Sennheiser CX 500 in-ear headphone Review

Well, I don’t know much on the subject of headphones, and I’ve never owned a decent pair until now, so consider this more a post about in-ear headphones in general.

For a few years I have been meaning to buy a decent set of headphones, preferably in-ear for the isolation, sometimes you just want to block everything out.  Now I have no idea as to what is good and what is not, but I look around and listen to a few people, and I soon concluded that the majority from the high-street stores are not fantastic.  One thing to bear in mind here is that everyone has their own preferences, and price ranges, so always go by what you like.  In-ear headphones (IEMs) have advantages and disadvantages, with the biggest plus point being noise isolation and lower listening volumes.  The biggest con’s tend to be microphonics (which can be reduced) and poor soundstage.  Now I had, and still have a relatively poor grasp on these concepts.

Anyway, I spent a few days solidly researching IEMs using head-fi.org, which is fantastic, a great source of reviews and opinions.  They also have a good introductory guide to IEMs here.

I was debating prices and quality, and couldn’t really get a good determination of what to get.  Now I listen to mostly rock (heavier forms) but sometimes I listen to everything else too, so i want a balanced purpose headphone.  Well for true outstanding quality you of course can pay loads, but for those just starting out I would say stay under £50-60.  But exchange rates really do affect this.  I was looking into Sennheiser since I’d read some good reviews, with the CX300 being very cheap really, £15 on some places.  However the CX500s are the newer versions, so of course newer is better.  I also briefly considered the CX 95s, and would of gone for it if it wasn’t for the price tag of £60.  In hindsight I could of stretched to it, but being new to this whole thing I didn’t want to risk it.  So decided on the CX500s it was then a case of where to buy them.  Checking EBay and Amazon revealed a few interesting things, mostly price.  Amazon marketplace and EBay list CX500s in the £15 range, obviously I don’t trust that, but I also like saving my cash.  In this instance though I was determined to take no risks, there are many many many fake Sennheiser headphones floating around and I don’t want to waste my money.  So I went straight to Amazon direct, £42, fair enough, but at least I know they will be genuine.  Ordered Friday 20th Feb, super saver delivery (which I find is very good most of the time), came today Wednesday 25th Feb, fantastic.

I’m using the CX500s as we speak, yet to give them a burn in, which I will do shortly.  I like them very much, then again as I said, I know very little.  Oh be careful of the packaging, it’s damn hard to get through and it even fights back, my finger was a victim, but luckily didn’t bleed on my headphones, blasted packaging; now I know why someone said it was bombproof, it really is.

Package contents:

1 CX500 Headphone, Y-corded, with in-line volume control.
1 Case
1 Headphone winder
1 Shirt Clip
6 pairs of ear tips (3 pairs single-flange [S,M,L], 3 pairs double-flange [S,M,L]) (I think..??)

Am using the small single-flange ones right now, they fit nicely, but don’t block too much out and are quite comfortable.  My ear’s aren’t used to IEMs so that’ll take some time to wear off.  Might switch to double flange later.

[Update 25/02/09: just had a little google about burn in times, came across some information I obviously missed earlier, apparently the CX500 line is being discontinued (dunno how much truth to that there is though), so perhaps prices will fall.  Ah well, if I paid too much I don’t care, as long as my ones last me a few years, I will be happy]

[Update 27/02/09: Getting used the headphones being in my ear, and I am getting more and more impressed.  Ok they are a little bassy, but they do still need some serious burn in, only done burn in stuff for about 2 and half hours, along with about 7 hours of normal listening…, so much more to go from what i can gather.  Also make sure all your music is at decent bit rates, 128kbs music really doesn’t sound right on these headphones, you can just tell it’s lacking.  Luckily most of my music is already in 192kbs for the most part, which sounds fine.]

~ by Jon on February 25, 2009.