Yet another positive review. This should tell you something.
Written: Apr 20 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Decent sound quality; comfortable; tiny
Cons: Wish the case was better; gets gooey with earwax
The Bottom Line: Cheap, decent quality, TINY, and comfortable.
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| orulz's Full Review: Sony MDR-EX70LP Consumer Headphones |
I'm a college student. Meaning that I'm way too poor to be an audiophile. True audiophiles are rich (or heavily in debt) elitists, and as much as I'd love to be one I just can't possibly pull it off. Regardless, I am picky about my audio equipment. I like to try to find something right at the cusp of the performance / price curve - something with good, balanced sound, comfort, and relatively inexpensive. With these earphones, I believe I have done just that.
First, let me describe these phones, since through all the reviews I read here and elsewhere I still didn't get a sufficient mental picture to describe them. The plug is a 90 degree angle, and gold plated- and is very small. It sticks less than a centimeter out from the jack that it is plugged into. It and the wire are a bluish gray color. The wire is extremely thin; imagine the "pair" of wires that most cheap headphones are connected with. Then split it in half. That's what the cable is like. The wire is about 1.5m long. At that point, there is a small gray rectangular splitter. From that, there is a roughly 10cm wire to the left bud, and about 40cm to the right bud. The way I usually wear these phones is with the 40cm wire dangling behind my neck out of the way. The buds themselves have a roughly spherical, soft rubber piece that sticks in your ear. The "medium" size - the one that you see in all the pictures - is roughly 1cm in diameter.
Now for the sound quality:
First impression, honestly, wasn't too great. As soon as I got the phones, I hurried up and plugged them in to try them out. I was a bit disappointed, it had a feel like I was listening through a tube.
Then I remembered the break-in period.
After playing the headphones at a moderate to loud volume for 24 hours, I tried them again. While there still seems to be a bit of overemphasis in the mid-treble range, and the ultra-highs don't really come throuh compared to audiophile phones, the word I'd use to describe the overall quality of the sound is "smooth". They're comfortable, and present a surprisingly wide sound stage, so it's easy to just close your eyes and lose yourself in whatever you're listening to. I haven't experienced any of the "disorienting" sensations that some people have complained of; I suspect that's just something that depends on you personally. The level of isolation is great. They aren't earplugs; with the volume muted you can still hear a person who's talking at a normal volume. However, you don't need to turn it up very far to mask out the sounds around you.
The plugs really do fit directly in your ear, and once they're seated properly it's easy to forget that they're there. I have a somewhat strange problem where the fit is a bit more snug in my right ear than in my left; it takes a bit of fiddling to get it seated properly so that I feel the same amount of pressure on each side. This also ensures that my perception of the left/right balance won't be skewed.
As everyone before me has said, the case is stupid. Good idea to make it so small, but at least let me wrap the cord around it in a useful way. Sheesh.
To sum up, these are a good set of phones. If you want to be wowed out of your pants, I suggest you look at the etymotics, I hear those are great. But if you can't spend the $130 - $260 on 'em, check these Sonys out. They're portable, sound decent, comfortable, and only $35. A great companion for any portable CD, MP3, or MD player.
Anyway, to sum up, these are a good set of phones.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
orulz
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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