Category: Headphones / Earphones
HEADPHONE WEEK: Sennheiser MM 60s
Sennheiser’s new MM 60 may look suspiciously like it’s PX 100s, but they’re not, well they are, but they’ve been re-tweaked, honed, prodded and poked until they sound amazing – with the iPhone 3G that is. Because these on-ear marvels have been specifically designed for optimum performance with the iPhone.
Short Version
Name – MM 60s
Type – on-ear semi-closed headphones
How much – £75.99
How much should they cost – No more than £50
Should you buy them – They’re good – better if you have an iPhone
The Long Version
Sound Quality
The MM 60s, much like they’re identical cousin the PX 100s, bring the bass. They’re the bassiest on-ears I’ve ever had the pleasure to put on my head. That being said, you can lose some of the higher notes and all that bass can on-occaision muddy the vocal. But generally this isn’t an issue and the MM 60s sound pretty sweet, and oddly do sound a teency weency bit better on my iPhone 3G than my iPod classic.
Build Quality
Sennheiser have in the past been accused of making some pretty shoddy mid-price products, espcially some of their in-ear range. The MM 60s certainly aren’t flimsy, but they’re by no means as sturdy as other similarly priced headphones. They’re a bit like watching Peter Crouch play football, you know his legs aren’t just going to break, but you can’t help thinking its a mircale they don’t.
The headband is easy to adjust and feels pretty comfortable as do the phones. Sennheriser have also included an iPhone compatiable mic which is a bit low down on the line so unless your head is the size of a small asteroid you’re going to have to hold it up to your mouth, which pretty much makes it pointless. Because you’re holding your hands free mic with your hands, so…nevermind.
The MM 60s phones do fold though, rather brilliantly, into an ultra portable package.
Packaging
The MM 60s come in a box which leaves you in no doubt who they’re aimed at: “Giving the iPhone the sound it deserves.”
The MM 60s also come with a nifty little case which the folded Sennheisers slip nicely into.
Conclusion
The MM 60s do sound great in quiet environments, in the office or in bed or on the loo, they’re as good as a really high-end set of cans. But out and about even a moderate background noise can ruin the experience.
And they’re pretty expensive for what are essentially an only vaguely tweaked pair of £35 headphones. Personally I find the sound quality of Tuesday’s V-Jays superior and they’re £15 cheaper.
If you really like Sennheiser’s products these might suit you, but if you prefer substance then go for the V-Jays.
Gallery: 10 pairs of headphones you can actually afford
As part of Tech Digest's Headphones Week, here are ten pairs of headphones / earphones that you can actually afford. By "afford" I'm talking those that retail for under £200. Don't worry, there are some decent pairs for well under…
HEADPHONES WEEK: Plantronics Audio 655 headset
Hello you. Welcome to Day 3 of the Tech Digest Headphones Week where we’re reviewing a whole bunch of different head speakers to give us all a bit of an idea what it’s worth slapping our dollar down for. Remember, came-with-your-MP3-player headphones are the disease. Headphones week is the cure.
Today’s a little different. Today I’m taking a look at a set of on-ear head-grabbers that you can’t plug into your music machine – unless it happens to do audio-out via USB. Ladies, gentlemen, this is the Skype-certified Plantronics Audio 655 headset and it comes with a microphone too.
The Short Version
Name – Plantronics Audio 655
Type – On-ear closed cup PC headset
How much – £39.99
How much should they cost – £59.00
Should you buy them – If you use VoIP, play PC games and don’t mind being tethered to the computer – yes, definitely
The Long Version
Sound Quality
Let’s not beat around the bush here. The Audio 655s sound superb. They really do. They’re a fantastic example of all round balance. Just the one set of 40mm drivers but they deliver good clear treble, confident mid-range and highly competent, if not heart-pounding, bass.
In fact, that’s probably my only criticism. There’s nothing wildly special about the sound here. The Audio 655s aren’t going to make you rediscover your music collection but then who cares, you’re probably not going to be using these listen to music. They’re designed to transmit the human voice as close to the real thing as possible and that’s exactly what they do.
Build Quality
There’s no two ways about it. The Audio 655s are plastic. They’re backed up with cushioning in the right places – top of the bonse and round the ears – but they’re completely plastic. Admittedly, it’s good, thick plastic but there’s something a little clacky about the build. It’s a touch on the loose side.
That said, it’s nice and flexible. You’re not going to break them unless you get all the weight of one of your computer chair legs right on top of one of the cups or you hand it to a proper tough little toddler in the mould of a future Geoff Capes. My advice would be to do neither and I’m sure they’ll last you.
The cabling’s thick enough and they’ll adjust to all head sizes, including the most extreme, but it’s probably the microphone arm that’s the best put together. It’s really solid with hardly any lateral movement, it’s telescopic so you can adjust it to the position of your mouth and it stows neatly out of the way when you’re not using it. What’s more, it’s largely made of rubber so you’re not going to be snapping it off by accident. There’s handsome devil below modelling them.
Phones
The Plantronics website claims the ear pads offer “pillow-soft” comfort. That’s probably taking it a bit far. I don’t think I’d have much luck using them to sleep on but I’d say they’re close to the quality of your least favourite sofa cushion. The point is that they’re thick enough not to hurt your lug holes and they’ve got a snazzy red lining too. No skull strain issues here at all. Guarantee.
Usability
Largely positive in this department. The USB connection means that there’s no faffing around with two 3.5mm plugs and that you’ve probably got a lot more port choice depending on what suits you best. Mercifully, there’s no irritating software involved and my only gripe is that, from time to time, I had to unplug them and plug them in again to get them going – usually when I’d been sticking things in the dedicated audio socket at the same time.
The other neat little trick these Plantronics have up their sleeves is that you can fine tune the volume at the left ear – the same ear as the mic arm. There’s perhaps not enough adjustment at your fingertips as you might like but it’ll certainly make the difference between a good, clear level and losing your hearing.
Lastly, the mic itself works a charm with fully operational noise cancelling tech. Functions as it should. What more can you say.
Conclusion
Buy them. Quite simple. If you’re looking to spend more than a tenner and less than £50 on a PC headset, then look no further. I can bitch and whinge about this and that, as is my want, but, when it comes down to it, these little darlings offer value beyond belief, reason and probably manufacturing sense too.
More from Headphones week over here with Day 1 over here and Day 2 just beyond.
HEADPHONES WEEK: Jays' V-Jays
On-ear headphones are making a comeback. Okay maybe I just made that up. But the 80s are big again aren’t they? And no one had in-ear headphones in the 80s, they had on-ears, and they were right. On-ears are comfier and safer than in-ears, less obtrusive than cans and they can sound freaking awesome. As proved by Jay’s V-Jays.
The Short Version
Name – V-Jays
Type – On-ear open headphones
How much – £59.99
How much should they cost – £60.00
Should you buy them – If you’re self conscious I’d avoid them, if not, they’re well worth the money.
The Long Version
Sound Quality
On-ear headphones don’t look cool – but isn’t cool all about perceptions – prevailing social norms? Isn’t cool transient? For the sake of these super-wicked headphones I hope so. I’ll admit the first time I stepped out in the V-Jays I felt like a prize numpty. I might as well have had Mr Motivator on my head, that’s how ’93 I looked.
But as soon as I hit play, I forgot about my headgear, so ensconced was I in the precise and amazing sound they yielded: Deep and rangy bass with taut, precise treble and a hefty enough mid to handle anything I through at it.
Never has listening to Godspeed! stomping down Commercial Road felt quite so epic, though they weren’t amazing at drowning out the loftier decibels on the rickety District Line.
Build Quality
The V-Jays are light on design features, which suits me – they look serious, understated and stylish. The square phones are about as flash as it gets. The extendable headband can sometimes be a tad fiddly, adjusting each side to get a vaguely symmetrical shape, but it fits very comfortably.
The cable is about a girthy as you’d expect on a pair of high-end headphones with an interesting 15mm headphone jack-split in the middle, though what purpose it is supposed to serve has, as yet, alluded me.
They feel eminently sturdy, like a Sherpa. You trust them.
The phones fold under the headband to add a modicum of portability but it is one glaring concession of the on-ear genus of headphone: they aren’t easily stuffed in a pocket.
Phones
Swathed in familiar black sponge, it seems things haven’t moved on since about 1979 in-terms of ear-phone casing technology.
But the fact is they were comfy in 1979, and they’re still comfy now, and you get a pair of spares, once the others are too encrusted with your aural discharge for you to hear through.
Packaging
V-Jays come in a rather snazzy box wedged into some good thick foam, but they’re light on accessories. If Jays really wanted to give V-Jays the professional veneer a hard-case might have done the trick.
Conclusion
These headphones are so good I don’t mind looking a bit lame (okay pretty lame) in order to enjoy their full and glorious goodness. The first time I donned the V-Jays, it was 5.45pm, I was on a packed Northern Line train, and a large and unremmitingly odious man behind me was breathing in my ear, I put them on as much as to block his heinous violation of my ear-canal as to listen to some tunes. But hearing them was like a epiphany: “Oh remember this,” I thought, “Music! As it should be. Loud and bassy and ace.”
If you care more about your hair than your music then maybe V-Jays aren’t for you. But they’re certainly for me.
HEADPHONES WEEK: Shure SE115 in-ear buds
Welcome to Headphones Week on Tech Digest. I’ve been getting a little wound up with rubbish sound quality of late. It’s bad enough listening to squashed up music files but doing it through came-with-the-player headphones is even worse. If you’re not up on this already, then I’ll give you a very quick version of why you need to spend money on them.
Free headphones neither isolate nor cancel ambient sound and most likely don’t fit very well in your ears. So, that means you have to turn the volume up loud in order to get the immersive experience you’re after which then distorts the quality of the music. Add to that the fact that the drivers inside basic headphones are rubbish anyway and you’ve got the equivalent of AM audio in you brain. Understood?
So, the next question is what to buy? How much do you need to spend to get decent sound and at what point is it the Emperor’s new airwaves? So, I’ve picked five sets of headphones fairly new to the market and I’m giving them a little low-down each afternoon this week. I believe they call it a review. If it’s useful, let me know and I’ll do some more.
The Short Version
Name – Shure SE115 in-ear headphones
Type – over the ear sound isolators
How much – £66 plus postage
How much should they cost – £45
Should you buy them – no
The Long Version
Build
I’ll start with the positive’s here because there aren’t many and I’ll feel like I’ve achieved something once I’ve got them out of the way. First, the build quality is really good – probably the best out of all the headphones I’m looking at this week.
They’ve got proper thick cables, the kind you could garrotte people with without them breaking. They mean that what you’re buying is as close to “for life” as you can get with these things. The leads also come in two parts with a nice, chunky 3.5mm connection in the middle. I’m not sure what it is I’m supposed to insert in between my ears and my mp3 player but I feel very safe that these Shures would do whatever that job is very well.
Buds
The buds themselves aren’t too bad. You get the choice of six different sets – three of some disappointing grey rubber nothingness but the others made of squishable memory foam type material that you roll between your thumb and forefinger and jam into your head before they have time to expand.
The look a bit nasty once you’ve bullied them into submission – rather like greasy Mediterranean olives; doubly so when they come out of your ears pitted with wax.
The effect is that they pretty much fit to fill your aural canal and block out quite a lot of the ambient noise – not all, but good enough to give the drivers a chance to work their magic.
Packaging
Yeah, this is probably the last good thing I can say about the SE115s. The packaging is ok. For a £66 set of ‘phones, you do get set up alright. What I’m referring to is the small black canvas zip bag complete with metal carabiner because, obviously, we’re all about quality audio while we’re trying to tackle the next overhang.
The Shure SE115s may actually be targeted at extreme sports enthusiasts but the point is that the bag is ok. It may even be slightly waterproof. Probably isn’t but the promise is good.
Sound Quality
Here’s where these headphones really fall down. They sound rubbish – admittedly, better than a free pair but, if they’d been any more expensive, I’d be absolutely panning them. It may be the choice of material for the ear bud foam but all punch of the sound is lost. It’s like listening to £10,000 stereo system with hiking socks shoved in your ears.
You can tell that someone somewhere has done their job but that another bod down the line has totally ruined their work. It’s soft, muffled, rich but completely unexciting, and there can be no more damning word for audio equipment than that. They’re just plain lifeless.
Conclusion
The Shure SE115s offer a reachable step up in audio from freebee phones but, if I were you, I’d reach a little higher, or, at least, in a different direction.
Klipsch unleash mid-price Image S4 in-ear headphones
Audio nabob, Klipsch, has made their first foray into the mid-price earphone market, releasing the Image S4 in-ear headphones.
“But what’s really cool,” claim Klipsch, is that “the S4 uses the same proprietary ear tips as its pricier predecessors,” thus giving the S4 the same capacity for noise isolation as its snazzier siblings.
“People have less disposable income these days. Therefore, we felt it was necessary to develop reasonably priced, high-performance earphones that go above and beyond what you’d expect from the stock earbuds that come with your MP3 player,” said Klipsch dude, Mark Casavant.
Unlike circular-shaped designs that abound on most other in-ear phones, Klipsch’s oval ear tips naturally fit the contours of your ear canals, apparently providing comfortable long-term wear. This virtually bespoke fit creates much cleaner more refined bass and better noise.
“Once you have the right fit and seal, these earphones are virtually impossible to feel – letting you listen longer and better,” said Mark Blanchard, inventor of the company’s oval ear tips.
The Image S4 will be available in a piano black finish with three different-sized oval ear tips, an ear-tip cleaning tool and a compact, crush-resistant aluminium case.
Sennheiser introduce Series II Style in-ear headphones
Sennheiser have released three new in-ear headphones, the CX 550 STYLE II, OMX 95 VC Style II and MX 95 VC Style II.
Aimed squarely at well-groomed, jogging, Audi drivers the Style II series all feature premium quality crafted metal designs and are “optimized for iPod,” (Just how? That’s what I want to know).
They all wield “extra-powerful neodymium-iron magnets” which are sure to sound loads better than the buds bundled with your mp3 player do.
They also come with a snazzy case to put them in for that 1% of time they aren’t wrapped around your iPod – we all know we’re not meant to but we do it anyway, because its easier right, so deal with it.
The CX 550s feature ambient noise dampening and are designed to stop sound leakage annoying other passengers but retailing at £80 you might want to try the cheaper alternative the OMXs at £60 or the MXs for £40.
Aliph introduce third gen Jawbone – Prime
Bluetooth doyens Aliph have launched the third generation of their Jawbone bluetooth headset.
The sleek and discreet Jawbone Prime features refined ‘NoiseAssassin’ technology and comes in a variety of natty ‘earcandy’ colours as well as more sedate business colours.
Its ‘NoiseAssassin’ technology, developed initially with the military, and then refined by Aliph’s own in-house team of bods, works by comparing an audio signal to the vibration coming from the Voice Activity Sensor which rest on the user’s cheek, and banishes everything else. Apparently giving the user five times better call clarity with nine decibels more sound suppression than Jawbone 2.
The new headset can pair with up to eight devices and its multipoint feature allows it to connect to two devices simultaneously. And if the Prime works with Skype, as the previous headsets did, fielding calls from your phone or VoIP service of choice will be no bother.
The Prime will give you up to four and a half hours of talk time with a full charge taking less than an hour.
But at £89 and with only limited defence against microphone technology’s arch nemesis, the pesky wind, you’re going to have to be pretty serious about your need for hands-free to invest in one of these.
The Jawbone is doubtless an impressive product but can it do what countless bluetooth headsets have tried and failed to do? Make the headset socially acceptable? Beyond the legions of mini-cab drivers and hooded nerdowells who have so warmly embraced the technology.
Well they’re trying. If you watch closely you’ll see the Jawbone worn in American prime-time series from 24 to Gossip Girl and Heroes. And maybe that’ll help. Maybe then we’ll feel it’s okay to don a Jawbone in polite company. Or maybe we’ll wear them in our bedrooms and pretend we’re super-villains. Either would be a step forward.
The Jawbone Prime will be available from Carphone Warehouse and Apple stores from 1 June and for pre-order at jawbone.comtarget=”_blank”, look out for a full review in the days to come.
Swedish audio-buffs JAYS announce v-JAYS on-ear headphones
Swedish audiophiles JAYS have been knocking out affordable high-performance headphones for a while now. Their amazing j-JAYS In-Ear Noise Cancelling headphones were a constant companion of mine for well over a year, until that fateful day. No, don’t. I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve moved on.
So I was excited to see that JAYS are to release an open, on-ear headphone next month. JAYS promise that the new v-JAYS, will “deliver finer bass without overwhelming the finer audio nuances that some other headphones often miss”. Which is nice.
JAYS new foldable 59g badboys will be available from the start of June for £59.99 – look out for a full review in the coming days.
Sony shows off wireless Bluetooth headphones
Sony’s made itself a bit of a name around here for steadfastly producing headphone models that don’t really excite but still sell well. Today it’s announced some mostly unexciting Bluetooth headphones.
Both models use Bluetooth 2.1 to communicate with your phone or MP3 player. The DR-BT100CX are in-ear and have a little dongle to control volume and skip tracks as well as answering or rejecting phone calls. They feature eight hours of playback time and are recharged via USB.
The BT101s have a headband design and pack 30mm neodymium drivers. There’s twelve hours of playback in the onboard battery and again it recharges via USB. Both models support A2DP, AVRCP, HFP and HSP Bluetooth profiles and are available to order right now from Sony Style.
Press Release
