Are the Sony MDR-V55 any good?

Hi, this is my first post so I hope I have put it in the right place. I did also do a search to see if this question has been asked but couldn't find anything.

Basically I am looking to get my first set of decent headphones. I have had other cheap sets in the past that I bought going on reviews on amazon etc. But they have never really worked out to be anything special.

Reviews are what drew me to the Sony MDR-V55's. But I have no way of knowing if these are biased reviews or genuine. So I thought asking the people on this forum might give me an unbiased view.

I need them primarily for listening to music on the go, but will also be using them with my computer to watch movies etc. So as I will be using public transport I can't have too much sound leakage, annoying the person sitting next to me. I was also hoping that they are not too bulky as I will probably have them round my neck when I'm not listening to them, so that I don't have to keep putting them away.

My music taste can be very varied depending on the day. But 70-80% of the time I listen to alternative rock and love strong vocals as well as the instrument side of things. I do occasionally like to turn the bass up of some songs as well, so I would like to avoid a weak bass.

I also like the price of the Sony's, as this is my first decent set of headphones, but as they are quite cheap does this mean they are still only in the low level bracket? I've seen reviews saying that they are better than the beats solos, but that means nothing to me because I haven't listened to the quality of those either.

I am seriously tempted to up my price range and go for the Audio Technica ATH-M50S, which I have seen people raving about everywhere I look. But they are twice the price so I would like to know if it is genuinely worth it for what I am using them for. I can justify the price because I will be using these headphones pretty much all day everyday, but that price will take me right to my limit. And again are these small and lightweight enough to have around my neck during lectures? etc.

 

The Sony MDR V55 is known as an "Extra bass" DJ headphone. You may find them quite satisfactory for public transport where much of the bass is drowned out by the heavy low frequencies common to public transport. But this type of headphone is not in the category of high fidelity music reproduction (or even mid-fidelity for that matter), so they may not sound as good on a home stereo etc. The ATH M50 will sound much better and have a very good bass, but it is also larger I think. I've used the M50 as a portable, and it works well for that - you can even carry it around your neck when not listening, but it's definitely on the larger side for portables.

 

Thank you for your help. It has pretty much confirmed what I was worried about. So I think I will set my sights on the M50's. I'm going into town in a couple days, hopefully one of the stores will have a display set I can test for size and a quick listen.

 

Hi Dale I get paid in a couple days which is when I'm going to get the headphones. I pretty much have my mind set on the M50's. However I did see some recommendations for the Pioneer SE-MJ591.

From a purely sound quality perspective do you know how the Pioneers stack up against the M50's?

 

I unfortunately bought the SE-MJ591 recently on someone's recommendation, and gave them away the same day. They had no treble. None at all, really. So I found a freq. response curve on someone's website and there it was - extreme treble rolloff. But they sounded much worse than the curve looked.