Sony MDR-SA5000










Specifications

Headphone Type: Open Circumaural, Dynamic Driver
Driver: 50mm CCAW voicecoil, dome type
Power Handling Capacity: 1,500mW (IEC)
Impedance (Ohms): 70 at 1 kHz
Sensitivity (dB/mW): 102
Frequency (Hz): 5 - 110,000
Weight (g): 260
Diaphragm: Nanocomposite High Definition
Magnet: Neodymium (360kJ/m3)
Earpads: Natural Leather
Cord: 6N-OFC, 3.5m texture type cord
Plug: 1/4" gold plated
Supplied Accessories: Metal headphone stand


Review

Coming soon...

Brilliant! I am a MDR-SA5000 owner as well (recently replaced a three month old MDR-SA3000 with the MDR-SA5000) and I just love the way it present music - very clean, crisp and full of details - and of course its structure. Even though its frame is mostly made of metal, it's very lightweight and not a burden at all on my head.

I look forward to your impressions and thanks for sharing the pictures.

pictorial pinned

Shit... they look huge!!! Look liek full industrial size things

Pros:

Fast Response

These are the 'quickest' headphones I've ever heard. They are extremely tight throughout all frequencies. You can easily hear the edges of notes or minute variations in the plucks of strings, etc. They definitely provide a higher resolution reproduction to your ear. This is a byproduct of the nano composites used in the driver, sounds like the same attributes as Infinity's CMMD driver technology. Highly rigid, low extra resonance.


Clear

To say that these headphones are extremely clear is an understatement. They reproduce ALL instruments in a piece of music with equal clarity. They do it so well that it becomes trivial to focus on one instrument and listen to all its nuance without the other instruments muddying up the reproduction. Even with my MDR-7509s I'd have a hard time focusing on one instrument, with the SA5000's it's a cakewalk.


Flat

The SA5000 reproduce frequencies in a pretty flat manner. I don't mean they're flat sounding, quite the contrary, they're exceptionally vibrant, but the reproduction is faithful to the frequencies coming from the source. Listening to a tone sweep on the SA5000's reveals small volume increases twice between around 1kHz and 4kHz, but otherwise they're flat. I won't say much more than this since sound coloring is largely a personal preference. Any coloration the SA5000's provide pleasing to my ear. YMMV


Construction

The build quality on these phones is exceptional. The frame is mostly all magnesium. The cups are real leather. The magnesium makes them very lightweight and the wide headband helps make them extremely comfortable to wear for extended periods. Since they're open I find my ears don't get as warm as with the 7509s or my Eggos.


Cons:

Cord

I'm not a fan of each can getting its own cord and having a cable vee under my neck. I always preferred the studio style single cord going to the left can. Also, this cord has a synthetic cloth-like covering on it that tends to bind up on itself. It also seems to twist up easily usually resulting in having to unplug everything to let the cord unwind itself. Lastly, the cord transfers alot of noise back to the phones if it rubs against something. If I'm doing any critical listening I find myself holding the cord to avoid rubbing.


Connector

Sony packaged a metal stand with the headphones, but no 1/4" to 1/8" adapter. The 1/4" adapter is the default which is fine for plugging into your high-fi, but you're SOL if you want to plug into a MD. Granted, you can buy an adapter, but generally they're gargantuan and unweildy. Obviously Sony didn't intend these phones to be portable so I can understand using 1/4" by default, but most of their other top end phones were 1/8" with a compact threaded 1/4" adapter. It would have been welcome here as well.



Overall I love these phones, they're the best I've ever heard! They really bring out every nuance in your source material which is great, but can also be a curse =) I love the fact that they let me dissect individual notes and instruments. But what makes them even better is that, while they provide that level of detail, they still remain musical and very much NOT sanitary and cold. I can't imagine finding a more vibrant and detailed set of headphones under $1000 anytime soon...

what are you using as a source streamline?

CD, SACD, DVD-Audio on my Denon 2200S all going through my Harman Kardon AVR 325 via 6-channel analog direct inputs. I haven't even connected the phones to a MD player yet. The music has been alot of classical, some rap (for the bass), rock. I've been picking the most detailed music of the lot to test with.

Ishiyoshi,

Did you notice a volume increase after about 10-15 hours of use? Maybe it's just my ears, but they seem louder now than when they first came out of the box.

Yes, with significant burn-in time, the MDR-SA5000 is somewhat louder and definitely more detail at my end. Were you able to discern any change in detail before and after burn-in?

I've just noticed that the volume even seems to increase after a few minutes of play . Maybe because they're not fully broken in yet. I definitely notice more detail, and this is only after maybe 18 hours of use. I'm looking forward to how seasoned they become after 50-100 hours. One thing I've noticed with these phones that I forgot to mention in the review is how they handle harshness in music. Some tracks I've listened to either have instrument combinations or voices that get harsh to the point where I find myself actually cringing on other phones. The SA5000's smooth those points out very well, definitely no more cringing, it's nice

After I burned my MDR-XD200 Sony Headphones in for 100hrs... I noticed a HUGE increase in volume!

Found a review on the SA5000's on head-fi. Fits my sentiments almost exactly:

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=135351

edit: Well, except for the conclusion about not being good phones for people that want a warmer musical reproduction. If the recording is crap to begin with changing the headphone to falsely color the music seems silly to me. Find a better recording

I couldn't agree more with you. It is imperative that the source is of good quality. Otherwise, the MDR-SA5000 will reveal the deficiency of the recording.

http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=116835

A more clinical "review" of the SA5000's with response graphs. There are few posts following that suggest these phones should get sexier with time

damn those are huge!

Perhaps, but they're featherweights. They're not really much larger than my 7509s, just in a different direction. The SA5000's are wide and short, but the 7509s are tall and not so wide.

The more sound I've put through them the more cohesive and musical they've gotten, it's really quite nice.

Anyone know/can say how these compare sound wise, to the audio technica ATH-A900's?

Ishiyoshi may be able to speak to this. I believe he has or had a pair of A900's. I'm done with buying headphones for now

I still have the A900, but I don’t use it as much now. In my opinion, you can’t really compare the A900 and the SA5000 as they are both in completely different tier of high-end headphones. The SA5000’s soundstage is superior to the A900 in all regards – especially in terms of clarity and detail. But as a consolation, the A900 works very well without an amp – a great match with certain MD units. Bottom line: SA5000 > A900

Price? in USD? Where did u pick these up?

Approximately USD$400 (a few months ago) including shipping from Buy.com.

I purchased mine from etronics.com for about $360 a few weeks ago.

Do buy.com charge tax and duties etc>? Or do they get round it?

They do charge tax according to one's location in the States.

Etronics.com seems the better route to acquire the MDR-SA5000 as they offer free ground shipping within the US (bringing the total to $365.00) and they do ship internationally as well. Nice catch streaml1ne.

Yea, etronics is great, they're my first source for electronics now. It's also nice that they're located in New York so even ground shipping becomes 1-day to New Jersey