Bright tunes with my new Sony high-res music gear

The lovely people from Sony recently spoiled me with their new MDR-1A headphones. As I said when I reviewed the beautiful Switch speaker by Native Union, I am far from a gadget expert but I do really enjoy useful state of the art digital technology that spices up my life! I got these headphones just in time for my last long flight, to Bali, which gave me a lot of time to test them out. On these kind of long flights, I just love to cocoon in my own world and the MDR-1A really helps with that.

Sony was kind enough to throw in their latest version of the classic Walkman, the A15, which Sony claims is the world’s smallest and lightest high-resolution music player. That’s easy to believe, especially since they were kind enough to fill it up with music of my own preference, like Beyonce, Bruno Mars and Sam Smith. I kicked back in my seat, turned up the volume and off I went into my own world…

But I am getting ahead of myself, let me start with the basics. The MDR-1A comes in a small, handy pouch with the necessary cables, including one that has a microphone so it’s useful on your phone, or on Skype and Facetime. The first thing I noticed was the lightweight feel. Weighing only 225 grams, this is not only important when travelling but also if you wear the headphones for a few hours

The luxury leather is matched by soft, padded premium earcups that are ‘over-ear’, which is the style I prefer. A thing that I only discovered to be very useful after using the headphones for a while, are the rotating earcups. They not only lead to a comfortable feel when you have them sitting (pads down) on your neck, but also makes them easier to pack and carry along in a small bag.

Obviously, the most important aspect of headphones is the sound. I don’t like the bombastic bass you usually get with cheaper headphones and the sound of the MDR-1A is simply crystal-clear, at every volume. Their over-ear design give them enough sound isolation so the person next to you doesn’t get bothered by your music, but at normal volume you can still hear enough of the world around you that it’s not dangerous to wear them when walking around or on your bike. All in all, the MDR-1A is a sublime, luxury piece of technology. The only disadvantage I have experienced so far, is that the boyfriend keeps switching his old Dr Dre headphones for my brand new Sony babies…