There’s something about those stupid little orange foam earcups. When I see a throwback to Sony’s iconic Walkman headphones, my eyes are at attention, like when a bird sees a worm or when Cookie Monster gets a whiff of something that makes nutritionists frown. I can’t help it; I’m conditioned to appreciate retro vibes—by my generational peers, by the seemingly endless/shameless cheap ripoffs from audio brands, and now, once again, by Sony itself.

Sony’s newest audio release is technically an old one—it’s reviving the iconic MDR-3, the original 1979 headset companion to Sony’s Walkman TPS-L2 cassette player. It’s a cheap-ish pair of headphones with a few upgrades, but the most important thing is that it’s dripping in nostalgia, and if you’re at all affected by the art of the throwback, you should steer clear if you don’t feel like spending $60 right now.

The MDR-3R headphones are dripping with nostalgia and have surprisingly good sound, but they feel a little flimsy.

The MDR-3R, as they’ve been dubbed, are dutiful in their recreation of Sony’s bygone era of Walkman cassette players. They have the same kind of flimsy silhouette, the same scratchy foam earpads, and the same reliance on wires, though this time you get USB-C. What’s even more surprising is that Sony didn’t stop at making the MDR-3R look like the original headset from nearly half a century ago; it actually worked to mimic the sound, too.

” Without access to the near-ancient MDR-3, which came out well over a decade before I was born, I can’t tell you how well Sony does in trying to reproduce that sound, but what I can tell you is that I think the MDR-3R sound pretty damn good, and so does pretty much anyone that I let try the headphones.

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