Stick to the Ten Dollar Headphones

My mother bought a pair of “w.ear” Sony MDR-Q22 headphones to listen to CDs at work, but ended up using them only a few times. Fortunately for me, she gave me these headphones after I broke the cheap earbud style headphones that came with my MP3 player. Unfortunately, these headphones hardly seem worth the twenty-dollar retail price.

The w.ear line of Sony headphones are a series of open-style, ear-clip headphones. My Q22 headphones include two sets of interchangeable headphone caps in silver and blue. As far as I can tell, the Sony Q23 w.ear headphones are exactly the same as the Q22, but with slightly different headphone caps. In short, the interchangeable caps are kinda cool, I guess. They are very simple to snap on and off. If you’re a trendsetter, you can even try using one blue cap and one silver one! However, this feature is just about the only thing that sets these headphones apart from other cheap open headphones, many of which sell for half the price.

In terms of comfort, the w.ear headphones match the Panasonic ear-clip headphones I had in the past. The headphones are light so they do not pull down on my ears, but after wearing them for a long time, I do begin to feel pressure on the inside of my ears. Of course, you shouldn’t be wearing headphones for hours on end anyway, so overall comfort is pretty good.

In terms of sound quality, the w.ear headphones are also comparable to other similar headphones I’ve used from Koss, Awia and Panasonic as well as the tiny earbuds that came with my MP3 player. In general, middle and upper frequencies are good, while the lower bass is a little lacking. The sound does not match that of the close eared Sony Studio Monitor V150 headphones I also have (that retail for the same price as the w.ear Q22) which produce a more full and clear sound. Of course, the advantage of the w.ear headphones is the portability, and thus I reserve the Studio Monitors for my computer and the w.ears for my MP3 player.

But how convenient are the w.ear headphones for portable use? Not as convenient as I had hoped. Versus portable sets that have an overhead or behind the head band, these headphones are lighter and much more compact. In fact, I don’t find them any more cumbersome to carry around then earbuds, and, even the cord on these headphones is thinner and lighter then my old earbuds.

However, the first problem is at 1.5 meters, the cord length is just a little too long for portable headphones. If I have my MP3 player in my pocket, I end up with a lot of excess slack, and the lightweight cord has a grave tendency to get tangled up. The light cord also does not like to stay rolled up around my player either. To make matters worse, the cord connecting the two headphones is a needlessly twenty plus inches long! I don’t know anyone that has a head that big. The only advantage I can find to having this long connection cord is for two people listening from the same set of headphones. However, imagine the complications when the connection cord and main cord both get tangled together behind the ear clips! Every time I go to bust out my MP3 player for a quick tune, I have to step to the side to untangle my headphones! My Panasonic ear-clip style headphones with a slightly denser and heavier cord that did not have this problem. Considering the extra price of the w.ear headphones, Sony should have considered including a cord with adjustable length to eliminate this issue.

At twenty dollars, these headphones are just not a good value. I like the portable ear-clip style design, but you can get an similar set of ear-clip headphones – minus the interchangeable caps but offering the same sound quality and comfort without the cord problems for ten or fifteen dollars.