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Hi! Welcome to Lachlan Likes A Thing, a show where I take a thing and see whether or not
I like it. Now the thing we're looking at in this video is the Sony MDR-10R portable
around-ear headphone. Now first of all I want to thank Sony Australia for giving me a pair
of these headphones to have a listen to and to keep as a review unit. This headphone has
a recommended retail price of $199 though I have seen it go in terms of street prices
as low as $99 on Amazon.com. This headphone is part of the same family of headphones as
the MDR-1R which I believe was a very popular headphone for Sony. The MDR-1R was the second
headphone that I reviewed on my channel, it's the most watched video so far on my channel
and it was a headphone that I really liked because of its natural sound and its quite
open relaxed soundstage, though I did think it lacked a little in terms of absolute bass
punch. The MDR-10R is not meant to replace the MDR-1R, the 1R actually has a new Mark
II version. The 10R is more like a little brother to the 1R, so it's at a cheaper price
point, it's lighter, it's more compact, but it still retains this around-ear fit. So I
was really interested to see how much of the 1R formula that Sony could squeeze into this
more compact package. So let's take a closer look. So first of all as far as design goes
I think Sony has done a really good job with the MDR-10R. This is a headphone that is made
mostly out of plastic but it's quite solid, it's quite well built, and I think it has
quite a subtle and attractive design to it. The 10R is definitely not quite as solid or
as premium feeling as the MDR-1R which is a more expensive headphone, but the MDR-10R
actually weighs a lot less, so it weighs 180g, which is very lightweight, and it's always
a plus for a headphone to have a comfortable light weight. The MDR-10R has a 1.2m detachable
cable, and you get 2 cables in the box, you get the standard 3.5mm 1.2m cable with a 90
degree angle jack on the end, and you also get a 1.2m cable with a smartphone remote
compatible with Android and Apple devices. Though because of that cross compatibility
it lacks the volume up and volume down buttons that work with Apple devices. So as far as
comfort and noise isolation go I think Sony has chosen quite a soft and pliable material
for the earpads, and the earcup size itself although it's smaller than the 1R's earcups
it is this elongated shape and it's of sufficient depth that I think for most people with average
sized ears your ears will still fit in these earcups perfectly fine. So on the head the
10R is a very comfortable headphone both because of that around ear fit and also because of
the quite light weight of the 10R. Now one weakness of the 10R is noise isolation because
of the large bass ports on the top of the headphone. They do let quite a lot of sound
in and if that's going to be a critical issue for you I would look at something like the
Sennheiser Amperior. Now the instruction manual for the 10R makes mention of replaceable earpads
being available for the 10R but so far I haven't been able to work out how to actually detach
the earpads from the 10R so I can't confirm whether or not whether the earpads on the
10R are actually replaceable. So the design of the 10R gets a big tick in my book but
how do I feel about the sound? Well unfortunately I have to say I do not like the sound of the
10R. The MDR-1R in my original review I felt a lacked a little in terms of the lowest registers
of the bass whereas with the 10R I feel as though Sony has gone completely the other
way and way too far, so the 10R has overwhelming bass quantity to my ears. It's a bass that's
very boomy, it's quite flabby sounding, and it overall just sounds congested in the bass
region, and this is combined with a midrange kind of vocal region which is somewhat muffled
and distant sounding. And then with the treble you have a peak which while it isn't uncomfortable,
it's somewhat nasal sounding, so the overall combination of the sound is not natural. Now
that's my biggest complaint with the 10R, it's not that I don't like bass, it's that
the 10R just doesn't sound natural. The bass and the midrange and the treble just do not
sound well integrated. So with street prices for the 10R around $99 I do think it's still
at least worth an audition if you want something that's really comfortable and light weight.
However if you're willing to sacrifice a little in terms of wearing comfort I'd be much happier
recommending something like the Audio Technica ES700 which is just a little bit more expensive
than the 10R, it is an on-ear headphone, but I think that it delivers much more of a natural
cleaner sound while still retaining that kind of bass punch. So if you haven't watched my
review of those check it out, I've linked it in the description of this video. And of
course there's always the MDR-1R MK II, which if you have the extra money I recommend wholeheartedly
over the 10R. I had high hopes for the 10R but unfortunately this really was not to my
liking. Anyway click the Like button and subscribe to my channel if you found this review helpful,
thanks to all my regular subscribers - I'm looking forward to your comments. I actually
made a Google Drive spreadsheet recently where I've put all my headphone reviews and links
to them and also whether I liked them or didn't like them, so you can use that as a kind of
cheat sheet for my reviews. So check that out, I've linked it in the description of
this video. You can talk to me on facebook at Facebook.com/lachlanlikesathing or on Twitter
@lachlikesathing, and happy listening!