By Barry Rudolph
CAD Audio offers a pair of headphones with specs that rival or exceed that of the most expensive professional studio headphones you’d find in a world-class recording studio. The result of a decade-long collaboration of experience and professional audio expertise, the SessionsTM MH510 headphones come with features and accessories found with studio phones starting at $300.
You get an extra pair of velveteen ear cushions in addition to the included leatherette set. I like that you get both straight and curly cords and both have locking connectors to change/replace cords. Each pair comes with a leatherette carry pouch, a screw-on 1/4-inch stereo gold-plated adapter and, just for fun, there is a choice of black, white/red, black/chrome and black/ orange colors.
I received a pair of all black MH510 headphones and immediately plugged them into my Aphex Systems Model 454 HeadPod studio headphone box. The MH510s have 26-ohm impedance, 50-mm neodymium drivers and a maximum power rating of 3-watts. You’ll distort the Aphex amp before overdriving them.
Being able to handle up to 3-watts of power is the best headphone feature in the recording studio world. The voice coils in the drivers of studio phones will burn out with hours of excessive and constant volume levels— even when the headphones lay on the floor unused. Combine that with the “perfect storm” of physical abuse and accidental spikes caused by a bad/intermittent connection somewhere in the signal chain and you’ve got another set of dead soldiers.
In my listening tests, I found that the MH510 headphones are built for loud playback with a thick overall sound with plenty of bass down to the subsonic. They are more efficient than my other studio phones—meaning more volume for the same power from the headphone amp. They are also slightly lighter weight, very comfortable and seal well over my ears for minimal headphone spill.
The super-rugged and stylish CAD Audio Sessions MH510 headphones sell for $159 MSRP. For more about them, go to http://cadaudio.com.
miniBio: Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer with over 30 gold and platinum RIAA awards to his credit. He has recorded and/or mixed: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs and Robbie Nevil. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and also teaches recording engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. http://www.barryrudolph.com
