Many of my childhood summer afternoons were spent riding around my hometown on my Huffy bike or, in later years, taking the bus into Harvard Square to walk around and hang out at The Garage. My Sony Walkman was always in my jacket pocket, and a pair of headphones were always on my head. For many of those years, they were a pair of Sony MDR-3L2 handed down (or maybe “borrowed”) from my older brother. I wore them constantly — until the cable caught on my handlebars, pulled off my head, and I ran them over with my bike. But now I can relive those days with the release of the Sony MDR-3R wired headphones.
The Sony MDR-3R are remarkably similar to the original. They look identical, with metal extenders that slide into the plastic headband to adjust the fit. The same 23mm drivers use removable foam pads that come in blue and orange (both colors are in the box). The design is also incredibly light — Sony lists them at 38 grams, 2 grams lighter than the MDR-3L2.
There are a few changes. Instead of a 3.5mm connector, the MDR-3R uses USB-C. At 1.2 meters, the cable is also shorter, so it doesn’t catch on as many things (like a Huffy bike), and it has an inline remote with a built-in mic. The foam pads aren’t as scratchy as I remember the original ones being, which, along with the light design, makes them incredibly comfortable to wear for long periods. The MDR-3R also don’t come with a Walkman, like the original did. And Sony’s current line of Walkman digital media players starts at $1,900 (with 3.5mm and 4.4mm analog jacks), so I wouldn’t even consider using a $60 pair of USB-C headphones with them. Maybe we’ll see a retro-styled, cheap Walkman in the future. It would be a fun, if very niche, pairing.
I spent a lot of time listening to the same music I listened to growing up — The Police, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Paula Abdul (don’t judge) — and it all sounds pretty good on the MDR-3R. Vocals are clear and never muddy, and there’s a nice openness to the high end. There are some issues, though. An upper midrange peak adds a little too much extra snap to snare drums, which can over-accentuate sampled drums in particular, and the bass response drops off, causing bass lines to sound more plucky and less boomy.
Listening to the MDR-3R in noisy environments isn’t ideal. Their on-ear design doesn’t block ambient noise, so if you’re looking to isolate from the world around you, these headphones ain’t it. While walking around my neighborhood, I found myself increasing the volume to drown out the noise from traffic on the street so I could hear Sting holler, “You don’t have to put on the red light,” the same as I did 40 years ago in suburban Massachusetts.
The mic quality was good while talking in meetings or on calls in my home. People could hear and understand what I was saying without issue. Talking outside caused problems, though. I sounded muffled at times, and also a bit distorted. If I held the microphone up off my chest and closer to my mouth, the quality improved drastically. There was still some distortion, especially as traffic passed, but I was far more intelligible when I held the mic like I was filming an influencer video.
The Sony MDR-3R are far from the only retro-inspired USB-C wired headphones around. The Moondrop Old Fashioned cost less than half the price at $25. The all-metal headband isn’t as comfortable as the Sony’s, though. And while the Old Fashioned have larger 40mm drivers, the bass performance isn’t any better, midrange sounds a bit darker than the MDR-3R, and the high frequencies aren’t as crisp.
All that to say, I like the Sony MDR-3R quite a bit. Is it because of nostalgia? The memories of my (brother’s) old pair are definitely part of it. It also feels refreshing to put on headphones so light. They don’t sound perfect, and I would never use them in every situation, but they scratched an itch I didn’t even know I had. Walking around the neighborhood with them while listening to tunes felt familiar and comforting. For $60, they’re a nice way to remember a simpler time when all that mattered was the music.
Photography by John Higgins / The Verge