Sony h.ear on MDR-100ABN Bluetooth Headphones

[@davidmthekidd]

I Had the sennheiser momentum Wireless headphones for a while (9 months) and once I came across these on line I had to give them a try. Upon loading a few tracks and playing around with the features I immediately put my Sennheisers wireless on ebay right away. SOLD! love these sony's Now I need a good LDAC player with them.

[@derbigpr500]

All these active noise cancelling headphones use a simple trick that most people usually refuse to do on hi-fi headphones, partly because of ignorance, partly because they don't know how to do it properly and therefore don't realize the advantages. And that's equalizing, an active DSP circuit. It's a simple equalizing profile that gets enabled when you turn the active power on and that countereffects all the sonic faults a headphone has in the natural form. That way they're able to use far cheaper drivers inside an actually less well designed headphone, and compensate for the flaws with an equalizer. It's much easier to get the right sound balance with an EQ (if you know what you're doing and have precise measurement devices that enable you to see the changes properly) than by very precisely tuning the shape and size of the ear cup cavity, the distance between ear and driver, the volume of the chamber between the ear and the driver, the position of the driver, the airflow between the front and rear chamber (in front and behind driver), as well as the airflow between the rear chamber and the outside world. That all requires a lot of very, very detailed calculations and very precise tuning in order to get a headphone to sound just right, raw, straight out of a source, without any EQ. That's why good sounding headphones are so damn hard to design, far, far harder than speakers (which also use EQ, in the form of crossover circuits). On the other hand, using an EQ you can very easily get rid of nasty peaks or dips in the frequency response, get rid of the boomy mid bass or add sub bass, etc. You can drastically change the sound characteristics if you know what you're doing, and can get a VERY impressive sound from very cheap drivers. I already talked about building a diy headphone on head-fi, where I got a headphone with drivers from a 30 dollar Superlux headphone to sound 95% as good as my Beyerdynamic T1's, and got them to measure virtually identically. You can even control the impulse response with some more advanced algorithms and if you know exactly how the driver you're using behaves in your design, but what you don't get rid off is the distortion, and that is why all these actively powered headphones with active DSP settings have quite high distortion levels, nothing horrible or too noticeable, but that's what keeps them away from properly engineered Hi-fi headphones that sound a certain way raw, without any artificial effects changing the natural and raw sound of headphone. But using high quality drivers, the kind that are found in hi-end headphones, and then combinig that with DSP's....now...THAT is something special. I can't say much, but I'm working on a project currently, might even put it on kickstarter soon, that uses very high end drivers from a very respectable hi-end headphone, combined with a DSP circuit, resulting in a VERY impressive sound. Let me just put it this way, even in current form, in early stages of development, it makes my T1's sound like a toy in comparison. :P On to the Sony and actively powered headphones, what does that mean for a consumer? Nothing, except that he gets a better sound without the need for an amplifier. What does it mean for a manufacturer? Far easier and cheaper design, development and manufacture process, while still retaining good sound quality. For many people it will be hard to admit and accept, but the future of headphones is in actively powered headphones that will be full of DSP's and effects, trying to make the headphone mimic real sounds the way a conventional headphone just can't. Adding active crossfeed algorithms that get rid of the inherent physical faults a headphone has in comparison to speakers and real sound sources, active DPS's that change the sound of a headphone according to what kind of music is playing, etc. That is the future. Apple might be doing something like that already, that's why they're getting rid of their analog 3,5 mm jacks on all their devices and will use digital cables instead, which will allow them to do just what I said.

[@Krmelj]

I hope more people read what you wrote here, thanks for that! I have a Sony A25 walkman, and without much fanfare expected an average sound with these headphones with content I listen to (mainly poorly produced metal, some alternative like Steven Wilson etc). Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by MDR0100ABN. and chalked it down to pairing them with the A25 Walkman, since they are designed/released in the same time frame. But your explanation also makes sense... Hope your venture goes well, and good luck!

[@derbigpr500]

I wouldn't be surprised if Sony engineers and programmers did some really fancy subtle tricks where they made their walkmans "realize" which one of Sony headphones they're paired with using BT, and then automatically enable algorithms tuned to work with that specific headphone model. Not that they'd publicly admit it, but might be one of the reasons why their wireless headphones sound much better with Sony wireless sources than they do with others, because technically there shouldn't be much difference between two sound sources if they both connect to a headphone using bluetooth, since the dac and circuirty in the headphone just receives a digital signal, and then processes it and turns it into analog signals and sound. Unless the headphones and the walkman have a two-side communication so to speak, which they probably do in order to improve the sound of the Sony headphones even further. You never know what kind of tricks these huge companies with limitless budgets for research and development might pull off to make their products more satisfying for the user.

[@deldia]

Noise cancelling isn't just equalisation! Don't be ridiculous.

[@MaNameizJeff]

Great write up..except that it is all rubbish. Have you actually looked at the science of noise canceling? It is actually quite old and rather simple, you simply reproduce a wave form that is inverse of the noise outside of the ear and it cancels the noise out when they are both overlapping near the ear. The technology part today is simply figuring out (with DPSs of course) what is noise you want to cancel out, and to mix it in with the music without destroying the quality level of the music to a point it does not become worth it.

[@zzhhcc]

Thank you so much! I've been looking for a review video forever!

[@Currawong]

I'm going to try and do the 1000X as well. They are even better!

[@zzhhcc]

***** I really like the hand-cover part, hope you can do that again!

[@kenacquin1]

My first time seeing one of your reviews. Very well put together and very informative. I'm looking for a new set of Bluetooth headphones. Active NC is a plus. I just returned a pair of Bose QC35s as I was not impressed with the Bluetooth connectivity. I'm leaning towards getting a pair of these. Most reviews seem positive. Your review filled in a lot of gaps. Thanks.

[@davidzomec]

Just curious, did you get them in the end? Any opinions?

[@henrikschock9030]

Ive had these for 8 months now. I do agree with almost everything you say. They are really good. I use them while designing film audio The worst thing with these are the mic for speaking. My fellow friends tells me that it sound like I speak from a deep tunnel and it breaks sometimes.

[@SamA-ll2dt]

Hi mate, just wanted to say that it’s really nice to find a headphone reviewer who actually knows what they are talking about. I’m sick to death of these KZbin reviewers with a million subscribers who spend 2 minutes talking about how the headphone looks, then 30 seconds on the sound and they clearly don’t know what they are talking about at all. Great video and you’ve earned yourself a subscriber :)

[@Currawong]

Thanks! I had to figure this all out myself, though a few people in the industry took the time to explain things to me, which helped a lot.

[@geoffcloutier2160]

Cool review. I love my pair. Also if they are turned on, pressing the power button for a split second will announce the estimated battery level in low, medium or high. Peace!

[@kyleolsen3305]

I heard these babies at CES. Been wanting a pair ever since.

[@spirtkgh]

wow! your review is great . your noise cancelling test is really impressive. i've never seen the noise cancelling test like this. however if you can, could you do a review BOSE QC35? this have bluetooth and noise-cancelling like A100ABN.

[@Mickice]

I adore the basic 100AAP. Have them in Bordeaux Pink and Charcoal Black with matching SONY A25 Walmans.

I had these for a few months now, and i 100% agree with everything you said. On thing is a bit annoying is that you can only use it in passive mode, if it's charging. Not that big of a problem though, they last me a whole work week in the office. I still think this is the best noise cancelling bluetooth headphone on the market today.

[@Currawong]

Thanks for mentioning that. That is something I forgot to test, probably because I tend to habitually charge anything I'm not using so I don't run out of battery.

[@manishratan9173]

Currawong how do these compare in terms of sound quality and noise cancellation with Bose qc 25?? Please reply

manish ratan it's much better then the bose in both qualities. Also, it important to note that on the Sony the noise cancelation is optional, so you can turn it off, but with bose you can not turn it off.

[@manishratan9173]

Máté Magyar thanks 😃

[@manishratan9173]

Máté Magyar actually I am a student and noise cancellation matters to me the most

[@esprithk]

Great review. With much information

[@dinfreitas]

Nice review. Keep the good work Amos.

[@night_bot_dev]

How does the MDR-100 ABN compare to the regular non wireless MDR-100AAP?

[@esprithk]

MDR-100ABN can be used in wired mode with NC, too. Recently, PARROT Zik 2.0 has big price discount(stock clearance). Price wise. Zik 2 is worth to take a look and cheaper than MDR-100ABN. Sound quality I like both

[@esprithk]

Also, MDR-100ABN has bulit in headphone amplifier in its NC circuit. So with NC turned on, MDR-100ABN sounds better than MDR-100AAP. But just talk about MDR-100AAP, many other brand sounds better than it

[@JasonRendall1]

Great video , I have had these headphones for a while now and I'm impressed with them but, Is there a reason why the mic would not work when the headphones are plugged in to an Xbox One controller ?

[@Currawong]

The mic only works over Bluetooth as far as I know. Once you plug them in via a cable, they become regular, passive headphones.

[@EmapMe]

I have a problem where they keep disconnecting from my PC. Also, they're sort of uncomfortable to wear with glasses.

[@The2pacRemixChannel]

Hi does the cheaper wired version come with the same sound quality????

[@Currawong]

A few people have asked me that. It's on my list to review a pair of the wired version.

[@The2pacRemixChannel]

Currawong great thanks for your reply I can't decide whether to purchase the wired version currently on sale at half price or pay a little extra and go for a pair of sennheiser momentum 2.0 wired also on sale for £199

[@asdashuascar]

thanks for ur review! awesome ANC test .. please in your experience how the punchy bass and the dynamic bass are compared with the sennheiser wireless momentum or any extra bass headphone from Sony? . it is really important for me that at least these heaphones can handle a decent punchy bass compensating with eq if it were necessary ( i listen to electronic music and classical music) greetings from Bolivia!

[@asdashuascar]

thanks! but in ur own experience how could you qualify the bass and the dynamics in a scale of 1 to 10?

[@GoldenShip24]

Hey. What was the song playing during the NC demo?

[@yrocco]

Nice video. Do you think that they are worth 220€ / 250$?

[@Currawong]

Absolutely. I reckon they have the sound quality of more expensive wired headphones + a good DAC/amp.

[@RogueLinkz]

Great review! Do you think I should buy a pair of these over the ATH-M50x?

[@Currawong]

Depends. They are a bit light on the bass, so you may not like the change. However, the greater clarity should be noticeable if you're listening to high-quality recordings.

[@RogueLinkz]

Currawong oh what I meant is I'm going to buy my first decent pair of headphones now and I'm not sure if I should get these or the m50x. I like the portability on these but I'm afraid from what I've read the m50x have a better sound quality. Also does the noise canceling on these produce a noticeable noise? And is the sound quality still good while listening in a relatively quite environment with the NC off? Sorry for the spam :)

[@Currawong]

There is no noise from the noise cancelling at all. It's more so a change in what outside noise can get in. What I feel is great about them is that the NC doesn't lower the sound quality at all, at least as far as I could make out.

[@mehdi6797]

Hello,, between Sennhiser 4.50Bt or this sony mdr100 ,, which choice? thx

[@ashmeetsingh1004]

Meh Ben Sony MDR 100

[@donatello956]

i use both for the gym. sony sounds louder. but i guess it depends on how you feel that day

[@zulesyak3028]

Have you heard the ATH-MSR7? Which would be better if you compare it the A100ABN

[@SundarV2001]

Hello Currawong! i own the same pair and I found that the audio output via the aux cable distorts when there is some bass or even higher volumes...I had tested these with my ipad, smartphone and even my computer! the output is so nasty when i connect through the provided cable with HI-res audio and Noise cancellation turned on! is there a defect in mine?

[@Currawong]

It could be overloading the input of the headphones if you set it at maximum volume. However they were primarily designed to be used wireless, including having sufficient battery life, so I consider the wired mode an afterthought.

[@SundarV2001]

Currawong OK, so basically I can't experience hi-res audio, right? because the Sony's website states that you'll get hi-res audio only by using aux input not wireless as it uses LDAC!

[@MaNameizJeff]

Sonys term for Ldac and High res audio are actually alternating. You can either get high res audio mode (that is.. full quality analog which then gets digitized at the headphone level) or if you have a device that has Ldac, you can use Ldac wirelessly. Ldac does not actually work at 96khz and is simply using alot of tricks to get the sound transmitting as best as possible over a compressed bluetooth connection. Keep in mind though ldac support only exist in some sony phones and their walkmans, you won't see it on any iphones and currently no non-sony smartphones. It will be included in android 0.

[@valikmikze]

also have them never used passive or powered on and analog signal wait a bit, android 8 will support LDAC on any phone as for the 96khz, it will stream up to 990kbps so compression will occur you will get a maximum of LPCM but who knows bluetooth 5.0 and some software updates may boost it up to a 24bit quality the issue is connection quality and availability which leads to these limitations

[@wenhaosun94]

Is this an on ear or over ear headphone? Is it a open back or closed back design?

[@ashalaby86md]

How do they compare to the QC35 in terms of ANC?

[@lorenzobecks82tube]

what you think about "standard" sony 100aap (the wired version) that is in sale about 80 euros? i have a akg y50 and a momentum 2 on ear and i am thinking to return the akg to buy this sony (but no bluetooth version...too much expensive)

[@yougiely]

+Currawong M considering between 100aap vs 100abn for long term usage because I don't feel like built-in battery can healthy forever, sometimes I might use it with cable as 100aap. Any idea for this please?

[@ErykDante]

There is also a wired version of these without wireless and ANC. Do you think that the wired version will sound as good through the cable as the ANC pair when using it wirelessly?

[@Currawong]

That's what I'm hoping to find out at some stage. A lot of people have been asking me about the wired version.

[@ErykDante]

***** Ah ok. Thanks for the reply :)

[@sriramlal128]

Currawong are you gonna try the MDR-1000x as well?

[@Currawong]

I hope so.

[@sriramlal128]

I'll make sure to expect that then.. Because I'm not able to decide between these, the MDR1000x and Bose QC 35.

[@suchetanchavan1239]

sir can u give me a suggest if i had to choose between Sony h.ear on MDR-100ABN and parrot zik 2.0

[@Currawong]

Never tried the Parrot Zik, sorry.

[@bartusivaci6932]

Do i have to charge this from my pc or can i use any samsung adaptor to charge this? i mean i don't want to make damage to the headphones. pls answer

[@Currawong]

You should be able to charge it from your PC or a phone charger without any problems. The circuit will draw only the amount of energy required.

[@bartusivaci6932]

+Currawong thanks for information. you're awesome :)

[@esprithk]

For charging it other than using a PC, I use 5V/1A (do not go over 1A)

[@bartusivaci6932]

my charger is 2A. it's been 6 months and still no problem. but thanks :)

[@TroyArn]

so basically given that they will only sound good if the battery is charged, and since all batteries die, and this one cannot be replaced, these are disposable. correct?

[@Currawong]

I don't know if it is replaceable or not. You'd have to ask Sony.

[@DTSeventies-cv6tu]

@@CurrawongThe battery can be replaced, for all it's worth now. The symbol is Sony SP70. I've been using mine for six years now however and it still holds up for around 20h.

[@asrulhafiz295]

woww u have a lot of headphones behind u..can i have one sir? 😊

[@merdogmus335]

hi please help sony mdr 100abn or beats solo3 wireless which one should i buy ???

[@Currawong]

Never tried the Beats.

[@Drummaboie2]

Is this a special color you got to review? I've never seen this blue shade before or on tje market or the more teal blue.

[@Currawong]

It might be your computer monitor displaying the colours wrong or reflections from coloured objects around my room as it was the standard black.

[@Drummaboie2]

+Currawong at 3:00?

[@321avatar1]

+Philip Lopez (Drummaboie) it's still black bro maybe it's ur monitor or the light hitting the headphones

[@christianbrossette]

Is it just me or do you here Amos voice better with NC?

[@cutsomeone]

don't these have a device that allows vocals when you touch the ear cup?

[@Mordal1222]

No, but the MDR-1000x have that feature.

[@ktrigg2]

How are noise canceling headphones for audiobooks?

[@Currawong]

They should be fine. You might notice the remainder of the outside noise a bit more than you would with music.

[@okgoofy4757]

can one still listen to music without the music file being hi resolution?

[@okgoofy4757]

+Amos Barnett thank you for your review. have a nice day.

[@jokogilbert3278]

Hi Amos, I've spent wayyyy too much time now trying to pair these headphones to my Samsung TV (on phone with Fios, on phone with Sony) and no one can help me. Any suggestions? I love these headphones and had no problem at all connecting them to my phone. Help! Thank you! And yes, my TV has bluetooth :-))

[@Currawong]

I've got a Bluetooth transmitter for my non-BT TV, though I haven't tried it with any of the Sony headphones. If they don't pair with anything, they could be faulty.

[@jokogilbert3278]

thank you :-)

[@hardballcarl]

How do these sound powered but connected with a cable, better or worse than through bluetooth?

[@Currawong]

Bluetooth sounds best. They seem to be focussed on the wireless quality.

[@hardballcarl]

Thanks man

[@esprithk]

Too bad iPhone BT does not support any of the latest codec such as APTX. ** for iPhone 6 which I have. I can still use 3.5mm audio jack to connect this MDR-100ABN and keep the audio quality while still able to use its NC function. The MDR-100ABN has built in amplifier in the NC circuit, but no DAC. For iPhone 7, I use MDR-1ADAC to connct to it via lightning cable. All music files (I use VOX music player to play FLAC and WAV from iPhone) are sent to the headphone's built-in DAC + Headphone amplifier. Audio quality is improved by very large margin(iPhone has built in Cirrus Logic ODM DAC chip but obviously the DAC in MDR-1ADAC does a better job)

[@Currawong]

As far as I know, the noise cancelling is done digitally, so if you use the analogue input, it is first digitised. You might be right about the iPhone 6 though. The sound using mine as a Bluetooth source was pretty good though. I'm not 100% sure if it was APTx or not. I do need to figure that out though. Thanks for the feedback.

[@esprithk]

iPhone Bluetooth neither supports APTX or LDAC. It is still using the original basic SBC (Bluetooth version has nothing to do with this). It is just shameful to have a device that is always promoting audio sound, but neither the hardware or the music store (iTunes) has evolved in the past 10 years. Competitors such as SPOTIFY, TIDAL, and (Hong Kong local) MOOV already include high-fidelity format for steaming or downloads (for offline mode), iTunes remains lossy format only. I can understand that 10years ago, smartphone have very limited storage. But we have phones that are 256GB and SD card for adding extra 200-256GB. File sizes are not an issue anymore. Also, iPhone's Cirrus Logic DAC is a good DAC. So, it is really waste of the hardware's ability. The only lucky thing that as an iPhone user, I can still install 3rd party app such as VOX or FLAC Player , as well as another app for DSD files. So, I can still export files to external DAC device via lightning and get Hi-Res sound quality.

[@esprithk]

Somewhat, iPhone 7 has made a very brave and right move to cancel the 3.5mm. Now, user likes me can focus on searching a headphone with built-in DAC & amplifier. This actually is an advance step forward in comparing to the Android devices.

[@TyroneCLove]

Would you say the 1000x has a much better sound than this one ?

[@Currawong]

I don't know about much better, but the bass was definitely better and so the sound was overall more balanced with the 1000X.

[@manishratan9173]

how does this headphones compare to Bose qc 25?? Please reply

[@Currawong]

Good question. I have never owned or had a pair of Bose headphones here, but the ones I've tried didn't have as good a sound-quality as these did, though the noise cancelling on the Bose was better.

[@manishratan9173]

Currawong Actually I am a student and noise cancellation matters quite a bit 😅😅 Can the Sony mdr 100 abn block people??

[@Carbon1344]

Why dont you go for the MDR 1000X? It has better NC than Boses

[@manishratan9173]

Yeti Bluesky Budget 😓😓

[@MapleTalkative2]

how much did you spend on your gear TOTAL

[@Currawong]

I don't want to know :P

[@j.rileylocke3531]

They will not connect to my iPhone 7+ any suggestions? Asked Sony, they were no help.

[@sotonkids1386]

Have you hold tried holding the on/off button for 10 sec until ur iphone discover them? pressing the button for 2sec will only switch it on but not pairing mode

[@rhorlandas]

how's the sound quality sir is it good?

[@Artinmusicc]

ATH-m50x or MDR-100ABN?

[@Currawong]

They have different sound signatures, so it depends what you are after.

[@neurozero]

listen to music while at gym

[@champloo2734]

Cant connect these to my iphone..

[@Currawong]

I did.

[@champloo2734]

Yea sth was wron w the phone

[@ashtonjeansonne5461]

Dont even show how to connect bluetooth in a 12 min long video lol smh wow

[@Currawong]

That's what the instructions are for. But just for you, for pretty much every Bluetooth headphone out there: 1. Switch them on. 2. Go to Bluetooth on your phone or DAP. 3. Find the headphones and tap on their name. If the headphones are already paired, you'll have to put them in pairing mode (usually by holding down the power switch for longer after switching them on) first.

[@drobena1]

Why use such a good headphones for a shity phone like Iphone. Ow sorry, can we call an Iphone a smartphone, because it is a garbage and not a phone. Clearlly all of the specs of that headphones wasn't at it's best because Iphone doesn't support hi res audio. Use a phone not a garbage.