam, there's a pretty good chance it's me, since I haven't been to all the CanJams I've been to yet person seen. Sports 900s. - For your health!