Sony MDR-7510 review

No programmer, producer or mix engineer worth their salt would contemplate carrying out a professional task without referring their mix to headphones at some stage. Indeed, many are as reliant on a decent pair of cans as they are on their studio monitors.

Sony has a proud pedigree in this field. The pair on review here extends its MDR-7500 range, and are designed for critical listening

The MDR-7510s are built both for mixing and reference monitoring, and can be seen as an everyday choice. What's immediately striking is the detail in the bass end of these headphones - not murky or dark but full of weight and power.

Similarly, the top end is nicely balanced - not falsely coloured or over-flattering, which is so important as these are the frequencies which lead to ear fatigue.

For us, the detail in the mid-range is the only area where you have to be careful if you're making dance music as the bass end is generous enough to leave low-mids, in particular, a little swamped.

However, the MDR-7510s compare very favourably to our trusty AKG271s, which actually sounded a touch thinner by comparison. What's also pleasing is that the generous frequency response is consistent regardless of listening volume. Some headphones encourage louder monitoring through their poorer performances at low levels - fortunately, this isn't the case here at all.

The 7510s offer better great for money, as their quality belies they very reasonable price.