Sony MDR-XD200 Headphones Review
Santosh Most of you know the scenario - you love playing music out loud, but your parents or room mates want you to keep the sound ridiculously low. Being stuck in this situation for months, a good pair of headphones was pretty much a top-priority in my To-Buy list.
You may also know that deciding on which headphone to buy is really difficult, especially since no store lets you try them out. You gotta go on user-reviews.
The SONY MDR-XD200 won hands down after I went through a bunch of headphones. This baby has bang for every frikkin buck you pay.

Specs
- Closed-Type Headphones with Long Stroke Diaphragm for Dynamic Movie Sound
- Capable of Producing Movie Quality Sound with Dynamic Sound Range
- Sound Mode Switch for Movie and Music Enjoyment
- Comfort Fit with Urethane Leather Ear Pads
- Ear-Conscious Design for Wearing Comfort
- Large 40mm Driver Unit with 360kJ/m³ High Power Neodymium Magnet for Outstanding Sound Quality
- Response Bandwidth: 10 - 22000 Hz
- Sensitivity: 102 dB
- Impedance: 70 Ohm
Performance
The sound quality is really good. The sound does not distort at high volume. The bass and treble are evenly matched. Sony’s set them just right for optimum headphone listening. There’s a slider that lets you change modes while watching movies or listening to music. The difference, sadly, is not much unless you try it out on original 5.1 DVD movies or high bit-rate music. All it does is make the sound seem more wide. The headphone also does a decent job at cutting out environment noise.
Comfort
Trust me on this one - excellent. The ear-cups are carved in such a way that your entire ear is covered perfectly by the spongy part. The band over the head is pretty comfortable and does not hurt a bit even on long hours of use. And since this baby is pretty light weight (8 Oz), you hardly feel any pain in your neck.
The best part is the wire. It’s 11.5 feet long. That’s right, Eleven-and-a-Half feet! To give an example, I had @Sknahs wear the headphones and sit at one corner of the hall. I then carried the music player half way down the stairs with the headphones connected!
The sad part here is that a volume-controller is missing. So if you’re watching a movie sitting on the other side of the room, you’ll need to come down to your media player to decrease the volume every time a horrible song comes on.
Final Verdict
Excellent pair of headphones. Very good bass and treble support, and plays very well on just about every music player we tried (Nokia’s n70, Sony’s own w580i, and the PC). But what will make you buy this, is its price — Rs.1,490 including taxes!
We (Shanks and myself) went down to SOGO (Hayes Road, Bangalore) to order them (since I don’t trust the guys at S.P Road). The piece I got was the last one he had!
Now no more being told to decrease the volume, or being shot in the ass while playing Counter-Strike because you couldn’t hear your opponent come right behind you. Yay! ![]()





July 6th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
how fast does the w580i’s battery drain out when using this ?
LOL at the 5mm jack incident
July 7th, 2008 at 12:22 am
@vysakh Neither of us observed that. We were so engrossed with the headphones that we never bothered seeing the phone! Sorry buddy.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Hmm.. The Sound Quality? Is the bass too high? ..or is it just right? How does the Lows and Mids sound?
Too much bass / too less trebs will make me break headphones to smithereens.. Will sound especially ugly if you are listening to Post-Rock/Electronic Music.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
@Subbu: It doesn’t have too much bass. Nor does it have too less treble. Jump on IM, I’ll explain.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
hehe
just curious
July 9th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
[...] SONY MDR-XD200 Headphones — I need this pretty badly. Every time I play music or even watch a movie, parents downstairs start to complain. 8-) And besides, I can’t Counter-Strike without a headphone. GOT THIS. Check review. [...]
September 6th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Guess what, I just bought one for myself!
I’d earlier bought a Philips SGH1900, which I didn’t quite like. So I went to replace it, thinking I’ll buy a SGH2700 when I stumbled upon this beauty.
You’re right, the bass is just right! I’m lovin it =)
September 7th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Hey! Only glad I could help buddy.