The first Walkman didn’t just put a cassette in your pocket. It came with a tiny pair of headphones so light you could forget they were on your head. Those little blue and orange foam pads were basically the official uniform of 1979, and now Sony has brought them back!
The new MDR-3R is a remake of the MDR-3L2, the headphones that shipped in the box with Sony’s TPS-L2 Walkman. Sony worked from the original design drawings, and you can tell. The thin metal headband is back, along with the square slider hinges, the perforated sound holes and even the “Dynamic Stereo Headphones” lettering on the side.
Inside are 23mm drivers, the same size as the originals, tuned to sound close to the old MDR-3 with a few modern refinements. The whole thing weighs 38 grams. Sony even recreated the packaging and the instruction manual, which is a lot of love for a manual nobody read in 1979 either. Both colors of ear pads come in the box, so you can swap between blue and orange whenever the mood strikes.
The one big change is the plug. The 3.5mm jack is gone, and in its place is a USB-C connector with an inline mic and remote, so they work straight off a phone with nothing to charge or pair. That’s a little funny for a pair of Walkman headphones. Sony’s own product page notes the USB-C connection isn’t intended for its Walkman players, so the tapes in your drawer (we see you, Tapedeck fans) will need a different pair.
Early reviews say the sound is clear in the mids and highs and a bit light on bass, and the open on-ear design lets sound leak in and out. That’s the same trade the original made, and it seems fair to us. These were built to be light enough to wear out the door, and that’s still the appeal. Wired headphones are having a real moment again, from this to Nothing’s Headphone (1), and it’s nice to see Sony go back to the source instead of inventing a retro look from scratch. Somebody over there kept the drawings for 47 years, and we’re glad they did.
The MDR-3R is out now for $59.99 (£49 in the UK) from Sony, Amazon and Best Buy. Via Dezeen.
