Headphones reviews

I purchase many products from Amazon and value the customer reviews. While I have never written a review prior to this, I now feel compelled tell the story of my experience with this product.

I purchased a white mp3 player and decided to invest in a pair of white earbuds. I went to Amazon and based upon these reviews and my prior experience with Sennheiser I settled on the MX500 Lightweight In-Ear Headphones which I purchased in January of 2008. Upon receiving them I could tell they were not good quality. The material and fabrication were extremely cheap. However I still had hopes that they would at least sound pretty good. Unfortunately they didn't. They LITERALLY sounded like two soup cans. No matter what I listened to, it was muffled and tinny.

Now please understand I am by no means an audiophile. My tastes and needs are completely utilitarian. And I rarely complain. In fact rather than go through the hassle of returning this piece of **** I opted to just shove them in a drawer and forget about them.

So several months go by and I'm flying AirTran Airways to Atlanta, GA for a wedding. The stewardess is walking down the isle offering everyone free earbuds to listen to music, etc. I take the earbuds and they look amazingly like the Sennheiser MX500. Not only do they look like them, they sound like them...

Right now I am sitting in front of my computer with both the MX500 and the free AirTran earbuds side by side. I am telling you they are IDENTICAL. Every groove, every crevice is exactly the same. The only physical difference is the volume control (not present on the AirTran ones) and the word "Sennheiser" along the base of the MX500 earpieces. And as far as sound goes, I'm telling you I can't tell the difference. They sound EXACTLY the same.

I don't know what earbuds everybody else here reviewed. But you'd have to be deaf to give the earbuds I have anything more than one star. I own higher priced Sennheiser products which perform well and are of good quality. It's obvious to me that they outsourced this product and just slapped their name on it. But SHAME on them!!! To charge $21.99 for a pair of free airline earbuds!!! Amazon now lists the product as "Out of Print--Limited Availability." Gee, I wonder why.

I bought the sennheiser mx500's as a replacement for my apple ipod headphones. I went with the sennheiser's because they are a recognized name in audio and I have used their microphones and speakers before. The winding case also seemed to add value which made me decide to purchase them.

My first impressions when putting the headphones on was that they sounded very brash with very loud high end treble and not as much bass. The sound is clear and does not distort but they still have to much treble in them for my taste. I tried messing with the eq settings on my ipod and also custom settings on my computer in itunes and I could never get them to sound very full and reproduce the full spectrum of sound. I realize that ear buds will never sound as good as a home stereo system, but the original apple ipod headphones sounded better than these.

There are a few things I didn't like with the design of these earbuds like the 90 degree angled cord which was annoying with an ipod because the earphone jack is on the bottom not on the side. The material that touches your ear feels like cheap plastic and it is very hard and doesn't offer alot of grip. The headphones come with black foam covers and they didn't seem to help. The inline volume control is very easy to change which was a problem for me because I like to put my cord through my shirt and just working or walking around the Volume would sometimes change. I like inline volume control but they should have made the fader more tight so that it can't accidentally be changed by a shirt rubbing on it.

If you are thinking about getting these headphones to replace your ipod headphones I would recommend you just stick with the original ones. These headphones aren't worth the money for me and I was ultimately unhappy and went with other brands. Looking around on sennheiser's website it looks like they don't even make these anymore so maybe they realized these weren't up to their usually good quality.

I use these headphones for my IPod Nano and they are alright, but I liked the original ones that Apple supplied a little bit better. The Sennheisers do not fit my ears as well (and came without cushions, unlike advertised by the picture on Amazon), and the adjustable volume on the cord sometimes provides for unwanted fluctuations in volume. Especially when working out this can be annoying. As far as sound quality goes, they are as good as the original IPod headphones. Still, next time I have to buy new headphones I might try a different pair.

the product was exactly as ordered. . .it was shipped the next day UPS where I could track it being delivered directly to my house. . . .and not to mention it was the cheapest price I found for the earbuds. Thanks
JEFF

I'm on my second pair of these Sennheisers and love them. The audio is great, and they're gentle on the ears as long as the foam covers stay in place. The case keeps the cable from tangling which is a nice feature. My only suggestion would be for Sennheiser to supply additional foam covers, as you'll probably lose one of them soon or later.