Last weekend I finally joined the modern age and bought a MP3 player. I plan on using this player during bus and airplane rides. Since my Grado headphones are an open design headphone, they leak out a lot of sound and are not appropriate for use in public, unless you enjoy annoying everyone around you. So I am on a quest to find a pair of decent cheap (approximately $20) headphones. How do these headphones measure up? I'm so glad you asked:
Construction
These headphones consist mainly of inexpensive plastic pieces. No big surprise there, considering the price. The cushion for the ear is the thin black foam common on most inexpensive headphones. They feature a small, curved piece that fits over and behind the ear. This piece is spring loaded and slides forward to make it easier to fit on your ear, then slides back to hold the earpiece in place.
The earpieces also have replaceable caps. The two colors supplied are Vikings purple and Raiders silver, which should be great for all you Randy Moss fans out there. If you are not a big football fan, you might still enjoy the dark purple metallic or silver caps anyway.
The plug is the 1/8 inch mini-plug style, which will fit virtually all portable devices, and is gold-plated to resist corrosion and maintain excellent conductivity over time.
Appearance
The overall appearance is rather strange. For some reason, the designers decided to send only one cord to the left earpiece, which then travels onward to the right earpiece. The cord connecting the two earpieces is a whopping 21 inches long, far more than is necessary. (Feel free to measure the distance between your ears. I'm willing to bet it is considerably less than 21 inches.) This not only looks silly, but is very annoying as well.
The caps are nice looking, with cool metallic colors and the Sony logo.
The biggest problem with the appearance is that it makes the top of your ears stick out a bit farther than normal, and the spring loaded clip does not hold the earpieces close enough to the ear. So it seems like both your ears and the earpieces are sticking out farther than they should. Add this to the ridiculously long cord between the earpieces, and the appearance is lacking. So no, you are not going to see Lindsay Lohan wearing these headphones either. That is, unless Sony hands her a check for a few million dollars.
Noise Blocking
The noise blocking ability of these headphones is minimal, since the spring clips do not hold the earpieces very tightly to the ear.
Comfort
Comfort is the biggest advantage of these headphones. The spring clip does not hold the earpieces too tight against the ear. From an appearance standpoint, and a sound standpoint, that is a negative. But for comfort, it is a plus. The earpieces are also very light. These headphones are comfortable enough to wear for several hours.
Sound
The sound of these headphones is pretty good, all things considered. There is a good overall balance of sound. The upper frequencies sound reasonably clear. They lack the fine detail found in more expensive cans, but that is to be expected. Vocalists sound a bit one dimensional and lacking in depth. The middle ranges are well represented, as is the upper bass. The lowest bass sounds fall of a bit, mainly because the earpieces aren’t held tightly against the ears. If you do hold the earpieces tight, the low bass magically appears.
I like the sound of these phones much better than the Koss Spark Plugs that I reviewed earlier this month. When compared to the street style (behind the head) cans that came with my
Panasonic CD player, which are probably in the same general price range, these Sony headphones are slightly less detailed in the upper frequencies and do not offer quite as much texture and depth in the lower frequencies. Just for the heck of it, I also compared them to my
Grado SR-125s. I think the Sony’s offer about 70% of the performance for about 20% of the price. But what a world of difference that extra 30% makes!
Other Considerations
These headphones have a low impedance rating of 24 Ohms. So they should be able to play loudly with almost any MP3 player or other portable device. They have plenty of volume with my Creative Labs
Zen Sleek MP3 player.
The cord is 1.5 meters, which for those of us that are metric-challenged (American) is about 5 feet.
Overall
These headphones are a much better choice than the
Koss Spark Plugs that I reviewed earlier, but still have some serious issues. The overall sound is pretty good, with a good overall balance. The low bass is kind of light, and fine details are missing in the upper frequencies. But not bad for inexpensive headphones. The comfort is good enough to wear these phones for several hours. The appearance is a bit awkward. I also think that the fit and sound probably varies depending on the shape of your ears, so you might have a better experience than I did. Overall, these are a decent pair of headphones for the price.
