Sony MDR-3R Brings the 1979 Walkman Headphone Back, Priced PhP3,999 in PH

The Sony MDR-3R arrives in the Philippines on November 27 for PhP3,999, and it is exactly what the name suggests: the on-ear headphone Sony shipped alongside the first Walkman in 1979, rebuilt around a USB-C plug instead of a 3.5mm jack. Sony Philippines confirmed the local price and date through its PR agency this week, along with one detail buyers should know early. The Stranger Things edition is not being sold here.

A 1979 headphone with a 2026 connector

The original MDR-3 went on sale with the TPS-L2 Walkman, the cassette player that put music in people’s pockets. Sony’s own footnotes point out that the pair bundled with the player was the MDR-3L2, part of the same MDR-3 family. The MDR-3R keeps that silhouette: a thin silver headband, round silver earcups, and a lightweight open-air fit that rests on the ear rather than around it.

Sony lists the MDR-3R at about 38 grams without the cable, which it calls the lightest pair in its current over-head lineup. The cable is a 1.2-meter Y-type that ends in USB-C. Both colourways ship in the box, orange pads fitted and blue pads spare, and swapping them takes seconds. Even the box and the manual copy the 1979 design.

Plug in and play, with no battery to manage

The pitch here is subtraction. There is no battery to charge, no Bluetooth pairing, no codec to negotiate and no firmware to update. You plug the MDR-3R into a phone, tablet or laptop and audio routes over USB. Sony lists it as compatible with USB Audio Class 1.0 devices, and notes that some devices need a setting switched on first, usually labelled “USB device” or USB On-The-Go, before they hand audio over to the headphones.

The earcups hold the same 23mm driver units as the original, tuned close to the old signature with small refinements for modern tracks. An in-line remote handles volume and playback, and a built-in microphone turns the cable into a headset for calls. One footnote is worth repeating: Sony does not recommend using the MDR-3R with a Walkman, which is a strange sentence to read about a Walkman tribute.

Sony MDR-3R price and availability in the Philippines

Sony Philippines sets the MDR-3R at PhP3,999, available November 27 at Sony Centres and Sony Authorized Dealers nationwide. For reference, Sony sells the same model in the United States for US$59.99. Sony Philippines’ own product page still listed the price as unavailable when this was written, so the peso figure here is the one carried in Sony’s local release.

Sony also flags the materials. About 25 percent of the plastic in the product is recycled plastic, and the packaging is plastic-free, with coating and adhesive materials excluded from that claim. The MDR-3R is a wired headphone in a market that has largely moved on from wires, and that is the appeal: PhP3,999 for a pair you never have to charge.

Related: Sony WH100X The Collexion Review