Sony mdr-R10 is like a Jaguar E-Type in the headphone world. It was made in very limited quantities of two thousand. The price tag was eye watering 2500 dollars, in 1989! Zalkova wood and new Biocellulose drivers sounds very organic, and there is absolutely no plastic on it. A headphone legend was borne! The designer Koji Nageno is well known to headphone geeks like me and is more like a rockstar to us headphoneers. So much history being made by that man. Koji San have a part of creating Sony CD900ST, R-10, CD3000, SA5000, MA500, MDR-F1 and i have probably missed one or two. I have enjoyed time with some of these headphones and they are truly amazing. I fellow geek i know owns the F1 and I’m truly jealous. The F1 like HD800 is one of those headphones that got the ¨¨ it¨.
The ¨ IT¨
The ¨ it¨ is different to every legendary headphone there is. The Sennheiser HD650 sounds very dull to me. The base doesn’t go all the way down and the top is too veiled for me personally. I personally liked the HD600 a little better. But after years of them both collecting dust, I sold them off to someone else. Mabe someone that have a bottlehead crack and and enjoy the creamy laid back sound signature. The Sennheiser HD650 have plenty of ¨ it¨ ! The midrange is fabulous! It’s one of those headphones that just hits a nerve. The fast and organic presentation of the sound that Stax SR-009 gives me. It’s like I’m the one beside the performer. I got the timbre of the strings so naturally it’s like being there! Grade PS1000e just hits my nerves when the right kind of music is on and my body wants to move. They all got plenty of weaknesses but they got what i call ¨ IT¨ . The creation of ¨ it¨ usually begin with a philosophy of how to create the perfect sound.
Axell Grell, the former chief designer of Sennheiser had he’s solution of how to solve problems with a dynamic driver. Like Grado, Stax, Beyerdynamic and other companies, Sennheiser keeps tweaking Axell Grells drivers since he made the HD580. You can see the philosophy behind. The same goes for Sony from the late 80s, until Naotaka Tsunoda took over and made the Z1R/Z7. The Z1R is good but very different and like a bastard version of the philosophy from Koji Nageno. Just a thought and it doesn’t mean I’m right. But I will bet a fair amount that Z1R would never be as legendary as MDR-R10. The ¨ it¨ is just not there.
ESlab
ESlab is a Hong Kong based firm that started repairing electrostatic headphones. I first heard about EsLab through a friend having Bought the 1a headphone. It’s not a complete replica of the Stax Omega, but it looks and Sounds very good. In fact, so good that i bought it. The build quality was also great. I was very impressed of what they had done. I heard a rumour of EsLab making a MDR R-10 clone. The original MDR R-10, like the Jaguar E-Type is just a dream. It’s very expensive and old. I would never have the nerve to blast the original on my head like other headphones i own. Hell, i wouldn’t even dare to carry it around with me. MDR R-10 belongs behind glass in a museum. The drivers are old and stiff and so is the earpads. Like Eslab’s claims I think the real deal doesn’t sound like new after thirty years. Being a Chinese firm the natural thing was to clone it. But unlike most Chinese clones, ESlab did a proper job doing it. They measured every component in the original and recreated them using modern methods. The result is the result. I really don’t care if the replica Vikingship is built like the Vikings did it. If the result is exactly the same or better, it doesn’t mather. EsLab’s take is to recreate the MDR R-10 as it was right out from the factory. I just have to take their word for it because I have never heard the original and probably never will.
Build Quality
Like i expected from owning the ESlab 1a the build quality is close to perfect. Like the original ESlab use Japanese hand picked Zalkova wood witch is used in creating bonsai-trees and Japanese Drums. They use the same three point suspension that isolates the resonance of the wooden housing. They have been going to great lengths creating the same earpads as the original and according to them it takes an hour just to fit the twenty pieces on the pads alone. I just have to take their word for it. It looks very good and it looks, feels and even smells like the real deal. I have no concerns, it looks solid. Unlike the real R10 the cable is detachable and looks like the original. It’s a bit too short for me. Every high end headphone in the world should come with a short and a long cable. One and a half and Three metre! Im not sitting on a desk. I like listening in my coach or my chair pretty far away from my system. Ok, the rant is over and I’m nitpicking. I have a friend that makes very good cables so I got three meter on it now. The replica build quality is so near the real thing that you can use the parts as replacement parts for the original.
Comfort
The ESlab ES-R10 is probably one of the most comfortable headphones out there. It’s large and looks kind of silly. But who got a mirror on their listening room? If you are afraid of looking stupid then headfi is probably not the hobby for you! The pads are soft and the headband spreads the wight evenly on my head. I got nothing to complain about. That’s pretty rare being a Norwegian. Norway is so safe and we are well taken care of. We are so fortunate that nitpicking and complaining is all we do! The comfort is good.
Sound
I started the session with The Pretty Reckless – Only live can save me now. It was the second song that popped up on my playlist. The first was a pentatonix cover that my wife likes. But even if the song is compressed like all rock nowadays, the dynamics made me turn down the volume a bit. The sound is very good! The drums hits hard and the imaging is surprisingly good for a closed headphone. Listening a bit more reveal very good dynamics! This is a real closed headphone! It have some passive noise isolation. Not like Sennheiser HD820 that doesn’t really know what it is. I feel like I sit in my own world of music but the feeling is very open and airy. I went over to Yello – Kiss the cloud and the staging is awesome! Everything is where is supposed to be. If the deepest base notes is what you are looking for, I think you need to keep looking. The base rolls of pretty early, but the mid base got power. I think Yello suits this headphone well. I went over for some Blues. Baba Blues – St. James Infirmary is crazy good on the R10. The midrange is as good as I ever heard it. The voice is dynamic and the guitar is organic. The saxophone is so lifelike and the imaging and soundstage is spot on. This is a good recording that suits the R10. On to the Norah Jones – Cold, Cold Heart (live) and with this kind of music the R10 keeps shining. This headphone is brutally honest over bad recordings. I went to find another good recording and went for Metallica – Tuesdays Gone and it’s as good as I ever heard it. My gosh this is really good on real instruments. Harmony is a good word. The name should be EsLab ES-R10 Harmony. It feels like the whole headphone is in harmony with the music. The headphones is an instrument on its own. Pretty cool! I rarely hear anything this good on acoustic music. I went for my list of Hard Trance, and no, just no..The base is not defined and slam is lacking. The top end is fine, but it’s like everything is out of sync. This headphone wants to play real music on real instruments. It is beautiful and with the right kind of music I have no problem with this being one of the best headphones in the world, as long as the music is right.
Conclusion
Im not surprised this headphone got ¨the stamp ¨the best headphone in the world. Well, this is a replica of that headphone. I think ESlab have done an amazing job on this. On acoustic instruments it truly shines. Mabe it still is the best headphone in the world, on certain kinds of music. I wrote about headphones having ¨ IT¨ . The undefined goodness that only great headphones can have. It have weaknesses, but with the right kind of music this will blow all the other headphones you own out the door. The midrange is sweet as cotton candy when the circus is in town. I crave this headphone like Smeagol craves the ring of power. It will be a shame to send it back. But Im listening to a lot of electronic music and other headphones can handle that better. But this would certainly be a future part of my collection as something unique and worthy.
