Sony MDR-R10

The KING, really THE KING of headphones.

Introduced along the SS-A5 gem in 1989, the King took the suffix of what was still under development - R10. Namely Sony's anniversary units for the 10 years of CD (CDP-R10 & DAS-R10, 1992) and (with some delay), Sony's fiftieth anniversary in 1995 (SS-R10).

Like the SS-A5 gem (ie. masterpiece), the MDR-R10 was centered on a Bio-Cellulose diaphragm. That should have been enough to fix the King into the top ten but Sony went further to secure a top five spot.

The shape of the cans reflect directly the internal structure : there is an air chamber between the driver and the listener's ears.
Like a miniature room so that the ears aren't pressed against the driver and so that some alignement between the driver's plane and the pavilion can take place.
If you've ever worked with the studio-oriented Sony MDR-7506 or MDR-7509, you'll know how it feels to have the back of your ear lobes crushed after a few hours of mixdown checking (experience speaking here !).

Of course, the size of the cans make the listener look like he's grown pods out of a David Cronenberg film, but since the lonely listener is listening alone, looks don't matter.

After many different materials were tested, Zelkova, a japanese wood known for its rigidity and light weight, was chosen to hold the diaphragm. Carving of the exterior Zelkova cuffs was done by FRESDAM.
Lamb skin was chosen for the pads and top hoop. This fairly stiff material was retained to keep an even pressure on the listener's head and therefore assure an identical air chamber on both sides.

The flexible hoop is made of braided carbon to avoid it getting disformed along long listening times (days, weeks, months - years) ; the flexy hoop is in fact a big circle, the flexible part of which is located inside the top hoop. Magnesium was chosen for the external structure.

LC-OFC wiring inside, protected by pure silk sheaths, ending up on a gold-plated rhodium 1/4" plug.
There are two versions of the MDR-R10 with slight differences in bass response but I don't know where in the (long) (but limited) production run this tuning took place. The cost for either version was equally 360,000¥.

The cheaper MDR-CD3000 is essentially an MDR-R10 sans Zelkova and lamb skin but composite vegetal fibre for the cans and natural collagen for the pads.
The 50mm Bio-Cellulose diaphragm, Neodymium magnet and "air chambers" are the same, though.

Each MDR-R10 was delivered with a luxurious custom leather box, with its own ID card displaying serial number, production year and the name of the Sony QC controller.

Optionally, one could buy the DRC-R10 adaptor which was to be hooked to the speaker terminals of a power amp ; a little big black box with a single front switch ('speakers / 'phones) which is more of an Invisibilia item...


If you've ever heard the SS-A5 or SS-A5S, then you already know how good the MDR was - and still is. Pity only about 1500 (or less) were made and pity they have become so expensive nowadays.

You can either get a pair of SS-A5S but let the room reflections and stands problem to potentially arise and finally surround you. But the Voce remain incredibly cheap at around 400€.

Or you can get a pair of MDR-R10 and the room vanishes - literally. But you have to save at least 3000€ for that : the last pair spotted, #1058, made in 2000, went for 4200€. Not only the room vanishes.


Wiring mods for the R10 here at Jena Technologies ; an enthusiastic forum thread here.

Much more about the MDR-R10 soon on TVK !