Bass, Clean, Mids

Vocals could be a little more "airy"

These are wonderful all around sounding Phones. Some headphones might be a little punchier in the bass and some might be airier in the highs, but the CD-3000 does it all well enough to be an all around winner.

PROBLEM: Bio-celulose earpad that is soft for comfort ripped on my pair, and i know it wasnt anything i did.
The only way to repair it is to send the whole thing back to SONY and god knows what that will cost. bummer.

Similar Products Used:

Stax, Koss, Sennheisser

I bought this headphone Sony MDR-3000 in year 1991. It use bio-cellular technology speaker diaphram, and one thing that I really like about is, that, it sound really natural. Low-end and hi-end rather not enough, but I'm really satisfied. I modified it by put a piece of magnets behind the driver, and by doing that, lower-end is boosted a bit make it more stable. I also had MDR-999 before buying MDR-3000, and for me, MDR-3000 have better audio output quality. I recommend MDR-3000 for classic listener because, ability to produce better string's instrument audio quality.
Although I used it for almost 9 years, MDR-3000 still my best headphone that I ever used.

Wide spacial range; nice clarity; can handle very high volume levels without clipping.

Way overpriced; bulky and uncomfortable; a little bright; bass is not particularly clear for the price, yet not muddy.

The guy who said he's had these phones for 9 years has put his review on the wrong page. These cans haven't been on the market for 9 years. Be that as it may, they're pretty good phones. I invested $500 to get them, and though they're certainly not worth that much, they're better than the Sennheiser 600's, to me. The sound can be a little bright at times, but not to an unlistenable degree. These things are monsters: they can handle the extremely hot signal coming through my Home HeadRoom amp, and the Senn's couldn't. The Senn's clipped so badly that I can't use them at all, since I listen to music at very high volumes. The CD3000s did just fine. I like them and have made them my only headphones. However, they have a horrible proprietary design and are quite uncomfortable, and if you have a relatively small head, they wiggle around and you'll be constantly aware of them. The sound quality is excellent. Bass is fine, but could be tighter; you'll probably need Grado's if you want that. The brightness is nothing to worry about. These things sound about the same as the 600's, and since they handle any volume level I throw at them without distorting, I recommend them. They sound damn good, but not $500 good. If you don't need extremely high volumes, stick with the Senn 600's which are cheaper and much more comfortable. Though personally, I found the 600's to be unusable in my setup.

Similar Products Used:

Sennheiser 600