Sennheiser Street Line MX55 Consumer Headphones - Not Cheap But No Bass In MX 55
Written: Nov 02 '08 (Updated Aug 11 '09)
Product Rating:
Pros: Price, looks, good instrument separation and decent imaging, good treble, comfortable and effective holding system
Cons: No bass, hollow, lifeless sound
The Bottom Line: I can recommend the Sennheiser MX55 headphones only if you don't need bass and need good-looking headphones for working out where you still...
dkozin's Full Review: Sennheiser Street Line MX 55 Consumer Headphones
A few weeks ago I went on one of the mini-shopping sprees for headphones. One of the headphones I got was Sennheiser MX55 (Creative EP-640 was the other). You can never have enough headphones. After getting several enclosed and a few in-ear headphones (Sennheiser HD201, Sennheiser HD202, Koss KSC75, Koss SparkPlug, Philips HS500 among some others), I bought both the Sennheiser MX55 and the Creative EP-640 to check out the promised wide frequency range, bass and clarity. After a nonstop 45-hour burn-in in my iPod connected to the AC jack with a power adaptor, I was ready to be impressed (or disappointed).
About Sennheiser MX55
The Sennheiser MX55 are compact headphones/earbuds. They feature interesting design that helps them stay in place and come with a compact hard carrying case. The headphones look sporty/stylish and have available interchangeable design elements (skins, basically).
The claims by Sennheiser are as follows: best possible fit using innovative holding system, Sennheiser Basswind system plus for extremely powerful bass response.
Some specs: 17-21,000 Hz frequency response, impedance of 64 Ohms, 115 dB sensitivity, 3.5-mm plug for use with portable gear, 1.2 m cable length.
Performance
I noticed that the headphones had little ports in them, which normally bodes well for the bass. Pondering whether that would make bass less "tight", I started playing some tunes only to discover that bass was nowhere to be found. To be fair, there is some bass, but so little it makes you think about whose pants are on fire in the Sennheiser's marketing department.
I do not listen to bass-heavy music exclusively and have no preference towards bass-heavy sound. I have all my audio equipment's treble and bass controls set to zero to get to flat frequency response (hopefully). Yet, the bass is something that is needed to create the correct frequency range in almost any type of music. And some other headphones reproduce it rather well, including compact ones (e.g. Creative EP-640 or Koss KSC-75). The former is a compact in-ear design with no ports, yet its bass is a major improvement over the MX55. First of all, it is present. Secondly, it sounds more pleasing.
The MX55s sound like the frequency range is cut off at, who knows, 100 Hz and there is very little below that. Which is a shame because the rest of the sound range is actually pretty good.
I understand that it is difficult to have compact headphones with powerful bass. But writing, quote, "Sennheiser Basswind system plus for extremely powerful bass response" ("plus" italicized by manufacturer) on the packaging is just wrong. And stating that the frequency response is 17-21,000 Hz is also lame. Was it measured at +/- 3 dB? I doubt it.
Creative states that their EP-640 goes down to 6 Hz, which is also suspect. But at least their headphones actually have decent bass.
Let's go over the rest of the sound quality. Aside from the bass, the rest of it is pretty good. The imaging and instrument separation are very good. The treble quality is excellent and the midrange is very good as well. Again, the imaging and definition are very good. Electronic music and metal sound good too.
Here is the problem however: not only there is a lack of bass, the sound has also a coloration that I do not particularly like. It is something I hear on a few other Sennheiser headphones (the large Sennheiser HD202 is one example). The sound seem to be "dry", slightly "hollow" or lifeless and not exciting. That would not be an issue overall if the sound was accurate, but I do not hear this kind of coloration in either Creative EP-640 or Koss KSC75. Those two sounds pleasant, warm and generally more "alive".
The sensitivity (volume level at same input) is relatively loud comparing with some other headphones I have tried. This means they can play loud with portable gear (I used them with my iPod Nano). Overall, with good holding system (the pads above the speaker hold headphones in my ears pretty well), these are good headphones to use in a gym or for sports, unless it is noisy and you need sound insulation. Oh, and unless you need bass.
I also played some Preludes and Overtures of Richard Wagner through my Panasonic SA-XR57 receiver and its headphone jack and compared the MX55 with the Creative EP-640 and Koss KSC75. Overall (for all different sources), the Koss KSC75 sounded the best with open sound, good frequency response and warm sound. The EP-640 did not sound as open as the other two, but had less hollow sound then the MX55 and much better bass and lower-end definition.
So, to summarize among these three headphones (aside from the similar price range):
Sennheiser MX55 lacks bass and lower-end definition, sounds the most open, but a bit hollow and compressed. It sounds the most "lifeless" of the three.
Creative EP-640sounds least open (not surprise since they are in-ear), has best lower end definition and good sound balance and excellent insulation.
Koss KSC75 sound the best overall, with better definition in the mid to upper range and warm overall sound. The KSC75 look a bit dorky and are a bit of a chore to put on, but they simply sound the best.
The MX55 are rather well-made and should be durable. The only problem is I will not be using them, aside as a throwaway headphones for "emergencies" or adverse conditions. They just don't sound as good as the other headphones I have.
Update 04/2009
I am not using these headphones aside as a headphone/transmission antenna for cases when I am using an FM transmitter-equipped MP3 player.
Bottom Line
I can recommend the Sennheiser MX55 headphones only if you don't need bass and need good-looking headphones for working out where you still need to hear what is going on (e.g. if you are outdoors and need to hear cars). They are stylish and feature good sound (except for bass), but the sound is a bit hollow and "dry". If you want good sound, there are better choices in the same price range.
If you want in-ear headphones with excellent sound insulation, I recommend Creative EP-640. I recommend them for use in a gym, airplane/train or in other areas where noise insulation is important. I am very impressed with their imaging, frequency response, detailed sound and sound insulation for the price.
If you want over the ear headphones, I highly recommend Koss KSC75. The KSC75 has excellent, pleasing and dynamic sound with excellent frequency response, imaging, clarity and treble.
Exclusive Twist-To-Fit design that prevents the earbuds from falling out Sennheiser Basswind™ system for big bass despite its compact size Custom...More at Amazon Marketplace
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